Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque
Brunier was sent to the penal colony off the coast of French Guiana. After the outbreak of World War II he escaped to Mexico and joined the Free French Forces as a fighter pilot, serving in the Battle of the Caribbean for two years before transferring to the infantry under Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque, and also in Africa (where Charles de Gaulle personally decorated him) and Italy; he was imprisoned again after the war, but released in 1948 in recognition of his services.