Erwan Bergot was born at Bordeaux, in 1930, to a Breton family.

He attended a Jesuit school, where he obtained his baccalaureate (GCE Advanced Level) and then entered the university where he obtained a degree in arts. In 1950, after taking his parachute military training, he was called to military service. He was admitted into the Saint-Maixant school, where he graduated as a senior officer cadet. He was then sent to Collioure and thereafter to Mont-Louis, within the 11 Shock.

In 1951, upon completing his legal service, he volunteered to go and serve in Indochina as an ORSA (Recalled Reserve Officer). After his first transfer to the Bien Hoa 22nd Colonial Infantry Regiment, the young second lieutenant was admitted into the 6th colonial parachute battalion led by Commander Bigeard. With the battalion, Second lieutenant Bergot joined the Tu-Lé operation that was followed by an extraordinary breakout, which lasted for almost two days and three night of continuous trekking, with the enemy following them closely.
His duty took him all over the country, from the border with Laos to that with China and to the most remote villages. In 1954, Erwan Bergot was in Dien Bien Phu where he took command of the 1st Foreign Legion Parachute Heavy Mortar Company. On 7 May 1954, when the base fell to Viet-minh despite a heroic resistance, he was taken prisoner and sent to a prison camp where he was later liberated and repatriated to France in 1955.
He left for Algeria the same year. He was first sent to the 47th Infantry Battalion, and in 1957, he was admitted into the active army. During the years that followed, he served in the 2nd foreign parachute regiment and the 11th parachute battalion of shock. In 1961, he was seriously wounded and he lost an eye during an engagement at Constantine; Captain Bergot bid farewell to arms and started a career in writing and journalism.

The following year, he was appointed first editor of the land component of the armed forces’ magazine, and in 1964, he wrote his first novels. Crowned with success, in continued in this light and wrote about forty books in which he invested his talents of writer, his knowledge of historian, his souvenirs of Indochina and Algeria and his war experiences.

Erwan Bergot died in May 1993 of a protracted illness, leaving behind many works of art, in which we have all the symbols of honour and fidelity and all the outstanding values of courage, commitment and the spirit of sacrifice, which he bore.

Wounded on tree occasions at the front and having received seven commendations, Erwan Bergot was Officer of the Legion of Honour as a soldier, holder of the TOE war cross, the Cross of military valour and the of volunteer servicemen cross, among others. His works of art won several literary prizes, notably the Prize of the French Academy and Claude Farrère Prize. As recognition, the land component of the armed forces created an Erwan Bergot prize for works of arts in French which constitute an example of commitment to the service of France and its values.

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