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Eugène Deloncle

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Eugène Deloncle
Deloncle c. 1940
Born(1890-06-20)20 June 1890
Brest, France
Died17 January 1944(1944-01-17) (aged 53)
Paris, German-occupied France
Cause of deathGunshot wounds
NationalityFrench
Occupations
  • Politician
  • Naval engineer
Known forFounder of La Cagoule
SpouseMercedes Cahier
FatherLouis Deloncle[1]
RelativesFrançois Deloncle (uncle)
AwardsLegion of Honour (Chevalier)

Eugène Deloncle (20 June 1890 – 17 January 1944) was a French politician and fascist leader who founded the organisation “Secret Committee of Revolutionary Action" (CSAR), better known as La Cagoule. He became a prominent Nazi collaborator during World War II. Later on in the war, Deloncle, now doubtful that Germany would win, went into contact with the German resistance. He was later assassinated for these activities by the Gestapo.

Early life and war service

Antoine Octave Eugène Deloncle was born on 20 June 1890 in Brest, Brittany, France. His parents were Antoine Charles Louis Deloncle and Anna Ange Marie née Grossetti.[2]

His father died in tragic circumstances in 1898 when his son was 8. He was the captain of the French transatlantic liner SS La Bourgogne accidentally rammed in thick fog by the sailing ship Cromartyshire off Sable Island with a high death toll. Captain Deloncle did his best to organize rescue in difficult circumstances and refusing to leave the bridge went down with his ship.[3] Eugène Deloncle was a graduate of the École Polytechnique, and worked as a naval engineer for the French Navy. He married Mercedes Cahier on 4 February 1918 in Paris.

World War I

Deloncle served as an artillery officer during World War I, including the Champagne frontline, where he was wounded.

1930s political activity

Initially supportive of the integralist Action Française, he left the movement in 1935 because of his perception of inaction by the older organisation in combating the French left. Deloncle founded his own group, the Comité Secret d'Action Révolutionnaire (CSAR), with similar political goals. The new group became well known by the epithet La Cagoule ('The Hood'), a term that was first applied by Charles Maurras and Maurice Pujo of Action Française, as the group's tactics reminded them of the American Ku Klux Klan; the name was subsequently embraced by the press.[4] The Cagoule was a fascist and anti-communist terrorist group that kept the Orleanist and strongly anti-republican line of the Action Française, but added the rhetoric of fascism. It was formed to overthrow the leftist Popular Front government of Léon Blum. In the 1930s the Cagoule was responsible for assassinations, including those of the antifascist activists and Italian refugees, Carlo Rosselli and his brother Nello in June 1937, and terrorist attacks, including the bombing of several Paris synagogues.[4][5]

World War II and death

In 1940, with the Fall of France during World War II and the German period of occupation, Deloncle created a movement backing Philippe Pétain's "French State", the Mouvement Social Révolutionnaire (MSR, 'Social Revolutionary Movement'). MSR, a more radical form of the Cagoule, strongly supported Pétain's social conservatism and reactionary aims; it viewed with approval the political experiment that was being engineered in Vichy France in the south of the country. Afterwards, he approached the National Popular Rally (RNP) of Marcel Déat, but conflicts with Déat saw him expelled in May 1942, when he was succeeded as leader by Jean Fontenoy.[6]

In October 1941, unbeknownst to his superiors, SS Officer Hans Sommer helped plan an attack on seven synagogues in Paris, inspired by the 1938 pogrom, in collaboration with Eugène Deloncle.[7]

By 1942, Deloncle became doubtful of the inevitability of German victory and became a member of François Darlan's secret staff; he was in contact with Abwehr head Wilhelm Canaris. Deloncle's involvement with the Abwehr made him an enemy of the Gestapo. Initially, he was arrested in August 1943, interrogated and detained for a month in Ville-d'Avray. Once released, he renewed contact with Canaris, sustaining the Gestapo's enmity.[4] On 17 January 1944, Deloncle's house was swarmed by the Gestapo and he was killed in a shootout.[8]

Awards

On 16 June 1920, Deloncle was made a Chevalier (Knight) of the Legion of Honour.[2]

References

  1. ^ Le Monde illustré.
  2. ^ a b Nationales & DELONCLE Antoine Octave Eugène.
  3. ^ "A victim of duty: Captain Deloncle, commander of the Bourgogne". Look and Learn History Picture Library. 5 January 2022.
  4. ^ a b c Gordon, Bertram M. (1975). "The Condottieri of the Collaboration Mouvement Social Révolutionaire". Journal of Contemporary History. 2. 10 (2). Sage Publications, Inc: 261–282. doi:10.1177/002200947501000203. JSTOR 260147. S2CID 143694710. Archived from the original on 2 August 2021. Retrieved 1 August 2021. Alt URL
  5. ^ Pugliese, Stanislao G. (2007). "Revisiting an Assassination: The Death of Carlo Rosselli". Assassinations and Murder in Modern Italy: 11–22. doi:10.1057/9780230606913_2. ISBN 978-1-349-53944-4.
  6. ^ Littlejohn, David (1972). The Patriotic Traitors: A History of Collaboration in German-occupied Europe, 1940-45. Heinemann. p. 213. ISBN 978-0-434-42725-3. Archived from the original on 2 August 2021.
  7. ^ "Weiße Flecken in der Geschichte des Bundesnachrichtendienstes". Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. 13 May 2008.
  8. ^ Jackson, J. (2003). France: The Dark Years, 1940-1944. Oxford University Press. p. 192. ISBN 978-0-19-925457-6. Archived from the original on 2 August 2021.

Sources

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