Stele of Corporal Bouétard

Lieutenant MARIENNE's stik was parachuted here, on the grounds of Le Halliguen.
It was 10:30 pm, solar time (G.M.T) on this Monday, June 5, 1944.
Emile Bouétard was born in Pleudihen (Côtes-du-Nord) in 1915. At the age of thirteen, he chose the seafaring profession, sailing mainly on Compagnie Générale Transatlantique ships.
On November 8, 1942, he "deserted his ship in the United States to reach Great Britain, which he reached two months later. He then joined the F.FL. then the F.A.F.L. and was integrated into the elite section of the parachutists, then the S.A.S. Wounded during training, he overcame his handicap by sheer strength of will to remain in his section in order to be among the first to come and fight the enemy on French soil. On the evening of June 5, 1944, he was one of thirty-five French paratroopers, the first soldiers to be involved in Operation Overlord, tasked with organizing, with the help of the Resistance, two bases to accommodate thebattalion of S.A.S french battalion whose mission would be to hold back German divisions in Brittany to prevent them from reaching the Normandy beaches: the Dingson base, near Saint-Marcel (Morbihan) and the Samwest base near Locarn ( Côtes-du-Nord).

Emile Bouétard is the first of all Allied soldiers to die in Operation Overlord.He sacrificed himself for our freedom.

On June 5, 1944, at around 10:30pm solar time (G.M.T.) Lieutenant Pierre Marienne's nine-man stick was parachuted onto the land of Le Halliguen, two kilometers north of the planned area. After landing, the trunk of officer S.O.E. Hunter-Hue is nowhere to be found. Lieutenant Marienne, accompanied by some of his men, set out to find it. He has ordered Emile Bouétard to stay behind to cover the three radios Pierre Etrich, Louis Jourdan and Maurice Sauvé. The men and their equipment were sheltered in the sunken road.

Half an hour after landing, the group was assaulted by a detachment of around 100 "White Russians" surging through the fields of the northern sector. They had been forewarned by German observers from the Grée mill, 1400 meters away to the southeast

Emile Bouétard, noticing the situation, moves about fifteen paces away to cover the radios. He engages in combat. His desperate action enables his leader to escape. Wounded in the shoulder, he falls to the ground. The radios, running out of ammunition, are made prisoners. Emile Bouétard calls for help, a white Russian approaches him and savagely finishes him off with a burst of machine-gun fire. It's 11:20pm, and the fight has lasted just twenty minutes.

Photo credit and contribution Le Bourvellec Eric

Lieutenant MARIENNE's stik was parachuted here, on the grounds of Le Halliguen. It was 10:30 pm, solar time (G.M.T) on this Monday, June 5, 1944. Emile Bouétard was born in Pleudihen (Côtes-du-Nord) in 1915. At the age of thirteen, he chose the seafaring profession, sailing mainly on Compagnie Générale Transatlantique ships. On November 8, 1942, he deserted his ship in the United States to reach Great Britain, which he reached two months later. He then joined the F.FL. then the F.A.F.L. and was integrated into the elite section of the parachutists, then the S.A.S. Wounded during training, he overcame his handicap by sheer strength of will to remain in his section in order to be among the first to come and fight the enemy on French soil. On the evening of June 5, 1944, he was one of thirty-five French paratroopers, the first soldiers to be involved in Operation Overlord, tasked with organizing, with the help of the Resistance, two bases to accommodate thebattalion of S.A.S french battalion whose mission would be to hold back German divisions in Brittany to prevent them from reaching the Normandy beaches: the Dingson base, near Saint-Marcel (Morbihan) and the Samwest base near Locarn ( Côtes-du-Nord). Emile Bouétard is the first of all Allied soldiers to die in Operation Overlord.He sacrificed himself for our freedom.On June 5, 1944, at around 10:30pm solar time (G.M.T.) Lieutenant Pierre Marienne's nine-man stick was parachuted onto the land of Le Halliguen, two kilometers north of the planned area. After landing, the trunk of officer S.O.E. Hunter-Hue is nowhere to be found. Lieutenant Marienne, accompanied by some of his men, set out to find it. He has ordered Emile Bouétard to stay behind to cover the three radios Pierre Etrich, Louis Jourdan and Maurice Sauvé. The men and their equipment were sheltered in the sunken road.Half an hour after landing, the group was assaulted by a detachment of around 100 White Russians surging through the fields of the northern sector. They had been forewarned by German observers from the Grée mill, 1400 meters away to the southeastEmile Bouétard, noticing the situation, moves about fifteen paces away to cover the radios. He engages in combat. His desperate action enables his leader to escape. Wounded in the shoulder, he falls to the ground. The radios, running out of ammunition, are made prisoners. Emile Bouétard calls for help, a white Russian approaches him and savagely finishes him off with a burst of machine-gun fire. It's 11:20pm, and the fight has lasted just twenty minutes.Photo credit and contribution Le Bourvellec Eric