Helping to pave the way for the great Allied invasions of northern and southern France in the summer of 1944, a number of U.S. Marines with special language skills and backgrounds served with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).
In German-occupied France and the Balkans, they distinguished themselves in hazardous sabotage and intelligence-gathering missions while serving alongside French Resistance groups and air-dropped squads of the elite British Special Operations Executive (SOE). Their gallant efforts paid off when the invasion forces landed.
Along with three comrades, one of the Marine Corps heroes is still remembered in the small town of Centron in southeastern France. There is a plaque in the mayor’s office, and the town center bears his name. It is that of Major Peter (Pierre) J. Ortiz.
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