Secret Operations of World War II E-Book

Alexander Stilwell

• Herausgeber: Amber Books Ltd
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 270

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

How were agents recruited for secret operations in World War II? How did they fare once dropped behind enemy lines? How effective were resistance movements? And how brutal were the reprisals? Ranging from the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the German Abwehr to resistance movements across Europe, Secret Operations of World War II is a fascinating account of the major special ops organisations and underground cells in the conflict. Examining recruitment, training, equipment and deployment of operatives, the book not only reveals the ingenious steps taken to select suitable agents, disguise weapons and gather intelligence, but also follows the fortunes of particular agents after their operations were launched. From such well known cases as the SOE and Norwegian agents sabotaging Norwegian hydroelectric plants to the less explored territory of Soviet partisans, from the Abwehr’s rescue of Mussolini to the French Maquis, from the Polish Home Army to OSS operations in the Pacific, the book explores a wide range of secret organisations and their intelligence gathering, sabotage and reconnaissance missions. Illustrated with 120 black-&-white and colour photographs, artworks and maps, Secret Operations of World War II is an authoritative and novel perspective on some of the most outlandish episodes of the conflict.

Leseprobe

SECRET OPERATIONSOFWORLD WAR II

The clandestine battle fought across occupied countries by the SOE, OSS, Maquis, partisans and Resistance fighters

ALEXANDER STILWELL

This digital edition published in 2024

Published by

Amber Books Ltd

United House

North Road

London N7 9DP

United Kingdom

www.amberbooks.co.uk

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Copyright © 2018 Amber Books Ltd

ISBN: 978-1-83886-622-8

All rights reserved. With the exception of quoting brief passages for the purpose of review no part of this publication may be reproduced without prior written permission from the publisher. The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. All recommendations are made without any guarantee on the part of the author or publisher, who also disclaim any liability incurred in connection with the use of this data or specific details.

PICTURE CREDITS

Alamy: 8 (Paul Fearn), 10 (Shakeyjon), 14 (Interfoto), 24 (Pictorial Press), 25 & 26/27 (World History Archive), 29 (Pictorial Press), 30 (Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix), 32 (Keystone Pictures, USA), 37 & 50 (Pictorial Press), 64 (Keystone Pictures, USA), 76 (War Archive), 78 (Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix), 80 (Forget/Patrick/Sagaphoto.com), 81 (Serge Mouraret), 93 (Everett Collection), 105 (World History Archive), 109 (Artera Picture Library/Clement Philippe), 122 (United Archives/IFTN Cinema), 123 (Alpha Historica), 124 (Interfoto), 127 & 135 (World History Archive), 141 (Archive PL), 144 (Universal Images Archive), 145 (UtCon Collection), 146 (Agencja Fotograficzna Caro), 148 (Interfoto), 155 (Steve Tully), 159 (UtCon Collection), 160 (Granger Collection), 176 (Military History Collection), 178 (World History Archive), 181 & 182 (Paul Fearn), 197 (Granger Collection), 207 (Walter Oleksy), 208 (World History Archive), 210 (Everett Collection), 216 (Chronicle)

Art-Tech: 12 top, 18, 70, 73, 214

Bridgeman Images: 113 (Tallandier)

Alcide Cervi: 201 (CC by SA 4.0)

Cody Images: 11, 12 bottom, 20, 21, 22, 43, 46, 67, 68, 72, 82, 83, 85, 86/87, 91, 94, 96–101 all, 104, 132, 153, 169, 183, 195, 202, 204, 206, 211, 212, 218

Mary Evans Picture Library: 41 (Natural History Museum)

Getty Images: 6 (Archive Photos/Photo Quest), 9 (Popperfoto), 17 (Archive Photos/Photo Quest), 51 (SSPL/Bletchley Park Trust), 52 (Photo12), 60 (Archive Photos/Photo Quest), 88 (Roger Viollet/Albert Harlingue), 90 (Roger Viollet/CAP), 102 (The Life Picture Collection/George Rodger), 106 (Bob Thomas), 110 (Hulton/Galerie Bilderwelt), 112 & 115 (Hulton), 118 (Hulton/Jack Esten), 128 (Hulton/Galerie Bilderwelt), 138 (Hulton), 139 (Ullstein bild), 140 (Picture Post), 143 (Universal Images Group), 147 (Popperfoto/Haynes Archive), 150 (Picture Post/Tim Gidal), 166 (Hulton/Topical Press Agency), 167 (AFP), 186 (Matt Carr), 187 & 188 (Ullstein bild), 189 (Universal Images Group/Universal History Archive), 191 (Ullstein bild), 196 (Universal Images Group/Photo 12), 221 (Corbis/Bettmann)

Getty Images/Gamma-Keystone: 77, 84, 95, 117, 136, 158, 162, 163, 192, 199, 205

Getty Images/Hulton-Keystone: 125, 168, 173, 174, 175, 179

Library of Congress: 63

Public Domain: 13, 23, 31, 34, 35, 38, 47, 48, 53–55, 59, 61, 62, 79, 107, 116, 120, 130, 131, 164, 171, 184

Shutterstock/ Everett Historical: 157, 161

US Department of Defense: 16, 44, 49, 56, 58, 65, 71, 74, 142

Other related titles include:

Enigma: How Breaking the Code Helped Win World War II

by Michael Kerrigan

World War II Plans That Never Happened

by Michael Kerrigan

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Contents

1. United Kingdom

2. United States

3. France

4. Belgium

5. Netherlands

6. Poland

7. Czechoslovakia

8. Denmark

9. Norway

10. Italy

11. The Balkans

12. USSR

13. Germany

Bibliography

Index

1 UNITED KINGDOM

British secret operations, run either by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) or the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), and often working with local Resistance movements or partisans, extended throughout Europe and to the Far East.

A Jedburgh operative in full kit. This soldier appears to be wearing the British airborne-issued Denison smock, a camouflage jacket designed for paratroopers and glider-borne troops. He is armed with the folding-stock version of the US M1 Carbine.

FOLLOWING THE retreat of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) from France and Belgium in the face of the German onslaught in the Low Countries and France, over 338,000 Allied troops were evacuated from Dunkirk, including 100,000 French soldiers. The British lost about 68,000 men killed or wounded in the previous campaign.

While the Battle of Britain got underway, Continental Europe was in a German lockdown. Pending the regrouping and re-equipment of the British Army, the only way that the British and its Allies would be able to influence events in the occupied countries was through special operations.

Special Operations Executive (SOE)

The British Special Operations Executive (SOE) had its roots in the growing tensions in Europe between World War I and World War II.

The head of the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), Admiral Sinclair, appointed army officer Major Grand to investigate the potential for non-conventional warfare to disrupt and subvert an enemy. This would include sabotage and disruptive propaganda. The methods would take into account the need to use friendly forces already on the ground, such as Resistance fighters. Hence Section D was born.

The Canadian newspaper magnate Sir Campbell Stuart ran some of the early British propaganda operations.

MILITARY INTELLIGENCE RESEARCH (MIR)

Another British officer, J.C.F. Holland, was also studying the potential for guerrilla-style warfare. Holland had spent some time in the Middle East when T.E. Lawrence was leading the successful Arab Revolt. Holland worked with Grand to prepare a proposal for senior command for a unit that would encompass all these activities, and on 23 March 1939 the Special Operations Executive (SOE) was born. SOE was an amalgamation of three main departments: SO1 (Propaganda), SO2 (Active Operations) and SO3 (Planning). The brief for the new organization was ‘to co-ordinate all action by way of sabotage and subversion against the enemy overseas.’ Or, as Winston Churchill put it, to ‘set Europe ablaze’. A unit was set up under newspaper magnate Sir Campbell Stuart to investigate the potential for propaganda during a military conflict.

COLIN GUBBINS

The new head of SOE was Brigadier Colin Gubbins. A tough, no-nonsense Highlander, Gubbins had both the right character and the relevant experience to lead an unorthodox organization that looked danger straight in the eyes. Gubbins had previously commanded a highly secret organization called the Auxiliary Units. These were stay-behind forces who would conceal themselves in strategic parts of England in the event of a German invasion. Like SOE, their task was to cause disruption to enemy forces.

Gubbins had won a Military Cross in World War I for rescuing soldiers under fire. After the war he served in Ireland where he got a taste of the unorthodox methods used by Irish irregulars. At the beginning of World War II he commanded troops in Norway, where he witnessed the effects of the German Blitzkrieg first hand. Gubbins was the sort of commander who would not ask his men to do anything that he was not prepared to do himself. He also had the toughness to withstand the suspicions and jealousies that the new organization provoked in Whitehall and other intelligence agencies.

Brigadier Gubbins was the leader and formidable advocate of SOE throughout the war.

RECRUITMENT

The Operations department of SOE was divided into various sections, each of which covered different countries. For example, Section F: France, Section N: The Netherlands and Section T: Belgium. To preserve security, the different country sections did not share information between them. To preserve the anonymity of its agents, SOE had to take care with its recruitment. One of the methods of finding suitable recruits was to discover language speakers among serving members of the armed forces.

Many recruits came through the ‘Old Boys’ network, where they were assumed to be competent and reliable if they had attended the right sort of schools and universities. However, the flaws in this system would later become apparent as communist sympathizers educated at universities such as Cambridge and Oxford found their way into the British intelligence system.

It was an asset for an SOE agent to have dual nationality as this made it easy for them to pass unnoticed. Some recruits were civilians and others came from exiled fighting forces now resident in Britain, such as Norwegian and Dutch soldiers. SOE threw the net wide to encompass people from all walks of life and also some ex-criminals. To produce high-quality forgeries, for example, who better than a professional forger? SOE also called on the skills of burglars for advice on lock picking and other unorthodox methods of entry.

Their names are carved with pride: The SOE memorial near Lambeth Bridge, London, honours all SOE agents who served in occupied Europe. It is topped by a bust of SOE agent Violette Szabo.

SOE also employed a significant number of women. Although many were employed as wireless operators and couriers, several were selected for further training in military skills such as weapons handling and unarmed combat. New candidates would be carefully screened to test their language skills, their motives and their personality. An SOE agent needed to have the courage to work in an occupied country but they also needed to be patient and able to plan carefully. Women would often be recruited from the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY). Many of them carried out the vital work of operating wireless sets or coding and decoding messages to and from agents in the field.

TRAINING

There were a number of different training establishments for SOE agents. These included Wanborough Manor near Guildford, which provided initial training; Arisaig in Scotland for Commando training and armed and unarmed combat; and RAF Ringway for parachute training. At Wanborough, basic instruction would include physical fitness and learning skills such as map reading. Candidates would also be watched carefully when their guard was lowered, such as when drinking and relaxing at the bar. Course instructors would be observing how they behaved when they had a few drinks inside them. At Arisaig the training was led by William Fairbairn and Eric Sykes, who had learned their trade in the tough environment of the Shanghai Police.

SOE agents intercept an ‘enemy’ motorcyclist during training. Working together on exercises helped to build trust and confidence among Jedburgh teams.

SOE WEAPONS

STEN GUN

The Sten gun was a simple, rugged design that was light to carry and easy to maintain. It could be broken down into three parts – barrel, body and butt – and easily reassembled. It was an effective weapon at short ranges and it could be used in either single-shot or automatic modes. The downside was that the Sten was likely to jam and was also prone to accidental discharge.

BALLESTER-MOLINA PISTOL

Based on the famous Colt M1911A1, the Ballester-Molina pistol was issued to SOE agents partly because it was reliable and effective and partly because it was not identifiable as a British-made weapon.

A Parachute Regiment sergeant with a Sten gun.

WELROD

The Welrod was a bolt-action, single-shot pistol specifically designed for use by undercover agents. It was used by both SOE and the OSS. It was designed to be used at close range and was very quiet when fired. It was a simple design featuring a cylinder with a bolt and a suppressor, and the magazine acted as a grip. Once the magazine was removed, the cylinder could be easily concealed down a trouser leg.

The Welford pistol was designed to be straightforward and easy to conceal.

FAIRBAIRN-SYKES FIGHTING KNIFE

This double-edged stiletto fighting knife was issued to SOE and OSS agents and was a standard weapon for the British, Canadian, Australian, Dutch and Belgian Commandos as well as the US Rangers. The FS knife was designed to be effective in one-on-one attacks in covert operations.

Those recruits who had previous military training would have to unlearn some of their skills in order to adapt to the different needs of being an agent. One example of this was firearms training. Conventional methods of holding and aiming a pistol were replaced with a more instinctive style of shooting without aiming. Agents were taught to fire twice (the ‘double tap’) and also how to draw a weapon quickly from a pocket or handbag. Weapon training also included the Bren gun, Vickers sub-machinegun and the German Schmeisser MP40. Training included not only firing the weapons but stripping, cleaning and reloading them. Part of the purpose of training was to spot weak candidates, who would then be dropped from the course.

Candidates were given courses in demolition techniques using high explosives as well as training in simpler methods of sabotage, such as destroying factory machinery with a heavy hammer. Other training included ambushes, forced house entrance and railway sabotage. Once this intensive training was over, the candidates moved to Beaulieu Manor in the New Forest. Here they would learn in greater depth about the way the occupied country was organized and where the major dangers lay. In Vichy, for example, the greatest threat was from the Milice, whereas the local gendarmerie might be friendly.

SOE agents undergo canoe training in Scotland.

Resistance to interrogation was another vital aspect of training. The candidates learned how to act out their part and avoid unexpected traps set by suspicious police officers. Agents learned that the more information they revealed about themselves, the more likely they were to be caught out. Candidates were also taught how to be aware of potential followers and how to lose them without giving themselves away by fleeing.

Operation Jedburgh

Operation Jedburgh was a joint operation involving SOE, the American OSS and the Free French Bureau Central de Renseignements et d’Action. Although the Jedburgh operations were originally a British idea, the Supreme Allied Commander General Eisenhower put the French General Koenig in charge of the operation.

The British Type 3 Mk II, commonly known as the B2, was the standard issue SOE radio set.

The aim of Operation Jedburgh was to cause disruption during and after Operation Overlord, the Allied landings on D-Day. Although SOE had been conducting operations in France for some years previous to D-Day, Operation Jedburgh gave access to US resources to mount operations on a much wider scale.

A difference from previous SOE operations was that Jedburgh teams wore military uniforms and worked overtly with Resistance teams to subvert the enemy. The ‘Jeds’ were also much more heavily equipped than covert agents had been in their civilian disguise. A typical Jed would carry a weapon, a Commando knife, maps and compasses, escape and evasion kit and spare crystals for the wireless. Canisters would also be dropped with the team containing arms to distribute to the Resistance along with other supplies. The team could carry about 150,000 French Francs.

Jedburgh operations were split into three main categories:

The destruction of all railway communications in order to prevent the movement of German reinforcements and supplies.

Road ambushes designed to prevent or delay the movement of German reinforcements towards the Allied beachhead.

Disruption of German military communications by attacking telephone wires and other systems.

SOE SABOTAGE DEVICES AND EQUIPMENT

PLASTIC EXPLOSIVE

Developed for use by SOE, plastic explosive was highly adaptable and relatively safe to use. It could be shaped for a multitude of tasks and was set off with a detonator.

PENCIL DETONATOR

The pencil detonator or Time Pencil was designed to be attached to a detonator and could be set to a number of different delays to give the operator time to get out of the area. At one end of the pencil tube was a glass vial containing cupric chloride acid. In the midsection was a striker on a spring held under tension by a wire. Once the glass vial had been crushed by pressing it, the acid would seep out and gradually corrode the retaining wire until it broke and released the spring-loaded striker, which would then set off the percussion cap.

CALTROP

This simple but effective device had four metal prongs that could burst vehicle tyres when it was scattered on a road.

S-PHONE

This was a radiotelephone system that allowed the agent on the ground to communicate directly with an aircraft overhead to co-ordinate agent and supply drops. The radio had a signal distance of about 3050m (10,000ft) and it was difficult to detect by enemy monitoring stations. Like the Joan-Eleanor system used by OSS, the S-Phone enabled voice communications without the need for decryption.

TYPE 3 MARK II (B2) SUITCASE TRANSCEIVER

Designed by Captain John Brown at SOE Station IX, this was the most commonly used radio among SOE operators. It was initially built into a reddish-brown leather suitcase but other colours and types were introduced in order to avoid arousing suspicion. The unit consisted of three main parts: the receiver (RX), transmitter (TX) and the power supply unit (PSU). It also incorporated a box for spares and accessories.

JED TEAM HUGH

Jed team Hugh flew from RAF Tempsford airfield in Bedfordshire and was dropped near Châteauroux in central France on 6 June 1944 along with a team from the British SAS. Their point of contact on the ground was an agent from F Section running the Shipwright circuit. There were 14 Jed teams in Brittany causing so much disruption to railway communications that all German movement had to be by road. The Germans also had to allocate forces to deal with the Resistance centres that allowed Allied forces more room for manoeuvre.

British and American Jedburgh agents receive instructions from a briefing officer in a London flat in 1944.

An SOE team bid farewell to staff at Milton Hall before leaving for a mission in occupied Europe.

JED TEAM QUININE

On 8 June 1944, Jed team Quinine landed near Aurillac in southern France. One of the team was Major Thomas Macpherson of the Cameron Highlanders, who caused a bit of a stir by landing in a kilt. Macpherson had been trained at Milton Hall in England along with American OSS agents and members of the Free French forces. They had then been taken to Algiers to carry out intensive training in the mountains.

Macpherson knew that he would not be able to pull rank with the local Maquis, who would be more concerned with his personal leadership qualities. The main weapon the Jed team possessed was their radio and the ability to call in supply drops of weapons, ammunition and other equipment. In team Quinine, the radio operator was a member of the Royal Tank Regiment, who was taught signalling skills to a high standard. The other member was a French lieutenant called Michel de Bourbon.

In order to boost morale and make an impact, Macpherson organized the sabotage of a railway bridge the night after they arrived. He spread his operations, making arrangements with local groups with different political objectives. They commandeered two Citroën cars to move around quickly on lightning operations. Most of the operations involved railway sabotage, although the team also cut telephone wires and attacked German communications vehicles when they could. They also attacked electricity pylons.

British troops deploy from landing craft on to the Normandy beaches during the D-Day landings. In the background, a portable Excelsior Welbike motorcycle developed for SOE is carried ashore.

As the D-Day landings continued, the Das Reich and Second SS Motorized divisions began to move north to reinforce the German defences. To slow them down, Macpherson and Jed team Quinine organized the felling of trees across the road. The Germans had to bring up bulldozer tanks to clear them, all of which took about three hours. Further up the road, Macpherson laid anti-tank mines near the felled trees so that the bulldozer tanks were disabled. Disruption such as this was repeated by different Jed teams all over France, causing considerable cumulative delay of up to 10 days to German reinforcements and giving the Allies precious time to establish their bridgeheads.

THEY COMMANDEERED TWO CITROËN CARS TO MOVE AROUND QUICKLY ON LIGHTNING OPERATIONS.

The Jedburgh teams often co-ordinated their activities with the British SAS, US Operational Groups and others. Six Jed teams landed in Brittany in June 1944 and seven in other areas of France. By August, another 79 teams had been dropped as the Allies moved south and east from the Normandy bridgehead.

CHANCELLOR SABOTAGE UNIT

George Millar, codename Emile, parachuted near Besancon in the south of France on 1 June 1944 to work again with the Maquis. The area was familiar to him after his escape from a POW train in Italy, after which he had found his way to Lyons. Millar helped to organize the Maquis in carrying out a variety of sabotage operations against railways and other infrastructure.

Aircraft

RAF 138 and 161 Squadrons were based at Tempsford to provide transport for special operations. The runways were sound but the ground in the area was very boggy. RAF 138 Squadron had three Halifax four-engine bombers to begin with; by 1943 this number had grown to 20. There were also two Wellington bombers and a Lockheed Hudson. RAF 161 Squadron was largely equipped with Westland Lysanders, whose duty was to land in enemy territory and to drop and pick up agents.

SOE Networks

F SECTION

There were over 50 SOE F Section networks or circuits in France at different times. These included the Prosper circuit, which extended from Brittany to the border with Belgium; Juggler in the Ardennes; Spiritualist, Inventor and Phono in the Paris area; Autogiro in Normandy; Donkeyman and Acrobat in the Burgundy region; Spindle in Haute-Savoie; Jockey in the Côte d’Azur; Wheelwright in Gascony; and Scientist along the west coast of France.

The pilots and ground crew of 161 Squadron in front of a Westland Lysander at RAF Tangmere in Sussex.

Each circuit was typically based on a structure of three people, one of whom would be the circuit leader who was responsible for recruitment and for organizing activities. The second member was the wireless operator, sometimes known as the pianist. This person had responsibility for maintaining contact with London; this meant that they had to know the relevant ciphers and Morse code to send the messages. Because wireless signals were always liable to be detected by German direction-finding teams, wireless operators soon learned not to signal more than twice from a particular location and to keep their transmissions as short as possible. The third member of the group was the courier. This person would move around taking and receiving messages to and from other groups and finding out about enemy movements.

WESTLAND LYSANDER

THIS HIGH-winged monoplane had originally been designed for battlefield reconnaissance but was found to be ideal for covert work. It had very good short take-off and landing (STOL) characteristics, making it ideal for landing in fields and on improvised strips to pick up or drop off agents or to rescue downed Allied airmen. To make access as quick as possible, there was a fixed ladder leading to the rear cockpit. The aircraft also carried a large drop tank.

The Lysander pilot was responsible for navigation and Lysander flights would invariably take place on or near a full moon. Although the aircraft was designed to carry only one passenger, two could squeeze in if there was an emergency. It had a cruising speed of 265km/h (165mph) and an average range of 965km (600 miles), extended to 1448km (900 miles) with a drop tank. When the moon was in the right phase, Lysanders would fly from Tempsford to Tangmere near Chichester as the launch pad for the mission.

The Lysander pilot would be given aerial photographs from the RAF Photographic Reconnaissance Unit. Details such as the height of trees in the landing area would be highlighted. The pilot would take a fix on certain points until he got to the landing area, where the agent on the ground would send him a Morse code signal. The landing area would be marked in an L shape and the plane would land and turn round quickly before allowing the passenger to get aboard, then it would be away.

Ground crew prepare to fit a parachute canister to an RAF Westland Lysander.

AUTOGIRO

The Autogiro circuit, based on Châteauroux in central France, was set up by Georges Begue and Pierre de Vomecourt. Begue, who had escaped to England during the Dunkirk evacuations, was the first ever SOE agent to be parachuted into France on 5 May 1941. He was credited with the suggestion that the BBC could be used to send open coded messages that would be understood by Resistance groups.

On 24 October 1941, Begue was arrested in Marseilles but managed to escape in July 1942. He then made his way through the Pyrenees and, after being interned by the Spanish, returned to England in October 1942.

DETECTIVE

The Detective circuit was set up by Brian Stonehouse near Tours. Stonehouse was an artist and fluent French speaker who had been parachuted into France on 1 July 1943. He had poor wireless habits and tended to produce a large number of indecipherables in his coding. His habit of staying on air for long periods eventually led to his discovery by a German signal detector unit on 24 October 1941.

Radio Londres, the French Service of the BBC, making a broadcast to Nazi-occupied France. The Nazis would punish anyone found listening to the service. Coded messages for the Resistance were often included.

After being interrogated at Fresnes prison, Stonehouse was eventually sent to Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp, where he witnessed the arrival and execution of four SOE women agents Andrée Borrel, Vera Leigh, Diana Rowden and Sonya Olschanezky. He would later testify at the Nuremburg War Crimes Trials.

SPINDLE

The SOE Spindle circuit was set up near Cannes in the south of France by Peter Churchill, Odette Sansom and André Girard. Churchill was sent into France on SOE operations on four separate occasions. In December 1941 he was landed in the south of France by submarine to help co-ordinate activities with the Resistance in Vichy France. After his return to England, his second mission was another submarine insertion in the south of France accompanied by four other agents.

On 27 August 1942, Churchill was parachuted into France before travelling to Cannes to set up the Spindle circuit. He and Odette Sansom formed a relationship but they were captured after the German Abwehr infiltrated the circuit. They were both interrogated and sentenced to death but survived the war.

The SOE agent Brian Stonehouse of the Detective network proved to be an important witness to the last hours of the four SOE women murdered at Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp.

JOCKEY

The Jockey circuit was set up by the SOE agent Francis Cammaerts in the Savoy region. It included Krystyna Skarbek (Christine Granville), Xan Fielding and Cecily Lefort. Cammaerts was flown into France in March 1943 to join the Donkeyman circuit but he was wary of the security issues. The Donkeyman circuit was soon infiltrated by the Abwehr. He took care to select reliable members for the new Jockey circuit.

The Jockey circuit supported the Maquis in the Vercors and played an important role in sabotage operations following both the Allied landings in Normandy (Overlord) and the south of France (Dragoon). Cecily Lefort was arrested by the Gestapo in September 1943. Despite her being tortured and interrogated, the Jockey circuit continued to survive.

Shortly after the arrival of Xan Fielding, he and Cammaerts were arrested after being stopped at a roadblock on 13 August 1944. There was a mistake in Fielding’s forged documents and he was also carrying a large amount of money in consecutively numbered bank notes. After they had been taken into custody, Krystyna Skarbek turned up and demanded their release, telling the police officials that she was a niece of General Montgomery and would have them all arrested by advancing Allied forces.

Peter Churchill worked for the Spindle circuit along with Odette Sansom, whom he later married. Although he was not related to Winston Churchill, his name may have helped to save his life during imprisonment.

WHEELWRIGHT

Based around Bordeaux, Toulouse and the Pyrenees, the Wheelwright circuit was run by the SOE agent George Starr, codename Hilaire. His brother John was also an SOE agent. The Wheelwright circuit was tasked with creating maximum disruption for German forces in both the build-up to D-Day and after the Normandy landings. In particular, they harassed the 2nd Panzer Division Das Reich as it moved north to reinforce German forces in Normandy.

PROSPER-PHYSICIAN

Prosper was the codename of Major Francis Suttill of the East Surrey Regiment. He was parachuted into France on 1 October 1942 to set up the Physician network, which was more usually known by his codename. His courier, Andrée Borrel (codename Denise), of the Field Army Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) had been dropped by Whitley bomber the previous month to prepare for his arrival. In November, the wireless operator, Gilbert Norman (codename Archambaud), landed in France, followed by another, Jack Agazarian, in December. Soon other sub-circuits were created, but wireless communications with London remained the responsibility of Prosper-Physician.

Suttill, whose civilian occupation was a barrister at Lincoln’s Inn, had an English father and French mother and he was immersed in both languages and cultures. He was described by a fellow agent as ‘exactly one’s idea of an English gentleman, refined, responsible and always considerate’. However, according to those who knew him, Suttill’s high-mindedness made him ill-suited for the nefarious world of spying.

Andrée Borrel’s instructions were to go to Paris to meet a couple of women called Tambour and tell them that she was there ‘de la part de Charlot’. She would also tell them that she had two friends who needed accommodation. Once Borrel and Suttill had met, they travelled around northern France to build up circuits, posing as brother and sister. Suttill had high praise for Borrell, reporting to Baker Street in London that she had ‘shared every danger. Took part in a December reception committee with myself and some others. Has a perfect understanding of security and an imperturbable calmness.’ Sharing every danger included Borrel’s participation in sabotage operations.

Cecily Lefort was a Scotswoman married to a Frenchman. She joined SOE after serving in the WAAF. She was arrested while working for the Jockey network and was executed at Ravensbrück concentration camp.

As the sabotage operations increased and as the Germans moved south to occupy Vichy France after the Torch landings in North Africa, the penalty for capture became more severe. Men would be executed for helping agents while women would be deported to concentration camps. Despite the increasing risk, the three members of the Prosper-Physician circuit were surprisingly lax about security. They were often to be seen eating in the same restaurants and drinking and playing poker at the same café.

The reception operations were a success, with large quantities of weapons being dropped in fields to be distributed among Resistance fighters of various political colours. In January 1943, the SOE agent and French pilot Henri Déricourt landed in northern France with a brief to organize locations for Lysander landings to drop off and pick up agents. He began to liaise closely with the Prosper network. However, Déricourt would become a controversial figure, some saying he had links with the German intelligence services and others saying that he was an agent of MI6.

Georges Blind, a member of the French Resistance, smiles defiantly moments before he is shot by a German firing squad at Dachau concentration camp, 1944.

By mid-1943, the Prosper circuit and its sub-circuits covered the breadth of northern France. There was a constant coming and going of Allied aircraft on moonlit nights and hundreds of containers were dropped with armaments and supplies to be hauled away to hiding places by men and women with horse-drawn carts. There was an optimistic atmosphere as agents and resistants anticipated an Allied invasion was coming soon and before the inevitable German backlash. However, they were wrong.

In April 1943, Andrée Borrel’s initial contacts in Paris, the Tambour sisters, were arrested and taken to Fresnes prison. From there they were taken every day to the Avenue Foch to be interrogated by the German Nazi intelligence agency, the Sicherheitsdienst (SD). With his gallant spirit, Suttill made two attempts to rescue the Tambour sisters, the first through bribery and the second by arranging for them to be brought to a meeting with himself and Gilbert Norman at a pre-arranged location. These arrangements were naïve and both Suttill and Norman were almost captured by the German police.

THE GERMAN POLICE HAD TRACKED DOWN SUTTILL AND HIS COMPANIONS AFTER CAPTURING PIERRE CULIOLI.