Pierre Ziegler
Pierre Ziegler was the youngest member of the Plésidy Maquis – not yet being eighteen years old when he volunteered to join the Resistance in 1944. He recalls that during the early years of the war he was at school in Guingamp – in the College de Notre Dame, and that there were several priests associated with the college who were known to be actively working with the Resistance. Pierre was particularly interested in sport, and was a member of a sporting club in Guingamp, run by the Catholic church. Here too, he found that the priest in charge was involved in the Resistance; he persuaded the priest to add his name to a list of volunteers who would be prepared to fight against the occupying German forces when the need arose. Two lists existed in Guingamp, each with one hundred and fifty names – but no action could be taken, because they lacked guns and someone to lead them in combat. Pierre says that as soon as Chief Sergeant Robert made contact with them, there was no doubt but that he would be their leader. The order was given for the young men on the list to slip out of Guingamp and to make their way to the woods at Coatmallouen.
Two days after his arrival at the camp, a parachute drop of guns and ammunition was made, and successfully collected, and he was issued with a rifle. For Pierre, the assistance that the resistance group received from Britain has made a lifelong impression – when he marched into Guingamp with his comrades, he was carrying a British-made Enfield rifle, 150 rounds of ammunition, a British grenade, and was wearing British boots (which he recalls were not particularly comfortable).
The business that Pierre Ziegler went on to found in later life.
After the war, the logical course of action for Pierre Ziegler was to join the French army, in which he served as an officer for eighteen years, and received the highest military honours. In 1961, however, his unit was involved in the failed military coup against General De Gaulle, and as a result, he was discharged with no pension and no means to support his family.
He returned to Guingamp, and in 1968 set up his own business, selling building materials. The business had humble beginnings – Pierre Ziegler delivering slates with a wheelbarrow – but over the course of four decades it has grown to become one of Brittany’s most successful privately-owned builders merchants. In 1978 Pierre Ziegler’s military honours, and pension rights, were restored, and for many years he has been the president of the Association of the Friends of the Maquis of Plésidy – St-Connan – Coatmallouen. He recalls that of the four hundred or so young people who took part in its activities, only fifteen are still alive today – but he believes that it is important to remember the sacrifice made by the young people of Guingamp over sixty-five years ago. ‘La Liberté’ was the ideal for life which motivated them, and he remains proud to have had a chance to have been part of their group.
General Budet
In 1944 François Budet was just five years old and lived with his parents on their farm on the edge of Coatmallouen. On the 27th July – the day of the battle in the forest – he was helping to herd the family cows beside the lake. He could hear the sounds of gunshot and commotion, but it was only in later years that he came to understand the significance of the events that were taking place so close at hand. Fortunately, German troops left the area after the battle and François was able to pass the remainder of his childhood in peace in the countryside.
He recalls, however, that the events of that time had a strong effect upon him and contributed to his choosing a career in the military. After school he won a scholarship to the elite French military academy – École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr – from where he gained a place in an infantry regiment before moving on to the Gendarmerie. Over the course of a long and distinguished career, he rose to the rank of general – and on his retirement chose to return to the area of his birth and bought a house near Coatmallouen. In 2003 he published a book – Les Patriotes de Coatmallouen – which brings together all the material relating to the Maquis de Plésidy – St Connan. In 2009, he published a second book, L’âme de l’Étang, which is a guide to the area around Coatmallouen and l’Etang Neuf.
