Chinon
Chinon () is a Communes of France, commune in the Indre-et-Loire Departments of France, department, Centre-Val de Loire, France.
The traditional province around Chinon, Touraine, became a favorite resort of French kings and their nobles beginn ...
,
Indre-et-Loire
Indre-et-Loire () is a department in west-central France named after the Indre River and Loire River. In 2019, it had a population of 610,079.Resistance worker. During the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
he founded and headed the CARTE network, also taking "Carte" as his personal codename.
Life
Prewar
He was the eldest child born to a pair of brewers, and attended the
École des Beaux-Arts
; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centu ...
before his military service at Saint-Cyr. He developed friendships with both
Georges Rouault
Georges-Henri Rouault (; 27 May 1871, Paris - 13 February 1958, Paris) was a French painter, draughtsman, and printmaker, whose work is often associated with Fauvism and Expressionism.
Childhood and education
Rouault was born into a poor famil ...
and
Pierre Bonnard
Pierre Bonnard (; 3 October 186723 January 1947) was a French painter, illustrator and printmaker, known especially for the stylized decorative qualities of his paintings and his bold use of color. A founding member of the Post-Impressionist gr ...
. He became a painter, as well as a caricaturist and theatre set designer. He was one of the best known publicity poster designers in Paris during the 1930s. He set himself up in Venice in 1936–37 and in Manhattan in 1938.
) before war broke out, he was not called up in 1939. He refused to see the Germans enter Paris after their success in the
Battle of France
The Battle of France (; 10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign (), the French Campaign (, ) and the Fall of France, during the Second World War was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembour ...
, and departed in 1940 for the free zone of France, setting up at
Antibes
Antibes (, , ; ) is a seaside city in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department in Southeastern France. It is located on the French Riviera between Cannes and Nice; its cape, the Cap d'Antibes, along with Cap Ferrat in Saint-Jean-Ca ...
. There he painted his four daughters and founded the CARTE network. He was apolitical and tended towards recruitment and spying ready for an armed uprising against the Germans. At first hostile to
Gaullism
Gaullism ( ) is a Politics of France, French political stance based on the thought and action of World War II French Resistance leader Charles de Gaulle, who would become the founding President of France, President of the Fifth French Republic. ...
, he aroused the interest of the
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. ...
, who carried out a favourable evaluation of him and his network and then supplied him with arms, radio operators and money.
In July 1942 Nicholas Bodington, second in command of SOE's F section, landed in France to check on the value of reports about CARTE transmitted by agent Francis Basin, but on 12 September that year Bodington filed a report confirming SOE's highly favourable opinion of the network. However, security indiscretions and differences between Girard and his second in command Henri Frager weakened the network. For example, in November 1942 a suitcase containing a list of 200 CARTE members disappeared, either lost by
when he fell asleep on a train and finally falling into
Abwehr
The (German language, German for ''resistance'' or ''defence'', though the word usually means ''counterintelligence'' in a military context) ) was the German military intelligence , military-intelligence service for the ''Reichswehr'' and the ...
hands, or being lost by Marsac in Marseille and coming into the hands of Dubois, police commissioner and head of security for CARTE, who then let the interested parties know of its loss via Bartroli de Mandres. Whichever account is true, no arrests resulted from the loss in the end, but CARTE was fatally weakened and the SOE network ''Prosper'' - PHYSICIAN largely took over its work (particularly using its important intelligence files).
In 1943 Girard refused to merge CARTE with COMBAT, feeling it to be too close to Gaullism, and on the night of 20/21 February that year flew to England on SOE orders, having been picked up by a Lockheed A-28 Hudson near
Arles
Arles ( , , ; ; Classical ) is a coastal city and Communes of France, commune in the South of France, a Subprefectures in France, subprefecture in the Bouches-du-Rhône Departments of France, department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Reg ...
. SOE opposed his returning to France, even when he learned of his wife's arrest and deportation to
Ravensbrück concentration camp
Ravensbrück () was a Nazi concentration camp exclusively for women from 1939 to 1945, located in northern Germany, north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück (part of Fürstenberg/Havel). The camp memorial's estimated figure of 1 ...
(she was only released in 1945). He thus broke with SOE and went into self-imposed exile in the United States of America, where he remained until his death. There he gave conferences and wrote articles and books to vent his opposition to both the British and the Gaullists, thus pushing himself into relative obscurity.
Legion of Merit
The Legion of Merit (LOM) is a Awards and decorations of the United States military, military award of the United States Armed Forces that is given for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievemen ...