“Notebook of a French maquisard, at the time when day was breaking”, a work on clandestinity in Margeride

A work is published by Editions Lacour, at the initiative of the Langonais writer Gérard Lutaud, already author of several works on the resistance in Langogne. It was in fact while carrying out research in the departmental archives of Lozère that this history broker came across an unpublished manuscript, entitled Notebook of a French resistance fighter, at the time when day was breakingwritten by Raymond Montjardin, a young Gardois refractory to the STO, who decided to join the maquis of Haute Lozère in Margeride, from June to the end of August 1944.

A journey into hiding

When he arrives at the maquis, he is greeted by René Michel, alias Captain Max, who gives him the nickname Richard Mouton. This diary of three months spent in the Margeride maquis recounts the ambushes, movements, arrests, secret meetings and scouting of all these maquis members coming from all walks of life, who had to be wary of everything. Children of the Langonese resistance fighters will find themselves in the stories of this young Gardois, in particular the sons of Pierre Castanier, alias Pierrot, who saved the resistance fighter Montaigne, resistance leader of the Cévennes, when the Gestapo was informed of a secret meeting at the café Gély, in Mende.

Raymond Montjardin had sent this document in 1996 to Henri Cordesse, prefect of the Liberation, alias Roberto, responsible for collecting the testimonies of the resistance fighters to assert their rights. This archive was dormant and it is therefore all the merit of Gérard Lutaud to have taken steps with the grandchildren of Raymond Montjardin, the rights holders, who accepted the publication of the pages of their resistant grandfather in the top Lozère maquis.