Prince Dimitri Zedginidze-Amilakhvari, more commonly known as Dimitri Amilakhvari (, ) (31 October 1906 – 24 October 1942) was a French military officer of noble Georgian descent and Lieutenant Colonel of the French Foreign Legion. Under the nickname "Bazorka", he became an iconic figure who played an influential role in the Free French Forces fight against the Nazis in World War II. Early life and career Amilakhvari was born in Bazorkino (now Chermen, North Ossetia–Alania, Russian Federation), where his family had moved from their ancestral estate at Gori, Georgia during the Russian Revolution of 1905. The house of Zedginidze-Amilakhvari had formerly served as hereditary Master of the Horse to the Georgian Crown (Amilakhvari) and retained their princely dignity during the Imperial Russian rule of Georgia. Dimitri's grandfather, Ivane Amilakhvari (1829–1905), was an eminent general in the Russian army. His father, Colonel Giorgi Zedginidze-Amilakhvari, also served in the Russian military and transferred his loyalty to the short-lived Democratic Republic of Georgia in 1918–1921. After the Russian SFSR occupied Georgia early in 1921, the family fled to Istanbul, Ottoman Empire, where Dimitri attended a local British School, and later, in 1922, emigrated to France. In 1924, Dimitri Amilakhvari entered the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr and was commissioned as a second lieutenant after his graduation in 1926. At the same time, he was posted to the French Foreign Legion and promoted to lieutenant in 1926. He later served in French North Africa and took part in all important operations in the south of Morocco from 1932 to 1933. From 1934 to 1939, he was Head of the French military school in Agadir, being promoted to captain in 1937. Following his naturalisation as a French citizen, he married another member of the exiled Georgian nobility, Princess Irina, née Dadiani (1904–1944) in August 1927. Note that during his French service, the spelling of his surname was modified, dropping the 'h'. By his wife, Amilakhvari had three children, sons Georges and Othar, and daughter Thamar Amilakhvar, all of whom married and had offspring. World War II During the "Phoney War" before the German occupation of France, Amilakhvari was serving in Algiers in North Africa, but in the spring of 1940 he joined the French expeditionary force earmarked for the Norwegian Campaign. He fought at Narvik and was then evacuated to the United Kingdom, where he joined the Free French Forces. He then took part in