Brigitte Friang

Brigitte Friang (23 January 1924 – 6 March 2011) was a French journalist, writer and French Resistance member.^[1]

Biography[edit]

Friang was born in Paris in 1924 and immediately after leaving school in Paris in 1943 joined the French Resistance.^[2] Working in the same group as Colonel F. F. E. Yeo-Thomas, she was captured by the Gestapo, shot while trying to escape, then taken to Fresnes Prison and tortured, before being deported to Ravensbrück concentration camp.^[2][3]

After the war, Friang was liberated and returned to Paris where she worked for four years as a press aide to André Malraux, before becoming a journalist.^[2] In 1953, she was sent to French Indochina as a war correspondent.^[3][4] There she undertook parachute training and was dropped, in the opening hours of Operation Castor, into Điện Biên Province, in the north-west corner of Vietnam.^[3][5] She made several combat jumps including one with Lt Col Bigeard's 6th Colonial Paratroop Battalion at Tu-Le after which she accompanied the 6th on their retreat to French lines.^[3][6] She survived the war and returned to Paris where she worked as a writer and journalist until her retirement.

On June 6, 1954, she appeared as a challenger on the TV panel show What's My Line? (the mystery guests for that episode were George Burns and Gracie Allen).

Friang died 6 March 2011 at the age of 87.

Published works[edit]

• Parachutes and Petticoats. Translated by Cadel, James. London: Jarrolds. 1958. ASIN B0006DCEQY. B0000CK0Z8.
• Les Fleurs du ciel [The Flowers of Heaven] (in French). Paris: Robert Laffont. 1955. ISBN 978-2-221-02334-1.
• La Mousson de la liberté. Vietnam, du colonialisme au stalinisme [The Storm of freedom. Vietnam, from colonialism to Stalinism] (in French). Paris: Plon. 1976. ISBN 978-2259001663.
• Un Autre Malraux [Another Malraux] (in French). Paris: Plon. 1977. ISBN 978-2-259-00274-5.
• Regarde-toi qui meurs 1943–1945 [Look at You Who Die 1943–1945] (in French) (2 Vols ed.). Paris: France Loisirs. 1978. ISBN 9782724203820.
• Petit tour autour de Malraux [Little Bit About Malraux] (in French). Paris: Félin. 2001. ISBN 978-2-86645-413-5.

Notes and sources[edit]

• Fall, Barnard (2005). Street Without Joy. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military. ISBN 978-1-84415-318-3.
• Simpson, Howard R. (1994). Dien Bien Phu: The Epic Battle America Forgot. London: Brassey's. ISBN 978-1-57488-024-3.
• Windrow, Martin (2004). The Last Valley. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 0-306-81386-6.