Gilbert Renault (August 6, 1904 – July 29, 1984), known by the nom de guerreColonel Rémy, was a notable French secret agent active in World War II, and was known under various pseudonyms such as Raymond, Jean-Luc, Morin, Watteau, Roulier, Beauce and Rémy.
Biographyedit
Gilbert Renault was born in Vannes, France, the oldest child of a Catholic family of nine children. His father was a professor of Philosophy and English, and later the inspector general of an insurance company. He went to the Collège St-François-Xavier in Vannes, and after his studies he went to the Rennes faculty. His sisters were Maisie Renault and Madeleine Cestari.
A sympathizer of French Action in the Catholic and Nationalist line, he began his career at the Bank of France in 1924. In 1936, he began cinematic production and finances, and made J'accuse, a new version of the Abel Gance film. It was a resounding failure, but the many connections Renault made during this period were very useful during the resistance.
With armistice declared of June 18, 1940, he refused to accept Marshal Philippe Pétain and went to London with one of his brothers, on board a trawler which departed from Lorient. He was one of the first men to adhere to the calls of General Charles de Gaulle, and was entrusted by Colonel Passy, then captain and chief of the BCRA, to create an information network in France.
In August of that year he met with Louis de La Bardonnie, and together they created the Notre-Dame Brotherhood, which would become NDT-Castille in 1944. Initially centered on the Atlantic coast, it ended up covering much of occupied France and Belgium. This network was one of the most important in the occupied zone, and its information allowed many military successes, as the attack on Bruneval and on Saint-Nazaire.
Convinced that it was necessary to mobilize all forces against the occupation, he put the French Communist Party in touch with the exiled government of Free France in January 1943. Gilbert Renault later admitted it was Pierre Brossolette who got him in touch with political groups and trade unions.
Awarded the Ordre de la Libération on March 13, 1942, he became a member of the executive committee of the Rally of the French People (RPF) from its creation, in charge of trips and demonstrations. He appeared in Carrefour, April 11, 1950, in an article entitled 'La justice et l'opprobre' (Justice and the Opprobrium), in which he preached the rehabilitation of Marshal Pétain. A short time afterwards, he adhered to the Association of defense of the memory of Marshal Pétain (ADMP). Repudiated by de Gaulle, he resigned from the RPF.
He settled in Portugal in 1954 and returned to France in 1958 to be placed at de Gaulle's disposal, who refused. He was also very active from this time onwards in various associations, including ultra-conservative Catholic networks.
Renault wrote many works on his activities in the Resistance. Under the name of Rémy (one of his pseudonyms in clandestinity), he published his Mémoires d'un agent secret de la France libre et La Ligne de démarcation (adapted for cinema by Claude Chabrol in 1966), which are regarded as important testimonies on the French Resistance.
Around 1993, a street in Caen (France) was named after Colonel Rémy,[1] in a district close to the Mémorial pour la Paix museum, where a majority of streets commemorate personalities linked with World War II, the Résistance, and the subsequent making of the European Community.
1955: Goa, Rome de l'Orient, Éditions France-Empire
1956: Les Caravelles du Christ, Plon
1956: Les Mains revêtues de lumière, Plon
1957: Fatima, espérance du Monde, Plon
1957: Portugal, Hachette
1959: Dix marches vers l'Espoir, Presses de la Cité
1960: De sang et de chair, Le livre contemporain
1960: Le monocle noir, Hachette
1961: Le Joueur de flute, Presses de la Cité
1961: Catéchisme de la patrie, Éditions France-Empire
1961: J.A. épisodes de la vie d'un agent du S.R. et du contre-espionnage français, Galic (J.A. sont les initiales de Jacques Abtey)
1962: Le Monocle passe et gagne, Hachette
1962: Les Balcons de Tulle, Librairie académique Perrin
1963: La grande prière de Chartres, Dimanche 29 Septembre 1963, Histoire du pèlerinage national pour la réconciliation dans la justice et la compréhension mutuelle, France-empire
1963: La Dernière carte, Presses de la cité
1963: Comment devenir agent secret, Albin Michel
1964: Compagnons de l'Honneur, France-Empire, Paris
1964 - 1976: La Ligne de démarcation, Librairie académique Perrin (21 volumes)
1967: Réseau Comète, Librairie académique Perrin
1968: Bruneval, Opération coup de croc, France-Empire
1968: Le Déjeuner de la croix de Vernuche, Librairie académique Perrin
1968: La Maison d'Alphonse, Perrin, 1968
1969: Autour de la plage Bonaparte, suite de «la Maison d'Alphonse, Perrin
1969: Le Pianiste, Éditions France-Empire
1969: Et l'Angleterre sera détruite, Éditions France-Empire
1971: Dans l'ombre du maréchal, Presses de la cité
1971: Dix ans avec de Gaulle, 1940 - 1950, Éditions France-Empire, Paris
1972: Avec l'oflag VIII F, Presses de la Cité
1973: Le Schloss ou l'évadé malgré lui, Éditions France-Empire
1974: Avec les Ch'timis : en souvenir du réseau Sylvestre Farmer,ex W.O., France-Empire
1974: Trente ans après - 6 Juin 1944 / 6 Juin 1974, Librairie Académique Perrin
1974 - 1975: Les Français dans la Résistance, Famot (29 Volumes : En Lorraine, En Provence, En Bretagne, A Paris et dans la Région Parisienne, En Aquitaine, En Auvergne, Limousin, Berry, En Champagne Ardennes, En Languedoc Roussillon, En Alsace et Vosges, Dans le Nord, Dans le Lyonnais, En Normandie, En Dauphiné Savoie, En Corse, T. 2, En Anjou, Touraine, Orléanais, T. 1, En Bourgogne Franche-Comté, T. 1...)
1975: Missions secrètes, Famot
1975: Morhange. Les chasseurs de traites, Flammarion
1976: Le 18e jour : la tragédie de Léopold III, Roi des Belges, France-Empire
1976: Combats dans l'ombre, Idégraf
1978: Rognes et grognes du Général - 1940-1944, Versoix
1979: Histoire du débarquement, Vernoy
1979: Secrets et réussites de l'espionnage français, Famot
1979: Une épopée de la Résistance : en France, en Belgique et au Grand Duché du Luxembourg, Paris
1979: La Résistance a commencé le 3 septembre 1939, Plon
1979 - 1983: Chronique d'une guerre perdue, France-empire
Volume 1, L'Entre-Deux-Guerre
Volume 2, Le 10 Mai 1940
Volume 3, Sedan
Volume 4, De la Norvège aux Flandres
Volume 5, La Bataille de France
Volume 6, Fors l'Honneur
1981: De sang et de chair, Édito-service
1981: Combattre jusqu'au bout, Plon
1981: La résistance en France 1940-1945, Collet
1982: Mes grands hommes et quelques autres, Grasset
1984: La Résistance à vingt ans, Ouest France
1984: La Seconde guerre mondiale : la Résistance, Éd. Christophe Colomb
1986: La Résistance, Hatier
Sourcesedit
(Mostly translated from the French article on Gilbert Renault)
Grandmaison (Henri de), Le colonel Rémy, un héros de l'ombre, CMD, 2000.
Perrier (Guy), Rémy - L'agent secret n° 1 de la France libre, Perrin, 2001.