Birth: 29 March 1898
Death: 5 February 1978
Companion of the Liberation – Decree of 7 August 1945
On the same day that the Aisne offensive began in April 1917, he joined the 102nd Heavy Artillery Regiment or RAL (Régiment d’artillerie lourde) after being called to the class of 1918. In preparation for the battle, heavy artillery fired 1.2 million shells in ten days. For several months, French and Germans would fight over the Chemin des Dames ridge. Paul Flandre then participated in the fighting around Verdun with his unit before joining the 3rd RAL. He left the front in the summer of 1918 to attend the School of Applied Artillery. He was demobilised in 1920 with the rank of second lieutenant.
He was working as an entrepreneur in French Equatorial Africa in 1939 when he was mobilised to the Tirailleurs du Gabon Battalion, whom he had helped to rally to the cause of Free France. From November 1942 in Chad until the end of the war in Germany, as head of the Repair Squadron Group of General Leclerc’s 2nd Armoured Division, he deployed amazing ingenuity to make up for the lack of men and of equipment. After the war, he pursued a political career in Gabon.
Credits: Paul Flandre en 1918. © Paul Flandre’s family
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