ROBERT THOMAS, RESISTANCE FIGHTER AND CARTOGRAPHER OF THE ATLANTIC WALL

We all remember Bourvil in Camus's film Le Mur de l'Atlantique (1970). His character Léon Duchemin, making off with a secret German plan, was an allusion to the theft of a fortification blueprint by René Duchez, a house painter. While Duchez's name has all but faded into obscurity, how many of us know that of Robert Thomas?

Thanks to the remarkable discovery of archives destined for the rubbish tip, author Pascal Hourblin finally brings to light the exceptional role played by this shadow warrior in the Liberation of France. Robert Thomas was the chief cartographer of the "Centurie" network in Normandy, working on behalf of the British Secret Intelligence Service from 1942 to late 1943.

This man's principal missions: to draw up and transmit hundreds of the most accurate possible overlays and plans of the German coastal defences in Normandy in preparation for the Allied Landings! But Robert Thomas was not merely a cartographer — he personally contributed to the evacuation of numerous Allied airmen who had come down in occupied territory. His sisters, his parents and his future wife were also actively involved in the Resistance. Together they produced more than 2,500 false identity papers in the strictest secrecy.

Until that day in late 1943 when the family was arrested by the Gestapo… Robert Thomas joined the Maquis de l'Ain to exfiltrate two Allied airmen. Having fought the Germans alongside the maquisards, he returned to live clandestinely in Normandy until the arrival of the liberation forces in July 1944.

Returning to active service within the B.C.R.A. — the forerunner of today's French secret services — this Norman Resistance fighter would work for several months towards the restoration of national sovereignty.

This work brilliantly traces the previously unknown journey of Robert Thomas, thanks to an impressive body of research carried out by the author more than 75 years after the events. An exceptional book, illustrated with over 380 documents, maps, plans (including numerous plans of the Jersey, Cherbourg and Le Havre installations) and period photographs (among them extremely rare images of the Maquis de l'Ain). A necessary spotlight to prevent this great Resistance fighter from being consigned to oblivion. A fine book for posterity.