Date of birth:

March 26th, 1925 (Sombernon, France)

Date of death:

March 5th, 2017 (Saint-Mandé, France)

Nationality:

French

At the start of the occupation, he was a student at a vocational school in Suresnes. Very quickly, at the beginning of 1941, at the age of 15, he joined the resistance just like his older brother, Jean Cortot.

Having come into contact with the Special Organization (SO) of the Communist Party, he manifests his desire to participate in direct action; he began by collecting weapons, cutting telephone lines and distributing leaflets. At the same time, he had to give up his studies in the middle of his third year at the Ecole supérieure de Suresnes and became a fitter.

It is in the factory where he works that he makes the bombs that he will use on his missions.

Louis Cortot brilliantly succeeds in numerous operations; He and his group thus caused the derailment of a train of tanks from Renault factories, rendered a circuit breaker transformer unusable in Issy-les-Moulineaux in May 1942 and participated in the grenade of a convoy of Hitler youth in Trappes.

In July 1942, within the Francs-Tireurs et Partisans (FTP), his group blew up the office of the Rassemblement national populaire (RNP) in Boulogne-Billancourt, then destroyed with explosives the hiring office of French workers volunteers to the work in Courbevoie in Germany.

In December 1942, he took part in the bombing of the Gestapo house rue de Bussy in Paris. In January 1943, he became group leader and in November 1943 took part in the sabotage of the Issy les Moulineaux power station.

In January 1944, under the orders of his brother Jean (alias Captain Buick), Louis Cortot joined the FTP of Seine-et-Marne to participate in the establishment of a maquis in Saint-Mammès. In May, June and July, he took part in attacks by German convoys in Seine-et-Marne. From May 1944, appointed aspirant and commander of three groups of 15 men, he was also responsible for liaison between the staff of the French Interior Forces (FFI) of Seine-et-Marne and that of Paris.

On August 26, 1944, he was very seriously wounded in the face at Lieusaint in Seine-et-Marne, by shrapnel from explosive bullets, during the fighting for liberation, showing, despite this, proof of great courage and coolness by accepting only on formal order to join a health post.

On November 11, 1944, he was decorated with the Cross of the Liberation by General de Gaulle at the Arc de Triomphe.

After his convalescence, he was responsible for the Seine-et-Oise for the patriotic militias and the Republican Civic Guard. He is notably in charge of examining cases for the judgment of employees of the department.

A reserve midshipman at the end of the war, he returned to civilian life first as a fitter, then in the aeronautical branch with Dassault in 1947, where he then spent his entire career.

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• - Louis CORTOT | L'Ordre de la Libération et son Musée