Ange Defendini was born 4 December 1909, on the Îles
du Salut, (Salvation Islands) of French
Guiana, where his father, Dominique Defendini, was serving in the penal colony
there which included the infamous Île du Diable (Devil’s Island). Both his
father and his mother, Leonia Defendini, originally came from Corsica and were
of French nationality.
After the family returned to Corsica, Defendini attended the Lycée de
Bastia to the age of 20, but left without qualifications. He then followed his father into the military and from January 1930 until the
outbreak of war in 1939, he worked for the Deuxième
Bureau, the French Military Intelligence Service. For the first four years
he served in the espionage service and from 1934 in the counter-espionage
service. When war was declared he sought a more active role by joining the 173ème Demi
Brigade d’Infanterie Alpine, the French Army unit that garrisoned Bastia. He went with his unit to the French mainland,
rose to become Sergeant Major and was wounded fighting against the Germans at
the Chemin des Dames in northern France on 10 June 1940. After a spell in hospital at Dax he returned
to Bastia in July 1940 and again took up counter-espionage duties, secretly
also serving the Résistance.......[Remainder of case study is complete - contact author for further details].
Copyright © Paul McCue 2014.
