Georges Guingouin Georges Guingouin ( 2 February 1913 , Magnac - Laval in Haute - Vienne , France – 27 October 2005 , Troyes , France ) was a French Communist Party ( PCF ) militant who played a leading role in the French resistance as head of the Maquis du Limousin . He was controversial as a result of extortion committed under his authority during the " épuration sauvage " in Limousin during 1944 . Youth . Guingouin ' s father , a career non - commissioned officer , was killed at Bapaume in 1914 . His mother was the daughter of a ceramics worker ; she was the headmistress of a primary school . Guingouin was initially a pupil at the " école primaire supérieure " at Bellac , and was then admitted to the " école normale d ' instituteurs " teacher training school at Limoges . After his military service , he was appointed as a teacher at Saint - Gilles - les - Forêts in 1935 . " " Comme beaucoup d ’ autres , ce jeune instituteur est très préoccupé par l ’ engagement politique " " . Guingouin belonged to the communist party , becoming secretary of the Eymoutiers section which encompassed five rural canton s . He wrote articles about foreign politics in the party weekly , " Le Travailleur du Centre " . The historian Max Lagarrigue observed that rural communism was in a vigorous state at that time , thanks to the country leaders of the PCF , Renaud Jean and Marius Vazeilles , and that it made a good showing in the 1936 vote , with many rural candidates elected . Lagarrigue adds that Guingouin , as leader of the campaign in Haute - Vienne , earned himself the nomination to the federal committee , then to the regional office of the PCF . Prefect of the maquis . Guingouin was mobilised in the rank of second class in 1939 . He sustained an eyebrow injury on 18 June 1940 , and was cared for in the Moulins military hospital in Allier , which he left voluntarily in order to avoid being taken prisoner . On returning to Saint - Gilles - les - Forêts , he secretly went back to his activities as a communist fighter , and wrote in 1940 a " call to the struggle " . In September 1940 , recalled from his teaching functions , he got back in contact with the underground communist party machinery and became federal secretary of Haute - Vienne . However , he decided not to circulate the 9th issue of the " Life of the party " communist party bulletin , which declared " We must be without hate towards the German soldiers . We are against de Gaulle and the capitalist clan whose interests are linked to Vichy In January 1941 Guingouin published the first issue of the " Travailleur limousin " ( Limousin worker ) underground journal . He later wrote that he held off from attacking de Gaulle or the United Kingdom , breaking with the official party line . In April 1941 he took the maquis , which astonished Gabriel Roucaute , one of the party leadership ' s representatives in the zone libre . During the night of 30 September to 1 October , Guingouin organised the first armed requisitioning of ration cards , which would earn him a forced labour sentence " in absentia " at the hands of a military court in January 1942 . He named his first armed groups " Francs Tireurs " , at a time when the Franc Tireurs Partisans had not yet been created . In March 1942 , when the communists joined the armed struggle in earnest , Roucaute ordered him to stop his operations . Guingouin refused , and relations with the party became strained . After this , he joined with the FTPF . Nicknamed " Lo Grand " ( the Great ) by the locals , Guingouin organised his first maquis , notably in Châteauneuf - la - Forêt . Certain types of operations under his command led to him being titled " prefect " of the maquis : in December 1942 , he attempted to put a stop to hay and wheat requisitioning by blowing up the baler at Eymoutiers . He formed a fixed unit , the 1st " Brigade de Marche Limousine " , and mobile " flying " units with varying effectiveness . Guingouin ' s unit sabotaged and destroyed the Bussy - Varache viaduct on the Limoges - Ussel on 13 March 1943 ; the viaduct was not reconstructed until after the war . On the night of May 9 , 1943 , at the request of the English , Guingouin personally led a commando which sabotaged the boilers at the rubber factory in le Palais - sur - Vienne near Limoges , thereby halting the production of France ' s second largest rubber factory for five months . While returning , the commando narrowly missed an ambush by the police . On 14 July 1943 , the subterranean cable linking the Bordeaux submarine base with Berlin was sabotaged in Limousin . Following this operation , the Germans demanded that serious measures were enforced in what they called " little Russia " . Under the command of General Bois 15 guard squadrons , 12 squadrons of the GMT and residual gendarmerie forces were sent in to " maintain order " , without significant success . In August 1943 , Guingouin undertook anew to prevent wheat deliveries to the Germans by destroying the combines . As " prefect of the maquis " , he regulated agricultural sales as well as boltage rates for bread manufacturing in order to counter the black market and fraud . At the same time he received the first parachute drops of armaments from the British Special Operations Executive . During January 1944 , he brought together 120 volunteers at the château de Ribérie for military training . Shortly afterward , the German General Walter Brehmer attacked Guingouin ' s territory ; Guingouin refused battle and dispersed his units . In May 1944 , Haute - Vienne had about 8 , 000 armed men , the most of any department in France . After the amalgamation of the " Armée Secrète " , ORA and FTPF resistance movements into the new French Forces of the Interior the structures of the armed resistance remained confused , so that in spite of the unification , the FTPF retained the possibility of acting autonomously . Photos of the maquis and its leader were taken at this time by the photographer Izis Bidermanas who had also taken up arms . After the Normandy landings of 6 June 1944 , the maquisards of Haute - Vienne were mobilised to carry out as much sabotage as possible in order to paralyse German communications . The 2nd SS Panzer Division " Das Reich " ( formally , the 2nd PzD SS ) , which had left Tarn - et - Garonne for Normandy , reached Limoges on 9 June . On the 10th , a detachment of this division carried out a massacre at Oradour - sur - Glane . That evening , men from the 1st Limousin brigade captured the " Sturmbannführer SS " commandant Helmut Kämpfe , considered as the hero of the division . General Heinz Lammerding , leading the " Das Reich " division , offered the freedom of 40 resistance fighters in exchange for Kämpfe . Guingouin , who had heard of the Oradour massacre , refused ; the " Sturmbannführer " was shot , which led to further reprisals , but the " Das Reich " lost 48 hours and did not set off for Normandy until the morning of June 12 . This delay was considered by General Dwight D . Eisenhower to have been an important factor in the outcome of the battle of Normandy . At the start of July 1944 , Guingouin had been warned that a German offensive was being prepared against his maquis . On the 17th , the 1st brigade was attacked by the German brigade of General Curt von Jesser with a strength of 500 vehicles , supported by various reinforcements . This triggered the battle of Mont Gargan . The maquis lost 97 men ( 38 dead , 5 missing , 54 wounded ) against 342 killed and wounded on the German side . It was one of the rare occasions when the resistance fought against the " Wehrmacht " in open battle . At the beginning of June 1944 , Guingouin had been ordered to take Limoges by Léon Mauvais , an important communist party official and head of the FTP in the zone Sud . Guingouin had refused , considering the operation premature and dangerous for the general population . In support of his decision he cited the tragic example of the premature liberation of Tulle , where , in reprisals , 99 men had been hanged from balconies on the main road of the city , and 101 others deported . Guingouin ' s refusal would have grave consequences for relations between Guingouin and the communist party hierarchy . On 21 August , Guingouin encircled Limoges , and received from Jean d ' Albis the surrender of General Gleiniger ' s men , with minimal bloodshed . Guingouin was appointed lieutenant - colonel of the French Forces of the Interior . Following this , Guingouin would be accused of being directly or indirectly responsible for extortion which accompanied the liberation and " " épuration " " ( cleansing ) of Limoges and Limousin . According to Henri Amouroux , Guingouin had " 45 people tried and sentenced to death in a week , of whom only one escaped " , and that the first to be accused did not have anyone represent them in defense , and " worked from six to twelve hours per day , including Saturday and Sunday . " Guingouin was also accused of acquiring loot from a former youth work camp at Chamberet which would result in 6 executions , including three members of the " Armée secrète " . Pariah of the Communist Party . On 20 November 1944 , Guingouin was seriously injured in a car accident ( he suggested that his vehicle had been sabotaged ) and hospitalised at Limoges . He was released in April 1945 after a long convalescence . In May 1945 , Guingouin was elected mayor of Limoges . His relations with the communist party rapidly deteriorated . He was not proposed for a seat on the central committee , nor appointed to the deputation . At the assembly of communist elected officials of France on the 12 November 1945 , he was subjected to an attack by Auguste Gillot ( who was close to Maurice Thorez and Jacques Duclos ) ; Gillot criticised him for having raised the price of tram travel in Limoges , a false accusation . However , Guingouin was not given the opportunity to respond , since the meeting ended immediately ( see for an anecdote relating the atmosphere in the party at the time ) . The following month , he was released from his functions in the communist party of Haute - Vienne . In 1947 , Guingouin lost the mayorship of Limoges to a socialist , Léon Betoulle , who had been mayor of Limoges before the war , while his old rival , the French Socialist Party ( SFIO ) socialist Jean Le Bail , who was despised by all the " genuine " members of the resistance , became deputy for Haute - Vienne . The same year on May 19 , the appeals court of Grenoble gave a judgment condemning in particularly strong terms the paper " L ' Époque " which 17 months previously had accused Guingouin of terrible crimes . In February 1950 , Guingouin seemed to have returned to favour with the communist party , having benefited from " permanent " status on becoming secretary of the communist section in Limoges . This was illusory , however , as he was still the subject of sly attacks ; he was always being criticised for having disobeyed party orders in not taking Limoges by force in June 1944 . His outspokenness with those high in the party , including Léon Mauvais , did not help . At the 12th party congress , 27 of the 84 central committee members were not reelected , among them some of those closest to Guingouin . Guingouin himself was eventually affected ; ordered to submit to party decisions , he gave up his " permanent " status and asked for reinstatement in education . In a public meeting in September 1952 at Nantiat , Jaqcues Duclos personally associated himself with some of the charges previously reported in " L ' Époque " relating to " war booty " which Guingouin had allegedly used to his advantage . In October , the communist authorities asked Guingouin ' s local association to exclude him . The cell membership refusing , Guingouin was reassigned by " fiat " to a more compliant local cell , which excluded him from the party the following month . Guingouin in exile . At this stage Guingouin was granted a request to be transferred as a teacher to the " Aube " , his wife Henriette ' s original department . Guingouin had married in 1945 in Limoges . On 24 December 1953 , Guingouin was called before the " juge d ' instruction " of Tulle concerning a murder of two villagers in which members of the resistance who had been under Guingouin ' s authority had been accused . According to the historian Michel Taubmann , this marked the beginning of a conspiracy by police officers and magistrates who had been against Guingouin during the war . The instigator of the plot was the police commissaire known as " C . " who once in 1943 had been against Guingouin when the Bussy - Varache viaduct was destroyed . A police inspector , " A . " , who had led an enquiry about the disappearance of explosives from the Saint - Léonard mine . " A . " had declared to an intern who was being transferred " It will be no - one other than me who brings down " le Grand " " ( referring to Guingouin ) . Imprisoned in Tulle , Guingouin was beaten in his cell by warders at Brive prison . Injured and unconscious , he was transferred by night to Toulouse where he arrived in poor psychological and physical condition . As the press reported a suicide attempt , the former resistance fighters of Haute - Garonne who had been part of a resistance committee in the department spoke out , and under pressure from them , the " juge d ’ instruction " ordered Guingouin ' s mental health to be assessed by three doctors . In their report , they testified to traces of the abuse which Guingouin had undergone , and wrote that Gungouin ' s state evoked real concern for his life . Guingouin was finally freed on 13 November 1959 , at Lyon ; with the magistrate Thomas , charged with making enquiries about him , declared that neither his soul nor his conscience could believe that anyone had envisaged prosecuting Guingouin . This episode was described in The Times ' obituary of Guingouin in the following way : On 21 November 2001 , at a conference before history professors of the Aube , Guingouin described the events : " arrested on Christmas eve 1953 , held in Brive prison , I underwent such abuse that two times I ran the road of those sufferers who see their entire life before them in their last moments before the dazzling light . " In March 1957 , Guingouin joined the " Mouvement communiste démocratique et national " of Auguste Lecoeur and Pierre Hervé . In 1961 , he entered into discussions with the party with the aim of being reaccepted . He affirmed that he had been offered reacceptance on condition of silence . Refusing this offer , he dedicated himself to his job as a teacher , and retired in 1969 . In 1985 , the extreme - right publication " Le Crapouillot " , published by " Minute " took up some of the accusations which had been previously leveled at Guingouin , alleging that he had been responsible for some of the summary executions which had taken place in the Limoges region . Guingouin brought a complaint , and this time received the support of members of the general council of Haute - Vienne . In 1998 , the Communist Party officially " rehabilitated " Guingouin . Guingouin ' s response was phlegmatic : Guingouin died in Troyes on the 27 October 2005 , and was buried at Saint - Gilles - les - Forêts according to his wishes . In June 2005 , Guingouin had been promoted to the rank of commander of the Légion d ' honneur . He was also a compagnon de la Libération ( by decree of 19 October 1945 ) , bearer of the Croix de guerre with palm , the médaille de la Résistance with rosette and the British King ' s Medal for Courage . Quotes . " Que les Limousins , les Occitan s , refusant le miroir déformant qu ' on leur offre , retrouvent leur patrimoine historique ! " ( May the people of Limousine , the Occitans , refuse the distorted mirror that is on offer , and regain their historic heritage ) - Discourse at Vigen on the 22 August 1982 .