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Pierre L. Metral
A former French Army officer with service also in the Legion Etrangere under the nom de guerre Massonier, Pierre was thirty years old, highly intelligent and well-educated. He was very much liked by all those who knew and served with him and his language skills ensured his fluency in Croatian after just three months. Pierre was the kind of man whose deeds could fill an entire book but suffice it to say he was brave, selfless and determined that the nation of Croatia should survive. During a large commando raid in November 1991 across the River Bosut at Njemci in eastern Croatia, the lives of two International Volunteers were saved by Pierre. During a savage battle against tanks and infantry, the two were covering the Croatian soldiersﾒ retreat; when it was their own turn they reached the river bank and ran along it to the boats, only to find the Croatians paddling furiously for the opposite bank and the last boat drifting, empty, downstream. Luckily Pierre realised that the two were not amongst the returning force and so he put down his rifle, stripped off his bulky camouflage jacket (pictured, above), clambered into a leaky boat and paddled once more back across the river in the teeth of ferocious enemy fire to see if his friends were still alive. Gratefully they clambered down the steep embankment and flung themselves into the boat. The Croatians had not waited to cover any of them across but ran straight for the shelter of some houses. It was a long trip back as bullets whizzed by, striking the water around them with a succession of sharp slaps. That night Pierre undoubtedly saved their lives. Typically, Pierre was probably the first International Volunteer to enter the conflict in Bosnia. At the end of April 1992, news reached the Croatian capital Zagreb that Pierre had been killed in a town named Tomislavgrad in south-western Bosnia. He was with another volunteer named Ken when a shell landed in the street next to them and Pierre was killed instantly. His body was removed to Split where a French priest with the UNPROFOR managed to contact Pierreﾒs family and arrange for his body to be brought home to France. An announcement was made in the Croatian national press by Pierreﾒs comrades in the Young Lions of Sesvetski-Kraljevac: ﾓIt is with deep pain that we call upon all the friends and others who knew him, the sad news that our foreign fighter Mr Pierre Massonier, Croatian Soldier, was tragically killed on the 23rd April 1992. He gave his life upon the altar of the Croatian nation. Rest in Godﾒs Peace.ﾔ In 1999 the veterans of Sesvetski Kraljevac succeeded in having a street in the town named after their French comrade, ulica LAURENTA METRALA PIERREA.
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