He took part in the Algiers putsch of 1961 and in the Organisation armée secrète, which opposed what it regarded as De Gaulle's treacherous abandonment of Algeria to the FLN terrorists.
Born to a divisional General of the French Army, Pierre Guillaume graduated from the École Navale in 1948.
He attempted to sail to France on a junk named Le Manohara[2] but ran aground on the coasts of Somalia on 13 November 1956.
He later worked as a naval security consultant in Saudi Arabia and took part in operations with Bob Denard in Comoros.
Guillaume inspired the character of the "Drummer Crab" in the novel Le Crabe-tambour and the eponymous film by Pierre Schoendoerffer.