Capitaine Raymond Dronne (8 March 1908, in Mayet, France – 5 September 1991, in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

) was a French civil servant and, following World War II, a politician. He was the second Allied officer to enter

as part of the liberation forces during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. A volunteer who joined the

Free French Forces __NOTOC__ The French Liberation Army ( ; AFL) was the reunified French Army that arose from the merging of the Armée d'Afrique with the prior Free French Forces (; FFL) during World War II. The military force of Free France, it participated ...

in Africa in 1940. Later, he was assigned as commanding officer of the 9e Compagnie, Régiment de Marche du Tchad (Ninth Company, Regiment of March of Chad), known as " La Nueve" as it was mainly composed of Spanish republicans. The 9th Company was a unit of the 3rd battalion RMT, part of the French 2nd Armored Division. During the move on Paris, due to combat conditions and poor road progress, General Philippe Leclerc, commanding general of the Second Armored, ordered Dronne to form an advance party, go to Paris and let the Resistance know that the Second Armored would be in Paris in 24 hours. His advance party, the 9th Company, consisted of 15 half tracks (M5s and M5A1s), and three Sherman tanks from 501 RCC of the division, plus engineer units. The H/Ts included those called Les Cossaques, Guadalajara, Madrid and Ebro and the added Sherman tanks were called Montmirail, Romilly and Champaubert.

References

1908 births 1991 deaths People from Sarthe Politicians from Pays de la Loire Rally of the French People politicians National Centre of Social Republicans politicians Union for the New Republic politicians Reformist Movement (France) politicians French senators of the Fourth Republic Senators of Sarthe Deputies of the 2nd National Assembly of the French Fourth Republic Deputies of the 3rd National Assembly of the French Fourth Republic Deputies of the 1st National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Deputies of the 4th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Deputies of the 5th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Free French military personnel of World War II {{France-mil-bio-stub