Beauregard, Alcide

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Alcide Beauregard
25 March 1917 – 20 August 1944
Place of death Saint-Genis-Laval, France
Allegiance Canada
Service/branch Canadian Army
Rank Lieutenant
Awards MiD

Lieutenant Alcide Beauregard (25 March 1917 - 20 August 1944) was a Canadian soldier who served with the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals and the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the Second World War. Arrested in France while serving behind enemy lines he was a victim of the massacre at Fort de Cote-Lorette.

Early Life

Beauregard was born the second child of Noël Beauregard (a farmer) and Marie Anne Beauregard (née Moreau), in Roxton Falls in the Eastern Townships region of Québec, Canada. Little is recorded of his early years, but his education included technical studies at college where he became proficient in electrical work. Prior to the Second World War he held a variety jobs including truck driver, miner, radio mechanic and electrical mechanic.[1]

Service

Beauregard joined the Régiment de Maisonneuve as a Private during the Second World War but, owing to his previous experience, he later transferred to the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals and served with 2 Canadian Divisional Signals.[2] In mid-1943 when the Special Operations Executive was looking for French speaking radio operators, he volunteered for service.[3]

Lt Beauregard, commissioned prior to deployment had sprained an ankle during parachute training in late November 1943 and so was flown into France. Landed by Lysander on the night of 8-9 February 1944 near Azay-sur-Cher, he was to make his way across France to Lyon for his assignment. Beauregard was assigned to work as a radio operator for Jules Lesage, a Frenchman who had previously worked in Lyon and was returning after training in Britain to establish a new sub-circuit for the DITCHER circuit. When Lesage could not establish a viable sub-circuit due to his alienation of resistance workers during his previous work, it appears that Beauregard worked directly for DITCHER out of a schoolmasters house in the 8th arrondissement of Lyon.[4]

In order to handle the high volume of messages being passed prior to the Allied invasion, and despite warnings from London, he continued to operate from the same location. Highly susceptible to direction finding, the Germans located him and he was arrested on 15 July (or 8 June - sources differ) along with the son of his hosts, young Louis Cézard, but not before they managed to destroy the radio and the codes. Louis Cézard was shot (16 June in Saint-Didier-de-Formans, Ain) while Beauregard was taken to the offices of the Gestapo and brutally interrogated. It is strongly believed that he revealed nothing although "his reason is believed to have been unhinged by the tortures to which he was subjected."[4] He was incarcerated at Montluc Prison were he remained until until 20 August 1944. That morning, he was one of approximately 120 prisoners taken by the German authorities and local French militiamen to Fort de Cote-Lorette. Transported in two buses, the prisoners arrived at about 08:30 a.m. where they were put into a grounds keeper's house. The prisoners were then machine-gunned to death after which the house was detonated with explosives.

The townspeople, led by their Mayor and despite the continued occupation by the Germans, recovered the remains and held a solemn funeral on 23 August 1944.

For his service, Lt Beauregard was Mentioned in Despatches in January 1946.[5]

Memorials

Lt Beauregard, having no identified grave, is commemorated at the Bayeux Memorial.

Impasse Beauregard sign in Lyon France.jpg
Lt Beauregard is also commemorated at the Fort de Cote-Lorette Massacre Memorial dedicated to those executed at the fort in August 1944 as well as at the Valencay SOE Memorial which is dedicated to the members of the Special Operations Executive F Section who lost their lives working to liberate France during World War II.

A street, "Impasse Beauregard", is named after Lt Beauregard in the 1er arrondissement of Lyon France.

Related Pages


Related Items

References

  1. ↑ Paul McCue Books
  2. ↑ Part II Orders, 2 Div Sigs War Diaries
  3. ↑ Wikipedia article (French language)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 MacLaren, Roy. Canadians Behind Enemy Lines 1939-1945. Vancouver and London: University of British Columbia Press. 1983. ISBN 0774811005.
  5. ↑ The London Gazette, Supplement 37425. 8 January 1946. Page 392.