France has lost one of its great resistance fighters.
Edgard Tupët-Thomé died on Wednesday September 9 at the age of 100.
He was one of the last four companions of the Liberation still alive.
"The President of the Republic salutes this resistance from the first hour, who was until his last breath a committed man, ready to oppose the bad winds of History with the breath of the ideal," said the Elysee in a statement.
The Order of the Liberation is very sad to inform you of the disappearance of Edgard Tupët-Thomé, Companion of the Liberation, which occurred on September 9, 2020 at the age of 100 years.
Edgard Tupët-Thomé was Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor.
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- Order of the Liberation - Invalides (@ O2LaLiberation) September 9, 2020
High-risk missions
This Ardennes had been a shock parachutist in the Free French Forces.
Born April 19, 1920, Edgard Tupët-Thomé had turned away from theological studies to join the army in 1938. Sergeant when war broke out, he took part in the fighting in Lorraine, Belgium then in Dunkirk, where it protects the embarkation of British soldiers.
Taken prisoner by the Germans, he escapes.
In the aftermath of the armistice, not accepting defeat, he tried in vain to leave France to join the Free French Forces (FFL).
He finally joined the Internal Resistance alongside Roger Warin.
Responsible for spotting clandestine airstrips, he became one of the first five secret military personnel of the FFL in France.
Sent to Great Britain in 1941, he was assigned to the private staff of General de Gaulle, under the pseudonym of Thomé, and followed parachute training.
Charged with a mission in France by the Central Bureau of Intelligence and Action (BCRA), he was parachuted on December 9, 1941 in the region of Châteauroux, and injured his head during the landing.
He returned to England in May 1942 to be able to treat himself.
In November 1942, he left to join the detachment of commando instructors from Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon.
Then in 1943, he was assigned to the Antilles detachment.
Edgard Tupët-Thomé, Companion of the Liberation, breathed his last.
"Para" of Free France, at 20, he fights passionately to defend freedom.
Our duty is to keep his memory alive, along with that of those who fought for the triumph of our values.
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- Florence Parly (@florence_parly) September 9, 2020
With the third regiment of parachute hunters (RCP), integrated into the British Special Air Service (SAS), from the summer of 1944 it carried out high-risk missions in Brittany, in the Jura and in Holland, which inflicted heavy losses. material and human to the enemy.
During his first mission, in the region of Daoulas, in Finistère, he attacked with his section of 12 men a strong Kommandantur of 60 German soldiers, 12 of whom were killed and around 40 taken prisoner.
In 1945, the young man who became a lieutenant resigned from the army.
After passing through the Colonial School of Administration, he became administrator in Tunisia in January 1946. In 1950, he moved to Canada before returning to France in 1955 where he resumed engineering studies then worked successively at Singer. , in a pharmaceutical laboratory and at the automobile manufacturer Panhard.
Three companions still alive
A resident of the National Institute of Invalides, Edgard Tupët-Thomé was elevated in January 2020 to the dignity of Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor.
Only three companions of the Liberation survive him, Daniel Cordier, Hubert Germain and Pierre Simonet, out of the 1,038 distinguished by Charles de Gaulle for their commitment to Free France during the German Occupation.
The last companion who will die will be buried in the crypt of Mont-Valérien in the last empty vault, between George Brière, sailor in the 1st regiment of marines, killed in the Vosges in November 1944, and Alfred Touny ("Colonel Guérin") shot in April 1944, also Companion of the Liberation.
With this disappearance, there are only three Companions of the Liberation still alive: Hubert Germain, Pierre Simonet and Daniel Cordier.tthttps: //t.co/lz5LXoHKCE
- Stéphanie Trouillard (@Stbslam) September 9, 2020
With AFP
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