GENERAL BILOTTE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 163, 10 June 1940, Page 7

GENERAL BILOTTE

KILLED IN ACTION. GERMAN SURVEY. Received June 10, 10.5 a.m. PARIS, June 9. It is revealed that General Bilotte was killed in action on May 23 when commanding an Armv group. Before the outbreak of the war General Bilotte was Military Governor of Paris.-He was aged 65. The German High Command states that during the four days’ battle in the region of the Somme and the Oise strong enemy forces were defeated and fresh forces compelled to withdraw. “In the direction of the Lower Seine we penetrated, the enemy’s, rear defences and secured . rich booty. Our divisions pursued the enemy on both sides of Soissons and crossed the Aisne. “German ’planes bombed aerodromes north-east and south from Paris, and railways north-west from Paris. The enemy lost 71 ’planes on Friday and 58 on Saturday. .Nine German ’planes are missing. Several hundred Allied troops .have been taken'prisoner.’’ The British War Office’s eighth casualty list of 220 names includes one officer killed, one wounded, three missing and one prisoner. In other ranks there are five killed, two died, fourteen wounded, 154 missing, and one missing believed killed. Seven previously reported missing are now not missing, there are eighteen prisoners, and thirteen reported missing are now reported to be prisoners.

In General Bilotlc France has lost an eminent soldier, a tall and robust colonial officer with' a splendid record. . After fighting in Tonkin and in the Boxer Rebellion in the Far East, he was on continuous active service for 17 years, from 1910 to 1927..' It started in. Morocco, continued through the World War, resumed with the Poles against the Bolsheviks (as General Weygand’s Chief of Staff’), and went on to the Druse campaign in Syria and the war against Abd-el-Krim. Billotte used to be kept ready to be sent, wherever there was trouble. In 1932 it was to quell mutiny and massacre in In-do-China. Imposing of appearance, he had the self-confident manner useful in dealings with natives, together with a reputation for no “beating about the bush. It, has been stated that it was no secret that the post of Military Governor of Paris fell to him mainly because M. Daladi'r as Minister of Defence, wished to have close to the Quai d’Orsay this officer’s deep and far-flung experience.