[1] Born to an Alsatian family in Paris, Giraud graduated from the Saint-Cyr military academy and served in French North Africa.

During the interwar period, Giraud returned to North Africa and fought in the Rif War, for which he was awarded the Légion d'honneur.

From within Vichy France he worked with the Allies in secret, and assumed command of French troops in North Africa after Operation Torch (November 1942) following the assassination of François Darlan.

In January 1943, he took part in the Casablanca Conference along with Charles de Gaulle, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Later in the same year, Giraud and de Gaulle became co-presidents of the French Committee of National Liberation, but he lost support and retired in frustration in April 1944.

Giraud was seriously wounded while leading a Zouave bayonet charge during the Battle of St. Quentin on 30 August 1914, and was left for dead on the field.

On 3 February 1930, Giraud was "placed at the disposal of the resident-general of France in Morocco", then Lucien Saint, and was assigned to monitor the Algerian-Moroccan borders as commander of the Moroccan frontier post of Boudenib.

A court-martial tried Giraud for ordering the execution of two German saboteurs wearing civilian clothes but he was acquitted and taken to Königstein Castle near Dresden, which was used as a high-security POW prison.

He made a 150 feet (46 m) rope out of twine, torn bedsheets, and copper wire, which friends had smuggled into the prison for him.

He had shaved off his moustache and wearing a Tyrolean hat, travelled to Schandau to meet his Special Operations Executive (SOE) contact who provided him with a change of clothes, cash and identity papers.

He considered this latter condition essential to maintaining French sovereignty and authority over the Arab and Berber natives of North Africa.

Eisenhower asked him to assume command of French troops in North Africa during Operation Torch and to order them to join the Allies.

[21] Instead, it appeared that Admiral François Darlan, who happened to be in Algiers, had real authority, and Giraud quickly realized this.

Despite the fact that Darlan was the de facto head of the Vichy government, the Allies recognized him as head of French forces in Africa, and on 10 November, after agreeing to a deal, Darlan ordered the French forces to cease fire and to co-operate with the Allies.

[citation needed][dubious – discuss] All this took place without reference to the Free French organization of Charles De Gaulle, which had claimed to be the legitimate government of France in exile.

On that afternoon, the admiral drove to his offices at the Palais d'Été and was shot down at the door to his bureau by a young man of 20, Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle, a monarchist who was tried by court martial under Giraud's orders and executed on the 26th.

De Gaulle wanted to pursue a political position in France and agreed to have Giraud as commander-in-chief, as the more militarily qualified of the two.

[citation needed] Giraud took part in the Casablanca conference, with Roosevelt, Churchill and de Gaulle, in January 1943.

Later, after very difficult negotiations, Giraud agreed to suppress the racist laws, and to liberate Vichy prisoners from the South Algerian concentration camps.

He refused to accept a post of Inspector General of the Army and chose to retire after forty-four years' service.

On 2 June 1946, Giraud was elected to the French Constituent Assembly as a representative of the Republican Party of Liberty and helped to create the constitution of the Fourth Republic.

[citation needed] Giraud published two books, Mes Evasions (My Escapes, 1946) and Un seul but, la victoire: Alger 1942–1944 (A Single Goal, Victory: Algiers 1942–1944, 1949) about his experiences.