Pierre-Jules Boulanger

The policy bore fruit and Citroën recovered.During the occupation of France in the Second World War, Boulanger refused to meet Dr. Ferdinand Porsche or communicate with the German authorities except through intermediaries.

He organized a 'go slow' of production of trucks for the Wehrmacht, many of which were sabotaged at the factory, by putting the notch on the oil dipstick in the wrong place resulting in engine seizure.

In 1944 when the Gestapo headquarters in Paris was sacked by members of the French Resistance, his name was prominent on a German blacklist of the most important 'Enemies of the Reich' to be arrested in the event of an allied invasion of France.

[2] His specification for the new model was characteristic of the man: ... create a car that can carry four people and 50 kg of potatoes at 60 km/h, while consuming just 3 litres of fuel per 100 km... it should be drivable by a woman or by a learner-driver ... and don't worry about how it looks.The 2CV was known for its great capacity of work and its absence of ostentation.

He died at Broût-Vernet, Allier, in a car crash in a Citroën Traction Avant on Sunday, 12 November 1950, while on the main road between Clermont-Ferrand (the home of Michelin) and Paris.