Date of birth:

November 14th, 1916 (Tébessa, Algeria)

Date of death:

February 24th, 1943 (Thibica, Tunesia)

Nationality:

French (1870-present, Republic)

A medical student at the faculty of Montpellier, he enlisted in the air force when war was declared. Aspiring to Versailles, he was evacuated with his training in Rabat, Morocco before the armistice.

Demobilized, he moved to Algiers where he resumed his medical studies and decided to join the Free French Forces in London.

In October 1941, with other Algerian resistance fighters, he planned to leave Algiers for Gibraltar aboard a fishing boat that he had bought and equipped.

The attempt to embark on the beach of Fort-de-L'Eau failed, probably because of a denunciation, and the group was arrested by the Vichy police.

Released on parole, Jean Coggia goes to Tunis where he is arrested again. He appeared before the military maritime tribunal of Bizerte on May 7, 1942. Sentenced to two years in prison, he was imprisoned in the civil prison of Tunis where he was preparing an escape. But, after the German landing in Tunis and Bizerte in November 1942, he took advantage of the measure of release of Gaullist political prisoners taken by Admiral Esteva.

He then joined the "Mounier" intelligence network (named after its founder, lawyer André Mounier) which acts for the benefit of the Intelligence Service. Jean Coggia will be approved in the Free French Forces at the rank of lieutenant as a second class P2 agent in charge of mission.

At the same time, he moved to Bizerte as an auxiliary doctor in a dispensary and distinguished himself by his courage and dedication during the Allied bombardments. He met a head of the Intelligence Service network, Major Dick Jones, with whom he continued his clandestine activities and set up a clandestine transmitter in the Bizerte region. He informed the Allied intelligence services of the landings and movements of German and Italian troops and the traffic of the Sidi Ahmed maritime base.

On January 20, 1943, upon denunciation by an employee of the dispensary where he worked, he was arrested by the Germans and handed over to the French police in Tunis. During an interrogation in a villa, he escapes in handcuffs by jumping from the second floor. Hidden for some time in Tunis, he reconnects with Dick Jones. On February 23, 1943, the two men left Tunis to join the French troops by crossing the German and Italian lines 80 kilometers southwest of the capital.

The next day, they are surprised by the Germans at the Thibica station. After fierce resistance during which he killed three Germans, Jean Coggia was wounded and then killed on the spot. His injured companion was transported to Tunis.

The next day, Jean Coggia is buried in Pont-du-Fhas a few kilometers from Thibica. In June 1943, after the liberation of Tunisia, his body was transferred to Bône. He now rests in Toulouse.

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• - Jean COGGIA | L'Ordre de la Libération et son Musée