Roger Grosjean

Roger Grosjean (25 July 1920 – 7 June 1975) was a French Air Force pilot, a double agent during World War II, and one of the founding fathers of Corsican prehistoric archaeology.

At age 14, Roger was a boarder at the private Catholic school Collège de Marcq en Baroeul where, in 1936, he became the youth French record-holder in the discus throw.

He was given the rank of Sergeant and, during the Phoney War, became a fighter pilot, based in Étampes, where he flew the Morane-Saulnier M.S.406 and the Dewoitine D.500.

He was unable to take part in the Battle of France and, when German bombers struck the Étampes base, was elsewhere but returned to help dig the graves of his colleagues.

He was seriously injured and unable to return to duty until the spring of 1942, at which time his request to rejoin his group in North Africa was denied and he was deemed unfit to fly.

Although how and when they met is unclear, Grosjean wrote that he spoke to a British agent called "Richardson", who was working in Wattignies in northern France.

[4] Grosjean met with Georges Montet at his apartment but there were two other men there, one of whom was a German colonel in civilian clothes introduced as "Pierre".

[4] According to a report by the London Reception Centre (LRC), an MI5 interrogation office, on June 5, 1943, Grosjean was transported to Spain.

However, on June 19, the British unexpectedly placed him in the custody of two French Air Force members, who took him on an arduous hike, by train and on foot, to Lisbon.

Grosjean agreed to act as a double agent for the Security Service (MI5); he was given the code name FIDO and became one of 40 Double-Cross agents, a group which included Joan Pujol Garcia, Nathalie Sergueiew, Arthur Owens, Roman Czerniawski, Elvira Chaudoir, and Duško Popov.

In 1954, he left for Corsica and began what was to be a very successful research career spanning twenty years studying the Corsican megalithic civilization.

He uncovered sculpted menhirs at Filitosa, Cauria and Palaghju, for example, as well as megalithic fortified settlements at Alo-Bisucce, Cucuruzzu and Araghju.