In early 1942, Roger Coquoin [fr], a demobilized Captain and the head of the Chemistry Laboratory at the Académie Nationale de Médecine, met with the CDLL leader Maurice Ripoche. He became involved with the group and succeeded Ripoche as leader after the latter's arrest in March 1943.[4] Under Coquoin's command, the CDLL expanded to Paris and the rest of France, gathering new volunteers in Normandy, Champagne, Bourgogne and Vendée. Coquoin also made contact with other resistance movements in the occupied zone and even in the southern zone of Vichy. His capabilities in chemistry enabled him to develop detonators and abrasive pellets for destroying German trucks. After Coquoin was killed in an ambush in December 1943, Gilbert Védy, CDLL's delegate to the Provisional Consultative Assembly in Algiers, returned to Paris to head the movement. However, three days after his arrival, on 21 March 1944, Védy was arrested and poisoned himself during the interrogation rather than risk divulging any information.[1]
The group published a self-titled newspaper from May 1943; it became La France libre in April 1944 and merged with L'aurore in 1948.[5]
Members
•Pierre Audemard (xxxx–xxxx/Place of death: KZ Mauthausen)
•Jacques Ballet (1908–2000)
•Christophe Beaulieu
•Pierre Beuchon
•Jean Bessemoulin
•Josephine Bouffort
•Fernand Boivent
•Joseph Brindeau (xxxx–1942/Place of death: Augsburg hospital)
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