Brigitte Friang

Brigitte Friang (1924–2011 ) was a French journalist and writer.

She was born in Paris in 1924 and immediately after leaving school in Paris in 1943 joined the French resistance.^[1] 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.^[1][2]

After the war, she was liberated and returned to Paris where she worked for four years as a press aide to André Malraux, before becoming a journalist.^[1] In 1953, she was sent to French Indochina as a war correspondent.^[2][3] 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.^[2][4] 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.^[2][5] 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).

She died 6 March 2011 at the age of 87.

Notes and sources

1. Friang (1958), 12–24.
2. Fall, 138.
3. Friang (1958), 25–27.
4. Simpson, 29.
5. Windrow, 249

• 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

Published works

• Friang, Brigitte. Trans. Cadel, James. 1958. Parachutes and Petticoats. London: Jarrolds.
• Friang, Brigitte. 1955. Les Fleurs du ciel. Paris: Robert Laffont. ISBN 978-2-221-02334-1
• Friang, Brigitte. 1976. La Mousson de la liberté. Vietnam, du colonialisme au stalinisme. Paris: Plon. ISBN 978-2259001663
• Friang, Brigitte. 1977. Un Autre Malraux. Paris: Plon. ISBN 978-2-259-00274-5
• Friang, Brigitte. 1978. Regarde-toi qui meurs (2 Vols) Paris: France Loisirs. ISBN
• Friang, Brigitte. 2001. Petit tour autour de Malraux. Paris: Félin. ISBN 978-2-86645-413-5