André Serot

Who was André Serot?

André Sérot was a French military officer.

Sérot enlisted in the infantry in 1915, then saw action in the Battle of Argonne and received the Croix de Guerre. The following year he was an officer candidate at Saint-Cyr. In 1917 he transferred to aviation, flying reconnaissance missions.

In 1919, Lieutenant Sérot transferred to the intelligence service. In 1923 he was sent to Strasbourg. In 1933, he became deputy chief of station Belfort, or Military Communications Service.

He married Berthe Grünfelder.

During the "Phoney War" period, Sérot was sent behind German lines with a series of false identity papers to perform reconnaissance missions. After the 1940 defeat, he helped organize the counter-espionage section of the Service de Renseignements de l'Armée de l'Air newly created by Colonel George Ronin, classmate of General Jean Bergeret. After the Allied landings in North Africa in November 1942, he and Paul Paillole went there to organize the new Service de Sécurité Militaire.

In June 23, 1943 his wife was arrested by the Gestapo in Clermont-Ferrand and was deported to Ravensbruck in Germany. In 1945, she was rescued and released by Count Folke Bernadotte.