By Julien Van Caeyseele
Published on
28 Apr 24 at 4:39 p.m.
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A way to honor the memory of soldiers who died for France and sometimes fell into anonymity. The writer Patrick-Charles Renaud, originally from Meurthe-et-Mosellehas just published Aviation Diên Bien Phu, from the genesis to the fall of the entrenched camp (November 1952-June 1954)published by Memorabilia.
Jackie Giuliano was the son of the guards of the Château de Fontainebleau
A work whose release coincides with the 70e anniversary of the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, during the Indochina warwhich will be celebrated on May 7, 2024. In this enriched and completed reissue of his successful book Airmen in Indochinapublished in 2003, it looks back on the destinies of anonymous aviators.
Among them, a certain Jackie Giuliano… “He was the son of Séraphin Giuliano and Linda Fourneau, who were the guardians of the Château de Fontainebleau,” emphasizes Patrick-Charles Renaud. He was also born in Fontainebleau on May 20, 1932 and lived at the time of his disappearance in the town of Héricy. »
“I have not been able to find traces of his relatives”
During the battle of Diên Bien Phu, he occupied the radio station aboard a bomber, shot down by Viet Minh artillery on April 12, 1954. “I was able to relate the circumstances of his disappearance, but I cannot “I have not been able to find any trace of his loved ones,” laments the author.
According to Patrick-Charles Renaud, Jackie Giuliano joined the Mousses school at the age of 16, before joining the French Navy.
Specializing in radio, he began his career within a destroyer then a cruiser, before training as a radio steering wheel.
He will be assigned to Indochina and will begin reconnaissance and bombing missions… “He flew aboard impressive machines from the Second World War,” he explains. Its flotilla was permanently mobilized above Diên Bien Phu where the French garrison was surrounded.
On April 12, 1954, he took off on a mission to bomb enemy anti-aircraft positions. “His mission was to transmit and receive orders,” explains the historian. But during the mission, his bomber was hit by a shell, causing the aircraft to catch fire and then explode during the crash. If parachutes would have been observed, none of the nine crew members would have survived.
Tributes and duty of memory
“I began my research more than 30 years ago, looking into the fate of one of my uncles, who died during the Algerian War,” the author recalls. The discovery of destinies and stories – but also the success of his books – will encourage him to continue his research and retrace the journey of soldiers who are sometimes forgotten.
“Jackie Giuliano is a bit like Mr. Everyman, an ordinary citizen who found himself on board despite himself in Indochina, explains Patrick-Charles Renaud. My book is a way of paying tribute to them, but also of participating in the duty of memory for younger generations. »
Thanks to his career, for example, he would like a tribute to be paid to him, in Fontainebleau and Héricy, during the commemorations of the Dead for France in Indochina, celebrated on June 8. “I am sometimes contacted retrospectively by families,” concludes the author. For example, I learned that a missing 19-year-old Breton boy had been declared dead for France more than 60 years later. It’s a great reward, a way of telling History thanks to the destinies of those who wrote it…”
Aviation in Diên Bien Phu, from the genesis to the fall of the entrenched campPatrick-Charles Renaud, Memorabilia edition, 437 pages, €37.
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