Louis Dio

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Louis Dio (14 October 1908, in Vannes – 15 June 1994, in Toulon), was a French général d'armée. Louis Dio was born in Vannes in Morbihan, France, on 14 October 1908. His father, a career officer, committed suicide in August 1914. After studying at the Collège Jules Simon between 1914 and 1925, he was accepted at age 18 at the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr. Upon graduating from the military academy and commissioning as an officer in 1928, Second Lieutenant Dio was assigned to the 18th Régiment de Tirailleurs Sénégalais (RTS) based in southern Tunisia. The young Breton officer promptly adapted to and embraced the austere desert lifestyle of the Tirailleurs. He perfected his knowledge of Arabic; the study he had undertaken at Saint-Cyr, and was also introduced to local African dialects. He chose to serve with the French Camel-mounted Troops (Méharistes), whose distinctive military culture was characterized by a nomadic existence to remain in permanent contact with the local populations. He immersed himself completely in this lifestyle, as evidenced, for example, by the customary, "beautiful tattoos that went down to the fingers of his hands” he had drawn on his arms. Before the Second World War, apart from two brief stays in mainland France, he served three times in the Sahara's most desolate and underdeveloped areas.