De Tribord à Bobard

Being born in the middle of the century of the two world wars offered the opportunity for exceptional encounters: with the ghosts of the First, with the legends of the Second in the shadow of General de Gaulle.

Having become a naval officer without always quite understanding why, flights and voyages at sea followed one another amid minefields and missile fire, in this account full of anecdotes from the major crises of the end of the century in the service of France: protecting Djibouti, Lebanon in the grip of civil war, oil flows in the mysterious Gulf, and the independence of our Balkan neighbours.

When fortune continued to smile and ranks continued to rise, equally intense battles carried on ashore within command structures — the challenge of personnel commitment, material renewal, and the securing of resources — in manoeuvres where only the tip of a pencil risked going off. This succession of opportunities opened onto the world of allies and allowed a deeper understanding of others against the backdrop of the early signs of a global geopolitical shift. Continuing to serve in the Middle East in an equally mined activity that drew nothing from the state budget but fed it proved yet another adventure. To convey this story with humour, to make eyes light up, gives this work its purpose.