Joël Le Tac was born on 15 February 1918 in Paris. At the start of World War II, he was called to military service. He requested a transfer to the infantry and joined the reserve officer cadet platoon in Vincennes. During the French campaign, his unit retreated to the Landes. Refusing to accept the armistice with Nazi Germany, he joined Henri Karcher and other comrades in escaping to England. He enlisted in the Free French Forces (FFL) and became a Sergeant instructor at a Free France youth camp in Brynbach, Wales. He later took part in the creation of the 1st Infantry Company of the Air, established in September 1940 by Vice Admiral Muselier, the provisional commander of the FFL. Joël Le Tac was one of five French soldiers involved in Operation Savannah, a covert mission in March 1941. This operation was the first action in French territory organized by the Free French, in collaboration with the British Special Operations Executive (SOE). The goal was to disrupt the activities of the German Kampfgeschwader 100 bomber squadron, based at the Meucon airfield near Vannes. The team was parachuted into France but found that the situation on the ground was different from what they had expected. They decided not to carry out the original mission but instead gathered intelligence and planned to regroup for extraction. Joël Le Tac remained in France and later helped in other sabotage operations, such as the destruction of a power plant in Pessac that supplied electricity to an Italian submarine base in Bordeaux. During the war, Joël Le Tac organized one of the first resistance networks in occupied France, called the Overcloud network. He coordinated several operations, including the return of agents to England and the smuggling of agents back into France. In February 1942, he was arrested along with his family and an assistant. He was imprisoned in several concentration camps, including Struthof in Alsace and Dachau in Germany. During the "death convoy" in January 1945, he was the only survivor from a transport of 100 people. He was eventually liberated by British forces in January 1945 and survived the war with the rank of captain. After the war, Joël Le Tac was recalled to active duty in 1951 and chose to serve in the Korean War instead of Indochina. He joined the French battalion of the United Nations in 1952 and participated in several battles. He died on 8 October 2005 in Maisons-Laffitte, Yvelines. He was awarded numerous honors, including the Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor and the Cross of War 1939-45. Operation Savannah proved to be a turning point for the Free French Forces, providing critical intelligence and validating the effectiveness of covert operations in occupied France.