The PTT jacket of resistance fighter René Duclos

René Duclos, a discreet courier and deliveryman from Coutances, is spotted by the Resistance

Born in 1899, a veteran of the Great War, René Duclos lived in Coutances. In 1939, he was mobilized again and sent to Cherbourg, where he was taken prisoner in June 1940 upon the arrival of the Germans. With several comrades, he managed to escape the occupiers and reach Coutances, where he was finally demobilized.

He then returned to his job at the Post Office, as a PTT mail carrier on the railway lines. He was assigned to the "postal lighter," a wagon without compartments where mailbags from post offices near the stations along the route were stored and sorted.

Parcels and letters are thus received at each station stop, the wagon acting as a mobile post office, on the Lamballe-Coutances, Coutances-Lison-Caen or Coutances-Cherbourg routes.

Alone in his post office on rails, René Duclos is quickly considered an interesting potential agent by the people of the Resistance.

The resistance fighter becomes Hyppolite 323 and joins the Century

In December 1940 or early 1941, in Lison, he was approached and then recruited by Gaston Picot of Neuilly-la-Forêt as a P2 agent within the Centurie network, working for the Civil and Military Organization. Now known by the pseudonym "Hyppolite 323," his mission was to gather intelligence and circulate mail between network members as he traveled. His area of ​​operation covered northern Brittany, the Manche department, and part of Calvados.

From the end of 1942, with the implementation of the STO (Service de Travail Obligatoire), René Duclos also circulated false papers, recovered in the Saint-Lô region, thanks to OCM members present at the Prefecture of Manche, for the benefit of young draft dodgers from the Coutances region.

On several occasions, René Duclos also communicated information to two railway workers from Coutances, members of the "National Front Francs-Tireurs et Partisans" network, but without ever revealing his commitment to them.

Arrested in July 1942 during the large roundup in the circles of the communist resistance in Coutances, the two men disappeared, without however denouncing their informant from the PTT.

Finally, on many occasions, René Duclos hosted agents of the SOE (Special Operations Executive / British Secret Service), on missions in France, without telling his wife or daughter, who wore the uniform of railway workers or postal workers but spoke very little, to avoid revealing their English origin.

A delicate task: intercepting mail destined for the Feldkommandantur

But the most complex task that René Duclos had to perform was intercepting mail from private individuals destined for the Feldkommandantur or local annexes. These letters often contained denunciations or information likely to help the Germans, particularly in their fight against the resistance (possession of weapons, anti-German activity, listening to British radio, Gaullist remarks, etc.).

This work required time and caution, as some letters were simply destroyed, while others reached the OCM members at the Prefecture who falsified them and put them back into circulation, having, however, warned the people concerned beforehand! In this task, he is frequently assisted by another postman from Coutances, recently hired.

Winter 44, time for reckoning

René Duclos, who managed to slip through the net, witnessed the bombing and destruction of Coutances, then the liberation of the town.

At the end of July 1944, the resistance fighter managed to re-establish contact with the OCM (Organisation Civile et Militaire), which appointed him as a member of the Departmental Liberation Committee and as a juror at the Manche Court of Justice. He served in Coutances from the winter of 1944, judging cases of collaboration, denunciations, and other related matters. René Duclos quickly obtained the title of "Volunteer Combatant of the Resistance" from the Departmental Veterans Affairs office.

Donations entrusted to Normandy Victory Museum They participate in preserving and transmitting the memory of those who lived through the Second World War. Behind each object lies a family history, a life story, and the desire to ensure that these testimonies do not disappear.

We thank the family of René Duclos for this precious donation.