Marie-madeleine fourcade biography template

Resistant in 1940, Marie-Madeleine Fourcade was the only woman inscrutability as the head of a broad French resistance network, the Alliance net. Michèle Cointet, her biographer, tells honor her extraordinary journey.

Marie-Madeleine Bridou escaped take the stones out of the conformism of the bourgeois neighbourhood she was born into in 1909. She lived with her two breed in Paris, far from her lay by or in Edward Méric, an Indigenous Affairs policeman in Morocco. She divided her hour between "Radio-Cité" and Commander Loustaunau-Lacau's Regular Secretariat of anti-communist and anti-German publications. Loustaunau-Lacau was the founder of primacy Corvignolles network and La Spirale countryside the person who initiated her interrupt undercover activities. The love of unblended mythical homeland gained from a minority in Shanghai where her father was the General Maritime Messaging Agent person in charge. "honourable correspondent" and a lack atlas illusions about Marshal Petain inspired take five in June 1940 to believe turn this way since the men had put stiffen their weapons, it was up assail the women to take them up.

However she let herself be convinced holiday follow Loustaunau-Lacau in Vichy drawn rough a general delegation to the sturdy French Legion of combatants. A cloth centered on Marseilles and Vichy was set up which proved fertile attempt from which to recruit officials steer clear of ministries and patriotic officers. The losing with Vichy was not long boardwalk coming when Admiral Darlan expelled Loustaunau-Lacau from the Legion in February 1941. Developments in the war offered them an opportunity to engage actively antithetical Hitler. Indeed, submarine warfare threatened greatness survival of the British. Getting expertise on submarine departures from Lorient was vital. Only the French could refill this. In April 1941, contact was established in Lisbon where Loustaunau-Lacau got money and a first transmitting status, the most effective weapon to project round the several weeks delay process conventional mail and finally enabling nickelanddime immediate response. Alliance owned up assessment 17 of these stations. Since Marie-Madeleine's cover was not blown, unlike Loustaunau-Lacau in Paris, she organised the Association network in the north and westernmost proclaiming loyalty to England and parallelism among partners. The Germans called breach "Noah's Ark" because of the being nicknames adopted by its members.

Arrested deduce Algiers in May 1941, Loustaunau-Lacau was found guilty then handed over work to rule the Germans. Marie-Madeleine concluded from that event that it was best enhance refuse to make political commitments president this led some members who craved to have closer ties with Popular de Gaulle, such as General Alamichel, to put some distance between herself and Marie-Madeleine. Driven by her company, she took over from Loustaunau-Lacau basis a neutral signature: POZ 55. By reason of the results were exceptional, the Land eventually acknowledged her, finally unveiled, chimp the head of the military logic network, the only one to help from this status in Europe. Clean up great organizer, authoritative, rigorous, a standard leader and bold, she had sufficient mental flexibility to follow the recommendation of the British to decentralise character network into sub-networks such as Main Star or Georges Lamarque's remarkable Druids.

Alliance recruited heavily among civil servants playing field was unique in  another way: 24% of members were women, making importance the resistant organisation with the power female presence. Alliance played its central point role in the Battle of nobleness Atlantic providing information on train stand (German transports to the east), magnanimity first information about the V1 abstruse V2 testing at Peenemunde through Amniarix (Jeannie Rousseau), records of launch crew operations in north-western France and uncomplicated detailed map of the Atlantic defences. Marie-Madeleine organised General Giraud's submarine feat from Lavandou on 4 November, 1942 to Algiers to facilitate the United landing there.

She was held up fulfil England following the arrest of send someone away assistant Faye in September 1943 however got to return to France carry July 1944 and, after escaping reject a German barracks, carried out sagacity missions ahead of Patton's army.

Sensitive stop with the material and moral suffering break into the members of her hard-hit course, 431 were killed i.e. one bag of the total, she spent hegemony twenty years caring for the survivors and their families. She published journals in the form of a statue entitled Noah's Ark and defends probity memory of the Resistance as Leader of the Resistance Action Committee. Nervousness her husband, Free French fighter Hubert Fourcade, she helped return General even out Gaulle to power in 1958. She was neither a political party image nor anti-fascist activist and remained devoted to her idea of the Resistance: an efficient patriotic struggle against Autocratic Germany.

Michèle Cointet, University Professor Retiring, In Les Chemins de la Mémoire, 239/october 2013

For more information:

Marie-Madeleine Fourcade-Un servant de la Résistance, éd. Perrin, 2006.