Rivière, Paul Claude Marie

Date of birth:: November 22nd, 1912 (Montagny/Loire, France)
Date of death:: December 15th, 1998 (Bron/Rhône, France)
Nationality:: French

Biography

In 1939, he was called up as an instructor for Cadets de Saumur. He was injured during the fighting for Pont de Gennes, then demobilised and returned to his position as literatur professor in the Saint-Joseph Jesuit Day School in Lyon.

In late February 1941, Father Chaillet, Jesuit in Lyon, put him in touch with Henri Frenay and Berty Albrecht and he became involved with the French resistance.

In early 1942, he abandoned propaganda for action and became liaison officer for Jean Moulin, General Charles de Gaulle's representative in France and the leader of the internal Resistance.

After a first airdrop, he was arrested and detained four months by Vichy France police. Upon his release, he continued his mission clandestinely until the end of War. With Mouvements unis de la Résistance (MUR), he was deeply involved in the organization of the radio transmission services and covert air operations for Southern France.

After the Jean Moulin arrest in Caluire, he was ordered by the Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action to reorganize the Landing-Airdrop Section (in French "Section Atterrissages-Parachutages" or SAP).

He controlled SAP until the end of War and was Head of Operations for the Rhône-Alpes Region where he organized the most important covert landing and airdrop operations : several hundred of tons of weapons and equipment and millions of French francs were so routed to the French resistance.

He also organized the transfer of numerous personalities and agents between France and London: General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, Vincent Auriol, Emmanuel d'Astier de la Vigerie, Jacques Chaban-Delmas, Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury, François de Menthon, Henri Frenay, Daniel Mayer, Christian Pineau, Lucie and Raymond Aubrac.
After the war

He joined the military service in 1947 with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He was Inspector General of the French Armed Forces, then he was sent to Indochina for two years in 1953, to Konstanz in Germany in 1955 then in Algeria in 1956.

From December 1956 to 1959, he was Military Attache in Tokyo, then security adviser in Algeria until Évian Accords.

From November 1962 until 1978, he was member of the National Assembly, deputy of the Loire department from 1962 to 1978 and mayor of Montagny, Loire until 1983. During the same period, he sat on the Council of Europe.

He died on 16 December 1998 in Lyon and was buried in Montagny.

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Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)

Period:: Second World War (1939-1945)
Rank:: Lieutenant-Colonel
Unit:: Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action, Régime Républicain de Résistance Gouvernement en exil

This officer, after four years of continuous work with the Resistance air operations organisation in the LYONS area of FRANCE, (for which he received a British award), returned to the U.K. by a pick-up operation of his own org?ing on 3rd May 1944 to clear up certain outstanding problems, and to prepare the further development of the considerable organisation which he had built up.

Lt. Colonel RIVIERE returned to the field by parachute operation on 7th June 1944 and, after a brush with the enemy, who attacked them on landing, he and his companions managed to disengage with most om their material.

Lt. Colonel RIVIERE had been instructed to co-ordinate parachute and landing operations over the whole of the southern zone of FRANCE. This he did with great success, bringing into line and using to the best advantage the operations laid on from ENGLAND ....? .......? ....? through various organisers and missions. To complete this task he had to travel all over the area between Toulouse and Bordeaux, the Pyrenees and Mediterranean, by car, train and bicycle, when the country was in a state of open insurrections and guerilla actions were taking place along most of the roads. His journeys were the more dangerous as he put them into immediate practical advantage by carrying arms, money, wireless equipment and other material to points were they were needed. His astonishing coolness and courage invariably carried him through the controls.

Perhaps no other organiser in FRANCE was of greater help to his British colleagues in the Field, notably to two of the earliest inter-allied missions, one in the LYON area the other in the CANTAL area. He assisted in the organising of their operations and with transport and liason services and in the distribution of arms and material parachuted to the ...?.
Between March and the end of August, 1944 some 160 parachute operations took place in the region of which he had control as against 35 in the eight previous months. In the whole of the southern zone, where Lt. Colonel RIVIERE was responsible for the organization, and which .....? approximately 600 grounds, some 270 dropping operations took place between March and August, 1944. Many operations comprising up to 12 aircraft loads took place before D-Day and up to 72 loads in the daylight operations after D-Day.

For his loyal and devoted services in the Allied Cause, it is recommended that Lieutenant-Colonel RIVIERE be appointed an Officer (Honorary) in the Order of the British Empire (Military Division)."