Gabriel Plançon

Gabriel Plançon was a French Resistance fighter born in Besançon on July 10, 1916, and shot dead by German occupying forces in the same town on September 14, 1943. Nicknamed Bibi, he led a "classic" existence, divided between his family, his mechanical work on typewriters and his artistic and cultural hobbies. However, his routine was disrupted when he was posted to the air force during World War II. After being captured and escaping, he returned to a country under Nazi domination. He joined the French Resistance, using his skills and equipment to convince the population to fight, provide false papers and hide his companions, later becoming leader of the local Francs-tireurs et partisans movement, in conjunction with the Guy Mocquet group.

At the peak of his fight, he is said to have organized, with the help of British allies, the bombing of Besançon in 1943, which cost the lives of some 50 people and destroyed the Comtois capital's main railway station and other infrastructure. He planned to carry out a final bomb attack targeting the quarters of a German military police unit, before fleeing to London, but was denounced by a traitor. During his arrest, he was seriously wounded while trying to escape, and died of his injuries. Decades after the war, the French authorities paid tribute to him, awarding him several posthumous titles, as well as a commemorative plaque and a street in his name.

Childhood and adulthood Gabriel Plançon, son of Jules Irénée known as René (1891-1959) and Jeanne Marie Angèle Georgette Caire (1891-1974), was born on July 10, 1916 in Besançon, a town in the Franche-Comté region of France, during, World War I. Nevertheless, the city was not involved in the conflict, and his father was discharged from the army, giving Gabriel, nicknamed Bibi at the time, a "normal" life.

At the age of 15, he gave up his watchmaking studies, which did not interest him, A lover of nature and animals, he planted an Atlas Cedar in the vicinity of his house, a tree that still stands on the premises today. His political awareness developed, and as a young adult, he began militating in the city's socialist circles with comrades such as Jean Minjoz, Gilbert Bourquin and Henri Chapatte. In addition to his professional and political activities, Bibi made it a point of honor to restore and improve the house where he was born. He was taken prisoner, but escaped to Istres with two companions.

In his idea of struggle, he sought out a resistance group; but the only group in the city at the time was the Communist Party, a movement to which Bibi was not ideologically close, but which he joined anyways. Thus, the only real actions carried out beforehand were those of this party, such as graffiti writing, flyer distribution or the organization of a protest at the war memorial on November 11, 1941.

With the help of Henri Chapatte, his clandestine printing works also enabled him to make forged identity cards. After the arrest of many people in the region, including many members of the Guy Mocquet group, he even considered helping the 16 Resistance fighters sentenced to death in Besançon to escape, but did not have the time to carry out this project, and Bibi decided to see the damage with her father and younger sister. They walked towards the Viotte train station, but the sight of a severed hand lying on the sidewalk prompted Gabriel to take Janine home. The town of Besançon was chosen as an alternative target, to deceive the German night fighters. Fifteen Halifaxes then bombed Besançon in dispersed order, killing around fifty people, many of them civilians. that had dropped its bombs too early, and it later emerged that nine of these bombers thought they had destroyed the Peugeot factories in Sochaux. In fact, he was behind a plan to destroy the city's most important barracks with London resistance fighters, but as the city had far too many barracks due to its rich military past, the Nazi-controlled station was chosen. Denunciations were rife in these times of war, and in the wake of this attack, he felt his life was in danger; Bibi then tried to organize an escape to London, one of the last free cities in Europe, after one last action. In addition to its clearly defined objective, this operation was intended to test the honesty of one of the network's most dubious members, Robert Guyon. They knocked on the door and immediately demanded Gabriel's surrender, but his wife huffily replied that he was absent. Severely wounded by a musket ball in the stomach, he groaned for some twenty minutes before the authorities took him to Hôpital Saint-Jacques, while others searched the apartment. His burial took place a few days later in the Saint-Ferjeux cemetery, and was attended in silence by a huge crowd. There were no tombstones, no services, no special gatherings. with the words "Resistance fighter who died for the Fatherland". Also on Jean Tyrode's initiative, a commemorative plaque was affixed to the wall of the building in which he was mortally wounded in 1995, at Place Risler, noting "Here was shot down by the enemy the Resistance fighter Gabriel Plançon, aged 27", in the presence of Robert Schwint, the Doubs deputy, Robert Opériol, and several other officials and local residents. He was posthumously awarded the Legion of Honor, the Croix de Guerre 1939-1945 and the Resistance Medal. Finally, a book entitled "Gabriel Plançon, résistant assassiné à Besançon" (Gabriel Plançon, Resistance fighter murdered in Besançon), authored by his sister Janine, was published in 2011.