18-05-2025
The forgotten story of France's greatest war hero
The rain started as we entered the vast cemetery in Avignon. We were seeking France's greatest unsung war hero or, rather, his final resting place We had brought no umbrella to the search. Of course not. This was the south of France in May.
Then the Avignon sky truly darkened, furious with thunder and lightning, and we arrived pretty drenched at our goal: the tomb of Albert Séverin Roche. The scrawny, bolshy son of a Provençal farmer, Roche was, without much doubt, the finest French soldier of the 20th century. Certainly, he was 'the premier soldier of France' in the First World War. Maréchal Ferdinand Foch, head of Allied forces in 1918, hailed him as such.
Almost equally certainly, and despite a chest full of medals for barely-credible exploits, Roche is all but forgotten – even in his home region, even by people who maybe should remember. He has been recalled recently only in an obscure comic book published last year – and, unexpectedly perhaps, in a 2023 song by a Swedish heavy metal band specialising in war-themed anthems (see below).
Somehow, then, it seemed fitting that we contemplated his grave in a spring thunderstorm. We'd been seeking him for a while, and thunderstorms are as close as you get in Avignon these days to the crash of war. We could just make out the plaque through the rain. Roche, it said, had been born in Réauville 130 years before, on March 5, 1895.
Réauville is 50 miles north of Avignon, a sinuous stone village of 400 souls isolated in the Drôme Provençale countryside of vines and lavender, woodland and distant Alps. There's a bust of Roche erected outside the town hall and, 150 yards away, a memorial stèle.
Flanked by cypress trees, it's across from the Roche family farmhouse. The charming lady in the village bistro, Au Petit Bonheur, was aware that Albert Roche was 'Réauville's claim to fame' but knew nothing else about the chap. She had this in common with 99.99 per cent of France.
Humble beginnings
What I knew was that, against all odds, Roche was a solid-gold hero, the sort whose story humbles almost everyone else. It started effectively in 1914. Albert Roche's dad didn't want him to leave the village to join up: he was needed on the farm. Being a headstrong chap, he snuck off anyway.
After initial rejection by recruiters for being too puny, Roche was accepted into the light infantry. He proved an impatient, volatile trainee who, tired of faffing about far from the action, went AWOL. He was quickly caught and punished by being sent to the front line, which had been his wish all along.
Assigned to the 27th Battalion, Chasseurs Alpins, he was soon on the Aisne front, single-handedly knocking out a German machine-gun blockhouse after creeping up to drop grenades down the chimney of its stove. He killed several of the soldiers inside and took eight prisoners.
Taking prisoners became a speciality. Captured himself on one occasion, Roche overcame his guarding German officer, stole his pistol and bade all surrounding Germans surrender. He returned to French lines with 40 German POWs and it is suggested that, by the end of the war, he had taken some 1,200 prisoners.
His reputation for both potentially suicidal missions and ingenuity grew. In the Vosges mountains of Alsace, he was, in his trench, the sole survivor of pre-attack German shelling. Rather than flee, as might be expected, he grabbed the guns of dead comrades, lined them up along the edge of the trench and raced from one to the next, firing each in turn. Hence, or so the story goes, the attackers gained the impression of a position well-defended and retreated.
Back in the Aisne on the Chemin des Dames in 1917, following another catastrophic advance, Roche rescued his wounded captain. He inched across open mud and dragged the fellow back to French lines. It apparently took him 10 hours of effort. As a result, he fell asleep, utterly exhausted, in a shell hole, far from his unit.
A patrol came across him, assumed he was a deserter, refused to credit his explanation and, in short order, had him condemned to death. He was made to face the firing squad when word came from the officer, now returned to consciousness, that Roche was telling the truth.
'Legendary bravery'
Roche continued to fight for France, a country which had come close to executing him, and the daring feats stacked up. As, indeed, did the war wounds (he was shot nine times and even extracted a bullet from his lower jaw). And the medals – he was awarded the Médaille Militaire, the Croix de Guerre and the Légion-d'Honneur.
It was the Légion-d'Honneur for which Gen Louis de Maud'huy cited Roche thus: 'An infantryman whose bravery is legendary… [he] did not hesitate in the face of danger, triumphed over all difficulties, showed decisiveness and conscientiousness above all praise.'
When the French finally liberated Alsace from the Germans, Foch requested Roche join him on the balcony of Strasbourg town hall. From there, the French general told the assembled crowd: 'Alsaciens, I present to you your liberator, Albert Roche. He is the premier soldier of France.' And yet, remarkably, Roche had never risen above the rank of private.
But his renown persisted in the immediate post-war period. In 1920, he was one of seven servicemen to accompany the coffin of the Unknown Soldier to its final destination, the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Five years later in May 1925 – 100 years ago – he formed part of a small contingent of French military men attending the London funeral of Field Marshal Sir John French and was later invited to dine with George V.
Subsequently (and sadly), however, Roche faded into the background, as many First World War heroes usually did. He married a woman local to Réauville, fathered a child, worked at his in-laws' farm, then as a road mender. Later, he moved 40 miles south to Sorgues – a small working town near Avignon – taking up as a job as a fireman in a gunpowder factory.
It was during his time working at the gunpowder factory that he tragically died on April 14, 1939, when he stepped off the bus and was hit by a car, thrown against a tree, and killed. He was 44.
He was buried in the local cemetery and is now honoured with a plaque in Sorgues' municipal park, near the children's play area. It takes some finding but there'll usually be some elderly men walking dogs in the park, and they will often point the way to the plaque.
For reasons unknown, Roche's remains were transferred eight miles down the road in 1967 to Avignon's St Véran cemetery. To be precise: carré 40, Nord row, tomb 15. And that's where we were, amid 12,000 tombs, when the rain suddenly stopped.
Two more graves to track down
The cemetery of St Véran is also the final resting place of the political philosopher John Stuart Mill and his wife, feminist writer Harriet Taylor Mill. The couple had been staying in Avignon's Hotel d'Europe (which still exists) in 1858 when Harriet died of a pulmonary haemorrhage. John was so distraught that he bought a small house overlooking the cemetery, where he in turn died in 1873.
Buried there, too, is Pierre Boulle, the Avignon-born engineer who wrote Planet of the Apes and The Bridge over the River Kwai. He worked in Indo-China, sided with the Free French in the Second World War, was captured, subjected to forced labour (the basis for his novel The Bridge over the River Kwai), escaped and worked with Britain's Far-East SOE (Special Operations Executive).
Stay here
Try the five-star La Mirande, an elegant establishment behind the Palais de Papes, imprinted with much of the grand history of Avignon (off-season doubles from £413). Tighter budgets might opt for the Hotel de Cambis (doubles from £109) or the small and charming two-star Hotel Boquier, in a fine 18th-century building ( doubles from £73).
Eat here
Apart from the hotels mentioned above, you might also head for Avignon's La Fourchette, a point-of-reference family-run bistro that serves Provençal food.
Listen to this
Swedish heavy-metal band Sabaton specialise in war-related songs. Listen to their version of the Albert Roche story.
Read this
The French-language comic book Albert Roche tells his story in comic-book style (published by Bamboo, as part of its Grand Angle series). Buy it at La Crognote Rieuse bookshop at 40 Rue de la Bonneterie.
