General Louis Dio (October 14, 1908, in Vannes – June 15, 1994, in Toulon), was a French army general.
Biography
After studying at the Collège Jules Simon between 1914 and 1925, he was accepted at age 18 at the French military academy of Saint-Cyr.
Upon his graduation from the military academy and commissioning as an officer in 1928, Second Lieutenant Dio was assigned to the 18th Senegalese Infantry Regiment (Régiment de Tirailleurs Sénégalais, RTS) based in southern Tunisia. The young Breton officer promptly adapted to and embraced the austere desert lifestyle of the Tiralleurs. He perfected his knowledge of Arabic, the study of which he had undertaken at Saint-Cyr, and was also introduced to local African dialects.
He chose to serve with the French Camel-mounted Troops (Méharistes), whose distinctive military culture was characterized by a nomadic existence in order to remain in permanent contact with the local populations. He immersed himself completely in this lifestyle, as evidenced, for example, by the customary, "beautiful tattoos that went down to the fingers of his hands” he had drawn on his arms.
Before the Second World War, apart from two brief stays in mainland France, he served three times in the most desolate and underdeveloped areas of the Sahara. From 1929 to 1933, he was posted north of Timbuktu in Arwan, French Sudan (present-day Mali). In 1933, he took command of the Groupe Nomade d’Arouan while still a lieutenant. He was cited for having successfully fought against looters at El Ksaib in 1932.
Promoted to captain, he served from 1934 to 1937 in the Nema region, in the south-east of Mauritania. He commanded the Groupe Nomade du Hodh. In June 1935, he led a reconnaissance of more than 2,000 kilometers in inhospitable and previously unexplored areas of Nema.
In 1938, he was assigned to northern Chad where he took command of the Groupe Nomade du Tibesti. Conversant in their language, he immersed himself in the local society and befriended the traditional chiefs. He became a confidant to Bey Ahmed, the spiritual leader of the Senoussis, as well as to the "Alifa" of Mao, who had authority over all the Kanem region. He maintained very close relations with them, and, in an unusual and unprecedented arrangement for a Roman Catholic officer of the French army, was authorized to sign "canouns"(legally binding judgments) rendered within the framework of Muslim civil law.
When the war broke out, he was tasked with organizing a detachment of the Senegalese Infantry Regiment of Chad (Régiment de Tirailleurs Sénégalais du Tchad, RTST), destined to be sent as reinforcements to mainland France. Dio was taken unaware by the armistice of June 1940, which was concluded while he was awaiting the transport which was to repatriate him to France in Douala, Cameroon.
On August 27, 1940, he was the first French officer to join Colonel Leclerc who had been sent from London by De Gaulle to rally the troops of the French Colonial Empire. With the active participation of the unit commanded by Captain Dio, Leclerc would seize Douala and then Yaoundé. With Gabon not willing to submit to Free France, Dio was put in charge of the column which departed from Cameroon and seized Mitzic then Lambaréné, on November 5, 1940.
Appointed major at the end of 1940, he was called to Chad by Leclerc. His comprehensive knowledge of the human and geographical environment of the north of this country, which was in contact with the forces of the Axis, was invaluable to Leclerc. Together they took the Italian fort at Kufra in Southern Libya on March 1, 1941. This was the first combat victory for the French army in World War II. Leclerc swore his famous "Kufra oath" there after the Italian defeat, pledging to continue the fight until the Tricolor again flew over Strasbourg Cathedral. During the fighting, Major Dio was seriously injured while carrying out a night grenade assault on an Italian position. He was subsequently made a Companion of the Liberation by the head of Free France (decree of 7.12.1941).
In 1942, he commanded the main unit of the Leclerc Column in the Fezzan, and gave the following instructions to his European troops: "the natives of Fezzan are our future citizens... the natives will be respected in their person and their property". At the beginning of 1943, with "Force L", he was first to enter Tripoli alongside British troops(January 26, 1943).