2023-07-03 11:55:16
– Léon Gautier, last member of the Kieffer commando, is dead
At the age of 100, the last survivor of the 177 Frenchmen to have landed in Normandy in 1944 died on Monday.
Posted today at 1:55 p.m.
Léon Gautier, the last survivor of Commando Kieffer, died on July 3, 2023, according to the Caen Memorial.
AFP/Ludovic MARIN
Léon Gautier, the last survivor of the 177 Frenchmen to have landed on June 6, 1944 in Normandy, died Monday at the age of 100, the Caen Memorial announced on Twitter, confirming information from Ouest-France.
Born in 1922 in Rennes, Léon Gautier joined London and General de Gaulle in July 1940 before going to fight in Cameroon, Congo, Syria, Lebanon, before the June 6 landing. He has never ceased to engage “for peace” ever since.
“The worst thing you can see is a war. Because we kill people opposite who have never done anything, who have a family, children. All this to achieve what? declared the Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor, dressed in a suit and tie in his wheelchair during a ceremony for his 100th birthday on October 27, 2022.
Father of two children, he had lived in Ouistreham since the 1990s.
Many tributes
President Emmanuel Macron immediately paid tribute to him in a tweet.
“We are not heroes, we only did our duty, he repeated. Last member of the Kieffer commando who landed with his 176 French comrades in Normandy on June 6, 1944, hero of the Liberation, Léon Gautier has left us. We will not forget it, ”reacted the head of state.
“Ouistreham is very sad today (Monday), we are a bit orphaned by this father, this grandfather, a local hero known to all who transmitted a certain number of values for freedom of which he was an ardent defender landing on our beaches,” said Mr. Bail.
“State services have confirmed to me that a national tribute will be paid to him in Normandy,” he added.
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