Gilbert Renault Gilbert Renault ( August 6 , 1904 – July 29 , 1984 ) was known during the French Resistance under the name Colonel Rémy . He is one of the most famous secret agents of occupied France during the Second World war , and was known under various pseudonyms such as " Raymond " , " Jean - Luc " , " Morin " , " Watteau " , " Roulier " , " Beauce " and " Rémy " . Biography . 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 . 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 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 Marshall Pétain . A short time afterwards , he adhered to the Association of defense of the memory of Marshall 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 . He died in Guingamp , France , in 1984 . 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 . He had the writer Jean Cayrol under his orders . Homage . Around 1993 , a street in Caen ( France ) was named after Colonel Rémy , in a district close to the " Mémorial pour la Paix " museum , where a majority of streets commemorate personalities linked with the Second World War , the Résistance , and the subsequent making of the European Community .