Donnay Memorial

Jean Renaud-Dandicolle (Bordeaux, November 8, 1923 - July 8, 1944) was a French agent of the Special Operations Executive during the Second World War, who federated and led the Saint-Clair maquis in Calvados during the first half of 1944. He was executed by the Germans on July 8, 1944. In the early hours of the 8th, the Grosclaude family set off to milk their cows in the fields. At around 6.30 a.m., "René" and Jean Foucu emerged from the house to see two German non-commissioned officers. When they had already been shot, a whole detachment surrounded the farm. "René" gives the order to disperse, but escape is as impossible as the fight is unequal: only Jean Foucu manages to avoid the shots and take cover; the farmers themselves have managed to hide, but are betrayed by their dog, which the Germans have let loose and which finds them. Mistaken for "René", they were taken, as he was, to who knows where, and finished off. No trace of them was ever found. "René" was twenty years old. Maurice Larcher and Harry Cleary, who had left unarmed because the affair had been so swift, were joined and shot five hundred meters from the farm8. The Germans, discovering the camouflaged equipment and radio transmitter, set fire to the farm. The monument was built from stones taken from the ruins of the Grosclaude farm, with a Lorraine cross in Saint-Sever granite, on land donated by the Grosclaude family. Source Wikipedia
Photo Jacques Grasset