He was one of the rare “free French” of 1940, and on August 24, 1944, he was the first Frenchman to enter Paris with his crew of Spanish Republicans. But 78 years later, Marc Houdos de Posses remains one of the unsung heroes of one of the most beautiful pages of modern France. His career, however, had the air of an adventure novel.
Born on 12 November 1912, Mark was three years old when his father was killed in September 1916 on the Verdun front. In the late 1930s, he went to Africa. In Cameroon, this horseman is a veterinary assistant and… a jockey. On August 26, 1940, his fate changed with the Leclerc expedition, which was ordered by General de Gaulle to reach French Equatorial Africa. Mark de Possession, after weeks of waiting for an opportunity to continue fighting, joined the FFL on the 27th. He became around 1.eh Regiment of Skirmishers from the Cameroons, Staff Sergeant “Haudos” to make his family less vulnerable to Vichy vengeance. At the age of 27, he has mastered the language…
Source: Le Figaro
