Chevance-Bertin, Maurice

Date of birth:: March 6th, 1910 (Nanteuil-le-Haudouin, France)
Date of death:: June 17th, 1996 (Paris, Ve, France)
Nationality:: French

Biography

Maurice Chevance was born on March 6, 1910 in Nanteuil le Haudoin in the Oise. On October 15, 1929, anticipating the roll call, he enlisted in the army.

Serving in the Colonial Infantry, he was reserve second lieutenant on October 1, 1930, then active second lieutenant and lieutenant on October 1, 1933.

He was assigned successively to Algeria, Tunisia and Chad where he was surprised by the declaration of war in September 1939. Commander of a company of Senegalese riflemen of the 8th RTS during the campaign in France, Lieutenant Chevance performed at the time of the armistice a long retreat which led him to Rivesaltes in the Pyrénées-Orientales.

From August 1940, Maurice Chevance, on armistice leave, was recruited by Henri Frenay who organized the first centers of resistance in the Marseille region. From September, with his wife Jeanine, he took an active part in the development of the National Liberation Movement (MLN) created by Frenay and in the distribution of the newspaper Les Petites Ailes in the south-eastern region, then of Vérités, organs of the MLN.

In the meantime, he set up a military and colonial agency in Marseille, a company intended to take charge of the luggage of soldiers and civilians in transit in Marseille. This small company allowed him to stay in touch with military and colonial circles and to carry out anti-German propaganda. It quickly becomes a pharmacy of the resistance.

In July 1941, Maurice Chevance attended the first meeting between Frenay and Jean Moulin in Marseille. He then participated in the creation of the "Combat" movement under the direction of Frenay. Member of the Steering Committee of the movement since its founding in December 1941, Maurice Chevance was then appointed director general of the movement for the southern zone.

In January 1942, he was arrested by the Vichy police and imprisoned in Lyon, then in Clermont-Ferrand where he met Emmanuel Mounier in particular. In March, he obtained, thanks to a doctor favorable to the resistance, his provisional release for health reasons.

Wanted again for administrative internment, he escaped another arrest on April 30, 1942. He was then sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison and a fine of 120,000 francs.

Despite the prosecution, Chevance, alias Bertin, continued his activities as a resistance fighter: he launched the intelligence service which then became the SR of the United Movements of Resistance (MUR) after the merger of "Combat", "Franc-Tireur" and "Release". He is appointed regional head of MUR for the South East.

On April 27, 1943, betrayed by his deputy and secretary Jean Multon, Bertin was arrested by the Gestapo at his home in Marseille. Jumping from the first floor, he manages to escape despite two broken legs with the help of a police officer. For several months, actively sought after, he took to the bush in the Alpes de Haute-Provence.

Arrived in Paris in October 1943, in the absence of Frenay remained in Algiers, he takes care of the direction of Combat with Claude Bourdet and Pierre de Bénouville, taking care more particularly of the military branch of the movement; he is a member of the steering committee of the MUR then of the MLN (National Liberation Movement) which succeeds him and of the Anti Deportation Committee (CAD).

In 1944, Bertin was in charge of the military action of the MURs and he was a member of the action committee (COMIDAC) for the southern zone. In Paris, he is particularly keen to bring the Organization of Armed Resistance (ORA) led by General Revers into the French Interior Forces (FFI). In April, passing through Spain, he went on a mission to Algiers where he presented his views concerning the FFI to General de Gaulle.

Returned to France in August 1944, Bertin headed, with Pierre de Bénouville, the FFI Office of the War Commission and was promoted to the rank of brigadier general.

He organized a provisional command of the FFI for the South-West and Center regions. He ensures the dispatch of four columns from these regions to Autun and Burgundy. He participated in the establishment of the command of the region of Royan, Pointe de Grave and La Rochelle. Until October 1944, he was in command of these various FFI troops after having accompanied General de Gaulle in his inspection of the southwest in September 1944.

In 1945, still passionate about overseas, he created the weekly Climats and was elected deputy to the 1st National Constituent Assembly then as representative of Guinea to the Assembly of the French Union under the UDSR.