Chambonnet, Albert

Date of birth:: October 4th, 1903 (Bessèges, France)
Date of death:: July 27th, 1944 (Lyon, France)
Nationality:: French

Biography

At the age of 18, in Nîmes, he enlisted in the army for 4 years. In 1924, he was a non-commissioned engineer in aviation, and instructor at the school of aviation mechanics in Nîmes, before leaving for the Levant in March 1924. There he took part in operations in the Djebel Druze in July. to October 1925, within the 2nd Group of Aeronautical Workers.

At the end of his engagement in 1926, he left the army and worked as a mechanic in a garage.

In 1930, Albert Chambonnet contracted a new commitment in the air force.

He passed the competitive examination for active officer cadets at Versailles and was appointed second lieutenant mechanic in 1933.

Promoted to the rank of lieutenant in October 1935, he was assigned a year later to the Tours air base. In 1937, he served in the Directorate of Military Air Equipment at the Air Ministry.

Promoted captain in March 1940, Albert Chambonnet was assigned to the Air Headquarters in May and suffered the debacle of June by withdrawing with the Amboise headquarters in Bordeaux then in Aulnat. Very quickly, he tried to group his comrades together to fight against the Germans and entered one of the first resistance movements, the Coq Enchaîné.

Assigned in March 1942 to the Bron air base, he joined, through Flight Lieutenant Claudius Billon, the Combat movement led by Henri Frenay. Chambonnet was then in charge of organizing resistance at the Bron base.

In July 1942, he was appointed regional chief of staff of the Secret Army (AS), under the pseudonym of Védrines, Captain Billon being appointed regional chief. From Bron, Chambonnet recruited supporters, organized groups of resistance fighters, first in the neighboring departments of the Rhône, then he extended his action to those of Ain, Jura, Haute-Savoie, Isère, Ardèche and Drôme. He undertook to coordinate the action of the resistance movements Combat, Liberation and Franc-Tireur, whose paramilitary groups formed the AS.

Placed on armistice leave at the end of November 1942, Captain Chambonnet who was appointed commander in January 1943, lieutenant-colonel in November 1943 and finally colonel in April 1944, therefore devoted himself exclusively to the resistance.

At the beginning of February 1943, Captain Billon was arrested by the Gestapo. He was replaced by Robert Ducasse, alias "Vergaville", who kept Chambonnet as Chief of Staff, then appointed him regional deputy head of the departments of Ain, Jura, Saône et Loire.

Wanted by the Lyon police, Chambonnet was forced to go into hiding between March and April 1943. In May, he participated in the creation of the MUR (United Movements of Resistance). It sets up services such as the Core of Public Administrations (NAP) and the Landing and Parachuting Section (SAP).

In October 1943, in Ain, Vergaville was arrested by the Gestapo. Chambonnet replaces him and under the pseudonym of Didier, becomes the regional head of AS. It organizes its services and appoints departmental heads. It creates a staff of five offices and reserves the direction of the fifth, which is responsible for immediate action. He also succeeded in integrating the troops of the Army Resistance Organization (ORA) into the AS.

It was also the era of the Compulsory Labor Service (STO) from which many young people, the refractory, sought to escape by swelling the ranks of the maquis. Chambonnet then worked to organize and develop relations between the regional maquis and the Secret Army which, at the end of October 1943, were merged into a single command.

Colonel Chambonnet then entered into liaison with the National Front and the Francs Tireurs et Partisans (FTP). On November 26, 1943, an agreement was signed with a view to carrying out joint actions. In January 1944, he was appointed regional chief of the French Interior Forces (FFI) for Region R1.

During the first five months of 1944, Didier continued his activities, he organized special insurrectionary troops (TSI) in the factories to which he provided the material means to fight.

But the noose tightens around Colonel Chambonnet, whose head is put at a price by the German police for the sum of one million francs. On June 8, 1944 he narrowly escaped arrest.

Two days later, Place des Terreaux in Lyon, he was arrested and handed over to the Gestapo. Interned in Montluc prison, he was tortured, did not speak and was sentenced to death. The Resistance tries to save him by sending an ultimatum to the head of the Gestapo. It seems then that his execution should be delayed, when on July 27, 1944, an attack took place in Place Bellecour against the Windmill cafe, frequented by the Germans.

The same day, he was chosen, along with Gilbert Dru, Francis Chirat, Léon Pfeiffer and René Bernard to be executed at the scene of the attack.