Claude BONNIER (1897 - 1944)

• During the first World War, he enlisted in the Engineers at the age of seventeen. At the end of the conflict, when he was twenty-one, he was a lieutenant, chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur and had been decorated with the croix de guerre with three mentions in dispatches.
• After the Armistice, he became an engineer in an aeronautics factory in Argenteuil where he carried out important scientific work.
• As a mechanical engineering officer in the Air Force posted to an aviation base at Chartres, he took part in the fighting to defend Dunkirk.
• After he was demobilised in August 1940, he made several journeys to Algeria where he undertook research which led to the construction of a factory to produce aircraft engines.
• He reached Tunisia and enlisted at Gabes in November 1942 in the Forces Françaises Combattantes.
• He reached England in the spring of 1943 where he underwent training and a parachuting course.
• Claude BONNIER, alias "Hypoténuse", was sent from London as DMR (Regional Military Representative) for general de Gaulle in occupied France and landed in the night of 14th to 15th November 1943 at Angeac-Charente accompanied by Jacques NANCY. As such, he reorganised the Resistance in B Region by renewing contact with the chiefs of the various networks and maquis and by arranging for parachute drops to re-arm them.
• On 5th February 1944, he visited the maquis led by André CHABANNE at Jaulières and gave it the name of "BIR-HACHEIM"
• He was given away by an informer, arrested by the Gestapo in Bordeaux and on 9th February 1944 Claude BONNIER took his own life with a cyanide capsule.

He was interred in the crypt at the Chasseneuil Memorial on 8th May 1954.

His wife, Thérèse BONNIER née RENAUDEL, an active member of the Resistance, was buried beside him on 11th January 1991.

Commander of the Légion d'honneur

Compagnon de la Libération

Croix de guerre 1914-1918 and 1939-45

"Mort pour la France"

 

• The memory of Claude BONNIER is also remembered in a Monument at ANGEAC-CHARENTE near the field where he landed in the night of 14th to 15th November 1943 accompanied by Jacques NANCY, the future chief of the Special Sabotage Section.
• The milestones along the Route Claude BONNIER indicate the route he followed from ANGEAC-CHARENTE to CHASSENEUIL to make contact with the BIR-HACHEIM maquis.