Raymond hervo
Free France at heart
When the young Raymond Hervo enlisted at the age of 18 in the French Navy in 1939, he was far from thinking of becoming one of those heroes who remained anonymous during the Second World War.
Six months of training at the marines school, and there he was in the spring of 1940 aboard the squadron torpedo boat "Helmet" then the battleship "La Lorraine". Toulon, Lorient, Brest, Casablanca, Oran, Alexandria ... Raymond Hervo who wanted to see the country sees it, participating in Franco-British exercises and in escorts of convoys of merchant ships. In Alexandria, "La Lorraine" is part of "Force X", reduced to inactivity by the British fleet which closed the port and prevented any movement of ships. July 3, 3,600 kilometers
from there, but under the same conditions, the drama of Mers El-Kébir takes place where the British fleet sinks the French fleet to prevent it from being delivered to the German enemy. The tension is at its height. Raymond Hervo then decides to desert and join Free France.
Then begins a journey worthy of an adventure novel ...
He disguises himself, taken in charge in a gambling den in the port by a network of "smugglers", takes refuge on a cargo ship ... a banana tree that takes him to Suez then Bombay. Change of cargo. Here he is in Cape Town, Mompassa in South Africa then New York and finally
Liverpool in England ...
Around the world to join the French of De Gaulle.
Arrived in London in October 1940, another life begins, another adventure too. Promoted quartermaster, he was assigned to Portsmouth as an instructor on a training ship available to the Free French naval forces, “President Théodore Tissier”. He will stay there for two and a half years. It was there that he met a certain Philippe Kieffer, an English teacher at the French naval school in Portsmouth on which “President Théodore Tissier” depends, then the “Amiens” advisory who took over in June. 1943.
The following month, in July 1943, the school closed its doors following a restructuring. Raymond Hervo found himself in London and then again in Porthmouth at the Bir-Hackeim barracks, a depot for naval crews. On August 18, 1943 he was assigned
aboard the anti-submarine frigate "La Découverte". 8 months of perilous navigation in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean to escort the merchant ships attacked by the formidable German U-Boats. In January 1944, Raymond Hervo sailed with a certain Philippe De Gaulle, ensign, son of the general, also temporarily assigned to "La Découverte".
In addition to this, you need to know more about it.
But once again, the quartermaster feels too useless ... He then clandestinely left "the Discovery" to join the commandos that Commander Kieffer has just created!
This time it's serious: intensive training without
concessions to the famous Achnaccary camp, the hardest of all. Raymond Hervo was not yet ready when on June 6, 1944, 177 men from the commando were chosen to land at Ouistreham.
On the other hand, he participated in the liberation of Holland and in particular of the port of Antwerp from October 1944 to March 1945 within the Kieffer commandos who stood out there for their bravery.
He wears badge n ° 243.
Raymond HERVO (3rd from the left) and fellow marines in Flushing
Moulin d'Orange.
After the capitulation of Germany (May 1945), the commando troops remained there for a while to maintain order, ensure the safety and supply of the populations.
He was demobilized on November 15, 1945 and then returned home to Locminé where he would resume his place among "the anonymous". He will receive in his own name a message from General de Gaulle:
“Responding to the call of France in peril of death, you have rallied the free French forces. You were of the voluntary team of the good companions who kept our country in war and in honor ..... "
