My P.E. coach from when I was young just passed away at the start of this month and his obit would have had you saying "#teamfrance" before this tour even started. Napoleon would have taken Russia with a few more soldiers like Daniel Paul Mathurin Nevot. It's a pretty ridiculous read.
Obituary for Daniel Paul Mathurin Nevot
FORT WORTH - Daniel Paul Mathurin Nevot was born on April 26, 1920 at Les Bordes-Aumont, near Troyes in east central France. He was the fourth of eight children in a working class family. The family moved to Fontaine-les-Gres, near Nancy, when he was still a child.
After contracting a life-threatening case of pneumonia and pleurisy when he was 16 years old, Nevot was sent to a sanitarium. He recovered, but the sanitarium then made him an unpaid orderly--a sort of indentured servant. He ran away to Nancy and found work as a dishwasher and then as a waiter and bartender.
Nevot joined the French army as a volunteer on Oct. 25, 1938. His extraordinary World War II biography includes the Croix de Guerre with a bronze star, silver star, gold star and two bronze palms, the Medaille Militaire (1945), and the Legion d'Honneur (chevalier, 1999; officier, 2010). The Legion d'Honneur is the French equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor. It can be awarded only by vote of the French government.
Nevot's service in WWII included a heroic action in northern Norway (May - June, 1940) with the French Foreign Legion in which he was the sole survivor among 30 other volunteers and a second harrowing escape from the Wehrmacht at Brest, France in June, 1940, after which he arrived in southern England aboard a British destroyer.
At a famous meeting in 1940 at the Imperial Hotel in London, Nevot and other French military refugees volunteered to serve with the Free French under DeGaulle. Those who volunteered were then taken to the London YMCA formally to sign up. Nevot was the 184th signatory. When asked how he felt about continuing to fight, Nevot simply said, "I didn't surrender."
He was next sent to Africa with the Free French, to the only French province in Africa that declared for DeGaulle instead of Vichy. After going up the Congo River and marching hundreds of miles through the jungle to Fr. Lamy (now N'Djamena, Chad), he fought at Koufra in southern Libya, the very first WWII battle won by the French in North Africa. In that battle, 250 French combatants and 150 native African irregulars in support traveled through 1,000 miles of desert on commandeered vehicles to capture a well-supplied Italian fort, its airfield, and 300 prisoners. Inside Koufra, Nevot personally heard Leclerc's Serment de Koufra. In that famous speech, Leclerc promised that the French would continue fighting until all Germans were expelled from French Africa and from all of France herself until the tricoleur was raised over the Cathedral in Strasbourg, in the northeastern corner of France.
The full name of the North African military unit created and trained by Leclerc was called the Regiment du Marche du Tschad (March of Chad Regiment). It was possibly the most famous French regiment of WWII. Nevot was its last survivor from the Battle of Koufra.
In the next winter's campaign, Nevot captured (with only two other soldiers) another Italian fort at El Gatroun, Libya. In the latter action, the three Frenchmen captured not only the fort itself but also its payroll, supplies and approximately 100 prisoners. In later recounting this to his biographers, Mr. Nevot added, "We also captured their wine."
As more Frenchmen from Vichy joined DeGaulle, Leclerc created a larger N. African unit called "Force L." Force L guarded U.S. Gen. Patton's left (desert) flank during the latter portion of the North African campaign.
After the Germans were finally expelled from North Africa in 1943, Nevot and the other Force L survivors were sent to England, where they were further trained by Leclerc and formed into the Second Armored Division. They landed at Normandy two months after D Day, on August 6, 1945. They fought several desperate actions in northern France. They lost seventeen percent of the division in their first battle.
Nevot rode his motorcycle at the head of a column during the liberation of Paris, which DeGaulle accomplished by directly disobeying orders from senior Allied generals. After Paris, Nevot personally liberated, by himself, his home village of Fontaine-les-Gres in east central France. The Germans had just left. It was the first time his family had seen him in five years. Before his arrival, they did not know he was still alive.
Nevot continued to fight with the Second Armored Division until the latter reached Strasbourg in the spring of 1945. He was personally present with Leclerc when the tricoleur was raised over the Cathedral in Strasbourg, in fulfillment of Leclerc's Serment de Koufra. He could never recount that event without emotion.
After Strasbourg, Nevot and about 200 other elite French troops were sent on a reckless dash into the Bavarian Alps, to Hitler's "Eagle's Nest," in an audacious attempt to capture Hitler. They were the first Allied troops to arrive. However, the eyrie was abandoned when they arrived--Hitler had stayed in Berlin.
After World War II, Nevot was sent to the Ecole Militaire at Antibes, France's reorganized military college for NCOs. In addition to his academic subjects, he learned judo, fencing and swimming, including the use of a so-called aqualung being perfected by one of his instructors, Jacques Cousteau. Nevot graduated second in his class at Antibes and spent most of his remaining years of army service at various postings in Africa. As the senior NCO (Adjutant-Chef) on every base, he was usually in charge of the men's physical fitness and morale, of keeping them in fighting condition, and of the security detail protecting the senior officer.
During his African service, Nevot won, in 1951, the French combined armed forces world judo championship--a tournament with no weight classes requiring him to win 20 consecutive bouts. During his African service he also became an upper level "Master" (Maitre) of fencing.
Nevot came to Texas in 1963 after 25 years in the French army and commenced his 24-year career at St. Mark's in 1964. His St. Mark's fencers had many successful results in regional and national tournaments, including the Junior Olympics (under 16 and under 20 age divisions). Three later became NCAA All-Americans.
Nevot married his first love, Anne-Marie Morville, on May 1, 1946. She worked in the St. Mark's cafeteria for some years to supplement his coach's pay. Anne-Marie, whom he called "Mary Ann" after they moved to Texas, died in 2005. They loved dancing on the weekends and together won many competitions. They had two daughters, Rosefrance and Patricia, who both survive them, as well as numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
After Mary Ann's death, Nevot married Helen Bohn, one of his first Texas fencing students, on January 21, 2006. They celebrated their thirteenth anniversary and his 99th birthday in 2019. She also survives him, as does his older brother, Pierre, who fought in the French Resistance (Maquis).
Nevot, the ultimate man of war and martial artist who trained others for war, died at peace, at home, in his sleep on July 1, 2019. "There were giants on the earth in those days" (Gen. 6:4).
https://www.greenwoodfuneralhomes.com/obituaries/Daniel-Nevot/#!/Obituary