ALEXANDER'S CENTURIONS

Heir to the SAS paratroopers trained in France and forerunner of the operators of the Special Operations Command, the 1st Marine Infantry Parachute Regiment of Bayonne concealed within its ranks for several years a special unit: the Groupement Opérationnel (GO).

Conceived as early as 1973 to reinforce the ranks of the Service Action of the SDECE while remaining part of the French Army, created on paper in 1974, recruited in 1975, trained in 1976 and operational in 1977, the GO was to be entrusted with special missions. Operating most often on the margins of conventional operations — frequently preceding them and sometimes extending them — it would need to remain discreet, to choose on its own initiative between force and flexibility, to stay loyal to its employers, and to demonstrate effectiveness in all circumstances.

Trained specifically to operate and cooperate with an invisible and clandestine support element prepared to live and fight across various environments, it would be called upon to support President Mobutu against the Katangans, to arm subversive movements, to overthrow Emperor Bokassa, to install President Abdallah in power, and to protect President Houphouët-Boigny. Although it in no way fell short in carrying out all these missions, it was dissolved in 1981 when a wave of panic unsettled its civilian and military employers, leading to yet another reorganisation of the kind our leaders are so fond of.

The secrets of the GO now belong to the past. The ranks of its former members are beginning to thin, and the adventures lived by the 200 paratroopers of that era deserve to be known. The veil is finally lifted!

The author

A graduate of Saint-Cyr of the "Vercors" class (1960–1962), General Patrick Manificat served in several parachute units. In addition to the special operations of the 1st RPIMa and the clandestine operations of the 11th Shock, he took part in numerous intelligence-gathering operations behind the Iron Curtain as a member of the French Military Liaison Mission in Potsdam, to which he was attached for three years. After serving as a professor at the École Supérieure de Guerre and as an auditor at the Institut des Hautes Études de Défense Nationale, he headed the Army Intelligence Bureau and the Research Sub-Directorate of the Military Intelligence Directorate. He concluded his career at the head of the École Nationale des Sous-Officiers d'Active in Saint-Maixent.

Patrick Manificat has published: Au coeur de la guerre froide and Le Pont des Espions.