Maurice Halna du Fretay quite a man.
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Descended from a family of Breton nobility , he was the son of Maurice-Jehan, Baron Halna du Fretay, and Marie-Noémie Fourtier-Rouget (bornDecember 13, 1891in
Saint-Brieuc )
[ 1 ] ,
[ 2 ] and the great-grandson of archaeologist
Maurice Halna du Fretay . He studied at the College of
Dinan . In
1937 , he took flying lessons at
Dinan aerodrome and, after a year, obtained his private plane pilot's license and then that of aircraft mechanic. He also bought a 45
hp Zlin XII , a small
Czech passenger plane .
As he prepares to study law at the Faculty of
Rennes ,
war breaks out, inseptember 1939. A month later, he signed a pre-enlistment in the Air Force. Student pilot at the Elementary Pilot School
No. 24 in
Dinan then, inapril 1940, student sailor in
Aulnat , he was demobilized after the
armistice of June 22, 1940 without having been able to participate in the defense of his country.
Back home onAugust 25, 1940, he leaves occupied
France aboard his personal plane, a Czechoslovakian ZLIN-XII, hidden, dismantled, in the family property, the Ranléon mansion; he reassembles it clandestinely and takes off from the driveway of the mansion, in the company of an officer of the
Legion and lands in
Dorchester (
England ) onNovember 15, 1940
[ 3 ] .
Enlisted in the
Free French Air Force after a stint at the
Patriotic School , he completed an internship at 51
Operational Training Unit , before being posted to 607
Squadron of the
Royal Air Force , with which he completed his first mission on November 27, 1941.
Assigned to 174
Squadron in the spring
of 1942 , he carried out numerous missions over
France . He is decorated with the cross of the
Order of the Liberation on
February 1 , 1942. InAugust 1942, his squadron provided air cover for Operation
Jubilee , organizing an
Allied landing at Dieppe . Returning from the operation, around 2 p.m., his
Hawker Hurricane IIc disappeared at sea, the same day as his
squadron leader ,
Émile "François" Fayolle [ 4 ] . His body could never be found. On the cabin of his Hurricane, he had inscribed the mottos: "
Breizh dalc'h mad " ("Brittany, hold on!") and "
Kentoc'h marvel " ("Rather death", beginning of the motto of
Anne de Bretagne : "Rather death than defilement")
[ 5 ].