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Pierre Simonet, Compagnon de la LIberation

Discussion in 'WWII Obituaries' started by GRW, Nov 6, 2020.

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  1. GRW

    GRW Pillboxologist WW2|ORG Editor

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    "One of three remaining fighters in the French resistance to the Nazi occupation of World War II has died, President Emmanuel Macron's office said today, hailing a 'hero' who was just 17 when he joined the fight to free France.
    Pierre Simonet, who died Thursday aged 99, was one of just over a thousand resistance fighters decorated by Charles de Gaulle, who rallied the defeated French forces from London after Germany's 1940 invasion of the country.
    His death comes just a few months after that of another wartime hero, Edgard Tupet-Thome, leaving just two men as living links to one of the most wrenching chapters in France's history.
    Born in Hanoi before arriving with his family in France when he was five, Simonet rejoined De Gaulle and asked to be a pilot despite his lack of a license. Instead he was asked to use his math studies to help form artillery battalions for the Free French Forces (FFL).
    But he eventually got his flying wish, becoming a spotter during Operation Dragoon that debarked for the Italy campaign in 1944, in which French forces made up the bulk of the Allied force.
    By the end of the war, 'he had chalked up 250 flight hours and 137 missions, earning him five distinctions and his designation as a Companion of the Liberation on December 27, 1945,' the presidency said."
    www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8921901/One-three-remaining-fighters-French-resistance-dies-aged-99-President-Macron-hails-hero.html
     

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