Célestin Lainé

Célestin Lainé (1908–1983) was a Breton nationalist and collaborator during the Second World War who led the SS affiliated Bezen Perrot militia. His Breton language name is Neven Hénaff. He was a chemical engineer by training. After the war he lived in Ireland.

He was born in 1908 in Nantes and was brought up in Ploudalmézeau, Finistère. He later entered the École Centrale. He became closely linked to Guillaume Berthou, a fellow chemist and Breton separatist. Contrary to myth, he denied any involvement with the secret society Kentoc'h Mervel (Sooner Death), formed by Berthou in 1929, though Berthou had approached him to join. Instead, in 1930 he set up with Hervé Helloco the paramilitary organisation, Gwenn ha du ('white and black'). It was named after the colours of the flag of Brittany, designed by Morvan Marchal in 1925. Lainé published an article summarizing its creed under the title Nos deux bases, Irlande et Prusse (Our two models: Ireland and Prussia), referring to the revolutionary zeal of the IRA and the authoriarian discipline of Prussian militarism. The gang perpetrated several bombings. Lainé claimed he made the first bomb in his bedroom from nitroglycerin in a condensed milk carton with a detonator supplied by a forestry worker.

Kristian Hamon claims it was not he but fellow nationalist André Geffroy who placed the bomb which blew up Jean Boucher's statue depicting the Unity of Brittany and France in Rennes. It happened on the morning of 7 August 1932. According to Hamon, Geffroy placed the bomb on the monument, which portrayed the duchess Anne of Brittany kneeling before King Charles VIII of France.

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