Date of birth:

May 6th, 1904 (Paris, XXe, France)

Date of death:

June 17th, 1960 (Kerlebert-Queven Manor, France)

Nationality:

French (1870-present, Republic)

He was a sea captain and a reserve ship's lieutenant when war broke out. After having served in the reconnaissance of Le Havre, he was forced to fall back on Cherbourg, then to reach Casablanca on the dredger Marie-Gilberte of which he was the commander.

Demobilized in Morocco, he was then repatriated to France and, in 1941, he was deputy director of the supply services of Morbihan.

From that time, he participated in the Resistance.

In December 1943, Paul Chenailler was departmental head of the France Combattante movement.

Deputy Commander Maurice Guillaudot, he succeeded him when the latter was arrested by the Germans on December 10, 1943. Having become Colonel Morice (in tribute to Maurice Guillaudot), he set up his PC in Brehan-Loudéac.

During the winter of 1943-1944, thanks to his links with London, he obtained numerous parachute drops of weapons. Morice then becomes head of all resistance movements in Morbihan. He organized the dispersed forces of the maquis and succeeded in turning them into a homogeneous underground army of several thousand men.

Its resistance fighters organized into sections, companies and battalions formed at the beginning of June 1944 eight battalions of 1,000 men.

Between June 6 and 18, 1944, Paul Chenailler assembled three battalions to protect a parachute drop zone at Saint-Marcel, near Malestroit where, for 12 days, he received weapons and paratroopers from the 4th Air Infantry Battalion. (4th BIA). On June 18, the Germans attacked Saint Marcel with 9 to 10,000 men. During the night, to escape the encirclement, the three battalions disappeared, leaving the enemy neither a wounded nor a weapon.

After August 6, when the link was established between the resistance fighters and the American army, Morice, with General Borgnis-Desbordes, held the front at Lorient and La Villaine, before becoming deputy commander of the 19th ID.

When the war was over, he was demobilized with the rank of frigate captain. In December 1945 in Vannes, he was decorated with the Cross of the Liberation by General de Larminat at the same time as Maurice Guillaudot, who had returned from deportation.

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• - Paul CHENAILLER | L'Ordre de la Libération et son Musée