Rene Cogny

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! René Cogny (25 April 1904 - 11 September 1968) was a French Général de division, World War II and French Resistance veteran and survivor of Buchenwald and Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camps. He was a commander of the French forces in Tonkin (northern Vietnam) during the First Indochina War, and notably during the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. His post-war private and legal conflict with superior General Henri Navarre became a public controversy. Known to his men as Le General Vitesse (General Hurry-Up), and reputable for his military pomp, physical presence and skill with the press, Cogny was killed when Air France Flight 1611 crashed in the Mediterranean near Nice.