Jules Roy; French Writer, Critic of France’s Military

Jules Roy, 92, author whose childhood in Algeria and British air force career inspired prize-winning fiction. Roy was a product of Roman Catholic schools and once considered the priesthood. But he instead chose a military career, joining the French infantry and later its air force. In 1940 he answered Gen. Charles de Gaulle’s call to resist the Nazis and joined a flying squadron based in England. Inspired by the 30 bombing missions he flew for Britain’s Royal Air Force over Nazi Germany during World War II, he depicted the ugliness of war--like “being in the wings of hell,” he wrote in “La Vallee Heureuse” (“The Contented Valley”). That work won the prestigious Renaudot literary prize in 1946. He quit the military in 1953 and was outspoken in his criticism of French military debacles, including the use of torture in Algeria during the Algerian War of Independence and the military defeat by the North Vietnamese at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. During his literary career he produced more than 60 works, and he was a lifelong friend of French writers Albert Camus and Antoine de Saint-Exupery. On Thursday at his home in Burgundy in France.