Bertheau, Louis Eugene Desire

Date of birth:: November 18th, 1919 (Olivet/Loiret, France)
Date of death:: May 1945 (KZ Sandbostel)
Service number:: 329598
Nationality:: French

Biography

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Mentioned in Dispatches

Period:: Second World War (1939-1945)
Rank:: Acting Second-Lieutenant
Unit:: F Section, Special Operations Executive (SOE), British Government
Awarded on:: June 6th, 1946

Citation:
"Early in 1944, Lieut BERTHEAU was recruited by a British organiser in the CORREZE to act as a wireless operator.

BERTHEAU was a most devoted and hard working officer. After only one month of training, he operated entirely on his own and maintained all wireless contacts with LONDON. He frequently worked for nineteen hours without a break. With utter disregard for his own safety, he continued to transmit from his own house whenver urgent messages had to be sent, even after he had been warned that his house was very dangerous to work from. In April 1944, he was arrested and taken to a prison camp, where he died in May 1945.

For his devoted services to his British organiser, his brave conduct without thought of self and his unremitting toil, it is recommended that he be awarded a Mention in Despatches (Posthumous).

Signed
Colin Gubbins
Major-General
7th Jan '46