Claude Andre
(27.09.1924 - 03.03.2020)
As a teenager, he was part of a cycle touring club. When war broke out in 1939, Claude was 15 years old. He lives with his parents, traders in Caen. He has a sister and a brother who enlisted in the Navy in 1939.
"You're still young but if you feel able to cope, escape from the occupied zone." I'll give you some money, ”her mother repeats, who herself had known the occupation in Lille during the First World War.
André MICHEL, painter decorator, member of the Resistance and founder of the “Hector” network in Caen, asks him to collect information on the construction of the Atlantic Wall during his cycling excursions. He thus made his entry into the Resistance. After the arrest of André MICHEL in the fall of 1941, he left Calvados for fear of being also worried in the event that his name could be mentioned. André MICHEL, sentenced to death with two other comrades, was finally executed in the barracks of the 43rd artillery regiment in Caen on May 9, 1942.
One day in 1942, Claude stopped in front of a poster plastered on the Caen gendarmerie: “Enlist in the Navy! ". He sees this call as an opportunity to go to the free zone. Her parents signed her permission to leave.
As part of his training, he embarked for North Africa: “Off Algeria, we are undergoing bombardments. We reached the port of Bougie. There were corpses on the docks. We learned that the bombings were those of the Germans in response to the bombings of the Americans in North Africa ”.
The Algerian stopover continues. Claude was then sent on a mission to serve the Admiralty of Algiers. But he has only one obsession: to join England.
While walking one afternoon in the port, he sees a ship with the French flag on which appears the cross of Free France. The young sailor tries his luck, goes on board clandestinely and expresses his intention to join the forces of General de Gaulle. He then becomes a deserter.
Arrived in England, the crew is transported to London, in a school where Poles, Norwegians, Dutch, Belgians, Greeks refusing the Nazi occupation are welcomed.
At the end of 1942, beginning of 1943, he studied in Portsmouth where he received training in ASDIC: “Anti Submarine Detection Investigation Committee”. Its role will henceforth be to ensure the protection of convoys aboard corvettes equipped with probes.
After this training, the adventure takes a new turn: “I embark on the Lobelia (corvette). On my first convoy, I was sick like a dog. During the day, we were more or less quiet, but on alert every night, when it happened that we suffered incessant attacks ”.
For two years, he escorted merchant ships between England and Newfoundland or the Hudson (North Atlantic Road, Iceland and Greenland) in order to avoid torpedoing by German submarines. Subsequently he continued the war aboard a frigate called "the Surprise".
During this time, he has no news from his family.
He did not return to Caen until after the Liberation on the occasion of a permission obtained in November 1944. The city was nothing but ruins: "It was dismal, impressive". His mother moved her business to the coast, to Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer. She tells him that her father and brother died in the bombings of June 6, 1944, one in Caen, the other in Vire.
He was finally demobilized in October 1945 and returned to settle in Calvados, in Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer, where he was elected municipal councilor.
He presides over the Association of Public Schools and holds the position of cantonal delegate of the Education League.
Attached to the sports world, he was also director of a Caen tennis club for thirty years, deputy sports director of the Caen Basket Club and finally departmental and regional tennis referee.
He has since taken part in a number of commemorations, films, youth-related events, meetings with high school students. As he says very modestly “The notion of commitment was strong in our family and my mother particularly motivated me not to accept defeat and join Great Britain. I hope that my testimony will be useful to the younger generations ”.
Claude was holder of the Cross of the combatant, of the Cross of the voluntary combatant of the Resistance, of the Cross of the voluntary combatant, of the commemorative medal of the voluntary services in Free France, of the Medal of recognition of the Nation, of the commemorative medal 1939-1945 and the silver medal of youth and sports.