Man with a Cane

When dapper, high-strung Brigadier General Jacques Leclerc, commander of the French Second Armored Division, burst into Paris, he carried a cane. It was the same cane with which, when he fought the Axis in Africa, he used to draw sketches in the sand at military conferences.

The General is the man nobody knows.

Jacques Leclerc is a nom de guerre. His real name is still a secret (to protect his family from the Nazis). Quick-tempered, a stickler for efficiency, the General has no patience with fumbling aides. Last week, on the road to Paris, his nerves jumped raggedly.. At a press conference he parried all questions with caustic comments.

The man called Leclerc was born 42 years ago near Amiens. He graduated from Saint-Cyr, France's West Point. A major in 1940, he was wounded and taken prisoner by the Germans. He escaped, riding a bicycle some 375 miles to the frontier.

From there Leclerc made his way to London and Africa, organized a French fighting force in the Cameroons. In long, quick strokes over the desert, he harassed the Italians in Fezzan. When Montgomery began his march toward Tripoli, Leclerc moved his force north from Fort Lamy, over 1,200 miles of desert and mountains in 39 days. From Tripoli, he advanced with Montgomery into Tunisia.

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