France 100 Francs Silver Coin 1994 Marshal Koenig
Commemorative issue: 50th Anniversary of the Liberation of Paris
Obverse: Bust of Marshal Marie Pierre Koenig wearing French Army kepi (four stars - Général de corps d'armée "corps general", i.e. Lieutenant general).
Lettering: RF MARIANNE PIERRE KŒNIG.
Reverse: 1942 Battle of Bir Hakeim.
Lettering: 27 MAI-11 JUIN 1942 BIR HAKEIM 100F 1994.
Metal: Silver (.900).
Weight: 22.2 g.
Diameter: 37 mm.
Commemorative coins of France: 50th Anniversary of the Liberation of Paris
Marie-Pierre Koenig, Marshal of France
Marie-Pierre Koenig, in full Marie-Pierre-Joseph-François Koenig (born October 10, 1898, Caen, France — died September 2, 1970, Neuilly-sur-Seine), French army officer who became one of the leading commanders of General Charles de Gaulle’s Free French Forces in World War II.
After active duty during World War I and later in North Africa, Koenig campaigned in Norway and France during the early part of World War II. Evacuated to England in June 1940, he joined de Gaulle’s movement and rose steadily in the Free French Forces, distinguishing himself in the conquest of Gabon in 1940 and in the defense of Bir Hakeim, Libya, against terrific attacks by German General Erwin Rommel’s panzer (armoured) divisions in 1942. He then served as assistant army chief of staff and as Free French delegate to General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s supreme Allied headquarters in England. In June 1944 he became head of the French Forces of the Interior, the Resistance army in German-occupied France, and in August he was named military governor of liberated Paris. He had become commander of the French army in Germany by the end of the war.
Koenig became inspector general in North Africa in 1949 and then vice president of the Supreme War Council in 1950. He retired soon after, but he was later elected to the National Assembly as a Gaullist deputy and served two short terms as defense minister (1954 and 1955). In 1984 the French government posthumously named him marshal of France.
Battle of Bir Hakeim
The Battle of Bir Hakeim took place at Bir Hakeim, an oasis in the Libyan desert south and west of Tobruk, during the Battle of Gazala (26 May – 21 June 1942). The 1st Free French Brigade (Général de brigade Marie Pierre Kœnig) defended the position from 26 May – 11 June against much larger German and Italian forces, commanded by Generaloberst Erwin Rommel.
The Panzerarmee Afrika captured Tobruk ten days later but the delay imposed on the Axis offensive by the defence of the fortress, influenced the cancellation of Operation Herkules, the plan for an Axis invasion of Malta. Rommel continued to advance and invaded Egypt, slowed by British delaying actions until the First Battle of El Alamein in July where the Axis advance was stopped; both sides used the battle for propaganda, Winston Churchill renaming the Free French as the Fighting French and Hitler called the French the second best fighters after the Germans.