Aux portes de la victoire pour beaucoup trop de nos camarades ce fut leur dernier combat !

Merci de  transmettre cette mémoire ............notre liberté est à ce prix !

jacques (BM 21)

Mon père a combattu à Authion ainsi qu'à Belfort en Alsace et a pris part au débarquement dans le sud de la France en 1944. Ses enfants qui sont basés au Royaume-Uni et en Irlande essaient maintenant de trouver ses dossiers de l'armée française libre, j'apprécierais que quelqu'un puisse nous aider en France à obtenir ces dossiers. J'utilise un traducteur et je m'excuse pour les fautes de français. 

Traduit avec www.DeepL.com/Translator (version gratuite)

• • Authion

    Mercredi 9 Août 2023 à 08:32

    Can you give us the name , first name and  place of birthday date, please. we shall try to help you.

Thank you so much for your prompt response, our family have spent years unraveling our fathers war records and we only had his war stories to go by which were so accurate to accounts we have read online , the British MOD have only recently released his war records so we have been able to find documents that have given us more details, we have also discovered that there are many missing correspondence from the French side who had been communicating with the British army at the end of the war which.  

1.      Father name is Robert Richard Derry

2.      On the British files in the correspondence/ investigation it states he used his mother’s maiden name ( Gonin or  Benoit Gonin ) however we don’t know if he changed his first name when joining the Free French to avoid detection

3.      DOB 10^th of August 1919 ( he was born in England on route to Canada returning to France with only his mother at approximate age  11) ( Canadian father /French mother)

4.      Mother name is Jeanne Louise Benoit Gonin

5.      home address :- No 192 Boulevard saint Denis Courbevoire PARIS

6.      his family owned a business at No60 Quai Paul Doumer PARIS where my father worked before and after the war

7.      his step father in Paris name was  Mr E. Parkinson who was involved in the family business at the above address ( Mr Parkinson name is on file with British MOD so maybe of help if my father included his name on his free army records

8.      Robert Richard Derry enlisted with the British army in Paris 6^th May 1940

9.      He was trained in England and records show he was in North Africa in 1943

10.   During his time with British regiment it shows

a)      Number 1 Holding Coy No 3 training centre

b)      19^th  Coy  (R.A.S.C) Oxford

c)      No 7 Bridge Coy ( R.A.S.C)

d)      3^rd Infantry brigade ( R.A.S.C)

11.   In  May 1943 he deserted the British and enlisted with the French in same month (possibly in North Africa with 3^rd  battalion d’Infanterie de l’air ??? )

On the British MOD documents it has the following information which has been extracted from my father letter

a)      Served with 3^rd eme Battalion d’Infanterie de l’air

b)      Served first as an instructor for unarmed combat

c)      After 7 jumps become unfit to jump due to injuries

d)      Sent to first free French light infantry division serving in Italy with the (4th eme brigade)

e)      After Italian campaign sent to 9^th eme C.R.D  ( R.E.M.E) recovery section

f)       Took part in the landings in southern France on August 13 1944 and stayed in this unit all through the French Campaign ( Belfort Alsace and Authoin)

After demobilization in France the correspondence between British and French authorities ( French letter are missing from the British files ) show he had been issued army form A.F 129 ( protection certificate ) to clear him of being a deserter, we know from our fathers stories he was patriotic to France, we were also told stories of his sister Yvette and his mother heroic deeds being involved with the French resistance with our grandmother dying  not long after the war which my father told us was from the results of Nazi integration and mud baths she had endured.

I hope the above is not to long winded, and any information and or leads, you can provide us will be truly appreciated, hopefully our family can piece the last remaining parts of our father war records from the French side

Yours gratefully

Jayson 

• • DerryGonin

    Jeudi 17 Août 2023 à 11:08

    Hello it’s me again

Hello it’s me again