Gabriel Auguste Ferdinand Ducuing Commandant Gabriel Auguste Ferdinand Ducuing ( 22 December 1885 , Paris – 25 May 1940 , Cap Gris Nez ) was an officer in the French Navy of the First and Second World Wars . Life . Early life . He was the son of a second cousin of Ferdinand Foch . Aiming for the merchant marine , he embarked in 1904 as " pilotin " on the three - masted " Cérès " . Called to carry out his military service in 1907 , he served on board the battleship s " Brennus " and " Bouvet " . On returning to the merchant fleet , he was promoted lieutenant in the course of 1908 and captain in the course of 1911 . He sailed successively on several steamships , all the while taking the time to learn four foreign languages and to study for a law degree . First World War . At the outbreak of war in July 1914 he was the second captain of a steamship , but he soon decided to leave the merchant navy to join the infantry chasseur s to defend his country . Named sous lieutenant in December , he could not bear the static life of the trenches and moved to the nascent French Air Force , first as an observer - corps officer , then ( briefly in July 1915 ) as a pilot . In July 1915 he returned to the Navy with a commission , captaining an auxiliary vessel . Assigned to maritime aviation at Dunkerque then at Venice ( Italy ) , he immediately became noted for his brilliant qualities as a trainer . After carrying out many observation and bombing missions , he was injured in battle , mentioned in despatches by the French and Italian navies and knighted by the king of Italy . Promoted enseigne de vaisseau de 1ère classe in the reserve in July 1916 , he was moved to train fighter pilots at Pau , where , unfortunately , an accident rendered him unfit to pilot a plane himself . Made a knight of the Légion d ’ honneur in January 1917 at only 32 years old , he was again stationed at Dunkerque as second in command of its center of maritime aviation . However , finding this post insufficiently " combattant " , he had himself made a balloon observer on and , on 1 October , took command of the centre at Le Havre , where he remained up until July 1918 . Promoted lieutenant de vaisseau in the reserve , he was then put on attachment ( because of his long training as captain ) as liaison officer to the under secretary of state to the merchant navy until his demobilization in April 1919 . Inter - war . At the end of the war he did not rejoin the merchant - fleet , instead becoming a ship owner . Marked by the conflict , he remained an a particularly active officer in the naval reserve . On 9 July 1925 , replying to the call of the general delegate of the National Union of the Officers of the Reserve ( Union Nationale des Officiers de Réserve ) , he combined with some friends to form ( within the UNOR ) the 5th commission made up of the sailors ' vows at the congress of Belfort . This later became the general assembly component of the ACORAM ( Central Association of the Officers of Reserve of the Army , or Association Centrale des Officiers de Réserve de l ’ Armée de Mer ) , of which Ducuing was naturally elected president , and which still remained close to UNOR . On the president ' s suggestion , Ducuing , the French Navy in June 1927 created training centres for reserve officers , that will become accessible to naval NCO s from 1931 . In April 1928 , Ducuing ' s eminent services to the state saw him promoted to be an officer of the légion d ’ honneur . In liaison with the Union of Fighting Sailors ( Union des Marins Combattants , UMC ) of Paris , he worked for the creation , on 23 February 1930 , of the Federation of the Associations of Old Fighting Sailors ( Fédération des Associations de Marins Anciens Combattants , FAMAC ) that would become the FAMMAC . Equally down to him is the creation of the Central Association of the Non - Commissioned Officers of the Naval Reserve ( Association Centrale des Officiers Mariniers de Réserve de l ’ Armée de Mer , or ACOMAR ) . At his request , in 1931 the Navy created courses for improving the instruction of non - commissioned officers in the naval reserve . Promoted capitaine de corvette in April 1932 , he reached the normal retirement age in 1934 but at his own request remained in the reserves and postponed retirement until December 1942 , when he would be 57 . Second World War . In September 1939 , Ducuing took command of the battery of D . C . A . ( défense contre aéronefs , or anti - aircraft group ) of the Croix Faron at Toulon . At the end of January 1940 , the French Admiralty was anxious to observe and maintain free passage along the Pas - de - Calais coast , and so set up a coastal battery at Cap Gris - Nez . Ducuing was charged with commanding and organizing this battery from March 1940 . He had 3 officers and around 100 men under him , with only twenty rifles and six revolvers between them . On 22 May , facing the German offensive as it closed in on him , with the weak means at his disposal he organized an advanced position of 24 men of which he took personal command . When practically encircled , commandant Ducuing and his men completely destroyed a German column made up of a small number of side - cars , a light tank and two armored cars . In the evening , he refused a surrender proposed to him by the Germans . During the night of 24 to 25 May , he organized the evacuation by sea of a group of surviving sailors from the shipwreck of their base . On 25 May 1940 , at 9am , the German armour and Stuka s under Guderian were no more than 200 metres from Ducuing ' s post on Cap Gris - Nez . Having run out of munitions , commandant Ducuing destroyed the artillery and machine guns and gave the order to his men to withdraw . Remaining at his post alone , he went to the mast of the base and hoisted the French colors , but at that precise instant he was killed by a short burst of automatic weapon fire .