Víctor Iturria: the Basque pelotari

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Víctor Iturria, the Basque pelotari admired by Churchill who destroyed Nazi tanks by throwing grenades.

In one of his first actions during the Battle of France, in 1940, he knocked out seven tanks in a single day. He was decorated on several occasions by the French Army, which still reminds him today. The Basques fought in all the stages of World War II, from the landing of Normandy to the beaches of the Pacific, through the liberation of Paris and the defenses of London. They did it in many different ways, pilots, sappers, cooks, paratroopers, armored drivers and, of course, soldiers. But above all of them stood one, a pelotari from the small town of Basusarri, now unknown to many historians, who was praised by the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, for his ability to shoot down Nazi tanks with grenades that he launched at surprising distances with his own hands. His name: Víctor Iturria.

Victor Iturria (1914 -1944) was a French paratrooper during World War II. He served as an anti-tank gunner during the Battle of France and was evacuated to England during the Battle of Dunkirk, where he joined the Free French Forces under General de Gaulle. Iturria was assigned to the Free French paratroopers that joined the British Special Air Service in North Africa, with them he took part in several raids behind enemy lines. In 1944 he parachuted into occupied France during the liberation and fought with the French Resistance in Brittany and then in Southern France, where he was killed in an ambush.