France’s youngest wartime Resistance war hero who died aged six finally receives official tribute

The youngest member of French wartime resistance Marcel Pinte (R) is to be honoured on November 11 Armistice day

Credit:  AFP

France is to finally pay official tribute this week to the youngest French Resistance hero of the Second World War — a six-year-old boy who Britain also recognised as playing a key local role against the Nazis.

Marcel Pinte, nicknamed Quinquin, will for the first time be honoured on Armistice Day on Wednesday, when his name will be officially unveiled on the war memorial in Aixe-sur-Vienne just west of the central city of Limoges.

The pint-sized resistance fighter was the son of a prominent commander, Eugène Pinte, also known as Athos, who led a local movement around Limoges with 1,200 fighters by the end of the war.

More than a mere mascot, little Marcel would shuttle unseen between farms in the area to pass on messages, and even smuggled key documents under his coat into central Limoges because the Nazis never frisked little children.

His father ran his resistance headquarters in 1941 out of a small, isolated farm at a village of Gaubertie, where he lived with his wife Paule and their five children.

Little Marcel Pinte would pass messages from farm to farm and smuggle letters behind enemy lines

Credit:  AFP

A radio operator nicknamed “the Englishman” kept communication with London in the living room, teasing the little boy by pretending to swallow his cyanide pill.

"At the start, he probably took it all as a game. But then he quickly understood how risky it all was," said Marc Pinte, 68, the grandson of Marcel’s father.

Desperate to take part and blessed with a phenomenal memory, he said the boy didn’t miss a trick.

"He understood everything at once. Naturally, no-one noticed him, no one was going to pay any attention to a boy," said Mr Pinte.

Marcel’s father oversaw the collection of British arms and provisions drops via parachute in a nearby field whose codename was “Verrue” (Wart). His arrival was signalled by the BBC via the message: “The forget-me-not is my favourite flower.”

With the Nazis beating a retreat as the Allies surged into France, a large deployment of resistance fighters arrived by parachute in the night of August 19, 1944, ahead of an expected battle around Aixe.

Marcel, as usual, followed his family. But then in a tragic accident, a British Sten sub-machine gun went off by mistake, killing Marcel instantly with a volley of friendly fire.

On August 21, a large number of resistance fighters attended his burial, with the coffin covered with the tricolour flag. That very night they would go on to liberate Limoges.

Two weeks later, British B-17 planes made a final arms drop by parachute whose canvases were black to mourn Marcel’s death.

“The English knew that little Marcel had played a real role: this parachute drop was the visiting card to the family when you can’t come to the funeral,” Mr Pinte told the Telegraph.

However, his exploits were not widely known after the war until Alexandre Brémaud, whose grandmother was Marcel’s older sister, decided to find out more.

“My grandmother told me stories but almost all the documents were destroyed after the war. Regarding Marcel, nobody talked about it at home. I was frustrated and started looking in municipal, county and then military archives,” he said.

Thanks to his painstaking work, Marcel Pinte has now been officially recognised as having "died for France" as a hero and given his own green resistance card.

On Wednesday, France’s youth minister Sarah El Haïry will be present for the military ceremony.

"Lots of French women and children had roles as resistance liaison agents. Because their role was discreet and didn’t involve spectacular sabotage, they have remained largely in the shadows. This is way of recognising all those who remained in shadows," said Mr Brémaud.

He added: "In the name of my family and commander Pinte, I wish to say just how much England represented hope, when our soil was occupied, and resistance was organised thanks to our allies., It is always with the greatest emotion that the word Britain was brought up in my family. I hope that these strong links can continue between our two countries."

Grief-stricken, Eugene Pinte died in 1951, aged 49. He was buried next to his son Marcel at the cemetery in Aixe.

On the pink marble tombstone,  is a plaque with two black parachutes in a starry sky and three fires guiding British planes with the words: “The forget-me-not is my favourite flower.”