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Émile Coulaudon
Émile Coulaudon (29 December 1907 - 1 June 1977), known as Colonel Gaspard, was one of the principal leaders of the French Resistance in Auvergne during the Second World War. Life prior to the Resistance Coulaudon was born on 29 December 1907 in Clermont-Ferrand to a socialist family. His father ran a business that distributed electrical goods for Philips. His brother, Aimé Coulaudon, a lawyer, was elected as a député for the French Section of the Workers' International in 1936. After military service, Coulaudon became commercial director of the family business, in 1930. In 1939, he was conscripted as a medical master sergeant. Following the Battle of France, he was imprisoned at Gérardmer on 22 June 1940, and escaped on 8 July. Soon after, with Jean Mazuel, he founded in Clermont-Ferrand and Brioude one of the first Resistance groups in Auvergne. Resistance By November 1942, Coulaudon was head of Combat in Puy-de-Dôme. In April 1943, he went into hiding and created ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clermont-Ferrand
Clermont-Ferrand (, , ; or simply ; ) is a city and Communes of France, commune of France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regions of France, region, with a population of 147,284 (2020). Its metropolitan area () had 504,157 inhabitants at the 2018 census.Comparateur de territoire: Aire d'attraction des villes 2020 de Clermont-Ferrand (022), Unité urbaine 2020 de Clermont-Ferrand (63701), Commune de Clermont-Ferrand (63113) INSEE It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture (capital) of the Puy-de-Dôme departments of France, département. Olivier Bianchi is its current List of mayors of Clermont-Ferrand, mayor. Clermont-Ferrand sits on the plai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mobilisation Auvergne
Mobilization (alternatively spelled as mobilisation) is the act of assembling and readying military troops and supplies for war. The word ''mobilization'' was first used in a military context in the 1850s to describe the preparation of the Prussian Army. Mobilization theories and tactics have continuously changed since then. The opposite of mobilization is demobilization. Mobilization institutionalized the Levée en masse (engl. ''mass levy of conscripts'') that was first introduced during the French Revolution. It became an issue with the introduction of conscription, and the introduction of the railways in the 19th century. A number of technological and societal changes promoted the move towards a more organized way of deployment. These included the telegraph to provide rapid communication, the railways to provide rapid movement and concentration of troops, and conscription to provide a trained reserve of soldiers in case of war. History Roman Republic The Roman Republ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nancy Wake
Nancy Grace Augusta Wake, (30 August 1912 – 7 August 2011), also known as Madame Fiocca and Nancy Fiocca, was a nurse and journalist who joined the French Resistance and later the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II, and briefly pursued a post-war career as an intelligence officer in the Air Ministry. The official historian of the SOE, M. R. D. Foot, said that "her irrepressible, infectious, high spirits were a joy to everyone who worked with her". Many stories about her World War II activities come from her autobiography, ''The White Mouse'', and are not verifiable from other sources. Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Wake grew up in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. By the 1930s, Wake was living in Marseille with her French industrialist husband, Henri Fiocca, when the war broke out. After the fall of France to Nazi Germany in 1940, Wake became a courier for the Pat O'Leary escape network led by Ian Garrow and, later, Albert Guérisse. As a member of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Hind Farmer
John Hind Farmer, MC, TD, (1917–2012) was a member of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the Second World War. He was head of the FREELANCE network active in Auvergne from May to June 1944. Subsequently he worked for MI6 and is said to have been involved in a British plot to assassinate President Nasser of Egypt. Biography John Farmer was born in London on 12 January 1917 and educated in Germany and Switzerland as well as the Jesuit College at Godinne-sur-Meuse (now part of the commune of Yvoir) in Belgium. He continued his education at Beaumont College, Windsor, United Kingdom. He won many awards for sprinting and hurdles both in and out of school and rugby was a passion for all his life. He was also an actor and dancer having danced in the role of Puck in a production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by the Bank of England. Second World War In 1939, when working in the Bank of England, he joined the Royal Artillery and was sent to an anti-aircraft battery on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Irregular Military
Irregular military is any military component distinct from a country's regular armed forces, representing non-standard militant elements outside of conventional governmental backing. Irregular elements can consist of militias, private armies, mercenaries, or other non-state actors, though no single definition exists beyond exclusion from national service. Without standard military unit organization, various more general names are often used; such organizations may be called a ''troop'', ''group'', ''unit'', ''column'', ''band'', or ''force''. Irregulars are soldiers or warriors that are members of these organizations, or are members of special military units that employ irregular military tactics. This also applies to irregular infantry and irregular cavalry units. Irregular warfare is warfare employing the tactics commonly used by irregular military organizations. This often overlaps with asymmetrical warfare, avoiding large-scale combat and focusing on small, stealth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Organisation De Résistance De L'armée
The ''Organisation de résistance de l'armée'', ''O.R.A.'' (Fr: resistance organisation of the army) was a French paramilitary Resistance during World War II, resistance organisation during the Second World War. It was created on 31 January 1943, following the November 1942 German invasion of the ''zone libre'' as a self-styled apolitical organisation bringing together former French military personnel in pursuit of active resistance against the German occupiers, but rejecting Charles de Gaulle. The ORA was founded by General Aubert Frère, president of the tribunal which had condemned de Gaulle to death in August 1940. Frère was arrested in 1943 and deported. He died in Struthof on 13 June 1944. The ORA's next leader was Major General Jean-Edouard Verneau, who was arrested on 23 October 1943 and died while being deported to Buchenwald on 14 September 1944. The leadership was then assumed by Major General Georges Revers, whose second was Brigadier General Pierre Brisac. The ORA ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Special Operations Executive
Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a British organisation formed in 1940 to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in German-occupied Europe and to aid local Resistance during World War II, resistance movements during World War II. SOE personnel operated in all territories occupied or attacked by the Axis powers, except where demarcation lines were agreed upon with Britain's principal Allies of World War II, Allies, the United States and the Soviet Union. SOE made use of neutral territory on occasion, or made plans and preparations in case neutral countries were attacked by the Axis. The organisation directly employed or controlled more than 13,000 people, of whom 3,200 were women. Both men and women served as agents in Axis-occupied countries. The organisation was dissolved in 1946. A memorial to those who served in SOE was unveiled in 1996 on the wall of the west cloister of Westminster Abbey by the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, Queen Mother, and in 2009 on t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maurice Southgate
Maurice Southgate (20 June 1913 – 17 March 1990), code named Hector, was an officer in the Royal Air Force and an agent of the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) organization during World War II. The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in occupied Europe against the Axis powers, especially Nazi Germany. SOE agents allied themselves with resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England. Southgate was the organiser (leader) of the SOE's STATIONER network (or circuit) operating in a large area centered on Châteauroux in central France and Tarbes in southern France from 1942 to 1944. He was captured by the SS in Montluçon in 1944 and deported to Buchenwald concentration camp where he survived until its liberation by American forces in 1945. Southgate was regarded by Maurice Buckmaster, head of SOE's French Section, as one of his best agents. Early life Southgate was born in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
