His Lorraine crosses still adorned her tie and his costume jacket on June 18, 2024, when the mayor of Montpellier, Michaël Delafosse, paid tribute to the “Free, resistant from the start”those “Who have not hesitated or doubted” to refuse the defeat and the yoke of the Nazi occupier. At 101, Jean-Louis Nédelec was one of the last volunteers in free France, who left his native finistère at 16 to reach England. “His disappearance marks the end of a generation of heroes”wrote this Friday, May 2, the Minister responsible for memory and veterans, Patricia Mirallès.
Born in 1923 in Leuhan, a small village close to Quimper, Jean-Louis Nédelec is not yet of age when he finds himself in Audierne, on the Jean-Jaurès quay, to embark on June 19, 1940 on On the Zéniththe first civilian ship to join England. The Germans are already in Brest when this two-masted, put into service in 1939 and which operates the link between breast and the continent, throws the moorings. He was crossed by Jean-Marie Menou, a “hairy” of 1914 and solid sailor. The crew also includes the sailor Joseph Guilcher, 30, Michel and Gabriel Guéguen, 19 and 16 years old, mechanic and second.
On the platform, they are 21 young men, aged 16 to 22, to embark for the crossing of the English Channel, refusing
