User:Elinruby/National pastime

• Comment: It's a good idea to always quote <ref name>s. WP:REFNAME: "Quotation marks are preferred". Use en dash (–) to indicate a range including a range of dates; if at least one end of the range is a compound or includes a space, the en dash should be spaced, for example, "6 July 1944 – mid-July 1944". Use either {{cite}} or {{citation}} templates, not both; I recommend {{cite}} but it's your choice. It's a good idea to standardize {{cite}} whitespace; I recommend no space around the equals (=) and a space before not after the pipe ( |). Use automatic Wiki numbered points with lines beginning with "#". You can make a whole block small with {{smalldiv}}. {{cite journal}} is only for articles published in academic journals, and the journal must be named. —Anomalocaris (talk) 22:21, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

Successive headquarters:
Lecoz:
1. rue du Puits-Gibert (Beaulieu-lès-Loches)
2. Les Fontaines (Saint-Hippolyte)
3. La Brosse (Perrusson)
4. Château de Grand-Vaulx (Chanceaux-près-Loches)
Lecoz maquis:
5. Bois de Chanceaux-près-Loches, 6 July 1944-mid-July 1944
6. Loches forest (Chemillé-sur-Indrois), mid-July 1944-19 July 1944
7. Brouard forest (Villentrois-Faverolles-en-Berry), 19 July 1944-2 August 1944
8. Hamlet of Basfer (Mareuil-sur-Cher), 2 August 1944-6 August 1944
9. Château de Razay (Céré-la-Ronde), 6 August 1944-12 August 1944
10. Château du Grand-Biard (Céré-la-Ronde), 12 August 1944-14 August 1944
11. Château de Biard-la-Chapelle (Céré-la-Ronde), 15 August 1944
12. Château de Chanceaux-près-Loches, 16 August 1944-20 August 1944
13. Château de Vitray (Saint-Hippolyte), 20 August 1944-5 September 1944-
14. Château du Mousseau, (Orbigny), 5 September 1944-6 October 1944

The maquis Lecoz (or Le Coz or Lecoze) was a French Resistance group that operated from July to October 1944 in the south-east of Indre-et-Loire, between the Cher and the Indre rivers in the Second World War.

Officially recognized by the Allies at the beginning of August 1944, it received material assistance from London and the Direction générale des services spéciaux of Charles de Gaulle. It carried out a dozen successful guerrilla actions, inflicted heavy losses on the German occupiers, and helped liberate Loches on August 16 1944. It also looted and extorted around thirty people and summarily executed 17 or 18 more. Its crimes and excesses defined it as a "black maquis".

Its leader, the self-proclaimed "captain" Lecoz, was arrested by the provisional government of the French Republic on October 22, 1944. His trial revealed that his real name was Georges Dubosq, that he was a criminal, a recidivist thief many times over and a former agent of the Gestapo. He was accused using the maquis to amass a fortune estimated 15 million francs, and of the murders of alleged civilian collaborator as well as of maquisards who protested his methods. A military tribunal sentenced him to death on October 17, 1945 and he faced a firing squad on May 16, 1946 in Angers. His two main lieutenants were sentenced to hard labor. Most members of his maquis, however, were found innocent, and their individual acts of resistance were recognized: evidence showed that they had been completely unaware of the real motivations of their leader, whom in any event they dared not disobey.

Gestapo informer

Serial reoffender

The only son of a broken home, Georges Dubosq was born May 8, 1903 in Fontenay-le-Pesnel (Calvados). His father, who committed a few petty thefts himself, raised him, and Dubosq imitated him from an early age. By 14, he already had a number of convictions, and "frequented" penal colonies until he came of age.

He was arrested again in April 1941 for the murder of a shoemaker he had robbed in November 1940 at Verneil-le-Chétif in the Sarthe. Jailed in the du Mans prison, he escaped but was recaptured, then in exchange for his release agreed to infiltrate the French Resistance for the Gestapo. He did this successfully in Angers, where several local leaders were arrested in 1942, then in Brest and Saint-Malo in 1943. He also informed on owners of clandestine radio transmitters. Throughout this period, he committed burglaries punctuated by arrests, releases and escapes. After one of these arrests he was put in a cell with prisoners from whom he was to extract information. In January 1944 he was arrested by the Germans for stealing from them. Incarcerated in Brest, he escaped again and went to Tours and committed more crime.^ of imprisonment and 96 years of exile from France.

Fake doctor

Hospital in Loches

On 6 March 1944 Georges Dubosq arrived in Beaulieu-lès-Loches. Through the intermediary of Mlle Houlbreck(or Houlbrèque), a nurse from Fécamp, he introduced himself at Loches hospital as "Doctor Georges Jan". He had served with the 2nd African light infantry bataillon in Morocco from 1925 to 1927, assigned to the infirmary with the rank of corporal, and had worked in the dispensaries of the prisons he frequented, thereby acquiring a superficial knowledge of medicine. After a week however, his imposture was discovered He was no longer welcome at the hospital, but suffered no consequences for the impersonation. He continued to treat people from Loches and the neighboring communes, apparently getting good results. His patients liked him, and he allowed them to set their own prices for consulting him. He still became known for his unstable, unpredictable character, verbal and physical abuse, and stealing from his landlady in Beaulieu, and decided it would be wiser to move away from Loches, taking up residence at the Les Fontaines farm in Saint-Hippolyte.

The lure of the Resistance

As early as March 1944, he contacted the Resistance and became known as "Captain Lecoz". He claimed to be a former military doctor who escaped from the Royallieu or Drancy internment camp -- he did not give the same version to everyone -- and was wanted by the Gestapo for Resistance activities. He claimed the Germans had killed his wife and children. In April or May 1944, while at Les Fontaines, he met two young former maquisards from the Luant area in the Indre, Gilbert Morin and Charles Pageault, whose organization had been dismantled. Local leaders of the Secret Army were divided on what to do about Lecoz. Fernand Auclert (head of the "shock section") wanted him in the Épernon maquis, so they could keep an eye on him, lawyer Raymond Mallet (in charge of the "political section" and later mayor of Loches from the Liberation to May 1945) was in favor of creating a new maquis around Lecoz, to prevent existing groups from getting too big. In addition to the Épernon maquis, some of whose members came from the Vichy Army, the Francs-tireurs et partisans, with close ties to the French Communist Party, were also active in the region. The socialist Raymond Mallet did not want either party to be strengthened. Lecoz repeated his request shortly after the announcement of the Normandy landings. but the discussions ended there in the face of a formal and definitive refusal from commander René Costantini, leader of the Épernon maquis, to accept this "unreliable" man into the unit. Lecoz and his two "musketeers" therefore decided to set up their own maquis in Chanceaux-près-Loches at the beginning of July 1944, with Lecoz and his musketeers at the Château de Grand-Vaulx, and his first maquisards in the nearby woods.

This new maquis was not established discreetly and was discussed in the town. The name aroused curiosity. On July 14, 1944 members of the maquis first appeared in the town with their leader, and the people of Loch discovered that Lecoz was the man they had known a few weeks earlier as "Doctor Jan".

Operations and extortions

Rise to power

Montpoupon castle

In July 1944, the Lecoz maquis grew rapidly with the arrival of new recruits, mainly young people eager to do battle with the occupying forces, including future journalist Georges de Caunes, then 25. John (Jack) Mersereau Veness and Jack L. Fairweather, two Canadian majors captured during the Battle of Normandy, escaped near Bléré from a prisoner train to Germany and joined the maquis; an account of their adventures was published in 1955. In addition to the Canadian majors, the Lecoz maquis included several other Allied fighters, including Americans. During this period, Lecoz and his troops changed billets several times, as the places they settled in always became known in the end, especially since Lecoz wanted the maquis to be visible to the population. The spectacular actions of the Lecoz maquis against the Germans or notorious collaborators, such as the execution on the night of the 10 to the 11th of July 1944 of Dr. Abribat, a local leader of the Légion des ombattants quickly earned him great renown in the region, and refractory STO,et des German deserters, which ensures the mobility of its troops; the number of vehicles acquired by this maquis, either by requisition from the French or by capture from the enemy, has been estimated at around fifty.

On July 27, 1944 the Alfred-de-Vigny school in Loches was rounded up, and a suspected resistance fighter was tortured and murdered in Dolus-le-Sec by Germans and militiamen from Tours; 64 people, including Mme Mallet's wife and Odette Houlbreck, a nurse very close to Lecoz were sent to concentration camps, from which only 16 ever returned. Lecoz took advantage of the situation to step up his actions under the guise of reprisals; in reality, he took advantage of the fact that many policemen and gendarmes had been caught up in the roundup, and law enforcement activity had been reduced to almost nothing,

The maquisards may have been surprised by their leader's methods: he did not hesitate to raid other maquis for food, weapons and vehicles, even though his group, which was not recognized by the Allies, had no logistical support. A parachute drop destined for a maquis in Buzançais was recovered. Wealthy local château-dwellers were also held to ransom, such as the owners of Château de Montpoupon (Céré-la-Ronde), who were kidnapped and held captive from August 3 to 6 This family, M. and Mmede La Motte-Saint-Pierre and their daughter, only owed their liberation the passage of three allied officers to the maquis. Lecoz managed to extort 150,000 francs from them, two vehicles and hunting equipment, rifles and ammunition, although without violence according to Mme de La Motte-Saint-Pierre.

Recognition by London and local support

Fighting between Maquis Lecoz against German troops July 1944 to September 1944

At the beginning of August 1944, the maquis numbered around 180 people including some forty officers and NCOs and some twenty women several of whom were successively the mistresses of Lecoz, attacked German convoys and garrisons, seizing large stocks of weapons and equipment. On 6 August, he was finally recognized by the Allies, and received parachute drops of weapons and ammunition. Three days later, from London, the Direction générale des services spéciaux sent him Commandant Legrand (pseudonym: Léon Legendre) as a liaison officer. He was also responsible for coordinating the actions of various maquis in the region, but met with hostility from Lecoz, who refused to accept any higher authority. An area of intervention between the Cher and the Indre is assigned to the maquis,

Le château de Biard-la-Chapelle

However, this "officialization" did nothing to change the group's methods. From August 6 to 12, 1944, the group set up camp in Céré-la-Ronde, at the unoccupied Château de Razay, which they looted as well as a number of neighboring residences. The area around Céré-la-Ronde was densely wooded, which Lecoz considered to be an ideal hiding place for his men. On August 11, Lecoz agreed to let Dr. Martinais visit wounded Germans taken prisoner by his maquis after an attack at Épeigné-les-Bois. Lecoz offered him lunch and announced his intention to take Loches, but the doctor remembers a worrying and deplorable atmosphere. The wounded were rescued, some treated on the spot, others transported to hospital. On the night of August 14th to 15th, Lecoz attacked the Château de Biard-la-Chapelle in the same commune, and M. de La Verteville and his daughter, accusing them of collaborating. However, La Verteville was a genuine member of the Resistance, working for the Bourgogne network. The discussion escalated, but La Verteville realized he was dealing with an alcoholic and got him to drink. Calmed down, Lecoz obtained a room at the château, where he slept with a German and a French woman, while his maquisards were received in the outbuildings. The next day, the troop set off again with two vehicles and some equipment.

On August 9, 1944, police inspector Alfred Hangouët, recruiting men for the Épernon maquis, came to meet Lecoz. Initially threatened with death and taken prisoner by the maquis, he subsequently formed a complex relationship with Lecoz: once free to move about, he remained at Lecoz's side, witnessing his exactions without reacting, but trying to influence some of his positions without confronting him head-on. Lecoz made him a close friend in whom he had complete confidence.

First liberation of Loches: turning point

On August 16 1944, the Germans evacuated Loches. While the Lecoz maquis was once again being moved, and his itinerary brought him close to Loches, he changed his objective, violating the orders of Resistance leaders: he felt that the Lecoz maquis should be the first in the liberated town, and made a triumphant entry. The population, gave him a jubilant welcome; on the Place de Verdun, Madame Mallet embraced him in front of the crowd and called him "the hero of the day".

The lawyer who headed up the local liberation committee and acted as mayor and sub-prefect had a special free issue of "La Libération lochoise" distributed to residents, in which an article he had written credited the Lecoz maquis with the liberation of the whole of southern Indre-et-Loire.: "Our valiant Resistance volunteer troops, united under an energetic leader have taken the final steps to liberate the southern zone from Nazi control."

At the captain's instigation, a vast purge began in Loches, lasting three days, in which he gave his orders from a bistro and only returned drunk and dead tired to the Château de Mai. Several dozen collaborators and suspected collaborators were arrested, manhandled and imprisoned in the château de Loches. A pharmacist in the town center, a notorious collaborator, was beaten by Lecoz himself and left for dead. Police inspector Recco, who we later learned had been commissioned by the sub-prefect to investigate Lecoz, was publicly shot dead without warning. From then on, the people of Loch worried about arbitrary arrests and began to have doubts about Lecoz, especially since past victims of violence had begun to speak up. Also, although the inhabitants didn't realize it, the permanent presence of a maquis right in the middle of town left the population vulnerable to enemy repraisals, especially since Lecoz himeelf was convinced that the Germans were gone for good. Resistance leaders on the other hand were aware of this situation and the commandant Legrand, who agreed with their analysis, left for this reason on 17 August accompanied by some 15 maquisards, mostly foreigner. Legrand admitted at his trial that he had failed in his mission to keep Lecoz under control.

On August 20, after fighting to the west and south of Loches, German tro0ops moving up from south-west France retook the town. On this occasion, witnesses describe Captain Lecoz as indecisive, as if paralyzed by the danger of the enemy's approach, and the maquis hurriedly evacuated its positions to regroup at the Château de Vitray in Saint-Hippolyte. The Lochois felt abandoned to their fate.All prisoners in the dungeon are freed by their guards. The Germans take over the Château de Chanceaux-près-Loches, threaten its owner with death and seize or set fire to all of its equipment, including many vehicles that the Lecoz maquis had abandoned there although the maquis had had a strong presence in Loches for four days, it had established its quarters in Chanceaux. It is not clear whether the reoccupation of Loches was due to the presence of the maquis, or simply because the town lay in the path of German columns.

During August, the Lecoz maquis carried out a dozen attacks, killing 50 soldiers, wounding around a hundred and taking 25 prisoners. During these operations, twenty-five of his men were killed and forty wounded.

Increased crime and looting

Ceremony for the liberation of Loches (6 September 1944)

German troops left the Lochois for good on September 3. On 6 September 1944, a ceremony was organized in Loches to celebrate the liberation of the town. The Épernon maquis and the francs-tireurs et partisans took part, but the undesirable Lecoz maquis was absent.

Farms and castles pillaged by the Maquis Lecoz (July 1944)

The Château de la Gitonnière, in Genillé was ransacked and its owners tortured by Lecoz for several days after he discovered a radio transmitter he believed to be for reaching the Germans. In fact, the owners worked for the Resistance. The loot (livestock, furniture, knick-knacks, etc.) was sold to local residents. The latter, later prosecuted for receiving stolen goods, were ordered to return or reimburse their purchases. In the course of all these operations, Lecoz amassed a fortune estimated at 15,000,000francs or almost 2,000,000 Euros, including 8,000,000 francs for the Gitonnière looting alone. At his trial, he tried to justify himself: "il fallait bien que mon maquis puisse vivre"

Worse still, Lecoz shot dead three of his men who wanted to leave him to join another maquis after becoming aware of some of his extortions. He also continued to execute, in the name of summary justice, suspected collaborators and almost never took the time to verify the accusations he received.^ The gendarmerie found it difficult to investigate these misdeeds because witnesses fearful of reprisals were vague about identifying a guily party. Lecoz only gradually came to be suspected. He earned the nicknames of "capitaine La Terreur" and "docteur Petiot whose crimes were discovered in March 1944.

At this time, the maquis was again at Chanceaux-près-Loches then Saint-Hippolyte, and in September 1944, at the château du Mousseau in Orbigny, Indre-et-Loire, whose owners had already been ransomed in July.

End of the maquis and Lecoz's conviction

Stay in Eastern France

On September 22, 1944, a police report alerted the Provisional Government of the French Republic to the extortions of the Captain. Michel Debré, Commissaire de la République institué par le Gouvernement provisoire de la République française in Angers, and Robert Vivier, Prefect of Indre-et-Loire, decided to have Lecoz arrested}} The operation was postponed, however, as it seemed risky against a man who was always on his guard, knew the region well and was protected by his troops. He therefore decided to move the maquis away from the Loches area, to ease the local pressure and perhaps take advantage of the move to apprehend Lecoz more easily away from his base. The captain and around 80 of his men left Touraine on 6 October 1944 and were incorporated into the French 1st Army While there, Lecoz posed as a military bandmaster and sold a whole collection of musical instruments whose origin could not be established.

Return and arrest

Against all expectations, Lecoz returned to Loches on October 19 with nine maquisards to, he said, "proceed with recruiting new soldiers for de Lattre" Under these conditions, his arrest was deemed possible, as he was relatively isolated. It was also urgent, as he was back in the news. In particular, he had threatened to kill the Loches sub-prefect's office manager, from whom he had just extorted a petrol voucher on the premises of the sub-prefecture, this altercation provided the reason for the arrest: "death threats against a civil servant in the performance of his duties".

He was apprehended by surprise and without violence in a café in Saint-Jean-Saint-Germain on the night of October 22, 1944. He was ambushed by the police, including Inspector Hangouët. and four other officers from the forces of public order, who were also members of the maquis.

Return and arrest

Against all expectations, Lecoz returned to Loches on October 19 with nine maquisards to, he said, "proceed with recruiting new soldiers for de Lattre". Under these conditions, his arrest was deemed possible, as he was relatively isolated. It was also urgent, as he was back in the news. In particular, he threatened to kill the Loches sub-prefect's office manager, from whom he had just extorted a petrol voucher at the sub-prefecture. This altercation providing the reason for the arrest: "death threats against a civil servant in the performance of his duties"

He was apprehended by surprise and without violence in a café in Saint-Jean-Saint-Germain on the night of October 22, 1944, He was ambushed by the police, including Inspector Hangouët. and four other officers from the forces of public order who were also members of the maquis as well as four other officers of the forces of public order also members of the maquis The other members of the maquis, who had returned to Loches with Lecoz, were arrested without resistance. Forty soldiers, stationed at the Loches dungeon to combat a possible coup de force by Lecoz's followers, were ultimately not required to intervene. Although Hangouët is arrested at the same time as Lecoz to deflect suspicion, his role eventually comes to light and his car is booby-trapped a few days later by Lecoz supporters with a grenade, defused in time. They were protected by the gendarmerie for several weeks, until he was transferred to Angers in November.

Dispersed and deprived of its leader, the maquis ceased all activity and its members returned to Touraine, disarmed but not bothered by the police, and joined regular units; some took part in the fighting on the Atlantic coast.

The trial and the unsurprising verdict

La prison du Pré-Pigeon

In his cell at the Maison d'arrêt d'Angers, Lecoz had a provocative attitude towards the guards and the examining magistrate who questioned him, insulted other inmates, and while his state of health is already precarious -- he suffered from bone tuberculosis, of abcesses on his body caused by this disease and spends long months in the prison infirmary, he kept his wounds infected in the hope of postponing his trial. There were rumors of a possible escape attempt, and he was kept under close surveillance. At the end of an investigation slowed by Lecoz's failure to cooperate and the difficulty of finding victims willing to testify because they feared reprisals, Lecoz was brought to trial. He was protected by the gendarmerie for several weeks, until transferred to Angers in November.

Scattered and deprived of its leader, the maquis ceased activity and its members returned to Touraine, disarmed but not bothered by the police, and joined regular units; some took part in the fighting on the Atlantic coast. At the end of an investigation slowed by Lecoz's lack of cooperation and the difficulty of finding victims willing to testify because they feared reprisals, the trial of the main accused and three of his lieutenants opened in Angers on October 16, 1945, before a military tribunal. Paraplegic, Lecoz appeared at his trial lying on a stretcher. The serial liar Georges Dubosq -- only at this trial was his true identity established -- invented a family massacred by the occupiers, a past as a military doctor captured by the Germans, who then escaped and was wanted for Resistance activities, the latter being true but not for the reasons given. For the three months during which his maquis operated, he was charged with eighteen murders and assassinations, as well as some thirty cases of looting and extortion, and illegal wearing of uniforms and decorations. In his defense, Lecoz argued that the purpose of the thefts was simply to provide sustenance for the maquis, and that all the victims were Germans or French collaborators. These arguments were not convincing, all the more so as he added an ambiguous sentence: "I didn't join the Resistance out of patriotism, but to forget my heavy past and redeem myself with a dazzling action. The prosecutor argued that Dubosq's real intention was never to act as a member of the Resistance, and that his maquis merely enabled him to pursue his pre-war activities on a completely different scale. He pointed out that the engagements against German troops were largely the result of chance.

After two days of hearings, the verdict came as no surprise: Dubosq was sentenced to death. He was shot ties to an upright stretcher at his own request, on May 16, 1946 at Angers prison His two "musketeers", Gilbert Morin and Charles Pageault, who appeared free, accused of four murders, were sentenced to five years of hard labor as their clean criminal records, young age and impressionable character mitigated their offenses. they were pardoned the following year. A third Lecoz deputy, on the run at the time of the trial, is sentenced to death in absentia; after his arrest in December 1945 he was judged "unbalanced" and his sentence was reduced to five years' hard labor.

Following an investigation in 1946 and 1947, the Lecoz maquis was officially recognized as a "Resistance fighting unit" for the period of August 9, 1944 to September 1, 1944.

Georges Dubosq's case file, kept at the Dépôt Central des Archives de la Justice Militaire at Blanc (Indre), was not available for consultation at the time the summary works on the Lecoz affair were written; the only accessible sources for the trial were press articles published in La Nouvelle République du Centre-Ouest ,La Résistance de l'Ouest or Paris-Presse

<xref{{Article|title=Le procès de Le Coz|periodic=Paris-Presse|date

Lecoz's domineering personality

If the activities of the Lecoz maquis, mixing authentic Resistance actions with summary executions, theft and looting, and his uncontrollable character -- the military authorities had no hold on him, since he refused any supervision and refuted any form of control -- designate it as a black maquis,</ref> the responsibility for the extortions lies entirely with Lecoz and his immediate entourage.. During the investigation and trial, most of Lecoz's men were found to have been completely unaware of their leader's activities, and were individually recognized as "Forces françaises de l'intérieur". The maquis suffered 25 deaths in combat. In 2013, historian Fabrice Grenard agreed that these were good faith fighters , but found that they were fascinated and deceived by Lecoz's dominant and charismatic personality.. Others remained silent for fear of reprisals and because Lecoz's authority over his men was total: "his men feared him terribly. There was no arguing with his orders", reported one of the women enlisted in the maquis. u According to Georges de Caunes, then at the Lecoz maquis: "The sun, drugs and alcohol transformed the captain into a dangerous madman who only found appeasement in blood...".

Disciplined but poorly organized maquis

Although Lecoz's fear of his men encouraged discipline, the captain was not a warlord. Most of the battles pitting the maquis against the occupiers were not the result of planned operations, but of chance encounters between German troops and maquis commandos during their respective movements, or as a result of denunciations: Lecoz has no organized intelligence system in place The captain knows neither how to organize nor program, and his impulses always dictate his decisions His amateurism was revealed when he held out in Loches after the first liberation, but also when he attacked a German post set up in the Épeigné-les-Bois school in the heart of the village, In both cases, the civilian population ran the risk of reprisals or becoming Collateral damage His troops were also very young; even without an exact count, it seems that at least a third of the maquisards were under the age of twenty.

The cantonments themselves were not models of organization, and chaos reigns. No accounts were kept, the list of maquis members was fragmentary, and it was difficult to put an exact figure on human losses.Shortly after its creation, the Lecoz maquis seems to have been split between two locations: the cadres and some of the troops in Chanceaux-près-Loches, and the other members of the maquis in the Loches forest at Chemillé-sur-Indrois, a distance of over 10km as the crow flies, which was not conducive to communications. Later, when the maquis stopped over in a single location, there was always a clear separation between Lecoz and his cadres on the one hand, and the rest of the members on the other.The former are much better housed.When it was a château, and this was systematically the case from August onwards, they lived in the main building, while the others had to make do with the outbuildings According to the maquisards and a few outside witnesses, life was not always unpleasant in the maquis: good food, alcohol (which Lecoz abused) and young women.A prisoner from the maquis even describes "[...] real orgy scenes during which men and women fought". In addition, Lecoz sometimes shares his booty widely in which men and women fought In addition, Lecoz sometimes shared his booty widely with his men.However, no one is immune to the captain's unpredictable and fearsome mood swings and outbursts of fury, especially when drunk or under the influence of narcotics.

In hindsight, even if Lecoz bore almost all the responsibility for the acts of which he was accused, it seems that certain actors -- other than the core members of his maquis-- through their passivity or lack of discernment, may have contributed to Lecoz's "rise" and encouraged, even indirectly, his misdeeds. Commandant Costantini, leader of the Épernon maquis, refused to neutralize Lecoz by enlisting him in his maquis, which was Fernand Auclert's wish. Madame Mallet, nurturing personal ambitions, encouraged the formation of the maquis to compete with other formations. Captain de la Mazière, brother-in-law of général de Lattre de Tassigny and owner of an estate near Loches worked for London's recognition of the maquis, enabling it to equip itself and providing it with a military "guarantee" Finally, Inspector Hangouët, who worked with Lecoz from early August 1944 until his arrest, could have unmasked the bandit and put a stop to his misdeeds sooner.

On the other hand, the geographical and administrative situation of the Lochois during the Second World War undoubtedly contributed to Lecoz's impunity.

Since the establishment of the ligne de démarcation on June 25, 1940, Loches and its region have been in the free zone and under the administrative control of Châteauroux. Even after the line disappeared in 1943, Indre-et-Loire remained administratively split in two, with the departments responsible for Loches divided between the two prefectures. The prefecture of Châteauroux was more interested in its territories in the Indre department than in those of Indre-et-Loire or Loir-et-Cher, which it was supposed to control; Tours could perhaps have provided valuable information on Lecoz's past, but communications remained difficult between this city and Châteauroux. At local level, the police force was disorganized by the roundup of July 27, 1940- and its only leaders were inspectors Recco (Renseignements généraux), assassinated by Lecoz, and Hangouët (Sûreté nationale), who had an ambiguous relationship with the maquis leader; the forces of law and order did not gradually return to their posts until September 1944.

Maquis Lecoz in the arts

The story of the Lecoz maquis inspired a Touraine theater troupe to create the play Capitaine Le Jan in 2012. Performances of this play are accompanied by a traveling exhibition entitled Quand l'histoire sculpte la mémoire which includes this theme.

Maudite soit-elle, a crime novel by Vincent Desombre published in 2012, incorporates the Lecoz maquis affair into its plot. hed

Notes

L'insécurité dans le Lochois durant l'été 1944: l'affaire du maquis Le Coz, 2003:

• Le Coz, un psycho dans la Résistance, Scènes de crimes, 2008:

• Maquis noir et faux maquis, Vendémiaire, 2011:

• References

Bibliography

• Berthereau, Estelle (2003). L'affaire du maquis Lecoz vécue et perçue en Touraine et en Anjou de 1944 à nos jours. Bordeaux: l'auteur (institut d'études politiques).
• Bird, Will R. (1955). The Two Jacks: The Adventures of Major Jack L. Fairweather and Major Jack M. Veness. Londres: William Kimber.
• Briais, Bernard (1988). Le Lochois pendant la guerre - 1939-1945. Chambray-lès-Tours: CLD.
• Briais, Bernard (2001). Une ville de province dans la guerre : Loches-en-Touraine 1939-1945. Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire: Alan Sutton. ISBN 2-8425-3583-9..
• Briais, Bernard (2002). Un dossier noir de la Résistance: le maquis Lecoz. Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire: Éditions Alan Sutton. ISBN 978-2-8425-3800-2.
• Cannet, Hervé; Bonnet, Guy (2004). 1944, la région opprimée, la région libérée: numéro hors série. La Nouvelle République du Centre-Ouest. ISSN 0152-2590..
• Gaston, Sébastien (2003). L'insécurité dans le Lochois durant l'été 1944: l'affaire du maquis Le Coz. Tours.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Grenard, Fabrice (2011). Maquis noir et faux maquis. Paris: Vendémiaire. ISBN 978-2-3635-8001-6.
• Hangouët, Alfred (1978). L'Affaire Lecoze. Chambray-lès-Tours: CLD, Normand et Cie.
• Rosso, Michel (2008). Le Coz, un psycho dans la Résistance. Scènes de crimes. ISBN 978-2-9403-4948-7.
• Vivier, Thierry (2013). Touraine, années terribles: 1870-1871 / 1940-1944 - Châtelains et paysans en résistance. Fabrica libri. ISBN 979-1-0904-4731-8.