Chevignard, Bernard

Date of birth:: February 16th, 1913 (Le Havre, France)
Date of death:: March 15th, 1944 (Suresnes, France)
Nationality:: French

Biography

He then studied at Saint-Jean-de-Passy in Paris. After obtaining the first part of the baccalaureate, he anticipated the appeal in October 1933.

He then performs his military service with the 8th Dragon Regiment and follows the reserve NCO student platoon. Promoted to field marshal in April 1934, he ended his service with the 3rd Battalion of dragoons brought to Lunéville. Released in the fall of 1934, he became an employee in a transport company in Levallois-Perret then carried out various temporary jobs.

Bernard Chevignard was recalled at the end of August 1939, on the eve of the declaration of war, in the cavalry as housekeeper in the 73rd GRDI. Cited to the order of the Division during the campaign in France, he was taken prisoner around June 20 and was interned in Reims from where he managed to escape in September 1940.

Back in Paris, Bernard Chevignard smuggled into the free zone and was demobilized in October 1940. In December 1940, he volunteered to supervise the youth work camps and was sent to the National School for Youth Executives in Uriage in Isère, which quickly distinguished itself from Vichy's policy of collaboration, under the influence of Emmanuel Mounier and Hubert Beuve-Méry, among others.

But wishing to take concrete action, he left the Youth Workshops in September 1941 and returned to Paris where he found his family, as opposed to the occupation as he was.

Without being able to find a structure, he then engaged in "amateurish" sabotage against the German army.

In March 1943, Bernard Chevignard met Dr Wetterwald, founder with Dr Vic-Dupont of the "Turma-Vengeance" network. Dr. Wetterwald instructed him to constitute and train a special section, responsible for protecting the members of the movement and carrying out sabotage and attacks.

Deprived of means, he nevertheless managed to recruit, arm, dress an action group and then organize two sections by stealing from the Germans cars, gasoline, weapons, uniforms and papers during a succession of extremely risky operations that he leads personally.

In the provinces, in Nevers, Fourchambault and Evreux, where he made many trips, he set up action sections similar to his own.

He participated in particular, on June 16, 1943, in the execution of a sentry in the vicinity of the Chantilly viaduct where sabotage was being prepared and also finalized the destruction of the Paris-Brussels-Berlin telephone line.

In July 1943, his mother - who hosted an American aviator - was surprised at her Parisian home by the Germans in search of Bernard; Deported to Ravensbrück she died shortly after her return in 1945.

In Paris, with his young assistant Michel Pelletier, he made several explosions under the eyes of the Germans, like car thefts, on five occasions, rue Lauriston and avenue des Champs-Elysées in August 1943. Twice, he is pursued through Paris by the authorities who shoot without succeeding in reaching it.

In total, the special section of "Vengeance" successfully completed a hundred actions under his leadership.

On August 22, 1943, he was surprised at the Molitor swimming pool where he was trying to grab German uniforms. Bernard Chevignard manages to escape by passing through a bay window, but he is caught up in the street, under the eyes of his sister who was waiting for him with a bicycle.

Interned in the prison of Cherche-midi, he was handed over to the Germans in September 1943. Transferred to Fresnes, he was tortured several times.

On March 3, 1944, at the same time as his friend Michel Pelletier arrested in the provinces some time after him, and with three other comrades, Albert Koulmann, François Sachetti and André Tavernier, he was sentenced to death by a German military court, following of Koulmann's confession. On March 15, 1944, the five men were shot at Mont Valérien in Suresnes.

Bernard Chevignard was buried in the Ivry cemetery. In 1949, his body was transferred to the family vault in the Dijon cemetery.

In September 1944, his younger brother Alain was shot without cause by the routed Germans in the village of Charmes-sur-Moselle, in the Vosges.