Resistance in Cannes

In 1942, he began to join the Resistance with Pierre Bertone. He was recruited, made arrangements, accepted the conditions and definitively entered the SOE Section F AS24 Force Française, FFC- FFI-AM and he was under the orders of a local leader.

In the summer of 1942, a network called Carte in connection with the S.O.E rallied two Combat groups on the Côte d'Azur due to the invasion of the free zone. Combat went deeper and deeper underground in order to confront the ABWER, the compartmentalization of the network was reinforced. Unfortunately, Combat was infiltrated by agents of the Gestapo or the Abweir.

The Carte network would have Pierre Bertone as its leader, pseudonym Claude. Alas, Pierre Bertone will be arrested on March 14, 1944.

The same F network is an active network that will become the Special Force Executive organization thanks to Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill who will be assisted in London for the French network by Colonel Maurice Buckmaster.

Following the decision of the Buckmaster network to divide the Carte network, Guillaume Evangelista will be recruited by Henry Frager who is the number two of André Girard, Staff Officer under the pseudonym of Louba, then Head of the Donkeyman network and Jean-Marie Action. Guillaume will be in the AS24 intelligence service, under the orders of the local leader Paul Krage "Force Française Combattante, Résistance intérieure RIF", at the rank of Sergeant AP2, with Lieutenant Lacroix, thus this will allow a diversity in the resistance, mailbox, leaflets, messages and others.

The Buckmaster or SOE networks will have the Jockey subnetwork

The SAP = BCRA (Jean Moulin – René Char du Vaucluse)

AS = Secret Army Resistance Henri FRENAY

The Buckmaster office in Marseille was headed by Mr. Francis Commaest, an officer in the British Army, an SOE agent. He organized resistance networks in the south-east responsible for various sabotage actions against the Germans.

In Cannes, some resistance fighters will be in contact with my late father, such as Léon Noël who died as a result of German torture, Ange-Marie Miniconi who runs a vast network as Commander of the Jean-Marie network in Cannes, as well as Mr. Vahanian M.U.R who operates in Cannes, Mandelieu La Bocca, Mougins Juan les pins, and the A.S24 and M.UR elements take to the mountains. A parachute drop must take place and contact with the maquis must be made at the Tanneron massif.

The M.U.R will have two groups, a civilian group under the orders of Marius ISAIA known as Tony who remains in Cannes the second military will be under the orders of Stéphan VAHANIAN known as Pierre who will go by his own means to the meeting place.

In June 1944, Cannes, a German sergeant is killed. A 15-day curfew is established, but also an order from Algiers will cut the railway line between La Bocca and Théoule.

The kriegsmarine which housed the Mediterranean hotel in Cannes requisitions the boats of the port of Cannes. The old port will become a place of combat. A plane flies over the city of Cannes, explosions will take place near the Croisette, the Palm Beach, the Golden Horn, the Hesperides. Violently attacked by Allied ships on August 22, a dense crowd that is hungry goes to the Halles de Cannes for a little food, bombs explode, there will be wounded and unfortunately dead.

Shells will fall on the city of Cannes. Prisoners will be taken, 7 in total, like Hélène Vagliano belonging to the American network Tartane.
Well known for her dedication to the social works of the Prisoners' Houses of Cannes. These prisoners will be tortured until death or shot. Hélène Vagliano will be shot.

This system will put up effective resistance to the Germans, this network will have provided 100,000 rifles, machine guns, mortars, grenades, money.