Description
Physical description
cap
light grey képi with maroon crown; silver major's piping; black flaming grenade embroidered on front; black leather peak; silver elastic chinstrap with plain steel buttons; leather headband; tan cloth lining with clear plastic cover inside crown.
Label
French Army major's képi associated with the Second World War service of Ernest Richard Charles Gimpel (1912-1973).
History note
Ernest 'Charles' Gimpel was born at Vaucresson (Seine et Oise), France in 1912. He was the son of the noted art dealer Rene Gimpel, who was also a member of the French Resistance and who died at Neuengamme concentration camp. Charles Gimpel served as a cavalry officer with the French Army during the Battle of France, was wounded and taken prisoner at the end of June 1940. In August, he escaped from the hospital where he was being held and reached Vichy in the unoccupied zone. He then moved to Marseille where he began to collect intelligence until he was arrested by the Vichy authorities in October 1941. However, he escaped in December and remained at large until he finally found a berth on a vessel engaged on a clandestine sea operation in September 1942. He landed at Gibraltar on 9 September and arrived in London later that month. Gimpel was then recruited into the BCRA (the Free French intelligence service) and given training by SOE in July and August 1943. As 'Cercle' (his field name), the assistant to Andre Boulloche, General de Gaulle's military representative for the region designated 'P', Gimpel was parachuted back into France, landing near Lyon, in December 1943. He was subsequently arrested in Paris in January 1944 and, after brutal interrogation, was sent to the concentration camps of Buchenwald, Auschwitz and, finally Flossenberg. It was from this last camp that he was repatriated in April 1945. In August of that year, Gimpel married Kay Moore, a member of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) and Special Operation Executive's (SOE) RF Section who he had previously met in London. Gimpel died in 1973.
Stamped (inside headband)
Real Roan Leather