mis à jour / updated :

Jacqueline Alexandre who worked in the Civil service in Saint Quentin during the occupation, started in the Resistance with her cousins and the F.F. of Fonsomme, a small town in the Aisne. She was taking care of liaison missions, taking part in the distribution of clandestine tracts and newspapers, and making forged coal distribution vouchers to the benefit of the French. Admitted in the SNCF in Hirson in December 1943, while she had just turned twenty, she found herself in a particularly active environment as regards the resistance, and was able to continue her clandestine action. If the railwaymen were the first to join the fight, it is for a very simple reason. Right after the signature of the Armistice they are faced with the problem of runaway prisoners, then to the problem posed by the flight of the political refugees, of the Jews, then of the allied pilots brought down by the DA. They realise that because of the war indemnity levied against France, the country is drained of its substance. They see freight wagons of coal sent to the German steel industry. They see freight wagons of potatoes and of all sorts of supplies leave for Germany, the factories are looted of their best machine-tools, their locomotives going towards the great Reich. So they are among the first to stand up against the looting from the occupying forces. They divert freight wagons of supplies and goods, and it is in this occasion that on the 3rd of august 1940, I repeat the 3rd of august 1940, the first death sentence against a assistant station master by the Kommandantur in Poitiers. When Jacqueline Alexandre gets into Hirson, she is immediately contacted by representatives of the Front National. Her new job as a telephonist gives her the opportunity especially to know the messages exchanged regarding the movements of the troops, the garages where the goods and ammunition trains are gathered, the places where the trains meant to carry the troops are assembled. Those informations rapidly processed helped produce very destructive bombardments. In that respect, I would like to remind the readers of the spirit of sacrifice it took to the railwaymen to call upon their work place the fire from the sky, and very often upon their residence, for many of them lived within the walls of the railways equipments, whether it was in the stations or in the locomotive garages. Thousands of them died under the bombs of the Moskitos, of the Flying Fortress, or under the fire of the 20mm guns of the Lightning aeroplanes. I do not regard it as an offence to the French people bring back to mind the fact that at the time very few willingly took the same risks and showed the same courage. So, here we see our friend Jacqueline involved again in the clandestine fight. A traitor though Winkenden, born from a English father and a French mother but supported the victory of Germany had managed to slip into the Resistance. After the bombing of a train of ammunitions and of the bar at the Hirson station in which all of the German high commandment was exterminated, this bombardment was followed eight days later by the bombing of the Aulnoye station, Winkenden gave up to Captain Baucklock of the St Quentin Gestapo and had the following people arrested on the 17th of April, Jacqueline Alexandre, Robert Leroy, Jean Lechat, Moïse Cavillon. Our friend was reproached with the fact of being the origin of the disastrous bombing of Hirson and Aulnoye. Captain Baucklock promised to her that she would be free if she gives up the names of her accomplices and indicates the location of the radio transmitter, this location she does not know anyway. Eventually she is sentenced to death. The landing of the 6 th of June was to avoid her the firing squad. Taken with a convoy of trucks, she got locked in the Fort de Romainville, afterwards she got to know Neu-Bremm, Ravensbrück, then the disciplinary commandos of Neubrandenburg, those dreadful places where, as Malraux put it, for the first time man taught lessons to Hell. Affected by typhus and gangrene on her right hand she got sent to the "Revier" on the 27 th of march 1945. On the 27th of April at daybreak all the deportees including the sick were led kicked with the butts of the guns on the place of call. Afterwards our friend, in a state that words cannot describe, and that those who have not known the universe of concentration camps cannot imagine, found herself in a column bound for an unknown destination, upheld, almost carried by Simone, a companion of misery that she had met at the prison of Saint Quentin. This column was progressing with difficulty in the midst of a distraught crowd made up of civilians and soldiers who were fleeing in front of the Russian onslaught. The Oberaufseherin who was the only one of the wardens to have kept her uniform would shoot down the poor souls who could not go any further. After nightfall Simone and Jacqueline going gradually backward, had reached the end of the queue. They took advantage of a jam and of the absence if the Ober who had gone up to the middle of the column, Simone pushed our friend in a ditch and lay down on her. Then as the column had moved away from them for the night, they could get to a hay stack which was already heavily populated, and in the morning they got to a pigsty and a farm where many Russians women were already present. It is from this place that two days later, on the 29 ht of April they saw the arrival of the Russian troops, but as they could not walk, they had to wait for some help. On the 2nd of may a group of a dozen war prisoners that had got hold of a small cart drawn by two oxen got to the farm. As they were afraid of contagion, they only asked Simone if she wanted to come along with them. She refused. This group[ therefore continued its way after leaving some supplies. the younger one named Thirion, managed to persuade his companions to save those two forlorn French girls, one of whom was doomed to certain death. One hour later this strange carriage came back, fitted with a mattress, it served as an ambulance, and the hope of surviving was again possible. On the 25 th of October 1947, young Thirion married Mademoiselle Jacqueline Alexandre. Despite the continuous medical treatment, our friend never recovered her health, and war marked its passage. Her comrades from the French Forces died in deportation, one of her cousin died at the age of 20, during the liberation of St Quentin; the second one who had joined the Resistance movement at the age of 15 had enlisted for the whole duration of the war. He got killed in Indochina. Despite her courage, and her will power to go forward, she cannot carry on normally with her work, and on the 12 th of February 1959, the medical service of the SNCF take the decision of discharging her stressing with caution: "discharged because of disabilities not resulting from the practise of her work". Jacqueline Thirion, corporal of the Resistance Intérieure Française, is awarded the Croix de Guerre with palms of the Médaille Militaire. Nominated Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur in June 1960, she is promoted to the rank of officer by decree on the 9 th of November 1983. Her rank as a corporal and the 23 years that went by between her nomination as chevalier and that of officer of the legion of honour, shows to those who could still be in doubt, that there were not just high ranking colonels in the Resistance, and that she is not amongst those who easily got a promotion in our most prestigious order. My dear Jacqueline, you have again gone through long and painful treatments. You did it with you usual determination and your extraordinary will power. Since you came back from the death camps, and despite your poor health, you have always been active in the various associations of war veterans, Croix de Guerre, Médailles Militaires, Décorés de la Légion d'Honneur. You have shown through your relentless activity at the service of those associations that you realised that those who had received such prestigious decorations as the Légion d'Honneur had as their duty to amplify the capital of heroism that it has represented since its foundation. Your promotion to the rank of officer gives you a new authority, which will be badly put to the test in those days of incivism. As time goes on and as the witnesses of our struggle disappear, the Resistants are more and more often faced with attacks which were covered at the beginning and are now fully expressed. To those who unduly claim the title of deportee, they must endlessly be reminded of those verse from Vercors. The day When the people Understand who you were They will bite the dust Out of sadness and remorse They will water it With their tears And they will erect Temples for you. Unfortunately, it does not seem that this day has come about yet. On the contrary we see despicable beings like Coluche, Balavoine, Maitre Verges having a wide access to an unscrupulous television to insult the widows the Veterans and the Resistants. We also see some people reproaching us with the fact of having taken the arms against the legal country led by the Maréchal Pétain, head of the French state. But, when those censors were mobilised after the landing of the allied troops in north Africa, the Maréchal Pétain was still head of the French State as far as I know. So where was the difference with us ? I can see one : At the beginning of the occupation, It is in complete isolation in the solitude of our conscience that we took the arms against the enemy, and this against any apparent reason, and even against the general feeling. It took a certain courage to do that ! Our fight which contributed more particularly to the success of the landing has been acknowledged by the high French and allied military authorities, and a thousand and six hundreds of our companions were decorated for war deeds right after the liberation : 4 had the Cravate de Commadeur de la Légion d'Honneur. 36 had the Rosette d'Officier. 127 had the Croix de Chevalier. 102 had the Médaille Militaire 550 had the Croix de Guerre. 750 had the Médaille de la Résistance 100 had the Rosette de la Résistance. General de Gaulle who was not prodigious when grating distinctions, nominated our organisation to the Order of the Army, and awarded us the Croix de Guerre with palms. General Koenig whose victory in Bir Hakeim prompted General De Gaulle to say :"When in Bir Hakeim a beam of reviving glory came to flatter the bloody brow of our soldiers, the world recognised France", General Koening I was saying decorated our flag with the medal of the Resistance with a Rosette. Despite those distinctions the Resistant railwaymen, did not lose their modesty, and after the war they simply went back to their work with courage to mend a badly damaged network. Do I have to remind you that on the 6th of June 1944, after the sabotages and the bombardment, the destruction was already affecting : 10143 steam engines. 124 electrical locomotives. 198286 carriages. 2412 bridges. 43 tunnels. We have not taken advantage of our fight to demand undeserved ranks. I have looked again at the files of our comrades, and I have noted about : 80% of private second class. 12% of corporal. Some petty officers. 6% of second lieutenant, mainly among deportees. As for those with a higher rank than second lieutenant, they are most of the time, engineers, officers of the reserve mobilised in 1939, with the rank of lieutenant or captain. So we can proclaim high and loud that we have had a responsible behaviour, after the war as well as during the fighting. As I was saying earlier on my dear Jacqueline, your promotion gives you a new authority to defender specificity, and the memory of our fallen brethren. 1156 Dead without sepulture in the camps out of 2480 victims of the concentration camps. 554 shot down, and 45 dead in the prisons under torture. As a conclusion I would simply say that in Resistance-Fer we have keep on worshipping memory, and our social activity is exemplar. We are proud to have you as our companion of fight, and we proclaim high and loud that you do deserve this Croix d'Officier de la Légion d'Honneur.

War has been an extraordinary revealing factor of the value of women, already during World War I, they bore all the load behind the lines of the social and economical life of the country, replacing in all domains the men that had been mobilised. From 1940 to 1945, they fought the fights of the Resistance, just like the men did, they suffered in the camps, just like them and displayed a good deal of energy. As well ass getting rid of the obstinate enemy, they also got rid of the preponderance of men, of the fetters of a society made up by and for men. They finally earned the right to access not only the virtues that Gide used to call "privatives" dedication, submission, faithfulness), but also the virtues called "affirmatives". In this modest account that suggests more than it states, Jacqueline Alexandre - Thirion summarises all the sufferings endured by women whose faith in a better future and whose courage compel respect and prompts us to humility.

The various stage of the life of Louis Bellot take us through striking contrast, from the difficult times of the beginning of the century, to his happy retirement at the age of 86. This testimony hinges around four parts, each corresponding to a period. The childhood, up to the age of 13, this is when Louis Bellot is placed by the Child Welfare in a poor family in Lorraine, he lives happily with those nice people who greeted him and that despite their poverty. The affection that this family will give him will compensate for the lack of material goods. The adolescence, from the age of 13 up to his military service, this is no doubt the most difficult part of his life, as he is placed in a farm and exploited by unscrupulous people, young Louis is assigned the most painful and dirtiest tasks, from 4 in the morning until 9 in the evening, that is 17 hours in a row each day, six days a week. He goes through his war, in a funny way, without ever fighting, but going back to farm work first of all, abandoning the fight without having even known it, submitted to the law of the winner in the Kommandos in Austria, escaping shortly before the end of the war with an incredibly easy and simple way. The fourth and last period of his life, as the author does not say anything about his 25 years or so of active life that followed the war, is that of a happy and peaceful retirement, so different from a miserable youth. The simplicity of the tone, the style fresh and natural convey to this plain testimony, its sincerity and authenticity, its true human dimension.

First of all, I would like to thank you very much for entrusting me with your manuscript as a first reader, and to tell you how much pleasure I took in following your progression "In the light of the war". Obviously I do not claim to be act as an experience critic, this task behoves to the professional of literature, But I would simply say to you my feelings as a contemporary of that period you are describing and which goes from World War I to our present days. First of all, it is quite true, as you firmly pointed out that the men from our generation have been deeply marked. - By the education they received within their family, showing day after day the example of courage, of tenacity in a difficult context to live in. - By the training to the sense of duty and discipline given by the school masters, the priests taken over the parental authority. - By the accounts of our kins who had directly taken part in the first world war, still so present in the hearts of those, who as you are, were orphans of the war. In fact, we can think that it is all that, as early as 1932, while you are only getting towards 18 years of age, that prompts you to do your military preparation, and to contemplate with enthusiasm to do your duty as a patriot, if as you seem to anticipate, the clouds that are looming in the sky of Europe with the rise of Hitler to power were to lead to a new confrontation between France and Germany. The dillusion and the bitterness will be all the greater after the disaster of 1940, and the judgement you will pass on our political leaders and on the high commandment will be all the more severe as you will have the feeling of having accomplished your duty as second-officer in the ranks of the 322th RATT, linked to the 4th D.R. which became illustrious in Montcornet among others and in front of Abbeville, under the orders of General De Gaulle, future deliverer of our country. Secondly, on the background of war events that have gone virtually uninterrupted in the world since your early childhood, I have particularly enjoyed the passages dealing with: - The daily life of the families of the countrymen of our region, and also of Périgord, that you discovered after the armistice. - The reactions always struck with the common sense which are yours faced with decisions or the positions taken by the civilians or military authorities, more particularly during the occupation period and during the liberation. - The feelings that animate you during your relations with your peers and your subordinates, thus showing your sense of humanity and your interest for the traditional values of our civilisation. Eventually, we can say that all that contributes to make of your account, which is akin to a diary of march, a work all the more gripping as it is pervaded by a great touch of sensitivity, by a great filial piety, and it sets forward the basic qualities of our race, qualities that were inherited by generations of men and women deeply attached to their traditions and their land. Nowadays, more than never before perhaps, our young people need such examples of courage and willpower, of tenacity, going beyond oneself in the critical moments, and I think they expect us to show them the way to follow, reminding them that nothing strong can be built without pains, without perseverance, nor faith in the future. This is the message, that no doubt, you have tried to convey by relating, through the various conflicts that unfortunately continuously have shaken the world since World War I, your itinerary marked by many adventures, some tragically, some happy, at times funny, but always tending towards a deep love of the land and of men, implying the love of peace through that of the fatherland. This constitutes in my opinion a vibrating message of hope which cannot fail to move all those who like us already have accomplished a great part of their way, and all those who having the future in front of them, are still looking for a meaning to their life. Thanks again for this beatiful "present".

Born with the war, Victor Debuiche, has been marked by war right from his birth, a war orphan at one year old, he will never know his father, taken away too soon to the affection of his loved ones. His story begins in 1914 and unfolds with the history of the old continent in the turmoil of the two world wars and of so many local conflicts. An autobiography and an historic epic, this testimony goes well beyond the strict boundaries life of the author, to widely encompass the events of the XXth century. At the same time it shows a living, rich and true picture of French rural society of the first half of this century, and more precisely of the northern regions of France. War, "his" war, Victor Debuiche describes it without complacency, like a visionary and with an instinct which enables him to detect danger, and to anticipate the events, to save his life, and that of his companions of fight in several occasions. The author leaves behind him the impression of a honest man, a staunch patriot who accomplished his duty thoroughly and yearns for himself and his loved ones for a world of concord and peace which he has grown to love after those years of war.

Giving up to friendly requests from our president, Mr Michel El Baze, and to the wish expressed several times by my beloved wife on her death bed. I finally set up my mind to give a follow up to the first volume "Le sang des Garrigues", it is "Faire Face Pour l'Honneur", some memories from the fighters of darkness, not so much to glorify our actions during the fighting as to pay a last tribute to all those men and women who have made it possible through their benevolent help, but very risky that the fight against the Nazi occupier and the Italian fascist be careered out by the secret army until the victorious outcome: the liberation of the plot of the national territory over which we were fighting. Therefore, I want this tribute to be preceded by a testimony of patriotism that I dedicate to a family of nice people among many others : the family of my spouse, then living in the Northern zone of France, so called "occupied" as though the Southern zone was free ! in that zone the Resistance movement took a different form due to the direct submission to the Nazi power, without the docile work of the Vichy government, without the excuse of the prestige of the former victor of Verdun, Maréchal Pétain. It was a spontaneous, natural, almost built in resistance in which everybody was doing its utmost to be creative to claim its love for France. If the networks became more important than the Maquis groups it is because the climate, the configuration of the land, the continuous control of the Nazi occupier made such tasks as the search for informations, the help for the pursued runaway, the individual action, easier than the armed fights of the army of darkness. The Conseiller General and Mayor of Forcalquier Mr Delmar and Mr Roux the president of the patriotic association were not mistaken in any way, when they entrusted my wife with the honour of laying the wreath of the Resistance during the commemoration of the liberation of the town on the l9th of august 1987. This family, therefore, the Villiards, of Champagne origin through the father, and from Brittany through the mother, named Couadou, were spared from nothing during the war: the recurring alerts, the bombardments, the searches, the hostages, the rationing and its endless queues, death, cold, hunger, fear, misery. The father, a courageous veteran from World War I, former zouave who had beforehand walked across the whole Maghreb, from Bizerte to Casablanca during its six or seven years of military service, as it was the rule at that time, was remobilised in 1939, then went back top civilian life after the armistice, he worked as a lumber man in the outskirts of Paris, and during this job it seemed natural to him to get the hell out of the Germans. by helping some wanted runaways, with whom he would share his humble meal, to hide in their wooden cabins. His spouse used to find none the less natural to hide in their cellar an allied airman whose plane had been brought down by the Anti Aircraft defence, a runaway network agent, a hunted Jew, taking way from his meagre portion, and to a lesser extent from that of his two children a little bite in order to stave off the hunger of the runaway. As to his wife who was ten years old in 1944, but seemed to be fifteen, she had the misfortune to be tall, beautiful, blonde with blue eyes... How many times did she have to repeal the appeals from a German recruiting lady who was luring with sweets the young girls with an Aryan type to get into her cart, because they had to feed the future harem of the Nazis, beautiful like living gods, in order to recreate this pure race the Führer was dreaming about. The girls who accepted to get into that cart were never seen again. If I have found it important to pay this tribute to a simple family from France, it is because I imagine that the students, the researchers, the historians, who will dig into the collective memory collected by the Croix de Guerre, will not have present in their minds the informations about the atmosphere that was prevailing during the dark years. Then without the understanding of this atmosphere they would run the risk of leaving aside the historical truth that their research was precisely meant to dig out. And as this truth did not have the same ring in the North and south of the Loire valley while it was the same France cut into two parts since thousands of years by this old river, it will behove to the researchers to refer continuously to the particular mentality of the people from the land who gave birth to the Resistance movement that they will have to study. Because the key word of the love of France, it is the land. This love deeply rooted in the conscience of the French people is not incompatible, this people proved it and proves it every day, with the love born to the other people on earth, without any distinction of race, religion, ideology, in the same way it is useless to oppose republic and monarchy since the present world situation shows us that there exist at the same time democratic monarchies, and totalitarian republics, the only country where the people actually rule is Switzerland, likewise it is useless to oppose Nationalism and Internationalism. This leads in fine to erect more walls of shame of iron or bamboo curtains than to bring down walls of prisons of opinions or barbed wires from death camps. Do we remember the response that Joan of Arc made to one of her judges of her trial who was asking her if as a good Christian she like the English: - Yes, she replied, but in their own place ! We also worked for a European federation at a time when many of the present enthusiastic of a United Europe were still in their nappies, we also liked the Germans and the Italians but in their own place... or willing to fight, Nazism and Fascism with us or with our Spaniards and our poles... but not on our land as all mighty tyrant of occupations ! Not as absolute victors applying them and their accomplices, the old rule of Vae victis (curse be on the looser) who enabled them to strike to death at any moment any French person with or without torturing them beforehand, with or without deporting them eventually. I therefore take the liberty, still bearing in mind the hard task which is expecting the researchers, the historians, or the students yearning for authentic history to remind them of the conditions of life that were prevailing in France, in which the fear of Primum vivere was gripping each of us. The Primum vivere included first of all the fight against denutrition and cold : ...a few grams of a bread which only had a bit of wheat flour in it ...a few ounces of meat a week, but which meat. Some months a charity of fat... the voucher for tobacco did ensure a few cigarettes a day but was used most of the time as token money for a bit of food just as the vouchers for material which entitled you to a fibrous material shrinking in from of your eyes under the rain ! The soles of our wifes and girlfriends were made of wood or cords, flat shoes or sandals, leather had become as rare as crêpe or rubber. As for the knitting ladies, old and young never did they work so much with their needles to make some old moth eaten jumpers that even the poorest vagrant would disregard nowadays, jumpers the harmony of the colours of which it was better not to look to closely at. It was the same for socks and gloves. The only thing that was left was the "Black market", so called parallel, where everything could be found but at a huge price, it was obviously meant for the rich, the well off, also to the crafty ones that were not using their strength to fight against the enemy. The Primum vivere also included fear, not only from the reaction of the occupying forces, very often enforceable, but from the hostile spying, any anvious, jealous, racism, xenophobes, anti-Semite, or simply wicked could on a denunciation even anonymously send to torture, deportation, death, his best friend like his worst enemy. What is the opinion of some of today's profiteers of Human rights and anti-Racism or of those whose heritage they claim to own and whose silence was more explicit than an admission, if not of complicity but at least of powerlessness ? The Primum vivere included eventually, and that was may be the worst effect in the long run, the total loss of the values taught since childhood, the only law that prevailed after the turmoil of may-June 1940 was the law of the strongest, rejecting any kind of moral, any civic values, any reasoning, any respect for man. There remained only one possibility, to bend down and obey blindly, or to stand upright and fight as though we were stronger than the strong. That was real Resistance, to stand upright for survival, for honour, for equity, for the right to be free, for France. I have thrown the very last of my memories to the ill wind of old age which is which mingles them and scatters them like dead leaves. There is no strict chronology to be found, nor any logical link simply for each of them, the name of a town followed by the name of a person situates the place of the action and its main actor.

The righteous,

the wise

and the poets

are the ones that wage the best of wars.

Alain (Propos).

Joan of Arc during her trial in Rouen replied to her judges that she liked the English in their own place. The friends of Marcel Allibert do not dislike the German if they do not wearing boots and green fatigues. It has always been so, and the French people, pleasant not more badly tempered than any other come to think about it., can even be regarded as fairly hospitable, despite what some people might think, intransigent, jealous of its freedom when it comes to its destiny and its institutions. General de Gaulle used to say that he only belonged to one party and that was that of France, and Léon Blum who was asked by a messenger to had come to see him in his prison in Riom to create a socialist resistance movement, answers that there is only one Resistance movement and that it is that of France. It is also the party of France that Marcel Allibert joins, when he is a young student, cut off from his studies along with all his companions of fight, workers, merchants, clergymen, doctors, men and women without any distinction, without any concession there is only one thing they want : "They want them out", and afterwards we will see, we will try to build it together, albeit with difficulties this ideal world of justice and of light, in which the English, the German will have their place, but also the Jew, the Black, the Muslim, because "every man has got to lands his own and France". The Party of France, it is the party of the humbles, the silents, the industrious of the week, who at dawn gulp a dark coffee, or coffee with milk or a dry white wine at the bar and on Sunday go to play bowls, under the plane trees with their pals, play cards at the Cafe on the square, dance with the girls and fish by the river or by the canal. It is the party of the righteous, of the wise, of the poets, who are the best at waging war when they have no alternative.

The concentration camp of Dora, close to that of Buchenwald, opened its doors at the end of the summer of 1943 and closed them in April 1945. Between these two dates, several tens of thousands of prisoners from all over Europe and of soviet Asia passed through this cursed camp. For most of them this was their final setting, the end of the road. The surface camp and the underground factory, the Tunnel, which they dug out and where they constructed the secret weapons of Nazi Germany, the V2 rockets, devoured whole shipments of detainees. Their ashes fertilized the pleasant hills of Harz, in Saxony. Some of them, however, against all odds, managed to outwit fate. Wasted by hunger, illness, cold, misery tracked down by the savagery of the S.S., surrounded by death, their most faithful companion, they refused the despair and destruction that would have been an easy escape. Each line, each word of this book is a homage to those who, with an unbelievable dignity, suffered and died in Dora. My body does not look too good on a set of scales it would hardly move the needle. My skin is rotted away by all the illness and miseries of the world, I've turned into a tattered rag, nobody could look at it without hand in their mouth, and my folk would be horror stricken, if they saw me. Not even a fool would bet a dime on my chances of survival. This is what Dora, this model of a concentration camp and the S.S. have made of me a living death, a zombie which with the slightest prod was sent to the way beyond, the convict's paradise. But don't you be mistaken, you the S.S. And you neither, Dora, the cursed camp, the glory of the third Reich. I know I won't get out of here alive, it's impossible. But they'll have to pay the price for my tattered body. Don't count on me to commit the errors that will allow you an easy ' check mate ', I've become too old a concentrationee to fall into these traps. My skin, you'll have to earn it. All of you who are around me, watching me, I swear, I will never give in. Never !

Yves Beon's testimony is undoubtedly realistic, with its unflourished description of the universe of the concentration camps, its depiction without concession of the torturers on orders : Kapos, Vorarbeiter, Blockältester, Stubendienst... It is all the more so through the humour often coming forth from the account, which makes it all them ore credible. In the most difficult situations, the most dramatic ones, the witness sets forth the comical, the scatological element, this is at least the proof of the mental sanity of Yves Béon, who far from being broken by the ordeal and the pain was sublimated. This extra step, the obsession of the whole of the story he went through on the planet Dora, and which enabled him to hold out, he took it by publishing this book. Here is one of those "Untermenschen", one of those "stuck", that the S.S., the Kapos thought they had taken in, in fact, he took them in. Prima !

Conscript of the 1918 levy coming from Bone, his dear country, Esposito still remembers after more than 60 years, his fights with the 5th Regiment of March of the Algerian Infantry; he was awarded the Croix de Guerre with 5 nominations and the Military Medal.

With a few simple and bare sentences, and with a telegraphic style, strictly rendered, Robert Caen gives of the first months of the war between the 3rd of August and the 23rd of December 1914, a tragically overview through a succession of images His vision of the events is both restricted and clear, passionate and lucid. His thoughts especially during the first weeks are those of a knowledgeable observer. On the 7th of September he writes "Beginning of a great battle" and on the 8th "Great battle". He did not know then that he was taking part in the Battle of the Marne which would overturn the course of events.

We are living an authentically war drama among thousands of others, with its terrible simplicity, with the letters sent between the 18th of September 1915 and the 5th of March 1916, by the soldier Fernand Dubois to his war god-mother, Mrs Odile R... Three other letters, one from the brother of Fernand Dubois, Charles Dubois, the two others from his father, then his mother, terminate the cycle of letters written by Fernand and are a conclusion to this story. We have remained faithful to the style of the author, and we have stuck to the form and the spelling used in those letters to preserve their freshness, their moving sincerity, the strong impression of life which is coming out from them through the naive enthusiasm of the young soldier, or the painful and deep sorrow of his brother and parents after his death on the 12 of March 1916.

Why should one have waited for so long to testify about Resistance and Deportation ? First of all it was a kind of modesty, most of the Resistance fighters and the deportees were reluctant to talk about their experiences, they had done their duty and that was all. They were afraid that they might be taken for fools as some of the situations they lived were so unbelievable. More particularly for deportation, the tortures, the methods used by the Nazis exceeded understanding. Coming out of the camps one of our comrades, General X.. had said : "Do not say what you have seen here, people would think you a fool or a liar". The figured though are there, in all their bluntness, unquestionable, two hundred and thirty thousand French people deported, thirty thousand survivors, 83% of the victims remained in the death camps, many will die soon after their return and they will only be a handful left. Some revisionists question now the existence of the gas chambers, of the crematory chambers, and other nice thoughts of our torturers, without talking of preliminary tortures. According to them (many are former collaborators), the concentration camps were more like holiday camps (funny isn't it). So faced with so much dishonesty and disgrace we cannot keep silent. Why so late ? The resistants and the deportees (only 5000 or so left) before disappearing feel the need to communicate their experience to the younger generation in the fight for freedom. We must not veil our face, we also have had a pro Nazi government in France, headed by Marshall Pétain. This so called saver of France was deceiving the French people. Many thought at the beginning that the Marshall was playing double game. However it was becoming increasingly clear that the head of the French State was sharing many of the ideas of nazism and was its accomplice with the arrests and deliveries of Jews and Resistants, without talking about repression, chase, capture, torture. In several prisons in France, after a summary judgement, he had the patriots executed by the G.R. and other mercenaries. Since his arrival to power, the Marshal had never ceased to give orders to resist to the English first, then to the allied forces. As the events were unfolding, Pétain should have in the interest of France at least, as a last resort, during the invasion of the South zone on the 11th of November 1942, join forces with De Gaulle and the allied instead of giving the order to scuttle our fleet in Toulon. Eventually the Marshall left in the luggages of the Germans. The immediate rallying of the Overseas French forces, and they were not negligible, would noticeably have shortened the duration of the war with all its train of victims, horrors, and miseries. Without counting the division of the French people whom he managed to raise against each other : sincere collaborators at the beginning (one quarter), a good half of French people indecisive, waiting as a result of the official propaganda of the Vichy regime, one quarter of irreductibles who had the spirit of Resistance with a fairly small percentage of active resistants at the beginning, one has to understand the risk incurred for a mere distribution of leaflets meant to thwart the official propaganda. It was necessary to have a good dose of optimism or inconscience to go into active fighting in 1941,1942,1943. The chances of survival were very slim. No calculations. No prospect of interests. Nor glory. only enormous risks, the arrest, torture, afterwards execution or deportation. While Pétain was endlessly saying that he had given his person to France (what a cheat), the small ones, humbles, most of the time young people were paying with their lives their attachment to our country and to freedom. Those few pages in memory of my dear companions and friends Louis Plantadis and Henri Aupert and so many others gunned down and disappeared in the camps, they remained in the shadow.

Roland Rigolat describes, because he went through it, the usual itinerary of the fighter of darkness of a young man who refuses defeat, yearns to join the Free French forces but as fate had it differently it is in France in the heart of the country, in Limousin that he has his first experiences of clandestine fighting. First it was limited to the distribution of leaflets, and demonstrations, his action is going to intensify, to get more radical owing to the threat that the STO, represents for him, thus forcing him to join the Maquis. This adventure ends up in his arrest during a simple operation to gather some food vouchers for the Resistance, then it is spiral of prisons: Châteauroux, Limoges, fruitless attempt to escape judgement and condemnation by the special court. He gets locked up in the Eysses prison, then sent to Compiègne, just a stop before being deported to Germany. There he meets with the inferno of the Dachau concentration camp, and its dependency Allach. In his conclusion, Roland Rigolat reaffirmed his ideal as a Resistant and his willingness to continue fighting : "Our duty is not over yet, we must always regard ourselves as Resitants to any kind of oppression, to be example for the younger generations..." This is the way most former Resistants and deportees see their role today.

A life filled with war, because between September 1939 and July 1961, during 22 years therefore, the career officers like André Salin hardly had any respite in the fighting and their family life had to adjust to all the constraints and vicissitudes of military duties. If we consider that during this long path, five years among those that are the most fruitful ones, the one bearing the greatest amount of projects were wasted in captivity, it is a heavy sacrifice that the young people of the generation of André Salin were willing to make Of course the author of this testimony has gone through exhilarating hours far away from the quiet happiness which represent the greatest ideal for most of us and some may envy his formidable friendship wrought during the fighting which ties him to some of the duty officers, his bosses, his subordinates whom he came across during the random missions or assignment, or in the pleasant and fruitful oasis of the journeys in the exotic countries, in between two battle, from Langenargen to the Bay of Along, the Tagne Island, Cape St Jacques, Dalat, Angkor, Ifrane, Volubilis, Tafilalet, and South Algeria. But to access the price of those moments of happiness, it is necessary to put on the scale also the treason or the incompetence of some of the officer during the battle of France, which resulted in nearly five years of captivity for the author, the hardships of Thai-Binh, and Van-Mon, of Tegmout, or Loverdo, each time having as a main concern the despair of abandoning the civilian populations who had put their trust in the French Army and had trusted him for their salvation. Now the time has come for him to make his assessment, and only André Salin, in his own conscience, has the right to pass a judgement on himself. It is up to each of us, according to its sensitivity to understand everything that he has not been willing to express, but that he feels deeply in him.

We all know the important part played by the railwaymen in the Resistance movement opposed to the enemy during World War II, a famous film " The battle of the Rail" praises their sacrifice and show the extent of their action in the fighting. Many of them paid with their lives the accomplishment up to an extreme limit of an important mission which they had been assigned, and the memorial plates displayed in the Railway stations show their courage and their abnegation. The testimony from Raymond Triai entitled "Rail against Rockets" brings an extra knowledge, practical and detailed about the organisation of the Resistance Networks among the Railwaymen, on their method to gather and to communicate to London valuable informations which then enabled the RAF pilots to destroy communication routes, rolling stock, and heavy weaponry so vital to the German army in this forbidden zone near the English coast. In this clandestine fight we were equally at risk from our allied as from our then enemies, as the bombardments were taking place by surprise obviously, and those who had helped and guided the latter were often standing on the spots pinpointed by bombers. This testimony is an act of thankfulness towards all railwaymen who following Raymond Triai's example did their job with honour.

Mount Mouchet is one of the high spots of the Resistance and the epic proudly narrated by Georges-André Winninger confirms how important this Maquis in Arverne was. Mount Mouchet probably constituted with Vercors the most important concentration of Resistance fighters and not unlike the Maquis in Vercors it was annihilated by a violent German attack. Ill equipped, but most of all deprived of heavy weapons, badly trained, the youngsters hastily mobilised without military training could not last for long, despite individual cases of heroism, in front of the German army. The question can still be asked today about what prompted Coulaudon know as "Gaspard" to decide the mobilisation of so many men as early as mid may 1944 in Margeride, while the allied landing had not taken, place yet, that the guidelines were missing and that as "Bidule" realised immediately the organisation left a lot to be desired. No fewer than five "Departments" were affected by this near general mobilisation and Mount Mouchet soon became saturated and a good number of the youngsters had to be directed towards other nearby Maquis or even sent back to their homes. Anyway the Maquis of Mount Mouchet has become following the battles of the 10 and 11 June 1944, a symbol of the French Resistance to the German occupation and a famous place of pilgrimage for the world of fighters. We are grateful to George-André Winninger to bring to us through this testimony a personal vision of a major event during the battles for the liberation of France

The account that C. Chanot gave of the two missions in which he took part in the Resistance before and after the landing of the 6th of June 1944, gives a contrasted and paradoxical vision of this unsettled period. It was the time when a handful of decided men were enough to destroy an enemy armoured division, it was the time when a few suffered for millions of others. During their missions of reconnaissance and through the lengthy sentences of their reports, C. Chanot and his friends meet some really curious people whose rank very often stands instead of their competence who act as local tyrants acknowledging no other power than their own. Those war lords were feared almost as much as the occupiers themselves. You only find disillusioned thoughts about the selfishness and indifference of the civilians while the fighters in the Resistance movement were taking risks, about the difficult relationships between rival F.F.I. factions, the inefficient management, the partial political preoccupations. The pantheon of heroes looks pretty miserable there. Still, here as anywhere else, it only takes a few bright fellow to redeem the whole lot.

The testimony, the common obsession of all former deportees very often prevails over the very impulse of revenge. Éric Breuer, whose parents had sought refuge in Nice were arrested by the Gestapo in February 1944, locked up in Drancy to vanish in smoke in the dreary Auschwitz eventually, had himself got acquainted with the French hospitality of the camps of St Cyprien and Gurs, then that of Switzerland, before being arrested again in France and deported to Poland. Thanks to his good knowledge of the German language and to his craftiness he will survive after many sufferings and numerous alarms. His story is really bewildering and Éric Breuer's survival is indeed a miracle.

It is a fairly unknown aspect of World War II that R.J. Poujade tells us about in his story "Court Martial of Indochina'', and the two volumes of which, "A marine at the helm of the Indo-Chine" and "In the mouth of the Ma Koui", are both astonishing and gripping. The culpable relationships between the French high command in Indochina and the Japanese occupier until the end of 1944 were they, as Admiral Decoux claimed after the war aimed at deceiving the enemy and justified by the double game. R.J Poujade seems to have a different opinion and the examples he gives of the ruthlessness with which some French military and civilian whose Gaullist feelings deserved them the worst type of treatment from our fellow citizens who were blindly applying the policy of the Vichy government and anticipating in the most servile way the wishes of the Japanese commandment are truly in keeping with his thesis which is corroborated by the testimony of a Japanese staff officer whose track he found back after the war.

This book, no doubt, the first one on this subject, will remind us of some astonishing facts, about the Resistants in Indo-China from 1940 to 1945. After several months of hazardous navigation around Africa, and a boarding in the straight of the Sound the liner "Compiègne" brought me along with a few others on the Quay of the port of Saigon in June 1941. The rest of the reinforcements continued as far as Annam in Tonkin. Going through round about roads our party managed to get to the "Caserne des Pallières". The settlers of the South capital were opposed to the soldiers crossing the Rue Catinat.... At the end of 1945, after the Japanese intervention and the seizure of Saigon by the Viet-Minh, those same settlers will be happy that those "vagrants" of the 11 RC, reconstituted protect their precious persons before the arrival of the C.L. and of the detachment of the 2nd D.B. The Marsouins and the Bigors will then join forces with those people from Saigon entrusting their life and the honour of their wives to the former Dutch prisoners and their exhilarating eagerness. After my adventures of the 1940's which my friend Gabriel was very keen to see added to those pages, I thought just like many others, that it would be possible to get back to Free France from our Indochina... I was given the opportunity to know and meet most of the people whose adventures in Indochina from 1940 to 1945 I relate. Censorship and propaganda were so efficient that those who were aware of those facts were very few. The book from General Sabattier (The Fate of Indochina - Plon), is very clear on the subject of barefaced propaganda and cruelty. This general who has always been confident in the victory over the Axis, was an exception amongst our general in Indochina at the time. (He was the hero of the long walk through Tonkin to get to China after the Japanese attack which he pushed back). As all the people who knew Indochina, I still feel nostalgia for it. Indochina from 1940 to 1945 remains unknown to the French people and it is not an insult to say that it is roughly the same for the older people, at least for the facts that des-information covered up during those years. It is therefore necessary to start those accounts by a few reminders. The French defeat had important repercussions in the far east, Japan, the potential allied of the III Reich did not wait long to join it with Italy in what was to become known as the Axis Berlin-Rome-Tokyo whose defeat was materialised by the Japanese capitulation on the 2nd of September 1945 in Tokyo. This alliance did not prevent the Empire of the rising sun from signing some agreements with USSR which were not unlike the decisive ones signed between Germany and USSR. The objective alliance between two powers with common borders in Asia was beneficial for both partners particularly at the time of choice at the end of 1941. USSR only denounced them when the thunder of the first atomic bomb blasted up. At a very early stage the Vichy government had appointed Admiral Decoux governor general of Indochina (Commonly referred to as Gougal) instead of General Catroux who joined the Free France and became one of its leaders. In theory the difficult policy of protecting French sovereignty was not changing faced with an all powerful Japan. As early as the end of 1941 the interruption maritime's connections had made Indochina and autarky. In September 1940 launching an aggression against Langson and Haïphong the Japanese army got some rights in Indochina under the pretext that the troops of the Mikado were fighting the Chinese army of the Kuo Min Tang. In July 1941, what one has to call occupation had started on the very terms that the Japanese were using ...bases meant for operations against the British and American territories were created in Annam and Cochinchina from where were launched the lightning attacks of December 1941. In September 1940, on the occasion of what was modestly called the "Langson affair" the Japanese had recognised French sovereignty over Indochina, they recognised it often afterwards...that strengthened our position with the Indochinese but most of all was beneficial for Japan since this judicial provision was entrusting the French with the security of the bases and of the Japanese transporting. This position was uncomfortable towards our natural allies. agreements on a common Franco-Japanese defence of Indochina institutionalised a collaboration which was not just a word, even if in 1941 it was appearing more like a theory. The Japanese took it seriously. In 1944 the pace of events accelerated in France, there we swift and spectacular changes of opinion, they worried the Japanese who only saw there felony towards them from authorities that they had just recognised once more, despite the disappearance of the Vichy authorities (Territory of the Japanese Empire with special status). Among the awkward attempts the speech for the New year 1945 by Admiral-governor Decoux was regarded as revanchist by the Japanese authorities. It was one of the grievance through which the Japanese government justified its aggression of the 9th of march 1945. Roughly, in Indochina, one could distinguish between the North laborious and administrative and the south prosperous and making money. All the territory was subjected to an intense propaganda which was lead by a Chinese speaking sailor, Commander Robbe which was taking care of the faithfulness of the press and of the radio. The Legion of the volunteers for national security were talking as master and never hesitated to arrest the suspects. Admiral Decoux who was very authoritarian enforced all the Vichy laws including that of the Exception laws which did not quite make sense in Indo china. His activism and his ruthlessness towards the dissidents (what disturbed the Japanese though) never flinched. Although he was one of the admiral that had the most carried the flag around all the sea, several examples show his difficulty at understanding the behaviour of foreigners. In august 1940, China through Chennault, who was leading the "Flying Tigers", offered for free the Curtiss fighters which the Japanese blockade prevented from landing in China : taking the pretext that there was a French buying mission in the U.S. the admiral refused and preferred to see those fighters sold to the Siamese our enemies. The American considered that the French in Indochina did not want to fight and if they wanted to buy some aircrafts to the U.S.A. it was to sell them back to the Japanese army what they would not dare to do with aircrafts offered to them. This was one of the reasons of the American behaviour in China towards Indochina. The zeal of the admiral led him to prepare the reconquest of New Caledonia by a combined French force supported by a Japanese navy fleet ( which was to be followed by 30,000 Japanese workers). It is the Navy Admiral Darlan prompted by the US. ambassador who opposed with great difficulty this enterprise which would have deserved the firing squad for Admiral Decoux. One can expatiate on what should have been the best policy to preserve French sovereignty on Indochina, but one can find no excuse to the excesses of the repression against the "dissidents": the behaviour of the Vichy authorities was thoroughly shameful and perverse, and there is an analogy between the trial of Lieutenant Robert and that of captain Dreyfus. General G. Sabattier, spotless general from 1940 to 1945 in Indochina, criticised the repression just like C.V. Poher head of the fleet. Some of the people in power at that time, just as in France tried to explain the rashness of the repression by a "double Game". It was not necessary in that respect as the Japanese did not intervene in those problems as they did not want any tensions to occur between the French people, as they wrote it. The thesis of double play does not stand to the analysis. - The Japanese deny any intervention on that subject and the governor general Admiral Decoux confirmed himself by his conduct, at the end of 1944, by releasing the dissidents at a period when the Japanese where particularly fussy. - If the policy of the "Marechal" needed those tortures why then should not have the double play continued as the directions set by General De Gaulles stated (except as regards brutalities). - Why should one have wanted to tarnish the honour of the dissidents as the admiral did at the time and kept on doing in his book, plea, and not have limited himself to the condemnations for those who wanted to join the Free French ? The purpose here is not to deal with the subject of the policy of that time but rather to situate the story of this book. A fact can help us understand the motivations of those in charge in Indochina :In the charges brought against William Labussière, it is stated "holding of documents regarding national defence". It was a flow chart for the implementation of Japanese units in Tonkin: Does that mean that Japan was allied with France in Indochina and that the Anglo-Saxons were the enemies ? On top of that by picking on this "deserter to a foreign army" the head of the French army ion Indochina was unfortunately involving the Japanese in that affair. The word picking is the one that befits the behaviour of the governor general, of the governors, of the high command towards the "dissidents" since they went as far as taking care of low police and jail measures....arrest warrant and jailing were common facts. After the allied advance in Normandy there was a rapid swing of opinion with the integration in what was curiously referred to as the "official resistance", which "non dissident" as the word resistant stresses, continued to apply the Vichy laws. This swing explains the fact that some people doomed to national indignity were spared from it by deeds of resistance, in so far as the belated worker never looses anything. The state necessities the fortunate dispositions of the status of the civil servants and the necessity not to perpetuate grievances by reusing administrative competencies, made it so that the sanctions were very limited, all the more so as the period of epuration was already over in the mainland. One has to add, even though a certain racism against the Japanese contributed to it, that there was hardly any individual collaboration cases as in France, the traitors to Japan, when they were jailed, were submitted to a civilian regime, and were allowed to go to town, which was not the case of the Gaullists. After the jailing carried out by the Vichy authorities there were the ones carried out by the Japanese, all painful. in the prisons and the camps one could find side by side Petainists, Gaullists before the Japanese strike of the 9th of march 19456. They were jailed because of their function or upon denunciation as resistant. Each one could be deported or locked up without that meaning always Resistant, unlike France. There were medals of Resistance for the fighting of the 9th of march 1945. That was Indochina in which took place the facts narrated by this book. The special picking on the dissidents is still puzzling, a German document casts some light on the origin of this behaviour by people who were convinced that Germany would win the war and were behaving accordingly, as commandant Jouan acknowledged. In front of the Nuremberg court the public ministry showed some secret instructions from Hitler to the Werhrmacht on the 12th of November 1940, also signed by General Jodl regarding Vichy, one can note... - "...the purpose of my policy towards France is to work with this country in the most real way in order to continue war against England. For the time being France remains a non belligerent power. The most urgent task for France is to protect definitively and offensively the French possessions...against England and against the De Gaulle movement. This initial mission of France can lead to a total participation of France in the war against England...". Being aware of those useless tortures had an incidence on the French people who got to Indochina in 1945. They had the drawback of spreading among the older ones, but it was obvious that those unjustifiable tortures were a proof for those who had known the Legion des Volontaires, the militias, and the other Vichy activities, that those in charge in Indochina, not to say all the older ones were had behaved as collabos. It is interesting to compare the behaviour of the authorities in Indochina with that of a dissident territory. On the 19th of September 1940, New Caledonia sided with France Libre. The following week those who declared that they wanted to remain faithful to Vichy were put on the boat of the Sea transportation "Pierre Loti" who landed them in Sydney, from there with their head, captain Denis (former governor of New Caledonia who had been supported by the ship "Dumont D'Urville" they were send to Indochina, there they became active propagandists of the National revolution and watchful censors of the press, that took place before tortures were inflicted upon dissidents in Indochina. In 1946 those who had willingly chosen exile were repatriated to New Caledonia. They were very astonished not to be subjected to any measure... I sometime referred to the book by Colonel Legrand, "L'indochine à l'heure japonaise", for a few points regarding admiral Decoux, and to that of Pierre Boulle, "Aux sources de la rivière Kwai" for Doctor Bechamps. I have used the reported established in 1945 by the Gaullist prisoners in Indochina and the memos of some chiefs in the civil service of that time in 1945. I have worked on several archives of the Indochina commission or of the local authorities of that period. I have noted the severe condemnation of the cruel treatments inflicted to the dissidents by General Sabattier and Captain Poher, who were not suspect of anti Decoux feelings. I looked into the British archives of the sections of General D.D. Gracey who represented the allied in Saigon at the end of 1945 (I myself worked in one of those sections). I had the opportunity several years later to meet (in Paris among other) Captain Mazakazu Konishi, officer interpreter of the Japanese mission in Saigon (an office the indication of which were orders to obey). I had met him in Phnom Penh and in Saigon, the day following the strike, and I had found him again working as an interpreter at the interallied control mission of the disarmament of the Japanese army in Saigon (a learned and francophile person). I have had especially the opportunity and the pleasure to maintain with the quasi-totality of these who, evoked in these pages, have know the different prisons and jails of the proconsul of the Admiral Decoux. I meet again enough regularly some between them, as Boulle, Labussière, Longelin, Robert, Rudoni, etc. I have submitted to each the account of their captivity, to avoid me to part the truth. I have equally preserved notes, documents and souvenirs of this lived period essentially in the South from 1941 to 1946.

One will not surprise not to see to process the policy reverse the Occupant of Admiral Decoux : such was not the object of this book.

Die difficult years of the second world war, René Veyrenc has lived them in Indo-China, occupied by Japanese, coveted by the Viet Minh opposed to the French presence and worked as much by forces of the Occupation as by the Komintern. From 1940, lively of a sure and fiery patriotism of the civilise mission of France in Indo-China, he creates on his own initiative a system of information then is sent in mission in the north Tonkin, in close zone to the Chinese frontier. His knowledge of the country and of the annamite language allow it to obtain brilliant results in the battle against armed bands which cross the border, loot villages, tend ambushes and attack French military positions before to flee in China. During of the Japanese force knock of the 9 Mars 1945, René Veyrenc, rendered to the civil life since the month of September 1942, makes the knock of fire against the Japanese assailant. He manages to escape after a first capturing, but is captured again on the 16 Mars and interned at the citadel of Hanoï. Finally the disturbed period from September 1945 to May 1946, date of his repatriation, is particularly well studied by René Veyrenc, with much acuteness and the important events that he crosses are brought with a great fidelity. With a great wisdom, he concludes : "The Truth is not one but multiple. Failing approval we will not wonder other thing that the comprehension".

Yves Béon was born in 1925 in the ancient province of Brittany in western France, not far from the beaches where Allied troops would one day storm ashore to liberate Europe from Hitler's insanity. Ironically, the Monts de Bretagne had been a refuge for Celtic peoples fleeing from the early German (Saxon, or Teutonic) invaders as early as the fourth century A.D. After the 1940 German invasion, knowing their own "moment-of- truth" would soon come, the 15-year-old Beon and his friends began collecting rifles, machine-guns, explosives and automatic weapons abandoned by the retreating French Army. The ten or so schoolmates gathered weapons over a wide area, several times having to shoot their way out of contacts with German forces. Though still children, they soon realized that they were, in fact, at war with a vicious foe. In June, 1943 they were contacted by the "Buckmaster" spy network, a part of British Intelligence's "S.O.E." (Special Operations Executive) - the "dirty work network" - against the Germans. Through Gestapo counter-intelligence, Beon was betrayed and arrested on November 25, 1943 at Le Mans College. He was transferred to the notorious Angers Prison and "interrogated" in what the Gestapo politely called "First Class" questionings. He held out none of his associates was picked up. Weak from torture and malnutrition, Beon was transferred to the camp at Compiegne in January, 1944, then to Buchenwald, where he worked in the stone Quarry. Beon was sent to the infamous camp at Dora in March, 1944, building Hitler's V-2 "Vengeance" rockets, until April 2, 1945, when the S.S. moved the prisoners to Bergen-Belsen. British forces liberated that camp on April 15th. After several months of renewed studies and recovery, Beon obtained his Baccalaureate. He began working at positions in France and England. 1953 found him in Ghana (the Gold Coast) handling Shipping, Air and Sea Freight, Passengers et al with a French Commercial company . In 1956 he transferred back to France, in charge of the same departments for the firm. To honor the thousands of fellow-prisoners who were murdered by the Nazi S.S. through starvation, constant beatings, torture, daily hangings and shootings, Beon has compiled this diary-form record. To relate the inhumanity of the German state under Hitler and Himmler, and rather than draw attention to any one individual, he uses only first names in this chilling page of history.

Italian, Lorenzi Albert, with his brothers Antoine, Ugo and Mario and their Friend Marcenaro, crosses the frontier to in order to be at the disposal of the French Resistance in Alpes-Maritimes area. His story is short, concise and could not be developed further. The five accounts that follow are essentially destined to show the difficulties of the stain of the person who decided to collect the Testimony. Tests undertaken with Jean, Stone, Raoul, Gilbert and Madeleine could not be led to term despite our insistence. We publish nevertheless minutes because we think that they can be useful to seekers.

Volumes 82 and 83 are published as examples destined to show the difficulties that I can meet in the collection of testimonies. Their examination passes comments.

28 April 1941 1 hour 30 of the morning Georges and me... we crawl... barbed wires... are again close... The darkness is total. Whole what encumbered us has been abandoned in the small forest where we were concealed since the vigil... 21 h 30 ! at 1000 meters approximately of the site where we are currently. Alone have been preserved, in pockets: compass, pepper, watch, civilians marks , and "black note" book (on which I have noted, each day, my stay at Hitler). To 23 hours, we have left our "hide-out". Going perpendiculairement to the road Feldkirch-Liechtenstein, we have progressed (after the clearing of the railroad way), curved, close (sometimes hand in the hand)... Then stop, to flat stomach, an instant... attentive. The luminous passage, of a convoy of trucks-travelers, coming from Switzerland, has allowed us to control our position and direction. We crawl Georges and me very slowly. The lesser reflection of the sun on the moon... our accomplice... Our eyes watch, with impatience, the appearance of barbed wires that we guess to proximity. Our information tell that positions douaniers are distant 1200 meters. One is in edge of road, close to the shod way. The second is on our right, to the low of the hill, where shine some lights of habitations. We crawl... Me, and Georges in the axis of these two buildings, to avoid ! Sudden the silence that we listen is not more total... We have the impression of a light far uproar, on our right. Bit after, the noise is perceptible... It amplifies mathématiquement. I exit the canister of pepper... and empties it with a minimum of gestures, behind our immobile bodies. We divulge the rubbing of leather on the herb... the regular feet, as the pendulum of the clock that fixes our destiny. Inexorably. The "thing", cause of this din is to 100 meters, 50 meters, less can-be, slightly to the defers the place, where we are. I imagines a dog to the right of this sentry insuring the supervision between positions... I believe to hear the metallic rattle of his gun in shoulderstraps... I suppose the aggressive reaction of the man to the sudden appearance of two suspicious hillocks... A short seconds, I think to leap straight ahead... to run the risk ! fatal ? Body and face in earth ...close ears, to does not hear the injunction which is going to tear the calm of the night... closed eyes, to does not see the directed light suddenly throw to our shades... In thought... profile faces of these who have motivated our adventure... veiled by the specter of the hut "40" of the Stalag VII A, in Moosburg

I evokes...

my war...

our captivity...

our escape...

How could one escape from the Stalag VII-B of Memmingen in April 1941 ? Reply : in crossing the Liechtenstein! The receipt is simple: Get yourself appointed to the Bohen Kommando, supply you civil clothes, a good pair of slippers, not for "pantoufler" around in but to exit without noise of the "barak " in silence, some provisions and a few money. Go on foot to the station of Kempten (20 km) take a ticket for Innsbruck and for Feldkirch, and there, by a small path of crosses, pass quietly to the Liechtenstein then in Switzerland by a night without moon. Success is guaranteed ! The continuation is only administrative formalities without real difficulties. It is to some details near the adventure that Georges Bernard and Lucien Guimas have lived totality between 24 and 28 April 1941, pass of the captivity in a Stalag to the near liberty of the prison of St Gallen. An advantage however, without which nothing having been possible: Georges Bernard spoke commonly the language of Goethe. Thanks to this knowledge that one of them had of the German language, our two fugitives have truly led their escape drum beating, without snag. At least, this is the impression that emanates from the suitable account by Guimas, in its notebook of road written to the period where events took place.

On devait être assuré que, d'un jour à l'autre, les Japonais liquideraient l'Administration et la Force Françaises, et qu'ils le feraient de la façon la plus soudaine et la plus brutale… Connaissant la malveillance des alliés, surtout américains, à l'égard de notre position en Extrême-Orient, je tenais pour essentiel que nous fussions, là aussi, des belligérants… L'agression japonaise ne faisant aucun doute, je voulais que nos troupes se battent, en dépit de ce que leur situation aurait de désespéré. Malgré les incessantes démarches du gouvernement français, Washington s'opposa toujours au transport, vers l'Extrême-Orient, des troupes que nous tenions prêtes en Afrique ou à Madagascar. Les combats engagés en Indochine n'amenèrent aucun changement dans l'attitude des États-Unis. Les combats en Indochine se déroulèrent dans les plus amères conditions : surprise, isolement, manque de moyens, impression que Dieu est trop haut et la France trop loin. Mais les efforts et les sacrifices n'en furent que plus méritoires. Dans le capital moral d'un peuple, rien ne se perd des peines de ses soldats".

Until the second world war, the military device in North Indochina replied to a double demand : - on the one hand, to insure the maintenance of the French sovereignty and the possible protection of our nationals - on the other hand, to hold the country under cover episodic inroads of Chinese bands crossing the frontier to loot our villages. The first of these missions was insured by the implantation of units in the order the Battalion, almost entirely European, in Centers of the Delta, where they were in measure to intervene rapidly in case of need. The internal security was not elsewhere ever seriously worried. The affair of Yen-Bay in 1930 was only a knock of hand of hostile elements, aborted thanks to loyalisme of indochinoises units of the garrison. It existed, it is true, some group irreducible, but they quartered in the Bac Son and the Thanh Hoa and were also reduced that ineffective. As for the indochinoise population, despite a strong comprehensible nationalistic tendency, it would remain loyal and, never, the solidarity franco-indochinoise was also marked during the Japanese Occupation of 1940 to 1945. The second mission was confided to indochinoises units parked in frontier territories and an importance conversely proportional to their removal of the frontier. "Bells" of a section on each tracks driving to China, one found then more in rear companies, then battalions on each great itinerary leading to Hanoï. A serious gap : the total absence of internal bypass allowing to displace our reserves, all the road system converged in star to Hanoï. This device was therefore marked with the sign of the scattering, without great possible roundup possibility. The debut of the war, in 1939, burst as a knock of thunder in a tranquil sky. It was indeed notorious that Thailand and China fed ambitions on our territories, and one could fear that these powers do not profit the priority given to Europe to demonstrate. It existed finally a Japanese battle body committed against Chinese to the Kouang Si and to the Kouang Toung, whose proximity was little rassurante. If our military device sufficed almost for the routine of the time of peace, it was perfectly maladjusted to demands of a conflict against a modern army. Our armament, very obsolete, could not, neither in number, neither in quality, notably in artillery and in aviation, to rival with a possible adversary. As much that this last, already insured the numerical superiority, would benefit from possibilities of concentration, for us impracticable. A conflict of a certain scale would find us therefore in a dramatic inferiority state, so on the numerical plan that on tactical and material plans, our émiettement and the insufficiency of our ways of displacement - trucks and roads - allowing us no totality manoeuvre. Japanese did not deceive there, that, from their entry in Indochina in 1940, attached "to mark" all our units. From 1939, the High Authorities of Indochina take aheads, first in increasing the effective soldiers by an exceptional raising, then in seeking to obtain the necessary equipment. A mission was sent to U.S.. But the American Administration, superbly oblivious of the inflicted processing formerly to Indians on their territory, was fundamentally hostile to the french colonialist presence in Indochina, and our demand was categorically refused. It seam while, whole at least in the moment, we could have count only on ourselves, in hoping however that, in case of serious conflict, elements allied would finish by coming us in assistance. From where, I think, for the High-Commandment, the concern to power resist as long as possible, and the hope of an intervention allied before it is not too late. Thus it is that were fortified some places of the North-east frontier of the Tonkin. But non continuous fortifications, between which is anticipated no battle body, and that, moreover, have only modest ways, can not hope to hold long. We have had, hélas, the cruel confirmation. As for the possibility of an external assistance, I ignore if the High-Commandment had received insurances, but I am able to assert that the local Commandment, in the occurrence the General Alessandri, believed it firmly. I give below some evidences : - Some days after 9 Mars, the general declared me, with a large smile, I guard you in reserve because of reinforcements allied are going to arrive in the basin of Dien Bien Phu and, given your knowledge of the English language, you will be my Foreign Minister Businesses (sic) - To the mi-Mars, parachutists were loosed on the P.C. of the general in Son La. One of them came across the roof of our "paillote" the general, radiant, took him by the arm and, turning to us, "Gentlemen, here is the first". The enthusiasm fell when the Captain Cortadellas, that ordered the stick of 10 parachutists, said that he came from Indias, where existed only 3 operational sticks 10 men each, and 2 under way of training. - When, in the night of 25 to 26 Mars, the General Alessandri confided me the commandment of the s/ grouping C, a value of 3 battalions, which was going to operate on it centers Son La, Tuan Giao, Dien Bien Phu, Phong Saly, Muong Outay, his orders were very net "to Lead an action "retardatrice" to give to reinforcements the time to arrive. But the hope of an external assistance smelted rapidly, and the reality was expressed, although with comprehension and sympathy, a day of the second fortnight of April while, installed on a hill, we waited the Japanese attack that we knew to prepare. Two light airplanes posed on a dry "rizière" separating us from woods where Japanese gathered. In exited a high official coming from Paris and a Commander coming from Indias. I exposed then our situation : lack of heavy arm , absence of all supply, ammunitions touching their end, total lack of medicine, hurt left on the spot, men exhausted... It was replied me that this situation was known, that no assistance could unfortunately be brought us, and that, in fact, we were vowed to a bath of blood (sic). And as knocks of fire, leaving from Japanese lines, began to smack, had unglued them rapidly, putting an end to illusions that in fact, we had already lost. In its Memories of war, the General of Thrashes gives a very exact appreciation of this dramatic period. In here is some extract : This last sentence can only go straight to the professional soldier heart of my generation who, after having heard their grandfather to tell them the war of 1870, have lived their adolescence during the war of 1914-1918 made by their father, then have known themselves - even if they have not there directly participated - wars of Morocco and Syria 1925-1926, the war of 1939-1945, this of Indochina 1945-1954, finally that of Algeria 1954-1962. But what to think from boys - non professionals, them - which, alone, the fact to have their age to the critical moment projected in a dramatic adventure where they risked their life ? It is comforted to think that some of them do not forget, keep no bitterness their tests and tell them with an animation and a precision non deprived of humor. It is the case of Sir Henry, that served then to the Geographical Service of Indochina, and Sir Boubal who, old of 20 years, accomplished then his military service. I leave them the word and expresses them my very cordial sympathy.

Cho Bo, Moc Chau, Petit Conoï, Son La, Collar of Méos, Tuan Giao, Dien Bien Phu, Houei Houn Tay Chang, Muong Khoua, A Pa Chai, Malitao Names that sing, places of the hard combats That evoke Boubal and Henry in their Odyssée to China after the Japanese force knock of 9 March 1945 in Indochina. 2219 victims among French soldiers whose 716 killed to the combat. Heavy tribute before to reach Sze Mao in the Yunnan where regroup survivors before to reach the camp of Tsao Pa, last stop of long walks to China. After the Japanese defeated, this is not before the 18 January 1946 that the general Salan obtains from Chang Kaï Check his agreement for the relief of Chinese troop of Laos by French troops of China. Begins then a long journey of return that Boubal and Henry tell with the concern of the detail and the precision that makes the interest of this testimony, important contribution to our knowledge of the French troop work in Extreme Orient.

These pages begun in 1945 in the inactivity of the sickness do not constitute neither a chronicle, neither a novel, and do not claim (voluntarily and involuntarily) to the literary value. It is rather acts of a succession of tables in which it is tempted to paint collective or individual aspects, psychological or sentimental, social or political, the real human kaleidoscope that represented an Arbeits-Kommando aggregateing with force, often to the contempt of their affinitys, stemming men of different lasts. The captivity, monotonous repetition of small actions, equaled in reality to a lack of action. On the other hand, the mental life in which they fled, was particularly active at these, that, intellectual training or semi-intellectual, were found brutally transplanted in an existence to which they adapted with only difficultly, at the same time it revealed them of other faces the life, until here unknown. One will slander, discusses, teachs and learn a lot in these small encircle, where, despite oppositions of thinks, the desire to know more and better, soldered friendships and conciliated contraries. Is-this to tell that "manuals", for that being found in the trade or the absence of trade, the captivity was the continuation of the train-ordinary train under an other form comprising some annoyances, held to the gap of these discussions that, frequently, took a deep and lively "trou" ? On the contrary ! Only, their interest varied following the subject, especially following the manner after which it being exposed, and possibilities that were given them to bring in debates, interventions of clear good sense, that sometimes, returned the former to just proportions, then they misleaded among the "sophismes" and the "arguties". In brief, is in cause the state of spirit of this generation between twenty-five and thirty years, "benoîtement jouisseuse", that a cataclysm, in its time generally misunderstood, has placed suddenly ahead problems, contradictory of an precipitated evolution which it realizes, again currently, only very imperfectly in its causes and its purposes. It is not necessary therefore to irritate what is a certain absence of chronology, returns in rear, or discussions. It was thus to the opportunities and event chance. Some will recognize. They forgive a lack of enough frequent cautions in the blame and the eulogy. They are not aimed in so men, because with several subsist frank friendship bonds, but as classes, groups or trends they were susceptible to represent. Some celebrities are only fiction, but uniting in a unit the characteristics retained of several typical humans completing, they can be animated of the probable behavior which they would have had in the reality. There is here appearance that prisoners are in the totality enough mistreated. The frankness constrained to recognize that too, a lot too are liable this rigor. We will hurry of to add : are-they so responsible to have been so weak then they were pushed there since always ? To flatter failures or to pass them under silence are not to heal them, more than to wither them without indulgence. The rough language of the truth and the patience of the persuasion sufficed. We know by personal experience what was their efficiency. Despite the desire of a net plug of position, one is strived to leave to speak peoples and facts. That with the same honesty, the reader repporte to circumstances, to the atmosphere, to individuals, to their respective levels, to their ways of documentation, without leaving impressioner by the reflection of the present time, that is there the essential point of this Warning. It will understand thus better the doctrinal confusionnisme of this youth 40-45 seeking his way, guided by the alone light of the better-to make. Again once, he will not surprise therefore neither od the multiplicity and repetitions of dialogues, neither of the weakness and the lack of argument continuity on the triptyque constantly resumed the policy, the religion and women. It belongs to readers, despite the crafty satisfaction or the feel of displeasure, to release a common Truth to all, this reciprocal human knowledge that one of the celebrities defines as the "Patrol to buckle men of willingness". July 1947 What is going to be read has therefore been written between 1945-1947 under again live impressions. The life has relegated the manuscript to the bottom of a drawer. This was able-be better thus, because 45 years after, nothing having been essentially modified, trenched, added, can-be the documentary value will earn it in relief. These that have supported the captivity would have to find acts and words of them and others, these that they have not undergone would have in to acquire a view of totality. Certainly difficult wager, because of survivors it rest a bit for the more than fifty-year-old, accounts that were held them are now in the haziness, and as for adolescents, know-they at least 39-45 in its more essential developments ? Equally is to consider that whole to tell in the moment after-war, was provoked one for and against dangerously controversial. What knows the History to each crucial period. The opinion expressed in 1945-1947, and in spoken on the captivity, this is neither "the Fire", neither heartbreaks of after Viet Nam and Algeria, neither Holocaust, neither "The Longest Day", neither the "Army of Shades". That is even some thing where one attaches badly few... some discomfort shame. A monotony without marks, bureaucratic idleness of the Stalags, train-agricultural and artisanal train - even in some cases an other best life, also of acts that would have been able to be a Resistance.

Then, why in to speak : whole simply for this is tell in the last pages.

This would be a success if each was then brought to weigh men and events of this period and since, to pull the useful conclusions for the future.

Volume I All along these pages write from its return of captivity in Germany, Jacques Doniès leaves to go to philosophize on the extraordinary life experience of the captive who discovers not only the customs, the things of the peoples but also, and may be above all, the Schylocks and Mysticals, the small bourgeois and the employee, the latter well of at us. The first one surprizing, the others made his mind boggle. With our friend sadden-we on the miserable human condition in some exceptional circumstances of deprival of freedom. Volume II In the volume II of his souvenirs, the Kriegsgefangener Jacques Doniès, hardened by his 3 preceding years in captivity, approaches 1944 with a lot of hope and will undertake in 1945, through Tchécoslovaquie, its long walks to the true life, towards the country of wonders, his country, France

The grandson of the author : Yves Lovera returned by car on same places where increased "The Farm of the White", to Mané, (Burkina Fasso). 85 years after, the oral tradition had well functioned, the Moro Naba, the chief of the village and the schoolmaster remembered perfectly well the stay undertaken in 1905-1907 by its grandparents and drove it to the place of the concession where they had stayed. It would remain only ruins, but some vestiges again. The baobabs had disappeared, but a shepherd kept with the same apparent nonchalance of beautiful herds of bovines. It worried even due to the fact to know if the grandson was going to reconstruct the farm ! At the village itself, the life had not changed. Rhythms are immutable since centuries and the civilization has not penetrated up to there. Women go always to the wells and bring the water in various containers on their head, they pound the mollet untiringly for the food of the family, the huts are made of the the same dried earth and covered with cob and the men ... live peacefully.! Yves was received in great pump by the Moro Naba ahead which, as since always, the chief of the village came to prostrate, in the great hut of the discussions and the schoolmaster asked Yves for having the favor to possess this written document by its grandmother and that retraces its two years Africa near the village of Mané. Henceforth, in addition to the oral tradition, peoples of the village will have a written testimony the appreciated passage of these White come from so far away and the instructor has the intention to make make dictations to its pupils, some passages that it will choose in the manuscript. Thus all this population will be able to see itself thrugh the eyes of the young Lorraine in her stay in Africa.

While the period of décolonization touch its end, when all busy African territories and developed by France find their independence and try to continue the work accomplished by French, it will be able to appear interesting to relive justly these first instants of the work undertaken by valiant young men and, woman youths who had in them a great ideal. The account of this trip in West Africa situates in the beginning 20th century. A young White woman , the first of her race to penetrate so far into the heart of the African Continent, who accepts to accompany her husband to the Mossi although nothing had more or less prepared her to do so, has indeed made proof a great courage without having always really conscience. My mother, Mrs. Hubin-Claudel has written its account many years after her stay in Africa, thanks to the notes she had taken and to the imperishable souvenirs of this period of her life. We wish the reader finds so much pleasure in cover these immense extents to the rhythm of this already distant time which has nothing in common with the current trip rhythm.

Postface de Michel El Baze

Magdeleine Hubin, born Claudel, tells us her wonderful adventure when at the age of 22, she decides to follow her husband in West Africa to live, during 2 years to Mané, in country Mossi, in the middle of populations who had never seen white women until her appearance in 1905. Are evoked her passages, her visits and her stays to Dakar, Mayes, Koulikoro, Mopti, Nyamina, Fonssan, Charlotville, Goundaka, Bandiagara, Bangasso, Koboro-Kindé, Ouahigonya, Tiou, Bango, Ouagadougou, and so others stops in Gold Coast before her return in metropolis in August 1907. Sixty year later Magdeleine regrets to not be returned in these countries where she has past such intense moments and towards her spirit and her aspiration return there always with fervor. This testimony, although it does not relate war events finds however its place in this corpus because because it comes happily to illustrate pages that her husband Georges Hubin devotes to these regions, in particular in the n° 38 of our collection.

This combat of August 1944 would not have taken place without the initiative of an F.F of twenty years and its perseverance. The account has been made by himself and confirming by the attestation of his direct chief who notices. "His bold initiative that one never will underline enough". This F.F of 20 years, Pierre Coquet, waits always his "high national rewards, just recognition of his admirable conduct and his perceptive initiative". Better, or rather worse. His file is always in wait to the ministry, contrarily to recent other decorated to various titles, one would not have nevertheless to pose questions about his merits. It is true that it does not make "the one" of the media

Here is a historical account concerning the metropolitan Resistance It is enough curious, this little known event ,where we see the French Forces of Interior and the Royal Navy to cooperate, directly to the contact to combat the Kriegsmarine. Pierre Coquet has asked to René Poujade to write his account. Whole has therefore been written from his souvenirs collect to 1950 and the report of the Captain FFI and Public Work Engineer, Captain Finot.

René J. Poujade has written this account after having met, in 1983 his compatriot, Jean Pouliquen, during the inauguration, in Fréjus of the Monument aux Morts of Indochina whose, in others time, he had conceived the model of the group, in the course of his assignment to the Section of Studies and Information of Colonial Troops to Paris. The interest that Pouliquen would wear to historical articles that Poujade published in the Journal des Combattants, incited him to relate to him a wonderful history, hardly believable, of which a Chinese child was the heroine during the combats of Guadalcanal and whose it had to to be attended to News Hébrides. A scriptwriter not to would dare invent so dramatic adventures ending by happy end. Nevertheless all the history is truthful and there are witnesses, inclunding the heroine Poujade precise that the first relationship concerning Patsy Li is found in an article of the New York Times that of elsewhere plays a role in this story. He relates the miraculous rescue of Patsy Li, snatched to half-death from the hell of Guadalcanal by Marines, nursed and returned to the life at Espiritu Santo Already miraculous, such that thus told, it is infinitely more when one adds a preceding rescue from a wreck under the enemy fire, then the readaptation to life and the extraordinary reunions with her mummy. Null need to embroider in telling the history of Patsy Li

"D'une admirable bravoure et d'un grand sang froid, a fait preuve du plus grand courage au cours du combat du 17 mars 1940. A abattu un officier allemand qui entraînait sa troupe à l'assaut, ce qui a de suite brisé l'élan des assaillants."

"Volontaire pour toutes les missions périlleuses. A toujours donné à ses hommes l'exemple le plus parfait de sang froid au cours des combats livrés par le 2° RC. à Longeau le 25 Mai I940 et à Fouencamp le 7 juin I940. Malgré une fusillade particulièrement nourrie, a réussi à ramener jusqu'au poste de secours son chef de section. Blessé lui même à deux reprises, après épuisement des munitions, ne s'est replié que sur l'ordre formel de son commandant de Compagnie".

..."se rendait à Gibraltar pour, de là, se mettre aux ordres du général de Gaulle..."

"...A pris part à la résistance clandestine contre l'occupant nippon. Fait prisonnier a, dès sa sortie de captivité, participé volontairement aux opérations de nettoyage du 23 Septembre, sa compagnie étant arrêtée par une résistance sérieuse, s'est élancé avec quelques camarades sous le feu ennemi, permettant ainsi l'occupation de l'objectif, sans pertes pour l'Unité".

The friendship is a certain alchemy. In order that two men could meet and appreciate, it is necessary often a catalyst, a "stone philosophale". To that that unites me to R.J. Poujade, it has been necessary the extraordinary Pierre de Guerny. Guerny told me : - Poujade is a true Resisting, insisting on the true word. In the mouth of this man that had been beyond the possible, particularly in the Resistance in Indo-China, the word took a certain value. The caution of de Guerny with regard to Poujade was to me particularly precious having made the resistance in Extrême Orient where I had been sent, as Poujade, when began the occupation of Indochina after incidents of Langson at end 1940 with Japanese. I serve to the Tonkin, aspirant then sub-lieutenant of Pétain and of de Gaulle, in a service of information baptized "Bureau of the Statistical Soldiers" : This was, in fact, a nest of organizers of the main military resistance systems in Extreme Orient. Guerny was under officer of Colonial Télégraphistes one nicknamed he "The Canadian", because of his place of birth. Specially assigned a time to the mess of garrison of Hanoï, he pass there for prodigal, perhaps dishonest. This funny of "popotier" had no cure the "engueulades" and continuous, despite reproofs and insults, to display the eternal smile from a pure heart : he fed, in hide-out, parachuted French emissaries and American pilots fallen in Indochina, disguised in Porpoises. He arrived him thus to have the double of "rationnaires" staffs that theoretical boarders. He was in besides all the "parachutages" of the side of the Mount Bavi, whose a reception... of penicillin. (He does miracles in secret thus of its godchild... and my hand saved in Lanessan). Later, while he served in the S.D.E.C. after the war, I know that this Guerny was my cousin by the "House" of his "Owner" Alexandre de Marenches : a genealogy that he presented me would show our kinship, to all the three, by my mother. Guerny and Poujade were friend by the common captivity in a Japanese camp and their resistant action. By the continuation they were found in France to the Federation of Systems of the Resistance in Indochina, FFL and FFC. (whose I make also leave). They were intimate, having the advantage to be neighbors in South suburbs of Paris. It is Guerny that told me exploits of Poujade, some of which were known into the National Association of Cross of War and Military Value, that presided the prestigious general Dejussieu-Poncarral, ancient Chief of E.M. of the F.F., Deported-Resistant, that had a particular estimates for Poujade that he nicknamed his "Marsouin". Despite his name, Poujade is a born Breton to Quimper, Breton parents of "ascendance chouane" and "blue". In fine 1938, he decides that "he does not want to lack the war" that approaches : To make it to sure knock, he is committed to 2° Colonial Infantry Regiment, in Brest, that allocates him to the platoon of where he leaves to the entry in war the 2 September 1939. It is rapidly the war of position, the "funny war' : He can not remain thus the arm at the foot and wears voluntary for the Regimental Frank Group during training. Chief of 7° group, he patrols and combat up to on the line Siegfried with the Captain Darcy. He earns there a quotation to the order of the Corps of Army, awarded by the general Brother (death in deportation in the Struthof), to the wording without equivocal : "An admirable bravery and a great cold blood, has made proof the greatest courage in the course of the combat of 17 March 1940. To destroy a German officer that entailed his troop to the assault, what has continuation broken the vigor of assailants". Two later days, he has 20 years. Then it is the German rush on the Somme. His group belongs to the section of the lieutenant Robert, the Frank Group of 2° Colonial... that we will find, "à la barre de l'Indochine", in jails of Hanoï and Saïgon. Poujade is quoted to the order of the Army: "Volunteer for all perilous missions. Have always given to his men the most flawless example of cold blood in the course of combats delivered by 2° RC. to Longeau the 25th May I940 and to Fouencamp the 7th June I940. Despite a particularly fed fusillade, has succeeded to return until the position of help his section chief. Hurt in to two resumptions, after depletion of ammunitions, has withdrawn only on the formal order of his commander of Company". Hurt under Amiens, evacuee then prisoner, he escapes and earns the Free Zone with the intention of not to remain there : No question to mildew in a barracks of the Army of Armistice he wants to combat in rejoining de Gaulle. He fails twice. In his attempt to take the sea, in Sète with Polonais in September I940, he is stopped by the Police of State of Vichy and incarcerated to the Central of Montpellier, after capture on board of "Marie-Thérèse" The motive of he nut costs a quotation : ...rendered to Gibraltar, for from there, put to orders of the general of Thrashes... No Judgement, but the chance is there. The general Altmayer, commander of the Military Region, is related to the captain Darcy, the chief of the Frank Group of the RIC : after having questionned him, he embark for Indochina, where the war that made us the Siam requests reinforcements, as also the aggression of Japanese to the Tonkin. (It is also because of these circumstances that I have earned Indo-China). Poujade has always the desire to rejoin Free France. He tempts it ahead Batavia : it is the failure. Allies, one has known it later, forbade to leave Indochina if this was not for specific missions : we had to inform and constitute potential forces "in being" that obliged Japanese to divert troops of fronts in activity. (The future President of the Federation of Systems of the Resistance in Indo-China know the same disappointment, on the "Compiègne" that use 92 days to rally Saïgon). Assigned to Saïgon to the office of garrison, R.J.P. is immediately in contact with Mr Huchet, whose one will speak and that directs a system working with Singapore, and between in activity during of the Japanese landing in July I941. With his ancient chief of section Robert, arrived a month earlier and assigned to the B.S in Hanoï, he plots a departure to China and climbs to prepare it in the capital of the Tonkin. The affair fails, but Robert is captured in the frontier. Poujade is not discovered, but undergos the "brimades" for the fact than his friendship with the outlaw. Until 9 Mars I945, he continues his action resistance in Saïgon then in Pnom Penh. Descended from bush at Saïgon for a mission of parachutage, Poujade is not taken during the Japanese force knock of 9 March I945, despite a rough contact in Dakao. During a week he undertakes missions of information for the commander Rousson. One of it is particularly daring : Penetrate in the E.M. of Japanese Connection ! He loti n safe , although having been found nose-in-nose with the captain Konishi, met to Pnom Penh during a knock of resistance : the Japanese feigns not to recognize him while the nicknamed interpreter Banco, French infiltrated agent, communicates him some "pipes". The 17th Mars, the day before his 25 years, he is captured during the last raid and interned to the camp Virgile, then to Pallières. Guerny has told me : - It is to Virgile that I have made knowledge Poujade. We were immediately friends, because we had met to help comrades more deprive. René Poujade will remember always his transfer of a camp to the other, in June. The column of prisoners dragged since Virgile, under the vigilance of ward Japs and Koreans. To the train in tail, Guerny followed difficultly because of a huge bandage to the leg. He helped a long bamboo on which he leaned. Poujade wanted to help him, because stragglers were delivered to violences of the escort, but his friend insulted him with a rare violence, what he had never made : Nothing justifying the "algarade", he could not in to understand the reason. There will not be explanation that two days later : Guerny, without bandage and walking without difficulty, coming to explain him that his bandage huge served him... to hide coins of radio position collected to Virgile. (They will serve to climb a clandestine position, with the famous Iontzeff). Guerny had feigned the anger because, if it had been taken, it was the death insured : He wanted, alone, to pay the price. He knew the behavior of Japs to have experimented to the moment of the knock of force of 9 Mars : surprised to his position of the colonial telegraphy, where since months he informed allies on Japanese ship movements (flowed two hours after his alert), he had been put in cross and had undergone there tortures to make he confess his participation to the Resistance. He had not spoken, despite the pain, and recuperated hardly. A day before his sudden death, he has confided me that he suffered death and martyrs from back and the basin, aftermaths of these cruelties. In the camp, Guerny practices a clandestine listening, quasi permanent of radios allied. Poujade, who refuses to work for Japanese and succeeds there, serves as a rendered account that provides P. Guerny for his drawings of his mural newspaper of the camp, that transmit the essential of news. Poujade possesses a knock of pencil of the gender of that J. Faizant : prisoners, while rejoicing ahead humorous drawings, believe often that information, Radio Delhi origin for the essential, are the fruit of the imagination of the author. Poujade hoists the first french flag on the cape of Saïgon, on 18th August 1945, to the announcement of the official acceptance of the capitulation of Japan by its emperor : He fact that despite the opposition of a lot. (I have made it in a more belated date, to Hanoï). This flag, today in the Museum of the Order of Liberation, fleet in a disturbs atmosphere : Saïgon, as Hanoï, is paraded of red flags of the Viet Minh and support inscriptions such that "Death to French"... Europeans circulating in city are manhandled, beat and sometimes killed : one will remember the women and child massacre in the City Héraud. As to Paris, it is in liberating of a city raised to liberate that Leclerc (with the first troops of the French Expeditionary Corps in Extreme Orient) disembarks to Saïgon. It is not question for Poujade, despite his health (52 kg for 1m,72, instead of his 75 kg), to remain inactive. Once of more, he wears voluntary, beside the Cdt Graille, chief of system FFL that controlled Huchet, to summarize the combat before the come man arrival from France, whose his brother, in the framework of Agreements of Potsdam confiding the South Indochina to the SEAC of Lord L. Mountbatten, that represents the general D.D. Gracey in Saïgon. He is in the two releases of Saïgon. In Phù My, the 11° RIC reconstitute by ancient prisoners of Japanese is congratulated by Leclerc, and Poujade, noticed for his action : third quotation, awarded by the general Leclerc that is there know in men. To the order of the Army, accompanying the Military Medal, it costs to be reproduced: ...Has take share to the clandestine resistance against the Japanese occupant. Captive fact has, from his exit of captivity, participated voluntarily in operations of cleaning of 23 September, his company being stopped by a serious resistance, has throbbed with some comrades under the enemy fire, allowing thus the occupation of the objective, without losses for the Unit. Clandestine resistance, wants to tell despite authorities of Vichy in Indochina. Always despite his deficient health, he undertakes during again two month operations of commando far from Cholon. To make he blow, and because of his resistance against Japanese, he is assigned to the E.M. of Control Allied Japanese Troops : to disarm there ancient occupying Indo-China, he has as interprets the famous captain Konishi, that had known not to recognize it in Mars. (Later and in France, they will renew contact, allowing to elucidate some points, whose whole French authority responsibility in Indo-China reverse the dissenting Gaullists. Konishi had been the interpreter of a sort of gauleiter Japanese to Saïgon). In March 1946, Poujade is repatriated sanitary in France. 2 September, for the first birthday of the capitulation of Japan, Poujade, to the ward-to-you in the Yard of Honor of the Invalid, receives Edmond Michelet, Minister of the War and Resistant-Deported, the decoration that him has given the general Leclerc who signed the act of capitulation of the Empire of the Sun Raising. The Legion of Honor will follow. After an allocation to the S.E.I of Colonial Troops, where he participated in the creation of the Colonial Troop Museum then to Paris, he leaves the Army, summarizes his studies interrupted by the war, and undertakes a career of framework in the construction and its technical control. Per hour of the meadow-retirement, he is out question for him to anything make : He abandons the drawing and the paint (it has obtained a Medal of Bronze during a lounge in 1969) and begins the adventure of the handwriting. He wrote already for his pleasure in various reviews : Cross of War, Free France, Bazeilles-l'Ancre d'Or, he becomes assiduous editor the Journal des Combattants, where introduces him Guerny, evoking there misunderstood Combatants. He does not tell, but written on exploits of others. Thanks to him begins to be known the action of the Resistance in Indo-China and the share that there, had our arms in the second world war, during the cut of the Colony with the Metropolis. Lost children, forgotten, going often without ticket of return, we will be disgraced by us ignorant all of our action, while we have in our flesh and in our spirit the stigmates a desperate combat for the Honor in Extreme Orient. If Indochina was "lost" by the continuation, the honor was not then. It is the object of this book and Testimonies N° 76 and 77 of this corpus, and it was necessary me to present the author. I have to tell however, witness me also, that his works are not these of a partisan but these of a lucid observer that knows this whose he speaks and that tells facts in historian of lived it. One will find there the truth touch that alone confers the personal participation in facts related. It is finally time that one knows what lived these that lived to sacrifice in a combat without hope and often without glory.

Our companion René J. Poujade has brought the most important contribution to our enterprise of collection of testimonies. President of the section of War Cross of Villejuif, it has perceived at the same time that us the necessity to testify for the History and he has spared no time to, not only gather his own remember, but also to collect beside his friends their lived, all unique accounts that to rare exceptions, relate facts again never mentioned in books till now. Here, René J. Poujade tells us how, extracted to the autumn 1940 of the prison of Montpellier wherre he had been enclosed for having tempted to rejoin Free France by Gibraltar, he succeeds nevertheless to embark for Indochina and there, to undertake his exceptional adventure in the Resistance outside France. Follow various event souvenirs and all extraordinary, written with humor and a great compassion for those who at the same time, having a different sense of duty, borrowed ways of Vichy, leaving to entail in "the chain of the collaboration system".

General Robert Girard, chairman of the friendship circle of the Navy troops in the Nice area, accepted to testify and tell us about his experience as Sub Quarter Commander in Greater Kabylia during the Algerian war. He was a captain during the events, Robert Girard had at his disposal to ensure the security in a fairly wide area of a Colonial Infantry Regiment based in Zouatana and of an special administrative section whose duty was to improve the life of the civilian populations living on that territory (administration, health, education). The improvements in those fields being linked to the results achieved in the field of security thanks to the operations of the 6th Company. This short account of his campaign shows us how this objective of pacification was reached.

Member of the A.N.A (National Association of the Ancient Combatting) I have raised in the bulletin of this association from 2ème quarter 1990, a notice of research concerning Eminence Cassaigne, ancient Bishop of Saïgon, specially on his activities in the French committee d'entraide (C.F.E.) from Saïgon. I had well known Eminence Cassaigne to Saïgon as chief-scout and delegate to catholic youth works in Indochina. I have immediately written to the author of the announcement appeared in the bulletin A.N.A.I and I have had thus the pleasure to correspond with Sir Raillon whose the marries was parent of Mgr. Cassaigne. He planned to write a book on this missionary bishop and wanted, especially, to have information on his activities in the C.F.E. Bit after the Japanese force knock of 9/3/1945. I have had the opportunity me to escape from camps of Frenchs prisoners of the Japanese army and to base the C.F.E. under the presidency of Eminence Cassaigne. I was therefore well placed to reply to Sir Raillon who has fixed a plan allowing me to tidy these replies. Then, by 1990, the Association of War Cross of Nice has made call in the Ancient Combat and specially to its members for they write their main adventures of war. I have communicated it the totality notes that I had addressed to Sir Raillon and they have me invited to make a presentation of totality, more literary and more precise. What is going to follow.

From 10 Mars 1945, after this one has called their "knock of force", Japanese authorities take in hands the Administration of Indochina and put French under control. John Orsini, Aspirant of Artillery of reserve, native from Saïgon, captive fact, escapes the Quarter Virgile and proposes to Eminence Cassaigne, bishop of Saïgon, respect personality of all, the creation of a Committee of Entraide whose it becomes the General Secretary, attached to the father Moreau. That is the history this Committee whose mission is to helped civilians concentrated in a perimeter of the city, as well as captive French soldiers that is told us in this testimony. Remarkable thing, Japanese that recognized no European representation, even the Red Cross, neither even the Consulate of the IIIth Reich, sustain Eminence Cassaigne and his collaborators in their philanthropic action.

Port Vila is the capital of the island of Espiritu Santo, one of the News Hébrides to the south of the archipelago of Salomon, in the south of the Pacific Ocean . This Franco-British condominium had naturally rallied to France Free, under the impetus of the representative of France, the Physician-Captain of Colonial Troops Jean Pouliquen. The tidal wawe of the Japanese invasion in the Pacific stopped on banks of Espiritu Santo, in June 1942. The island is small, populated by Canaques living a very primitive life. Europeans there were rare and little numerous Asiatics. Infested by mosquitoes and other parasites, and had a luxuriant and impenetrable jungle. Internal communication ways were rare and difficult to use : the boat was the most sure way of displacement. An immense well protected roadstead, opening to the north, made Espiritu Santo an important strategic point, that appeared indispensable entailing the construction of stocking areas, then tracks to had and buildings for personal and equipment. The Americans do not ignore the importance of this tiny island of Free France, strange of French, whose possession was, according to general Douglas Mac Arthur, the condition for the déterminante victory of Guadalcanal in 1942. Espiritu Santo was the basis of American operations in the Salomon island, which led to victories in Papouasie and until the Fortress of Rabaul where the pride of Japan had inclined .

Cabotage to News Hébrides.

Good help Brest.

The foot of Cape nose of Palms.

The Aviso informed.

Japs to Nouméa ?

So much evocative titles, of anecdotes passionnantes collect by René Poujade in 1989 beside the witness, Physician-Colonel J. Pouliquen that show how much the share of France, although misunderstood, important barrel, perhaps essential, in the course of this conflict in these far regions of European fronts.

Lavry, Poivraud, Vaci, Lapidaire : the mock transparent having at least preserved the exact initial. The Doctor André Queguiner and Raymond Soclet have become my friends as William Labussière is. I have to the last three details of what they have lived the affair Bishop. Labussière, as my friend Pierre Boulle and my "Owner" Eugène Robert, was condemnee by the Military Court for high treason and know the prison and its "Bar of Indochina". The Colonel Lecocq was killed during combats of the Japanese "force knock" of 9 March 1945. The General Lemonnier was beheaded to Langson after the attack... Poivraud has continued a career in the shade, as others which have remembered that they were career officers. The Dr. Quéguiner has continued a beautiful civil career, as Soclet... and Labussière. When one evokes the ominous role, incontestably of the O.S.S. (first name of the CA.) and its local chief Helliwell the friend of the Viêt Minh, in events occurred in Indo-China from 1944 to 1954, one forgets that his primary francophobia had however some base besides motivations of F.D. Roosevelt and intimate reports of the First Lady... For the US E..M. and agents of the O.S.S., ignorants of contigencies and judging only on facts that touched them directly, French of Indo-China server under the Admiral-General Governor Decoux and the General Ordering Superior Mordant could be only collaborators of Japanese, it is to tell enemies of America treacherously attacked Pearl Harbour..., felicities for their victories by the Gougal and the Génésuper. In familiar of the Bible, they judged the tree to its fruit. How to conceive that the inflicted processing habitually to pilots of the XIV° US. Air Forces by authorities of Indochina would be without consequence, particularly when it concerned a Bishop, recognized hero in China ? The Nazi horror discovery by Americans, again all recent, then those, again fresh, Japs, while they preserved in memory the recent declarations "collaborationnistes" of friend of Vichy in Indo-China confirmed them in their simplistic analysis, but non without foundation, the situation.

One understands this American reaction, without for as much make it mine in all, when one know the history of Bishop, pilot of Flying Tigers.

These testimonies on event occurred in Indochina during the second world war, reveal the behavior of faithful remained peoples to Vichy that have adopted its political visions. In conflict : The officers who rallied Free France : Lecoq, Quéguiner, Soclet... and those faithful to the Marshal among whiwh those of the Stafe. Also Willy Labussière, friend of the General Chennault and one of his ancient best pilot who met the American hero of the adventure. René F. Poujade has collected these testimonies beside Dr Quéguiner, the Captain Soclet and Willy Labussière. He has submitted his text to them and they have given him their agreement for its publication.

Will to relate facts ascending to fifty years, in being based on the oral tradition and accounts of actors notices the wager. In all cases, that suitable run seriousness risk errors. None archiv to consult, as it has for a System of resistance that had by twice dismantling by the police to it be able on site. Just whole a notebook of road that brings some anecdotes, rare cuts this newspapers, historical account extracts... That had bluntly raised the impossible mission if I had not succeeded to contact the founder of the system. Happily, especially, that to the evoked period, we were all young peoples : facts have sufficiently marked our juvenile memories in order that they could emerge today. It is what I had related in pages that follow. If I have dug a bit everywhere in the historical account, it is to give to my work a frame that allows to better replace it in the context of the period. Could pages that follow to rejuvenate the Ancient in reminding them the happy time of their youth, and to incite news generations to remember efforts of their aînés to preserve them the well-to be and the liberty whose they benefit from our days. The present document wants to be only a minute of activities of a group of patriots having work in the Resistance Extra-metropolitan. Meadows of a half century after, it concerning collect testimonies of all protagonists. Alone some have been able to be contacted and their souvenirs woven for the present account. For all others, they will be mentioned only by their initials, safe agreement of their close in order that they are cities, or when they figure in historical or official documents. My account does not want exhaustive neither facts, (to see its title), neither the totality of members of the System. Wanted well, these that would come to in take knowledge, not to offend if they have been forgotten, me to excuse and if need be to mention me what could have be added to complete this account, provided that this is a general interest.

Some relative facts to the last wars could have remain forever occulted and disappeared with their witnesses. We have an example with this work processing the Resistance extramétropolitaine in Algeria and to Morocco, from June 1940 to 8 November 1942. When Mrs. Gitta Amiraz-Silber relates, in "The Jewish Resistance in Algeria", what has past to this period, it arouses the admiration and the surprise of one of our contemporaries of forefront, the Prime Minister of Israël Ménahem Begin: - We had only few information on acts of these anonymous combatants... in the struggle (against) the yoke of Germany Nazi. It has revealed and saved the oblivion the truth. An other example all as prominent to the subject of actions that have grafted on the American landing to Morocco : an officer of the army of Vichy, had, with others, taken the party of Allies against permanent orders. To this title, he had received mission the General Béthouard to be going to warn different city garrisons not to oppose stupidly to liberators. A half later century, although President of the association regrouping officers having accomplished the same harmful missions, he ignored albeit civilians had work for the even causes in informing Allies by the canal of American consular authorities. It was necessary, to combat his skepticism to provide him cuts of newspapers of the period, judgements of the Military Court where he will have perhaps been able to recognize some his peers For confrot the truth, to detail it then, finally to give it life, the testimony of the Doctor Paul Féron, is a wonderful material put at the disposal of seekers for the handwriting of the History of our Country.

The notes from Captain Ducroq seemed to me so incredible that I really had to publish them, taking care of the form, of each letter, each comma and putting at the end of my transcription some photocopies of the original documents so that the reader can see that there were no manipulation. I had it from a friend of my children who had it from his father but I was not able to know how it came in its possession. Before reading the main text, I would like you to memorise the following chronological landmarks and remember the message that the Maréchal sent to its faithful troops, making the promise that there would be no represails towards the families that would choose to stay in the east, and therefore would choose to join the France Libre. After the end of the ruthless fight, the crusaders of the Maréchal are given a magnanimous choice, - either join the France Libre - or go back to France. 25,000 soldiers, petty officers, and officers prefer the yoke and head for France as early as august 1941 on ships sent by Vichy and under the protection of the Kriegsmarine. The following will join France Libre. - 128 French officer. - 845 soldiers and petty officers. - 1031 legionnaires. - 1341 indigenous. - 750 Senegalese. That make 3.18 times more foreigners than French people ! In that respect the way Ducroq presents the Spahis Boulanoir is revealing of his state of mind (page 47 and 48 of the testimony). How I would like to read a study dealing with quantities or nationalities or races as would have said Ducrocq, soldiers who chose risk under the banner of General de Gaulle before the 1st of august 1943, that is to say before France Libre assured of victory became the fighting France which of course, but still a bit late all Frenchmen or almost eventually joined.

A sad adventure it was for those soldiers who chose, volunteers to fight against the Free Frenchmen in the distant Middle East, to assert the vitality of our race, with the blessing of Marechal Pétain and under the protection of the Führer, while he was invading Russia. They left the yet not occupied part of France in the middle of June 1941, they cross Germany, Austria, Yugoslavia, overfed by the German Red Cross, then from Thessaloniki to Athens by plane, and from Athens to Aleppo afterwards, here they are eventually in Syria facing the enemy, those French who chose dissent or betrayed or who gave a very poor image soldiers, dirty, unruly, unkempt. This report written on the 1st of august, a few days after the end of the fratricide fights, will leave you with a bitter taste and you will be stunned to read that one year after its defeat in 1940, the French army brought once more by its supreme sacrifice the unquestionable proof of the new rise of France. and that "The order of the Marechal to defend the empire, was carried out".

Testimonies of the General Jacques Sockeel and the General Robert Girard on the operation Atlante, during the War of Indochina, are particularly significant. Because they process the "French Period" of this war, and in its last times, and they make glimpse, the summary judgement reverse, that it is acted far more a situation of décolonisation in a part well limited of our planet. Because authors belong to two successive generations of French officers, that have lived a same adventure to different responsibility levels, and according to distinct experiences, to to be found in a common vision of men of terrain. It appears enough clearly that French superintendents of the War of Indochina did not feel, in 1953, that the balance of forces rocked gradually in our "défaveur", as it seems to prove retrospectively to the gleam of the result of 1954. It is necessary to specify in that, that these superintendents was in fact soldiers, the French Government having no determination not sure what was the public opinion in Metropolis, worked by endorsements of the International communist, and weary to endure the war since 1939. The political will of the Chief of the Vietnamese Government ally, legally independent since several years was unfortunately more evident. As for Cambodians and Laotiens, their confidence depended inevitably on that shown by the preponderant partner, the Viet-Nam. To eyes therefore of the responsible soldiers, carried to count of approach on ways of their spécificity (it is Mao-Tse-Toung, elsewhere, that has told that the policy was to the end of the gun ?), the situation improved with the under way army setting-up and national administration allies. If they had undergone an alone serious failure, the destruction of a column to Cao-Bang in 1950, forces of the French Expeditionary Corps had recorded notable success, so in the reconquest of the terrain and populations in the South, that in battles of mobile units elsewhere. The fact that forces under French commandment counted a good half of combatants of origin indochina, that costed assuredly these of in face, leash well think of national armies in training. It invite to note albeit Officers of the High Headquarters, full of the intellectual superiority of the French tradition, and perceiving badly the exact process nature and possibilities of the adversary, could only cultivate this optimism. Judgement that the one would have without temperate doubt if the one had studied this adversary with more penetration and modesty, what would not lack nevertheless to well of experimented combatants. As the fact remarkably discover by the General Sockeel, it is in this context, and to put to profit in some leaves the time of the climbing in national force power allies, that one decided the Operation Atlante, to reduce the enclave Viet-Minh by the Lien-Khu V, told poaches of Qui-Nhon, planted as an abscess on the coast of the Center-Annam. In this optic, Dien-Bien-Phu was a means of to fix adverse forces of the North, to insure the liberty of action of the main effort Atlante, as one say in good schools of strategy. But here is, one not has had enough account of largely strengthened capacities of forces of manoeuvre Viet-Minh, neither the political will of their Government to play goes it-whole from the Against-general Offensive, feeling in France the situation increasingly mature for a real negotiation, it is to tell a desertion of the part. One whispered between combatants of the Expeditionary Corps, that the precedent of the trenched Camp of Na San, that served as caution to that Dien-Bien-Phu, had brushed precision the catastrophe. One told also that units of intervention Viet-Minh were made precede and accompany of a logistics of ants, passing for unassailable, and nevertheless a thing eminently vulnerable of their manoeuvre for an adversary so is little supple and imaginative. But has-one ever seen an Army to attack logistic in head as told a joke of old Headquarters ? That is therefore in these conditions that was committed the Operation Atlante, object of these testimonies. The courage of combatants never was in cause, but rather an overestimate of the maturity of the young Vietnamese State and one under-estimation of the adversary. The result was there to demonstrate it, and null of participants can not remind these combats, without reliving their dramatic intensity. The General Jacques Sockeel, born in 1907, had his first quotation to Morocco, in 1925. Since 1939, it lived the war of manner quasi-uninterrupted. To First Free French Division (Italy, France, Germany). During eight years in Indochina, as Commander of Sector, then Mobile Grouping to the Operation Atlante and Commander of elements of collection of the Mobile Grouping 100 to the exit of An-Khe. As Commander of Sector in Algeria. His totals 18 quotations, whose 12 with palm, and has been raised to the rank of Great-Officer of the Legion of Honor. The General Robert Girard, born in 1923, has know the end of the second World War. He has undertaken two war stays in Extrême-Orient, on as Chief of Section of Indochina Highlander and Commander of Quarter in forest East of the South Viet-Nam, the other as Officer of Information of the G 100 and Commander temporarily of the Commando Bergerol (Operation Atlante). He has served four years during the War of Algeria, as Commander of Under-Quarter, then of a unit of intervention. He totals 9 quotations, whose 3 with palm, he is Commander of the Legion of Honor. All two are stemming from Troops of Navy and Patented of Military Studies Superior.

That two Generals of the French Army ally to confront their memories and to illuminate events they have each lived in different points in the course of the War of Indochina, here is an exceptional experience in our collection of testimonies that deserves to be underlined. As much they are two personalities that show, because it is always need, their courage and their determination to tell the true formerly, when it appeared them evident, on the terrain and even in campaign that the authority superior deceived, go until to tell "non" when it has been necessary and today again, by their contribution without ruination to the handwriting of the history of a magnificent French adventure in distant countries. That is also in this spirit, with this same intellectual straightness that the historical truth whose general Girard is made the defender in his civic combat, has the advantage to want "opened to all without formalities however defer thinks", is to tell to be the each natural expression member of the world combatting. With him we refuse to see it presented as the privilege of some ones or appreciated as a material of recovery, by some "structuring" that this is.

Very young, I had 13 years, I have left my family to take the train that drove me to the Preparatory Military School of Cavalry of Autun. During 5 years, I have therefore lived the life of internal with all what that comprises: discipline, studies, dormitories... To the opportunity of feasts and the great holidays, one granted us a permission. These permissions were, hulas, too short in order that we could bathe in the heat of the furnace family ! My family, indeed, suffered as much that me our separations and I can not forget the sensitivity of my father that poured cruel tears to each of my departures. Then this was the war. I had 18 years and a month when, voluntarily, I part to the front. The war ended, after some months passed in occupation in Germany, I part for the Algeria, to Mascara. I have thus the sentiment to have been well alone until the age of 25 years and to have been, very early, placed in the face of my own responsibilities. Saumur was, for me, a plate of choice. I there have a lot learnt in all areas, in a new climate, my military situation being finally regularized. But the life goes its train and each runs after the drawing until it is forged. To Saumur, that is a point interesting of my destiny, I have linked of friendship to a comrade of promotion, the Lieutenant Brun Gaston. We not left. Brun Gaston belonged to an excellent family whose father, officer, had a parallel career to that of the captain Campan. His sister, married to a particularly brilliant man, ancient raises the Colonial School, ancient prefect then Chief of Cabinet of Minister Loucheur, was an ancient raises of the School of the Legion of Honor. By necessity, she would wear sometimes the monocle and would not lack of originality. It had a very great friendship for Blanche Campan. With Gaston, I went often to Paris then, a day, while we were found close to the place of the Bourse, the idea came it to make a visit to the family Campan. He invited me to accompany. Reward us therefore the "Passy - Bourse", well known line of the old Parisians and, some instants after, we were N° 20 of the street of Passy where the family Campan resided in winter. I was presented to the family and my visits becoming by the more frequent continuation, I made share my intentions to Sir and Mrs. Campan. In the beginning of the year 1922, I betrothed to Blanche Campan. To this opportunity my mother, alone, came to Paris. I remember that, to arrive street of Passy, we had taken an old G7 whose defective carburation us had impregnated of an odor strong disagreeable ! The marriage had place to Vichy it 20 April and some days after, a womanly youth made her first arms to 18ème Hunters to horse to Haguenau. Have-I distanced my family ? Certainly no, this are events, my military life that not me permit to live near of her. It is necessary to admit that boys leave a day the nest, forge their existence then marry to base to their tower a family. Thus goes the life.

Accounts that one is going to discover tell a century of life. More far again they make relive transmitted souvenirs orally on several generations. My sister Bernadette and Mireille and me even, have lived an important share of these events, happy or painful sometimes, one them had often heard to tell by our family. Blanche Campan and Marcel Donès were all two narrator supernatural. What made the force of their accounts, that is they are the colored reflection of their lives and their no ordinary personalities. The work, the senses of the duty, the human value respect, but also the humor, the fantasy, the artistic talent, have been foundations of their life. Original of the midday, they loved their roots. Nothing counted more than their love for their great family. Under aspects very "officer of Cavalry "Marcel was a tender. Blanche, the sweet Blanchette, thus one called, had also, the character. All family has its mysteries and its dreams. One thinks that Blanche descended from Mrs. Campan, the lectrice of Marie - Antoinette. One speaks of a cousinage with Jean-Baptiste Clément , that the "time of cherries". I prefer to evoke a certainty. The great father of Marcel was marshal shoing to Rocquemaure, in the Gard. My great mother, small girl, shook the hunting-flies in horsehair of horse during he work to forges it. She told us that her father, as it was frequent in villages, had a nickname: It is for the long descendance of Marcel and Blanche an inheritance. He was called "the without similar".

It was in 1978, that Blanche, my sister, had the happy idea to write some remember concerning our dear mummy, some have been transmitted by Aunt Marie, the sister of my father. She has consulted letters and documents which have allowed her to establish as precise as possible the genealogical tree of the family. I have been able, personally, to find some photos which, I am sure, will make the joy of children.

The man stopped and began to daydream.

He wrote his memories, would be saying a lot, let's say rather a few of his souvenirs.

He gathered together old papers sparse in drawers.

He found photographs, helped in that by his wife who also, lives on souvenirs.

He dedicated finally these lines to his grand-children, without forgeting his motto which was and remains:

Know

Desire

Hope

This man is the grandfather, the commander Donès

In the serenity of the dusk of their life, amazed by the long traveling of their existence strewn of warlike events, surrounded of the tender fondness and the respect of a great and noble family , Blanche and Marcel Donès extract from their memory fragments with which they construct a monument which they bequeath to their children.

The family will read these lines with emotion.

The seeker will draw in adventures of the Great War, the Campagne de France in 1940 and the captivity in Austria, a sum of details which will allow them to perfect the handwriting the History of our country.

For me, I am happy that, by my favorite son-in-law Patrice Bridant, my grand-children, Marie-Charlotte, Benjamin and Philippe, belong to this lineage of the Violet, Battalier, Campan, Donès and I wish they will inherit the spirit of this family, the most beautiful and deserving School of Patriotism.

I have a lot hesitated to write this account : so things have already been written on the Resistance and by peoples well better informed that me : if I decide however, it is for a certain number reasons that I would want to make you share. First of all to satisfy these that have helped me during this disturbed period, and that have asked me to make it : they were little numerous, they are less in less and to these that remain I know than they will be happy to relive through this some account moments exultant of their courageous youth. Then, there is the envy to make know to the youngest what has been this period of the history of our region that makes now leave of our patrimony to all. I believe, finally, why not to tell it, that a moment arrives a day in the life of a man, where he wants, without doubt by need, to make his clean statement. For a lot of these that I have known in this period, the Resistance has brought ranks, honors, the money nothing of whole that for me, and nevertheless I am satisfied to have accomplished what you are going to read. Wrongly or to reason, you will judge...

One has a lot epilogue on the reality of the support brought by the interior resistant to armies allied in the course of the last war. The operations that followed the landing in Provence of 15 August 1944 illustrates nevertheless vivid manner the efficiency of this support, the rapidity of the progression allied to the North as well as the anticipated liberation of Nice and the quasi totality of Maritimes Alpes. It is to the action of intrepid agents as this "officer of opportunity" that the High Country Niçois had to be liberated with several months of advance on plans allied. It is thanks to the implantation of the maquis, that these Resistants organized in our mountains, that liberating troops could advance so rapidly the long of the road of Alpes to Grenoble, Lyon then Dijon. It is to the action of its similar in urban systems, that Nice was purged, intact, its occupants, 28 August 1944, less of two weeks after the landing of the Dramont. The account that you are going to read does not claim nevertheless to the strategic justification : it tells simply to the day the day, the life of a French agent parachuted in Provence in end 1943, to prepare the landing to the South and the reconquest of France occupied. This agent, that was one the great figures, nevertheless misunderstood, the Resistance in the High Country Niçois had made speak it under the war name of "Captain François". This who was his chief in the period, the General J. Lecuyer, tells "Sapin", has well wanted to preface these souvenirs.

Circumstances have wanted that during hours and years of the sink occupation, I have met men and women exiting the common, but I assert that none arrived to the level François (it is under this name that I have known the author of the account that follows) for the courage, the audacity and the efficiency that he would show in all circumstances, and the confidence that he inspired (at least to these they were his side !!). His radiation was such that these that he recruited followed him closed eyes, sure that they were, that with him, one in would exit always. Indeed, as all combatants and exceptional chiefs, he was rugged, difficult for manipulate, always to the extreme limits the reasonable - when this was not clearly to far ! - but inspiring a such confidence to his men that the unreasonable became possible... and realized. I can assert that pages that he has written are the expression of the exact truth, without forfanterie, without exaggeration, despite their sometimes unreal character ! I add that by modesty he has not even all tells ! Bravo François! I have found you to all pages !

After a half-century, Sir Gabriel Mazier testifies. Why to have waited so long ? The reply summarizes in three words: modesty, message, souvenir : - Modesty, because the author is a modest. he belongs to this tranquil man race that circumstances transform in hero. He has the sentiment to have made only his duty. He does not think that his behavior deserves to be put in light. He is discrete of nature... and that is all to his honor. - Message, because enseignements of the past reside current events. The time flows, but the History encourages the reflection. It is therefore useful to remind and to explain, in order that the experience serves. - Souvenir, because the numerous comrades of combat, that have sacrificed their life for their Country, have straight to the consideration of others. The ancient do not forget them. Youths will understand better the price of the Peace, its fragility and its demands. They will be grateful to their old. Great thank you to Gabriel Mazier to have crossed. He offers me the opportunity to remind his heroic role, under the name of Captain François. After an intensive training to the secret war, in North Africa, in the breast of the famous Battalion of shock of the Commander Gambiez, he is parachuted in Provence at the end of 1943. He is a chief in all the meaning of the term, rugged, but subjugating his men that follow him eyes closed. Thanks to this "officer of opportunity", the High Country Niçois is liberated with several months of advance on plans allied. Gabriel Mazier, with a lot of modesty, provides us an example. Simply, but undeniably, he gives a patriotism and courage lesson. He commits to the vigilance. Thus, he continues to fight for France : the feather is his new arm. It has understood, with Platon, that this are Men, and non stones, that make the rampart of the City.