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World Wars & Contemporary Wars, Member of the French Resistance during World War II

FrenchBorn Charles Georges Antoine DELESTRAINT

French Army lieutenant general and member of the French Resistance during World War II

Born on March 12, 1879 in Biache-Saint-Vaast , France

Died on April 19, 1945 in Dachau , Germany

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Charles Delestraint (12 March 1879 – 19 April 1945) was a French Army lieutenant general and member of the French Resistance during World War II. He also befriended Charles de Gaulle. Delestraint was killed by the Gestapo in 1945.

 ...   Charles Delestraint (12 March 1879 – 19 April 1945) was a French Army lieutenant general and member of the French Resistance during World War II. He also befriended Charles de Gaulle. Delestraint was killed by the Gestapo in 1945.


Early life
He was born in Biache Saint-Waast, Pas-de-Calais.


Military career


World War I
Delestraint was captured early during World War I and spent the remainder of it as a prisoner of war.


Interwar Period
After the war he remained in the army where he was a proponent for the use of armoured forces.


World War II
Delestraint retired in 1939 but was recalled to service after the outbreak of World War II. During the Battle of France, on 3 June 1940, he led the armoured counterattack against Germans in Abbeville.


In the Resistance
After the surrender of France on 25 June, he retired to Bourg-en-Bresse where Henri Frenay recruited him into the French Resistance. Delestraint began to organize resistance in Lyon. He clandestinely visited Charles de Gaulle in London and agreed to lead the Armée Secrète. He returned to France on 24 March 1943. However, he was arrested by the Gestapo on 9 June and interrogated by Klaus Barbie. He was taken as special prisoner (Nacht und Nebel) to Natzweiler-Struthof and then to the Dachau concentration camp, where he was executed on 19 April, only a few days before the camp was liberated and the war ended.


Honours

Commander of the Légion d'honneur
Companion of the Liberation
Croix de guerre 1914–1918 with palm
Croix de guerre 1939–1945
Croix de Guerre from Belgium


External links

Charles Delestraint



Biography from Wikipedia (see original) under licence CC BY-SA 3.0

  

Geographical origins

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