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Sub-Lieutenant Jacques CAMBEFORT

Biography

Source (Photos and biography) : Mr Yves CAMBEFORT, son of Jacques. --> https://gw.geneanet.org/ycambefort_w?n=cambefort&oc=2&p=jacques+jean+louis&i=0

Jacques CAMBEFORT was born on September 4, 1911 in Salvagnac in the Tarn. He is the son of Elie CAMBEFORT and Philogone MASSOUTIE

After his studies at Arts et Métiers (Aix 1929), Jacques was admitted in 1935 to the "Ecole Normale Supérieure de l'Enseignement Technique" in Paris. He graduated in 1937 with a teacher's degree.

At the declaration of the War, Jacques is mobilized and joins the aviation of Reconnaissance. With the rank of Sub-Lieutenant, he will serve as an observer, within the GAO 517 (see photo on guard) and GR II / 36, where he will perform missions for which he will be cited to the order of the Army of Air (see document below). He will receive the War Cross 1939-45 with Palme.

Demobilized, he joined the civilian life and married on September 26, 1940, Miss Laure CASSAN. From this union, will be born two children Jean Louis and Yves.

After the War, his degree as a teacher allowed him to be named to the brand new National School of Aeronautics, created in Toulouse in 1946, and in which he spent most of his career. It can be said without exaggeration that this educational institution was one of the conditions for the development of a state-of-the-art aerospace industry in Toulouse, which has become known nationally and internationally for exemplary successes, such as the Caravelle and the Airbus, to name only the most famous.

For the anecdote: Jacques was offered, in the late 1950s, the Legion of Honor, as a military. He refused it, and it was never offered to him again. Much later, he was offered the Merit, this time on a civilian basis; but he refused it too.

Jacques CAMBEFORT died on April 6, 1983

Some feats of arm

Text of the Citation to the Order of the Air Force, published in the Official Journal of October 28, 1940 :

"CAMBEFORT (Jacques), second lieutenant: young officer observer of the highest order, extremely conscientious and hardworking, remarkable for the care with which he prepares the execution of the missions entrusted to him and in which he collects information every time valuable for the command.It was particularly noteworthy: April 1, 1940, carrying out a photographic mission perfectly successful in all respects around the salient of Orenthal, May 26, 1940, fulfilling, despite a strong and continuous reaction of the adversary, a long reconnaissance in territory occupied by the enemy. "