Date of birth:

December 12th, 1901 (Nancy, France)

Date of death:

February 3rd, 1951 (Mount Cameroon, Cameroon)

Nationality:

French

In the summer of 1940, he was in the forefront of those who refused to surrender. Sacrificing his situation, he did not hesitate for a second, at the age of thirty-nine, to join the Cameroon Legion which left to campaign in Gabon.

It was with the 13th Demi-brigade of the Foreign Legion (13th DBLE), alongside which he had been in Gabon, that he then served as a private.

Assigned to the Heavy Company n ° 3 (CL 3) then to the CL 2, he distinguished himself in combat in Eritrea in March and April 1941, in Keren and Massaoua, then in Syria in June 1941.

On June 3, 1942, during an aircraft bombardment at Bir-Hakeim during the Libyan campaign, he was injured in the arm and refused to be evacuated.

On June 8, during a violent tank attack supported by artillery, having received numerous shrapnel of 155 in the circular of his piece injuring his hand, he continued to serve his piece after being shot. a tourniquet, destroying two tanks which threatened to enter the position. On the night of June 10 to 11, when leaving the position, trying to cross on foot a barrage of automatic weapons, he was injured a third time in both legs.

Promoted to corporal, his particularly brilliant conduct earned him the Liberation Cross from the very hands of General de Gaulle, at the Sofar convalescence center in Syria.

After a convalescence in Cameroon, he went to London where he claimed the honor of being parachuted in France in the first days of the operations for the liberation of the Territory. André Dammann was promoted adjutant in February 1944 and then second lieutenant the following April.

Assigned to the Central Bureau of Intelligence and Action (BCRA), he was given the task of liaising with the men of the Savoy maquis, who for a long time had already denied the Germans access to their mountains. Parachuted in July 1944, Lieutenant Dammann took part in their action. The liberation of the region accomplished, he took part in the reformation of the 27th Battalion of Alpine Hunters (27th BCA) in October 1944.

From November 1944, he was actively involved in the Alpine campaign. After having participated in the cleaning of the Maurienne and Tarentaise rivers, the armistice found him at the Petit Saint-Bernard pass.

Returned to civilian life, reserve captain, he returned to Cameroon at the beginning of 1946 to undertake logging. He founded a home in November 1946 and became President of the U.F.A.C. for Cameroon.

André Dammann died in a plane crash on February 3, 1951 at Mount Cameroon near Douala. He is buried in Chelles in Seine-et-Marne.

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• - André DAMMANN | L'Ordre de la Libération et son Musée