Joseph Hourçourigaray dit "Le Basque en béret vert"

As part of the 400th anniversary of the French Navy, Lieutenant Frédéric Maufroy will be giving a talk on Joseph Hourçourigaray, the only Basque to take part in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944 alongside Commander Kieffer. Joseph Hourçourigaray was born in Esquiule in 1921. At the age of 18, he decided to enlist in the French Naval Forces. A year later he deserted the Vichy regime to go to England, where the Resistance was organised. In 1944, on 6 June, the assault was launched. Joseph Hourçourigaray was one of 177 soldiers, members of the Kieffer commando, to liberate the town of Ouistreham, in Calvados.