Paul Bonnecarrére
Il Maglio editions
pp. 386
To understand what I had really just finished reading in one go, I had to focus again on the introduction of Federico Prizzi, well-known Italian military polemicist and historian. Only then, the conviction of having had to do with a beautiful novel is definitely diminished, giving way to a sense of amazement (not because of my ignorance, of course) for having learned a fragment of military history almost unknown to me, and of profound respect for a reality that, until then, I had only superficially known. In short, the Indochina war and the Foreign Legion.
The book in question was published by Bonnecarrére, a French war reporter whose very (short) life deserves a separate work, in the distant 1969. However, to see it published in Italy, almost fifty years had to wait, thanks to Edizioni "Il Maglio".
The author, with the intent to celebrate the Legionaries and their glorious Body, spent some months immersed in the atmosphere of the "cradle" of the Foreign Legion, in which he organized all the historical material found and where, above all, he collected many direct testimonies, all verified. What ensued is a faithful, compelling and fascinating chronicle of the events in arms of some Legion units, which occurred in the Tonkin between the 1946 and the 1950, during the Indochina war. Immediately after the end of the Second World War, in fact, Vietnam, which until the outbreak of this conflict had been a French territory, as soon as it was freed from the Japanese occupation, declared its independence. The Legionaries, inserted into a powerful shipping body sent there from France, in order to restore order, had to face the Viet Minh, politically headed by Ho Chi Minh, militarily commanded by the fearful general Giap and particularly active in the north of the country on the border with China: the territories of Tonkin, in fact. In a crescendo of violence and cruelty, with the passing of the months, the conflict passed from guerrilla war in the strict sense, to the real war on a large scale. The Legionaries, strong in their military tradition, held their heads for a long time at the Viet Minh, although the latter were even more distantly comparable and had on their side the perfect knowledge of the jungle in which they fought and the support (more or less less "spontaneous") of the local population. Only with the arrival of huge "external aid", in terms of heavy equipment, supplies and training, the Viet Minh were able to prevail definitively over the French contingent.
Bonnecarrére gives us back a cross-section of a body without equal in tradition, for the particular way of interpreting the military code and the combat attitude of its members, often soldiers of the first order, with a long experience, acquired in force armed with other countries. In particular, the author allows us to enter into close contact with the men of the 4 ^ company of the 3 ° regiment, to allow us to understand its deepest psychology. From the story, then, emerges the extraordinary figure of Captain Mattei, commander of the aforementioned company. The Officer became almost a living legend in the Legion, not only because in a circumstance he was given for dead in battle, only to reemerge after a few days from the jungle reduced as a ghost, but above all because he led his department distinguishing himself in every circumstance courage, spirit of initiative, intelligence and extraordinary intuition. Mattei, in fact, was able to identify himself so well in the enemy, who promptly managed to anticipate the maneuvers. Many soldiers owe their lives to the brilliant intuitions of the "Captain" Mattei.
A reflection at the edge of the book. In the chronicle of events we also come across some Italian soldiers, enlisted as volunteers in the Foreign Legion in the aftermath of the end of the Second World War. One of the merits of this book, in addition to the one already cited to celebrate the Foreign Legion, is to restore from oblivion the existence of history, in the history, of these fellow Italians. The work of Bonnecarrére, in fact, gave the opportunity to Prizzi to remind us in his introduction, that were well 10.000 the Italians who fought in Indochina between the 1946 and 1954, of which more than a thousand were taken prisoner by the Viet Minh and about 1.300 fell into combat. "Raise your hand" who was aware of these figures. Thanks to the author and Edizioni Il Maglio, perhaps a light veil has been raised on this forgotten story, all Italian.
Ciro Metuarata
