Family of celebrated French WWII veteran Léon Gautier refuses the commercialisation of his legacy

Family of celebrated French WWII veteran Léon Gautier refuses the commercialisation of his legacy

Léon Gautier was famous in France as the last representative of the “Kieffer Commando”, the only French unit to take part in the Allied D-Day landings on Normandy beaches in June 1944. As the 80th anniversary of D-Day approaches, some have seen an opportunity for profit by appropriating his name and image. Today his descendants have decided to seek legal assistance to prevent any abusive or commercial use of his image.

Gautier, who died on July 3, 2023 at the age of 100, was a nationally celebrated figure and a near-constant presence at World War II commemorations who used his stature to make sure the lessons of the war were not forgotten.

Having joined the French navy in 1940 at 17, he was one of 177 French green berets of the Kieffer Commando unit to storm the beaches defended by Nazi forces on June 6, 1944.

His passing was marked by a ceremony with military honors presided over by President Emmanuel Macron which took place on the beach in Ouistreham, Normandy, as he and his family had wanted.

Gautier’s life was a remarkable one that inspired a lot of interest, not all of it purely intentioned, as revealed by the France Bleu radio network at the end of February.

Less than a year after his passing, his family has had to take legal steps to protect his image. “We have hired a lawyer specialised in the protection of personality rights,” Gautier’s grandson, Gérard Wille, told FRANCE 24.

“Everything took off after the publication of fake biographies about my grandfather containing things that were completely inconsistent and unverified. And all of this was distributed without the family’s authorisation.”

Faux biographies generated by AI 

Last December, Wille was astonished to find that two books for sale on Amazon told his grandfather’s story, but were riddled with inaccuracies.

The Kieffer Commando unit Gautier served in was part of the Free French Forces, but he is described in the faux biographies as having fought for the French Resistance.

The books mention his captivity in Germany, but Gautier was never taken prisoner.

The first of these “biographies” was published on July 5, 2023, just two days after Gautier’s death. The speed of publication suggests that it was generated by artificial intelligence software, which explains why so little care was taken to fact-check.

“I pity people like that,” said Gérard Wille of those responsible for the fakes. “It’s deplorable. I just couldn’t let that go.”

The family managed to have the two books removed from sale on Amazon, but as the 80th anniversary of D-Day approaches later this year, Wille has received other dubious commercial requests: “Some people want to make figurines, posters, or even T-shirts displaying a photo of my grandfather. One can imagine that during the D-Day commemorations, there will be this kind of thing for sale all over the public sphere. I even saw that his signature is being sold for €300 on the internet. People are trying to make money off our family’s history.”

One of D-Day’s 177 Frenchmen 

The story of Léon Gautier does have great appeal for World War II enthusiasts. Born in Rennes on October 27, 1922, he was an apprentice auto-body worker when the war broke out in 1939. He felt compelled to help defend his country and joined the navy in February 1940, as the army did not allow 17-year-olds to enlist.

He served as a gunner aboard the battleship Courbet when it was sent to defend the English Channel port of Cherbourg from German forces. But as the military situation deteriorated, the Courbet’s officers chose to find safe harbour in England.

Housed in a camp for French sailors in Sheffield, England, Gautier heard that General Charles de Gaulle’s government-in-exile, Free France, was recruiting volunteers to continue the fight against the Nazis.

“Of course I enlisted,” the Gautier recalled in an interview with France 3 Normandie. He took part in the march in London of Free French troops on Bastille Day, July 14, 1940, in the presence of de Gaulle and King George VI.

In the summer of 1943, he served aboard the merchant ship Le Gallois in the Atlantic and later joined the French 2nd battalion of marine riflemen sent to serve around Africa and then as far as Syria and Lebanon.

In the summer of 1943, Gautier joined a battalion led by Lieutenant Commander Philippe Kieffer and began intensive training at the commando training centre in Achnacarry, Scotland. He learned in May, 1944, of the planned Allied invasion of Normandy.

On June 6, 1944, Gautier and his 176 fellow commandos of the 1st battalion of Free French marine riflemen waded ashore at the area code-named Sword Beach at Colleville-Montgomery.

The initial objectives of Kieffer’s French battalion were to retake the Ouistreham casino, turned into a heavily fortified bunker by the Germans, and to join up with the troops of the 6th airborne division at Bénouville. They achieved both aims, and in less than four hours, the French unit had liberated 1.8km of beachfront.

Gautier took part in the entire 78-day battle for Normandy, in which more than half of his 177-man unit were killed. Given leave in England, he badly injured his ankle in an accident in September 1944, and was sidelined for most of the remainder of the war.

Demobilised after the war ended, he married Dorothy Banks, an Englishwoman from the signal corps he had met in England, with whom he had two children. In later life they settled in Ouistreham, France, a short distance from where he came ashore on D-Day.

Gautier dedicated his retirement to gaining recognition for the wartime contribution of the Free French forces. He was a fixture at ceremonies marking D-Day and campaigned for peace, referring to war as “a misery” that creates widows and orphans.

A celebrity in Normandy 

Historian Benjamin Massieu, a specialist in the Kieffer Commando unit, isn’t surprised that people want to use Gautier’s celebrity to make money. “Already during Léon’s lifetime, it was necessary to create a security cordon around him because so many people wanted a photo with him. He became somewhat of a star. Today, people know that Léon’s name is marketable.”

Massieu, who wrote a book about French involvement in D-Day, “Les Français du jour J” (“The Frenchmen of D-Day”), said this kind of commercialism is not new, but he notes a growing lack of seriousness around the D-Day commemorations in general, which are becoming something akin to entertainment. “Among the reenactors, in particular, there are those who will act with great seriousness, and those who are there to dress up.”

In 2020, the announcement of a proposed tourist park dedicated to the D-Day landings also sparked controversy. Massieu criticised the project, highlighting its mainly commercial objectives, and stated that it was backed by an American investment fund more likely motivated by profit than making a genuine tribute to the heroes.

At the time, Gautier opposed the project, expressing outrage over this “D-Day-Land”, a “Disneyland on the death of people who gave their lives for France”.

Despite his opposition to projects that misuse his grandfather’s image, Wille is open to the use of Gautier’s name for graduation ceremonies in schools or the military.

Willie, himself a green beret commando officer, has become the guardian of his grandfather’s legacy, and the legacy of all the Kieffer commandos.

His grandfather, he said, “wanted to pass on what had happened, the facts and the reality. We mustn’t let it be forgotten, but we must proceed with care. I’m here to preserve my grandfather’s story, but also, with the help of other families, those of his 176 brothers-in-arms.”

This article has been translated from the original in French.