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"Eugène Guinebault, 81, described how Commando Kieffer recruited from regular French forces who had escaped from Dunkirk and others who had passed through Spain, Africa and the Americas to reach England. They endured the rough crossing in the early hours of 6 June in their two small landing craft, numbered 526 and 527. "I was very sick," he said. "Everybody was sick, sick. But before we landed we were given a drink of calvados or cognac to fortify us. We got on with our job."
Seriously injured in the weeks after D-Day, Mr Guinebault fought on until he collapsed from exhaustion. After the war he set up a restaurant in the Sussex town of Bexhill-on-Sea, where the French Commandos were based before the invasion. He now lives in Hackney, east London. "I didn't expect to be honoured today. Some of my colleagues think it has been a long time coming. But I am touched. I hope in my village they will hear about this and feel proud of me."
www.independent.co.uk  Laloup laurent le mardi 26 février 2008 Contribution au livre ouvert de Eugène Joseph Guinnebault | |
