 In June 1940, he was one of 780,000 soldiers captured by the German army as it circumvented the Maginot Line.He was held in captivity for almost a year before he escaped in May by crawling naked through a drain pipe with three companions, pushing their disguises out in front of them.He moved back to Vichy France through Bavaria in 1941 to join the Armistice Army and the underground French Resistance.