Companions of the Liberation

Roland_de_la_Poype

Roland Paulze d'Ivoy de la Poype, (28 July 1920 – 23 October 2012) was a Second World War fighter ace, a member of the Normandie-Niemen fighter group that fought on the Soviet front.
He was also a politician, a pioneering industrialist in the plastics industry and the founder of the Antibes Marineland in 1970.

Dominique_Ponchardier

Dominique Ponchardier (March 3, 1917, Saint-Étienne – April 17, 1986, Nice) was a French author and screenwriter who had been a member of the French Resistance during World War II, and later held positions as an intelligence officer, diplomat, colonial administrator and company president. He was a long-standing follower of Charles de Gaulle, at different times working for him in underground, intelligence, political, civil and diplomatic capacities.

André_Moynet

André Moynet (July 19, 1921 – May 2, 1993) was a much decorated French wartime fighter pilot who moved on to become a test pilot and an entrepreneur-businessman. He was also a politician.

Émilienne_Moreau-Evrard

Émilienne Moreau-Evrard (4 June 1898 – 5 January 1971) was a French heroine of World War I, a high-profile female member of the "Brutus" Resistance network during World War II and later, a member of the Provisional Consultative Assembly. Moreover, she is one of only six women recipients of the Ordre de la Libération.

Simone_Michel-Lévy

Simone Michel-Lévy (19 January 1906 – 13 April 1945) was a French Resistance worker. She had several pseudonyms – Emma, Françoise, Madame Royale, Mademoiselle Flaubert or Madame Bertrand - and is one of 6 female compagnons de la Libération (decreed on 26 September 1945).

Georges_Guingouin

Georges Guingouin (2 February 1913, Magnac-Laval in Haute-Vienne, France – 27 October 2005, Troyes, France) was a French Communist Party (PCF) militant who played a leading role in the French resistance as head of the Maquis du Limousin. He was controversial as a result of extortion committed under his authority during the épuration sauvage in Limousin during 1944.

Pierre_Clostermann

Pierre-Henri Clostermann (28 February 1921 – 22 March 2006) was a World War II French ace fighter pilot.
During the conflict he achieved 33 air-to-air combat victories, earning the accolade "France's First Fighter" from General Charles de Gaulle. His wartime memoir, The Big Show (Le Grand Cirque) became a notable bestseller. After the war, he worked as an engineer and was the youngest Member of France's Parliament.

Geoffroy_Chodron_de_Courcel

Baron Geoffroy Chodron de Courcel (11 September 1912, Tours - 9 December 1992, Paris), was a French nobleman, soldier and diplomat.
He was Aide-de-Camp to Charles de Gaulle in 1940 and escaped to England with the General on 17 June 1940 with the help of General Sir Edward Spears. Geoffroy Chodron was the first officer to sign up with the Free French Forces, established by De Gaulle when he was in London.
From 1941 he served as De Gaulle’s private secretary and would later command a squadron of the 1er régiment de marche de Spahis marocains (1st Spahi Regiment), formed out of other units.After the War, he returned to the French Foreign Ministry before holding several important appointments, including that of Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 16 March 1962 until 20 April 1972.