{{Short description|French Army general}} '''Fernand Olive''' (5 November 1891 – 20 January 1949),<ref name="LI2021-11-03"/> known as '''Oliva-Roget''', was a French Army general. He commanded the French forces in Damascus during the Levant Crisis that led to the departure of the French military from Syria in June 1945.
== Biography == Born in Bages, Pyrénées-Orientales, Oliva-Roget joined the Army in 1912 as a private 2nd class. By 1917, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant.<ref name="LI2021-11-03">{{cite news|title=Le général Fernand Olive, un personnage historique méconnu, enterré à Bages|first=Duval|last=Bruno|url=https://www.lindependant.fr/2021/11/03/le-general-fernand-olive-un-personnage-historique-meconnu-enterre-a-bages-9907102.php|language=French|newspaper=L'Indépendant|date=3 November 2021}}</ref>
He served with the Troupes coloniales in the French colonies of Algeria, Morocco, Levant and Somaliland.<ref name="LI2021-11-03"/>
He resigned from the Army in September 1939 for health reasons, with the rank of general de brigade. He later joined the Free French Forces and was sacked in 1941 by the Vichy Regime.<ref name="LI2021-11-03"/>
He commanded the French forces in Damascus during the 1945 Levant Crisis. On 29 May, without orders from his superiors, he ordered his troops to suppress pro-independence riots. The plunder of Damascus by French forces was internationally condemned.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Bruchez|first= Anne|title=La fin de la présence française en Syrie : de la crise de mai 1945 au départ des dernières troupes étrangères |journal= Relations Internationales|date= 2005 |volume= 122|issue= 122|pages= 17–32|doi= 10.3917/ri.122.0017|url=https://www.cairn.info/revue-relations-internationales-2005-2-page-17.htm|language=French|doi-access= free}}</ref> British forces swept in and ordered the French to cease fire - Oliva-Roget was dismissed from the army when he returned to France. He retired to Bages and died in Val-de-Grâce hospital, Paris, in 1949.<ref name="LI2021-11-03"/>
== References== {{reflist}}
== External links == *[http://archives.cd66.fr/mdr/index.php/docnumViewer/afficheUdDocNum/?cote=13NUM1R506&numDocument=224 French Army registration card of Fernand Olive] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220111100243/http://archives.cd66.fr/mdr/index.php/docnumViewer/afficheUdDocNum/?cote=13NUM1R506&numDocument=224 |date=2022-01-11 }} *[https://generals.dk/general/Olive_dit_Oliva-Roget/Fran%C3%A7ois-Fernand-Michel/France.html Generals of World War II]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Olive, Fernand}} Category:1891 births Category:1949 deaths Category:French mass murderers Category:20th-century French murderers Category:French military personnel of World War I Category:French Army generals of World War II Category:Free French military personnel of World War II Category:French war criminals Category:People from Pyrénées-Orientales