By Philippe Brichaut
Cols Bleus is the oldest military magazine still in print. For eight decades, the magazine has been covering the Navy and sailors, and a look back at its origins.
In 1780, the expeditionary force of Count Rochambeau, tasked with supporting the American insurgents, embarked on a printing press. Landed in Newport and placed under the direction of Chevalier Edouard de Maulévrier, commander of the corvette La Guêpe, the squadron’s printing press published eight issues of the Gazette Françoise between 1780 and 1781, intended to boost troop morale. This very first magazine was undoubtedly the first newspaper published by a French expeditionary force on campaign. It is, in a way, the ancestor of Cols bleus.
A Navy to be rebuilt
When the French Committee for National Liberation appointed Louis Jacquinot Minister of the Navy in November 1943, he faced many challenges. He had to amalgamate(2) two types of sailors, those from the Free French Naval Forces (FNFL) and those from the Vichy Navy. Two navies that had been at war since 1940. While the goal for all was to defeat Nazi Germany, enmities persisted. The minister’s goal was to unite the crews. One solution was to create a newspaper that could speak with a single voice for all sailors, thus working towards cohesion. But at the end of 1944, resources were lacking. The minister called on one of his friends, Paul-Jean Lucas, to implement this idea. This newspaper would have to be self-financing, which would give its editor-in-chief a certain editorial freedom, with the Navy retaining a right of oversight over publications. On February 23, 1945, the first issue of Cols bleus was published.
Heroic beginnings
The first issues of this weekly will relate the end of the Second World War. Paul-Jean Lucas, for example, covers in the issue of May 11, 1945, the fighting during the reduction of the Royan pocket and joins the marine fusiliers tasked with landing on Oléron. ” I have the honor of having been allowed to embark with the first assault waves […] The speed increases, the small boat seems to race towards the dark line of the shore. Then it suddenly slows down, the shock of running aground. […] The men rush out, jump into the water up to their knees, stumble a little; some fall and get up dripping.
We find our feet and follow our leader into the breaking dawn. The surprise effect on this corner of the beach was total. The Germans were probably waiting for us elsewhere… ” He will also go to the Pacific on the Richelieu, to cover operations against Japan. At that time, Cols bleus chronicled life in the Navy units. It also became, through its classified ads, an indispensable tool for sailors: ” We are looking for Daussy Robert, a sailor engineer on the Jean Bart. Left this ship to join the Free French Forces. Last news received at the end of September 1942. Send information to Dekindt Pierre, sailor gunner ” (CB No. 28 of 08/31/1945). The magazine also covered operations in Indochina and Algeria. Even though he submitted his articles to the Navy authorities, Paul-Jean Lucas maintained a great deal of freedom of tone. In 1958, while the Fourth Republic was undermined by ministerial instability and the Algerian crisis, Cols bleus headlined the front page of issue 551: ” Eighteen years after the appeal of June 18, 1940, it is France that is calling on General De Gaulle today .” Upon Paul-Jean Lucas’s death, Claude Chambard took over his duties. He maintained the same outspoken approach, particularly in reporting on the fighting in the Algerian War. It wasn’t until his departure that the French Navy took over Cols Bleus. The magazine was placed under the authority of the French Army Information and Public Relations Service (SIRPA) in 1972.
Both in substance and in form
In its first editorial, Cols bleus stated that its objective was to ” provide sailors with reading material specially selected for them and to keep the public informed about the life of our French Navy .” The objective has not changed. Obviously, the magazine is no longer the only source of information for sailors, but it retains the objective of making them proud of their work tool. Cols bleus is also sent to parliamentarians, ministries, town halls, schools and universities, the media, etc. In this respect, it still fulfills the objective of keeping the public informed about the life of the Navy.
Originally a daily newspaper, Cols bleus adopted that of a magazine, with a colorized cover from 1968 onward. In 1973, the layout evolved: its cover now featured a square insert where the O of Cols bleus took the form of a tarpaulin. It remained there until the summer of 2000. In 2014, the layout underwent the final change and it became a monthly publication. Since then, it has no longer been sold at newsstands, remaining accessible on the website colsbleus.fr, which also offers other content. Over the past ten years, the layout has evolved only slightly, until this issue, which celebrates the magazine’s 80th anniversary and presents its readers with a new format.
Paul-Jean Lucas, founder of Cols bleus
Born in Paris on February 17, 1893, and coming from a family of artists, Paul-Jean Lucas began his career as a journalist in 1912 at the daily newspaper Gil Blas; recalled to the colors in 1914, he was not demobilized until 1919. He returned from the war with a wound, a citation and the Croix de Guerre. He continued his career as a journalist in various newspapers and was editor-in-chief of the Quotidien from 1932 to 1936. Elected mayor of Croissy-sur-Seine (78) in March 1939, he remained there until August 1944. During the war, he was also part of the F2 resistance network. Called upon at the end of 1944 by the Minister of the Navy to create and take over the leadership of Cols bleus, he remained there until his death in December 1961.