Operation Charlotte Corday
| Jean Bastien-Thiry | |
|---|---|
Mug shot of Bastien-Thiry
|
|
| Born | 19 October 1927 Lunéville, France |
| Died | 11 March 1963 (aged 35) Ivry-sur-Seine, France |
| Allegiance |
 France
|
| Service/branch | French Air Force |
| Rank | Lieutenant colonel |
| Battles/wars |
World War II Algerian War |
| Other work | Aerospace engineer |
Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ maʁi bastjɛ̃ tiʁi]; 19 October 1927 – 11 March 1963) was a French Air Force lieutenant-colonel and military air weaponry engineer. He was the creator of the Nord SS.10/SS.11 missiles. He attempted to assassinate French President Charles de Gaulle on 22 August 1962, following de Gaulle's decision to accept Algerian independence. The attack made international headlines. Bastien-Thiry was the last person to be executed by firing squad in France.
Though the assassination attempt came very close to claiming de Gaulle's life, the President and his entire entourage escaped without injury. The event is chronicled in detail in the (otherwise fictional) 1971 work The Day of the Jackal and the 1973 film adaptation of the same name, the latter of which has character actor Jean Sorel playing Bastien-Thiry.
Bastien-Thiry was born to a family of Catholic military officers in Lunéville, Meurthe-et-Moselle. His father had known de Gaulle in the 1930s and was a member of the Gaullist RPF. He attended the École polytechnique, followed by the École nationale supérieure de l'Aéronautique, then entered the French Air Force where he specialized in the design of air-to-air missiles. In 1957, he was promoted to principal military air engineer. He was married to Geneviève Lamirand, the daughter of Georges Lamirand (1899–1994). The latter had been Vichy France General Secretary of Youth from September 1940 to March 1943, but the rest of the family was Free French. He had three daughters with her.
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