Rédigé par Alain dans la rubrique Brigade Rac, Portrait
Herbert Brill was born in New jersey in 1920 and aged 23 had
become a Lieutenant Navigator with the U.S. Air Force and assigned to the 92nd
Bomb Group, 407th Squadron based at Podington in Bedfordshire in the
South of England.
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| Herbert Brill - France 1944 |
On the 31st of December 1943, along with a large
formation, his ten man crew flew a B-17 bomber out over France with
the mission of bombing air bases used by the Germans in the South West of
France.
Many bombers were lost on the raid and Brill’s B-17 was hit
by enemy fire over Cognac and was forced to make an emergency landing at
Experimont near Montendre in the Charente Maritime. The Pilot, Lt. Coleman
Goldstein managed to land the plane in a field and all ten aircrew survived and
torched the plane so it could not be used by the Germans. They decided to split
up into groups of two. Four headed south and eventually escaped over the
Pyrenees into Spain and four were captured by the Germans. Brill teamed up with
the crew’s Engineer William Weber and they decided to head East. They took a
small break in nearby woods to plan their route and then continued east and
covered about 20 miles in 24 hours.
It was now New Year's day and later that evening, tired and
hungry they walked into a small village to the west of Montmoreau and decided
to risk knocking on a villager’s door to ask for help. They were in luck, the
occupant of the house, after much persuading that they were really Americans,
called over a friend, who also needed convincing, and the Americans were fed
and given beds for the night.
In the morning they were given clothes to help them stand
out less and some food and maps for their journey onward. They left and headed
north east and after 30 miles of walking they approached Grassac to the south
east of Angoulême.
Luck
was again on their side as they had been over heard and
their accents noticed by a 17 year old local boy called Roland Mappas
who could
speak English. He took them to his family home and contacted his cousin
René Rispard alias "Blaireau" and a member of the local résistance. He
came over and
after grilling the Americans took them out of the town to some woods
nearby
where René Chabasse "Jean Louis", Chef des Opérations aériennes in the
Charente and head of a local résistance group was camped.
Below is an extract from the book Nous les Terroristes by
Marc Leproux and published in 1947 which talks of the day Brill and Weber were
picked up at Grassac. I have included the page which mentions the story of an
Englishman Michael Mcpartland "Mitchell" who had joined Chabasse's Maquis group, this is a link to his story (link)
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During Brill and Weber’s stay at the Maquis camp he kept
hearing the name Jacques Nancy mentioned. Nancy along with Claude Bonnier had
been sent over by Général de Gaulle to the South West of France in November
1943 to set up sabotage groups. In February 1944 Bonnier was denounced and
arrested by the Gestapo. He was severely tortured and when left on his own was
able to take his cyanide pill and suffered a drawn out and painful death.
Jacques Nancy took over command and set up the sabotage
group S.S.S. – Section Spéciale de Sabotage. Brill began to work closely with
the group and was given a false identity card in the name of Jacques Robert
Litaud, with the profession of quarry worker.
The S.S.S. operated around the South of the Charente and in
the North of the Dordogne and were responsible for blowing up electrical
towers, railway lines and German run factories, in total around seventy acts of sabotage.
During March, attempts were made to link Brill and Weber to an
underground escape group to get them to Spain but to no avail. In the meantime
Brill and Weber worked on farms and were moved from one safe house to another.
Brill remained in contact throughout his life with many of the families he had
stayed and worked with.
In mid July René Rispard and Jacques Nancy visited the farm
where Brill and Meyer were being sheltered. Weber decided to stay on at the
farm but Brill asked to join the Résistance full time. They agreed and le left
with Rispard and Nancy and together they drove East in to the North of the
Dordogne and stayed at the Maquis camp set up by the Brigade Rac A.S.
Dordorgne-Nord. Soon there were so many men camped there that Jacques Nancy
ordered his men over to the empty chateau Puycharnaud close to Nontron. Brill
went with them and was amazed to find that other Americans, who had also been
evading the Germans, were staying there.
In the early hours of 24th July 1944 word came
through that around 400 hundred German soldiers and Milicienne had left
Angoulême with the intention of destroying the town of Nontron which had been
liberated back on June 10th by the Brigade Rac. Around 30 maquisards of the groupe Manu, part
of the 2e compagnie Brigade Rac quickly set up a road block 2 miles out of
Javerlhac on the route from Angoulême to Nontron. As the Germans approached
they ambushed them and a fierce battle ensued. A few hours later around 30 of
Jacques Nancy’s men along with 6 Americans including Herbert Brill arrived and
for a while the Germans were held back. The fighting went on the entire day and
reinforcements arrived from the S.S.S. stationed at the chateau along with
other members of the Brigade Rac. By the end of the day the Germans finally
retreated, they had lost 56 of their men. Nontron was saved. 7 maquisards were
killed in the fighting, amongst them was the leader of the groupe Manu Manuel Ecébès.
Throughout August Brill remained with the S.S.S. and was
involved with the sabotage of an oil factory and the derailment of a German
train in a tunnel near Charmant in the Charente.
On the 31st August he participated in the
Libération of Angoulême. A few days later, with the Allies now in the region, a
plane was organised to take Brill and Meyer back to
England. Two planes landed in the evening in a remote field near Limoges, each
one able to take 22 homesick aviators. Within two hours they had landed in an
air field just outside of London.
Back on the 31st December 1943 Brill and Weber
had been told that their mission would be just a “quick milk run, you’ll be
back in a few hours”. But here they were, finally returning, 9 months later. By
the end of September they were back in the States and brill remained with the
U.S. Air Force until the end of 1945.
After the war the French awarded Brill the Croix du
Combattant Volontaire 1939 – 1945. He worked for many years as a Director in
PepsiCo and lived in various places around the world. His passion was painting
and in 1989 he and his wife Millicent bought a town house in Nontron and spent
long summers there. Brill participated each year on the 24th July at
the commemoration of the battle at Javerlhac and on each 1st September he
attended the commemoration of the liberation of Angoulême. He was also involved with the Musée de la Résistance et Déportation in Angoulême.
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Photo above taken by 'Séraphin'.
In 1947 Guy Berger 'Antoine' would write :
In July 2005 at Nontron he was made Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur and was made a Citoyen d’Honneur of the town.
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Photo above taken by 'Séraphin'.
In 1947 Guy Berger 'Antoine' would write :
“Avec un grand appareil monté sur trépied, nous
photographie dans une ‘charbonnière’. Nous sommes en groupe : Jacques, René
Clovis, Blaireau et moi debout, mitraillette à la main, avec devant
nous Mitchell, assis sur une souche.”
In July 2005 at Nontron he was made Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur and was made a Citoyen d’Honneur of the town.
Sadly in April 2009 he passed away. The people of France
will not forget him.
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| Herbert Brill's painting of the Libération of Angoulême |
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