Date of birth:

January 5th, 1906 (Roanne, France)

Date of death:

November 8th, 1973 (Troyes, France)

Nationality:

French

Mobilized as a reserve officer in August 1939 with the 216th Artillery Regiment in Clermont-Ferrand, he took part in the 1940 campaign in Lorraine, Belgium and Holland.

Taken prisoner in Lille, he escaped in difficult conditions and reached London on July 31, 1940. He immediately enlisted in the Free French Forces.

Liaison officer to the private staff of General de Gaulle from January 1941, he joined the staff of the 2nd Bureau (secret services) on April 1, 1941. Promoted to captain, he was assigned as an intelligence officer, Head of the 2nd Bureau, at the Pacific High Commission to Captain Thierry d'Argenlieu and arrived in Nouméa in August 1941.

In June 1943, at the end of the Argenlieu mission, he returned to Great Britain and was assigned to the Central Bureau of Intelligence and Action (BCRA). He then volunteered for a mission in enemy occupied territory.

During his parachute drop on January 29, 1944 near Limoges, he broke his ankle.

Regional military delegate for the R5 region which includes the departments of Corrèze, Indre, Haute-Vienne and Dordogne, under the name of Ellipse, he plays an important role with the Limousin maquis led by Georges Guenguin.

In a situation made difficult by the multiplicity of resistance movements, he undertook to organize, by unifying them, all the elements and units of the military resistance. He also ensures the establishment and execution of all plans for D-Day. From June 6, he tirelessly travels the region, ensuring through his contacts an effective unity of command and the organization of a state. -Regional major.

He actively participates in the liberation of the main towns in the region for which he is responsible. During the campaign of repression undertaken by a German column in the department of Creuse between July 14 and 23, 1944, he personally went to the scene and succeeded, in the worst conditions, in regrouping the FFI and preparing them for the next fights.

After having been part of the Chaban-Delmas Mission, he was demobilized in 1946 with the rank of honorary lieutenant-colonel.

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• - Eugène DÉCHELETTE | L'Ordre de la Libération et son Musée