Roger Faulques was in 1925.

His military career started in 1944, when he joined a FFI maquis. Incorporated into the regular army, he was integrated into the first battalion of the 3rd foreign infantry regiment in January 1946.

Having volunteered to go and serve in the Indochina war, he proved to be a serviceman with unparalleled warfare techniques and was described as a "splendid trainer of men". He was barely 23 during the Phu Tong Hoa battles which earned him the knight of the Legion of Honour in 1948. By then, he was already holding five commendations. During the RC4 battles of October 1950, he was seriously wounded and taken prisoner by the Viet Minh, which returned him to the French troops at the point of death. He was repatriated, but returned to Indochina in 1953.

At the beginning of the Algerian war, being an ardent partisan of the revolutionary warfare theories propounded by Roger Trinquier, leader of the Indochina GCMA (Groupement des commandos mixtes aéroportés), he became the commander of a company in the 1st foreign parachute battalion, which soon became the 1st foreign parachute regiment (dissolved after the April 1961 coup d’état). During the battle of Algiers, in 1957, Captain Faulques was the intelligence officer of the REP commanded by Colonel Jeanpierre. Using heavy artillery, Faulques inflicted serious damages on the FLN. Battalion commander on October 1, 1959, he was the second deputy commander of the 2nd foreign regiment of parachutists as from summer 1960.

In December 1960, Moïse Tshombé lunched a rebellion in the very rich Katanga province, in former Belgian Congo. With the support of the Army minister, Pierre Messmer, Major Roger Faulques and Captain Yves de La Bourdonnaye were laid off and recruited by Katanga. In December 1961, UN troops attacked Katanga. The defence plan was designed by Faulques. UN aviation attacked the mercenaries, who were equally bombarded with mortar. They resisted with much resolve. Swedish peacekeepers entered Elizabethville, followed by General Raja’s Indian brigade. The Massart camp, where the troops of Katanga were based, was attacked by the UN. Faulques’ men, having been well informed by white and black people, fought like lions, and retaliated efficiently. On December 21, 1961, a ceasefire was signed at Kitona and Roger Faulques left Katanga.

In 1963, mercenaries were sent to Yemen, with funds from the British secret services. Roger Faulques was put in charge of the rear base of the Yemeni operation, in Paris. A few years later, he was in Biafra, where he recruited mercenaries, still in the company of Bob Denard. Roger Faulques, who did not cherish anything like discretion, subsequently withdrew to his homeland, and only comes out once a year, for the Camarón day. He has never ceased from being considered by legionnaires as one of their outstanding soldiers.

On Friday, April 30, 2010, there was a ceremony at Aubagne to commemorate the Camarón battles, which took place during the Mexican campaign on April 30, 1863. The only changes in this traditional ceremony year after year is the identity of the former legionnaire to parade (a supreme honour) the wooden hand of Captain Jean Danjou, who used to command Camarón troops, before being killed at the front. This year, this responsibility was entrusted to Squadron Commander Roger Faulques. The parading in public of the hand of Captain Danjou signifies his great comeback to the French military community in the company of infantry chief of staff, General Elrick Irastorza, and the Veterans’ Secretary of State, Hubert Falco; what thoughts went through the mind this man with a thousand lives?  

Source : Jean Guisnel (excerpts)