Robert Jean Marie de La Rochefoucauld fled France in 1940 to escape the relentless Gestapo forces.

He returned three years later, but the 19-year-old had become a cunning and lethal French resistance operative trained by British commandos to conduct sabotage and reconnaissance missions deep within enemy territory.

After dropping from a warplane in the wilderness near the town of Bordeaux and concealing his parachute, La Rochefoucauld immediately began to work.

The young man first acquired a local worker's uniform, allowing him to pass unnoticed in the German-occupied city. He then infiltrated a German munitions plant and, little by little, smuggled 40 kilograms of explosives concealed in hollowed-out baguettes and specially designed shoes. After four days, he set off the payload and rushed from the scene.

The story, however, would be a mere afterthought compared to the daring adventures the man considered the greatest French saboteur was destined to lead…

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