Dassault Aviation becomes a Patron of the Order of Liberation

Dassault Aviation becomes a Patron of the Order of Liberation

(Saint-Cloud, France, June 18, 2020) - Eighty years after General de Gaulle’s appeal of 18 June, Dassault Aviation is proud and honored to support the French Order of Liberation. To officialize this patronage, a meeting was held today at the Chancellery of the Order of Liberation, between General Christian Baptiste, national delegate of the Order, and Eric Trappier, Dassault Aviation Chairman and CEO.

On June 18, 1940 General de Gaulle broadcast his call to resistance after France was left destroyed and defeated. He continued the fight and restored the honor of our nation by placing it in the winning camp. As of 1958, he went on to achieve tremendous progress, notably in the areas of the constitution, economy, diplomacy and defense.

On November 16, 1940 General de Gaulle created the Order of Liberation to reward individuals or military and civilian groups (Companions) for their distinguished deeds in the liberation of France. Today, the Order pursues the mission of developing the spirit of Defense through the achievements of French Liberation Companions and Resistance Medal awardees.

There are many similarities between De Gaulle's work and Dassault Aviation, and although the years and generations pass, they remain firmly rooted in the identity of our company, our management and our teams.

Marcel Dassault was an engineer, an aviation genus, detained with his family and deported because he refused to collaborate with the occupying regime. After the war, he took the name Dassault, the alias given in the Resistance to his brother, General Paul Bloch; Paul Bloch was appointed Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honor by De Gaulle in 1946.

Marcel Dassault was also a great industrialist, who recreated his family business after the Liberation with his engineers from the 1930s, many of whom had distinguished themselves in the fight against the enemy: Benno-Claude Vallières, future CEO of Avions Dassault, and Henri Déplante, future design office director, served remarkably in the SAS; Xavier d’Iribarne, later head of production, was an officer in the 1^st Army of General de Lattre de Tassigny. During the post-war decades, Dassault numbered four Liberation Companions (Pierre-Ghislain de Bénouville, Pierre Clostermann, Louis Cortot, Jacques Maillet) and over 170 Resistance Medal honorees in its ranks.