Robert de La Rochefoucauld
Robert de La Rochefoucauld Comte de La Rochefoucauld | |
---|---|
Mayor of Ouzouer-sur-Trézée | |
In office 1966–1996 | |
Succeeded by | Muriel Swynghedauw [citation needed] |
Personal details | |
Born | Robert Jean Marie de La Rochefoucauld 16 September 1923 Paris, France |
Died | 8 May 2012 Ouzouer-sur-Trézée, France | (aged 88)
Spouse | Bernadette de Marcieu de Gontaut-Biron |
Children | 4 |
Occupation | French Resistant Special Operations Executive |
Biography
Early life
Robert de La Rochefoucauld was born in Paris, one of 10 children in a family living in a fashionable area near the Eiffel Tower. His father, Olivier de La Rochefoucauld, and his mother, the daughter of the Duke of Maillé, were members of the French nobility; he used the aristocratic title of count in his later years. He studied at private schools in Switzerland and Austria, and, at age 15, received a pat on the cheek from Adolf Hitler on a class visit to his Alpine retreat at Berchtesgaden.[1]
World War II
French Resistance
La Rochefoucauld was 16 and a follower of
The British, having secured the men's freedom, were so impressed with La Rochefoucauld's boldness and ingenuity that they asked him to join the Special Operations Executive (SOE), the clandestine unit which Prime Minister Winston Churchill created in 1940 to "set Europe ablaze", as he put it, by working with resistance groups on the German-occupied Continent. Received by Charles de Gaulle, he expressed his difficulty choosing between service in the SOE and the Free French Forces, and was encouraged to choose the SOE: "If it is for France, then go ahead."[4]
Work for the SOE
The British flew La Rochefoucauld to London, where they trained him to jump out of aeroplanes, set off explosives and kill a man quickly using his hands. In June 1943 they parachuted him into France, where he destroyed an electric substation and blew up railroad tracks at Avallon, but was captured and condemned to death by the Nazis. While being taken for execution, he jumped from the back of his captors' truck, dodged bullets, then ran through nearby streets. He ended up outside a German headquarters, where he spotted a limousine flying a swastika flag, its driver nearby and the keys in the ignition.[2] He drove off in the car and then caught a train to Paris, hiding in one of its bathrooms. The Daily Telegraph quoted him as saying, "When we arrived in Paris, I felt drunk with freedom."[1][2] The SOE later evacuated him to England.[5]
In May 1944, La Rochefoucauld parachuted back into France. Dressed as a workman, he smuggled explosives into a huge German munitions plant in Saint-Médard-en-Jalles, near Bordeaux. Over the course of the four-day mission, La Rochefoucauld, code-named "Sun", smuggled 40 kilos of explosives, concealed in hollowed-out loaves of bread and specially designed shoes, into the factory. He set off the explosives on 20 May and, after scaling a wall, fled on a bicycle. After sending a message to London (the reply read simply: "Félicitations"), he enjoyed several bottles with the local Resistance leader, waking the next day with a hangover.[1]
However, La Rochefoucauld was soon imprisoned by the Germans once more in
During one mission, he was captured by the
Work after the war
The SOE was disbanded in 1946. As an officer in the postwar French military, La Rochefoucauld trained French troops and conducted raids on the
Mayor of Ouzouer-sur-Trézée
La Rochefoucauld was the mayor of Ouzouer-sur-Trézée for 30 years, from 1966 to 1996.[2] His memoir, La Liberté, C'est Mon Plaisir, 1940-1946, was published in 2002.
Maurice Papon trial
In 1997, La Rochefoucauld testified on behalf of Maurice Papon, who was being tried on charges of deporting 1600 French Jews to their deaths in Nazi concentration camps while an official with France's wartime collaborationist Vichy government. La Rochefoucald told the court that Papon had risked his life to help the Resistance and the Allies.[2] Papon was convicted of complicity in Nazi crimes against humanity but fled to Switzerland while appealing. He was arrested at a Gstaad hotel, where he had registered as Robert Rochefoucauld.[7] One of Papon's lawyers said La Rochefoucauld had given his passport to Papon to help him escape.[8] Papon died in 2007.
Death
The news of La Rochefoucauld's death at the age of 88 in Ouzouer-sur-Trézée emerged on 8 May 2012, first announced by his family in the French newspaper Le Figaro and then reported late in June in the British press.[citation needed]
Discrepancies in La Rochefoucauld's account
Neither La Rochefoucauld nor his missions to France appear in the official history SOE in France, first published by
Further, a number of incidents described in La Rochefoucauld's autobiography conflict with other accounts and evidence. For example, although he said he sabotaged the explosives works at Saint-Médard-en-Jalles in May 1944, this target had already been successfully attacked by RAF Bomber Command three weeks earlier, on the night of 29/30 April.[12] A report in The Times on 1 May described the raid's "unusually spectacular results" and how "colossal" explosions were heard half an hour after the bombing attack had finished.[13] Evaluating the results shortly afterwards, an RAF photo-reconnaissance report confirmed that the target had been "heavily damaged": six large warehouse buildings had been wiped out; at least half of the smaller buildings were damaged or destroyed; the railway line into the plant had been "severed by direct hits at many points"; and three 90-foot craters were visible from the air.[14] Such an important, large-scale demolition would have ranked at the top of SOE's achievements, but SOE's extensive examination of its own sabotage work, undertaken across France in 1945, does not mention it.[15] Nor does SOE's detailed report on its activities in France, submitted in June 1946, just prior to its amalgamation by MI6, and written by an officer with an intimate knowledge of its operations, make any mention of La Rochefoucauld.[16] However, an entry on page 75 refers to: "Corps Franc Georges – Attack on St. Medard powder works (out of action 15 days)", which calls into question the extent of damage from the RAF raid at the end of April 1944 as reported the following day in The Times. Nor do local archives in Saint-Médard report any extensive property damage for that date.[17]
According to La Rochefoucauld, he was exfiltrated by submarine off the coast of Berck, near Calais, at the end of February 1944,[18] yet according to official sources SOE conducted no sea operations east of Brittany during this period.[19] Paul Kix's biography, The Saboteur, refers to Motor Gun Boat No. 502 as La Rochefoucauld's means of escaping France, although not through Calais.[20]
On the subject of his recruitment, La Rochefoucauld mentions that Eric Piquet-Wicks, then deputy for SOE's RF Section, spotted his potential in Spain in late 1942, but Piquet-Wicks did not arrive in Spain until spring 1944, when he took up a more junior role in Madrid after recovering from tuberculosis.[21] According to Kix, La Rochefoucauld met in Spain with Ambassador Samuel Hoare and met Piquet-Wicks later, in London.[22]
A file on La Rochefoucauld held at the
Honours
Among other distinctions, La Rochefoucauld was made a
Personal life
La Rochefoucauld belonged to one of the oldest families of the French nobility, whose members included François de La Rochefoucauld, the author of a classic 17th-century book of maxims. La Rochefoucauld married Bernadette de Marcieu de Gontaut-Biron; they had one son and three daughters.[1][2][25]
Works
- Robert de La Rochefoucauld (2002). La Liberté, C'est Mon Plaisir, 1940-1946 (in French). Paris: Perrin. ISBN 9782262019846.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Count Robert de La Rochefoucauld". The Daily Telegraph. 29 June 2012. Archived from the original on 30 June 2012. Republished as: "Rollicking tale of French blue-blood agent". The Age. 7 July 2012. Archived from the original on 8 July 2012.
- ^ ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 5 May 2021. Republished as: Goldstein, Richard (11 July 2012). "Robert de La Rochefoucauld, 88; aristocrat fought Nazis as saboteur". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 17 October 2021.
- ISBN 978-1-62513-103-4.
- ^ Hubert de Beaufort (2001). "Robert de La Rochefoucauld: agent du SOE et Résistant parachuté à Bordeaux [agent of SOE and Resistance member parachuted into Bordeaux]". Le Libre blanc, Histoire de l'occupation de Bordeaux [History of the occupation of Bordeaux]. Paris.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ISBN 9780062322531.
- ^ Kix (2018) pp. 82-112.
- ISBN 978-1-909662-24-7.
- ^ Kix (2018) p. 220.
- ISBN 9780415408004.
- ^ a b c Kix (2018) p. 226.
- ^ Foot (2006) p. 449.
- ^ RAF History - Bomber Command 60th Anniversary: Campaign Diary, April 1944, nationalarchives.gov.uk; accessed 4 January 2016.
- ^ "R.A.F. Night Assault". The Times. 1 May 1944. p. 4.
- ^ 'Interpretation Report K.2100', AIR 51/218, National Archives, Kew.
- ^ France: industrial demolitions part I (May-June), HS 8/424-427, National Archives, Kew.
- ^ "The 'British' Circuits in France, 1941-44", HS 8/1002, National Archives, Kew.
- ^ Kix (2018) pp. 154, 272–73.
- ^ Robert de La Rochefoucauld (2002). La Liberté, C'est mon plaisir (in French). Paris: Perrin. pp. 70–71.
- ISBN 0714653160.
- ^ Kix (2018) p. 138, Appendixes A–F.
- ^ Eric Piquet-Wicks Personal File, HS 9/1587/6, National Archives, Kew.
- ^ Kix (2018) pp. 49-51, 54-55, 244–46.
- Vincennes, France.
- ISBN 9781459722873.
- ^ a b Davison, Phil (20 June 2012). "Count Robert de la Rochefoucauld: Veteran of the SOE". The Independent. Retrieved 17 October 2021.