Eclipse in the dark years: pick-up flights, routes of resistance and the Free French

Abstract

This article charts the importance of clandestine flights from Britain into Occupied France during the Second World War as a route of resistance. These pick-up flights were coordinated from London and were an example of the inter-Allied cooperation and Franco-British negotiation that took place between the Bureau central de renseignement et d’action (BCRA), the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, or MI6) and Special Operations Executive (SOE). The flights allowed General Charles de Gaulle to hold court with the leaders of resistance networks, smoothing problems on the route to a unified resistance council. Likewise, they allowed him to build bridges between vying factions in France and in London, drawing together the movements under his command and personalizing the narrative of resistance. From busy London restaurants and family homes via secret flights to darkened fields in Occupied France, the route of these transfers shaped the character of resistance. This article draws out the personal interactions and connections that underpinned these networks and describes the enduring connections of this route of resistance, starting with the commemoration of Jean Moulin’s crash landing at RAF Tangmere, the forward station for many of these flights.

Résumé

Cet article examine l’importance des vols clandestins entre la Grande-Bretagne et la France pendant la Deuxième Guerre mondiale en tant que voies de résistance. Les transferts aériens de résistants, coordonnés à partir de Londres, constituent un exemple de la coopération interalliée mais aussi des négociations franco-britanniques qui ont eu lieu entre le BCRA, SIS et SOE. Les vols ont permis au général Charles de Gaulle de regrouper autour de lui les chefs des réseaux de résistance tout en atténuant les problèmes politiques liés à la construction d’un conseil de résistance unifié. De même, ils lui ont permis de créer des passerelles entre les factions hostiles en France et à Londres, en rassemblant les mouvements sous son commandement et en adaptant à son profit l’histoire de la résistance. Depuis les restaurants animés londoniens, les maisons familiales, en passant par les champs sombres en France occupée, ces voies de résistance ont modifié le caractère de la résistance. Cet article met l’accent sur les interactions personnelles et les liens qui soutenaient ces réseaux. Il décrit également les connexions durables qui se sont forgées entre la France et l’Angleterre à travers ces voies de résistance, notamment les cérémonies de commémoration de l’atterrissage forcé de Jean Moulin à l’aérodrome RAF Tangmere en 1943, la base aérienne qui constitua le point de départ de la majorité de ces vols.

Keywords:

• France
• London
• Moulin
• RAF
• Resistance
• Second World War

Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to David Andress, Hanna Diamond, Sarah Frank, Julian Jackson, David Seaman and Iain Stewart, who all offered support and useful insight into versions of this paper. The staff at Tangmere Military Aviation Museum, particularly Reginald Byron and David Coxon, supported the research project underpinning this article generously, and those involved with Steven Kippax’s SOE discussion group helped shape the project, notably Steven Kippax, Nick Livingstone and Pierre Tillet. I am also grateful to Caroline Babois-Gentry for taking the time to discuss her father John Gentry’s wartime role with me, and for putting me in touch with Colin Cohen and Jerome Bertram who were also generous with their time. Thanks also to Martyn Cox and Martyn Bell of the Secret War Network for suggestions, notes and all the work they have undertaken to sustain the memory of these wartime heroics.

Notes

1. McCairns, Lysander Pilot, 46.

2. Cremieux-Brilhac, Ici Londres, 2: 163.

3. On cooperation, see Wieviorka, French Resistance, 22–5; and Cremieux-Brilhac, France Libre, 1: 520–4. On the Special Operations Executive (SOE), Mark Seaman’s edited volume Special Operations Executive collects a useful survey of recent research into the methodology of the SOE. On the French in London, Atkin, Forgotten French; Mangold, Britain and the Defeated French; Cremieux-Brilhac, Ici Londres; Kelly and Cornick, A History of the French in London. Alongside Wieviorka’s newly translated work, the most prominent synthetic works on the Resistance are Jackson, Dark Years; Gildea, Marianne in Chains; Gildea, Fighters in the Shadows.

4. Recent work has complicated and enriched our understanding of the relationship between the Free French, the internal resistance and the Allies. Looking at how the maquis interacted with both the Free French and the Allies (and how this guided their military mobilization) is an instructive example of the types of interaction this article describes. See Balu, “The French Maquis,” 192–209; Frank, “Les missions interalliées,” 353–61; Funk, Les Alliés et la Résistance. In a further reflection on inter-Allied cooperation, British engagement with resistant forces was complicated by the conception of France as a whole (and thus the Free French, Vichy and the internal resistance as different factions), as discussed in Frank, “Identités résistantes et logiques alliées.”

5. Wieviorka, French Resistance, 3.

6. Kedward, “Mapping the Resistance,” 491–503.

7. Ibid., 497.

8. As described in Gildea, Marianne in Chains, 377–8. This narrative has been roundly dispelled in recent scholarship, not least in Muracciole, Français Libres. Muracciole traces a sociology of the Free French and surveys their varied backgrounds and motivations, from former International Brigade fighters in the Spanish Civil War to Parisian elites with a sense of adventure. This sort of cross-section adds useful nuance to the worn tale that Gildea laments, and has himself tackled in Fighters in the Shadows.

9. Costigliola, “Pamela Churchill,” 755–6.

10. Frank, “Identités résistantes et logiques alliées,” 76. This is reiterated in Frank, “Les missions interalliées,” 353.

11. Aglan, “La Résistance, le temps, l'espace,” 97; Laborie, “Qu’est ce que la Résistance,” 35.

12. Kedward, “Mapping the Resistance,” 495–7. Indeed, air was clearly not the only means of transfer, and sea communications also played an important part, collaborating with Polish escape lines in the South, and with an increasing penetration into Brittany after 1943. The SOE’s significant use of communications by sea was part of an array of methods, and this article’s focus on air transfers is intended not to overwrite but to complement studies on these links. See Sir Brooks Richards’ important two-volume work Secret Flotillas; and, his chapter “SOE and Sea Communications,” 33–46. For recent insights into the role of Bretons in the Free French Movement see Bougeard, “Eléments d’une approche,” 15–28.

13. Kedward, “Mapping the Resistance,” 497.

14. Foot, SOE in France, 72–3. They built upon the work of 419 flight, which had operated to secure SIS agents and establish new networks in 1940. See Jeffery, MI6, 392.

15. Body, Runways to Freedom, 76–7. Both No. 161 and No. 138 Squadron were based officially at Tempsford. No. 138 Squadron (which had initially undertaken all the work for the secret services) was principally charged with dropping supplies and parachuting agents (overwhelmingly SOE agents and military supplies being placed in the field), whilst 161 Squadron was principally charged with landings and pick-ups (the transfer of intelligence agents, VIPs and hard copy communications being taken to and from the field). This demarcation was not official, and both squadrons continued to parachute agents and supplies. For more, see Foot, SOE in France, 73; and, Cremieux-Brilhac, France Libre, 1: 427–31. The predominance of SIS and BCRA agents being involved in pick-up flights can be seen by comparing aggregate statistics prepared by the RAF for squadrons 138 and 161 (see the appendices of the Summary Report included in TNA AIR 20/8496), with lists that give much finer detail on the nature of infiltrations and exfiltration. Pierre Tillet has produced (and continues to update) an exceptional document reconciling all available sources on the purpose of flights and identity of passengers. This can be accessed at: http://www.plan-sussex-1944.com (Last accessed February 1, 2017). Also, Hugh Verity lists a record of flights as an appendix to his book We Landed By Moonlight. A recent book, compiled by Major Anthony Bertram’s son Jerome, collates the memoirs of Bertram and his wife Barbara, alongside RAF documents and the diary kept of visitors to the Manor. It is an extraordinarily valuable resource for any study of the special duties flights. See Bertram, Bignor Manor.

16. Interview with Grp. Cpt. Hugh Verity, August 17, 1987. Imperial War Museum Sound Archive [hereafter IWMSA] no. 9939.

17. Photo of Tangmere Cottage (Interior), National Archives, Kew [hereafter TNA] CN 5/33.

18. “RAF Report on Supporting French Resistance,” TNA AIR 20/8496.

19. Also flown were Hudsons; for an account of Pickard’s first attempt to land a Hudson for a pick-up, see McCairns, Lysander Pilot, 44–5.

20. Ibid., 54.

21. “RAF Report on Supporting French Resistance,” TNA AIR 20.8496. The first pick-up in October 1940 was flown by Fl/Lt WR Farley who landed Philip Schneidau, an SIS agent born in France to English parents. Hugh Verity describes plotting out the model for the landing torch path over dinner at Oddenino’s restaurant. We Landed By Moonlight, 34–6; Bertram, Bignor Manor, 261–3.

22. Interview with Pierre Adher Watt, October 21, 1988. IWMSA no. 10448.

23. On the evolution of the BCRA, the principal text is Albertelli, Services Secrets. On the negotiations that established cooperation between the SIS and the BCRA (and specifically on Passy’s role), see De Young De La Marck, “De Gaulle, Colonel Passy,” 21–40. Also, see Albertelli, “The British, the Free French,” 119–36; Laurent, “Free French Secret Services,” 19–41. On the Deuxième Bureau, see Alexander, “Did the Deuxieme Bureau Work,” 293–333.

24. Interview with Col. Maurice Buckmaster, October 17, 1986. IWMSA no. 9452.

25. Wieviorka, French Resistance, 133.

26. Perrier, Colonel Passy, 114–15.

27. Albertelli, Services Secrets, 71.

28. Albertelli, “The British, the Free French,” 122.

29. Notably, the Alliance network led by Marie-Madeleine Fourcade showed the complicated relationship between the SIS and the BCRA, and this is recounted in her memoirs as she struggled to have her agent Leon Faye sent by Lysander to France: in Fourcade, L’Arche de Noé, 2: 189–23. For more on Fourcade's engagement with the British and De Gaulle, see Deacon, “Fitting in to the French Resistance,” 263–6. Likewise, both elements of the SIS maintained contacts outside the BCRA and frequently sought to poach returning French resistors as they were interviewed in the Royal Victoria Patriotic School in Wandsworth before they could declare for De Gaulle. As well as the control of agents and networks, the intelligence services clashed over the use of individual code sets for communication with the field. See Albertelli, “The British, the Free French,” 133; and De Young De La Marck, “De Gaulle, Colonel Passy,” 36–7.

30. Interview with Buckmaster, IWMSA no. 9452.

31. Seaman, Bravest of the Brave, 51.

32. Jefferey, MI6, 397.

33. For an account of R/F section’s brief attempt to court Moulin, see Piquet-Wicks, Four in the Shadows, 40–2.

34. “Interview with M. Moulins (sic), 4 November 1941” quoted in Cordier, Jean Moulin, 1267–9.

35. “Témoignages d'Emmanuel d'Astier de la Vigerie, recueillis par Henri Michel,” January 8, 1947. AN 72AJ/60/I.

36. Dewavrin (Passy), Mémoires du chef, 248–9.

37. The best account of the relationship between the SOE, F Section and the BCRA can be found in Foot, SOE in France, 13–40.

38. Interview with Buckmaster, IWMSA no. 9452.

39. Albertelli, Services Secrets, 512.

40. Douzou, Résistance française, 243.

41. Wieviorka, French Resistance, 4.

42. Likewise, special training had to be conceived and conducted for pilots, reception committees and those who would identify potential landing sites. Some training for operators was led by the SIS Training Officer for pick-ups, Major Anthony Bertram, also a Conducting Officer for the special-duties flights. A full account of the training procedures is given in Bertram, Bignor Manor, 88–101. A fortnight of every month was dedicated by the pick-up pilots to training ‘operators’ on how to identify potential landing fields, and how to lay the flare-paths that would guide pilots in to land. McCairns, Lysander Pilot, 17–19.

43. Kedward, “Mapping the Resistance,” 497.

44. “Air Liaison Section History,” TNA HS7–14 ; W J Mackenzie, “Special Operations Executive (Unpublished History),” 560, CAB 102/650. The name ‘Conference Room’ was designed to distract from the nature of the operations being undertaken, and the AL history acknowledges that the term ‘Operations Room’ would probably have been more apt. There is a further description of the physical layout of the room in Helm, Life in Secrets, 25. Sir Douglas Dodds-Parker claimed responsibility for establishing the Operations Room when he was head of the Air/Sea Transport section of SOE in 1941–42, see “Memorandum by Dodds-Parker titled ‘Contributions’ (c.1997),” Magdalen College Archives [hereafter MC] P2/4/2MS/25.

45. “Memorandum by Dodds-Parker titled ‘The Difficulties of SOE with SIS (and Communism)’ (c.1997),” MC P2/4/2MS/25; Verity, We Landed by Moonlight, 76, 218; Hooper, “The Water Meadow,” 15–20; Bertram, Bignor Manor, 225, 229, 289, 347; Davies, MI6 and the Machinery of Spying, 111–13; Hinsley et al., British Intelligence, 276–7; West, Triplex, 182.

46. “The Difficulties of SOE with SIS (and Communism),” MC P2/4/2MS/25.

47. Reporting to the Assistant Chief of Air Staff (Intelligence) or ACAS(I). See Grehan, RAF and the SOE, 145; “Memo ref DO/1496/42/AI2c,” 16/12/1942. TNA AIR 40/2577; “Memo ref TEM/S.8/1/EHF/DO,” 4/7/1944. TNA AIR 40/2577.

48. “Record of the Resources made Available to SIS by the Air Ministry and RAF During the War,” 3 TNA AIR 40/2659.

49. Bertram, Bignor Manor, 69; Kelly, “Mapping Free French London,” 320 and 325–7; Cremieux-Brilhac, France Libre, 1: 222.

50. Bertram, Bignor Manor, 383–6.

51. Dewavrin (Passy), Mémoires du chef, 292.

52. Ibid., §292.

53. See Bertram, Bignor Manor, 186–7. Fourcade makes wide mention of 'Ham' in particular during her stay in the 'donjon' of London in Fourcade, L’Arche de Noé, 2: 189–230 (et passim). Mark Seaman notes that these drives often included a detour for drinks in the Spread Eagle Hotel in Midhurst. Seaman, Bravest of the Brave, 98, 122.

54. Sonneville, Les combattants, 125–6.

55. Bertram, Bignor Manor, 69. See also, Albertelli, Services secrets, 120–2. Hessel is one of the 'bridge builders' cited by Kedward as important to understanding an effort to mapping the resistance. See Kedward, “Mapping the Resistance,” 500–1.

56. Wieviorka, French Resistance, 131; Cremieux-Brilhac, France Libre, 2: 1043.

57. Chabord, “BCRA,” 106.

58. Sonneville, Les combattants, 123–7.

59. Interview with Stephane Hessel, June 18, 1989. IWMSA no. 10731; Seaman, Bravest of the Brave, 183–6.

60. Benamou, C'était un temps déraisonnable, 284.

61. Ibid., 284, 345.

62. Bertram, Bignor Manor, 11–18, 384–5.

63. Pineau, Simple verité, 286.

64. Sonneville, Les combattants, 123–7.

65. Ibid., 125–6.

66. Pierre-Bloch, Londres, 18–19. For more on the important restaurants (in addition to Escargot) as well as other key sites associated with the Free French in London, see Kelly, “Mapping Free French London,” 300–41.

67. Seaman, Bravest of the Brave, 58, 67; Bertram, Bignor Manor, 386.

68. Bertram, Bignor Manor, 68.

69. Pineau, Simple verité, 277.

70. Dewavrin (Passy), Mémoires du chef, 223.

71. Fourcade, L’Arche de Noé, 2: 142.

72. Manuel visited Bignor for leisure in August 1942, and Hessel (with his wife Vitia) in March 1943. Bertram, Bignor Manor, 284, 310.

73. A notice was hung at Tangmere that forbade low-flying manoeuvres over Bignor Manor whilst Caroline the goat was expecting a kid. Bertram, Bignor Manor, 204–5.

74. Ibid., 323–4.

75. Kedward, “Mapping the Resistance,” 494.

76. “RAF Report on Supporting French Resistance,” 53 TNA AIR 40/2659.

77. Ibid.

78. Bertram, Bignor Manor, 174–5; “RAF Report on Supporting French Resistance,” 52–5. AIR 40/2659.

79. Fourcade, L’Arche de Noé, 2: 225.

80. “RAF Report on Supporting French Resistance,” 55 TNA AIR 40/2659.

81. Felix Svagrovsky was involved in the Confrérie Notre-Dame network, before his arrest. He was sprung and made his way to England, where he escaped his initial internment for interview and reported to BCRA. He was then tasked with setting up his own network for air operations in France in February 1943, before being arrested and imprisoned in October 1943. He escaped again, and as he had become exposed in France, spent some three months in London organizing air operations for the BCRA from March 1944. Sadly, he returned to France in June 1944, and was captured by the Gestapo and deported to Neuengamme where he died on 1 April 1945. See Bertram, Bignor Manor, 135–6, 148.

82. Passy described how he and “Uncle Claude […] often quarrelled” though maintained a friendly “gentleman’s agreement that they always respected” and remained on good terms. Dewavrin (Passy), Mémoires du chef, 84–5.

83. Albertelli, Services Secrets, 18.

84. “Témoignage de Paul Rivière, recueilli par Yvette Gouineau. 12 décembre 1949–20 février 1950,” 46–7. AN 72AJ/38/I.

85. 161 Squadron ORB, “Baccarat II Report,” 16. Tangmere Military Aviation Museum (Hereafter TMAM).

86. Lockhart is described as an intimidating figure. Memorably, the pick-up pilot McCairns’ first impression of his commanding officer was that Lockhart was ‘the modern equivalent of Lucifer […] I was never to change my opinion of his satanic influence.’ McCairns, Lysander Pilot, 14.

87. Foreign nationals entering Britain were ordinarily interviewed at The Royal Victoria Patriotic School. Any French nationals that were cleared would be spoken to by SIS, with the intention of having them work for either Cohen or Dunderdale. This early access (and the ability to co-opt potential operators) was a bone of contention for the BCRA. See Clinton, Jean Moulin, 113–4.

88. Dewavrin (Passy), Mémoires du chef, 223.

89. Pineau, Simple Verité, 155.

90. Ibid., 159.

91. Raymond, “Sarkozy-de Gaulle,” 96.

92. Atkin, Forgotten French, 8–13.

93. Pineau, Simple Verité, 160.

94. Jackson, Dark Years, 430–2.

95. Pineau, Simple Verité, 190. The text of De Gaulle’s messages are recorded in the Appendices of Pineau’s wartime memoirs.

96. 161 Squadron ORB, “Bridge Report,” 19. TMAM.

97. Crémieux-Brilhac, France Libre, 1: 437–8.

98. Albertelli, Services Secrets, 512. See also Piketty, “Pierre Brossolette: from Pacifism to Resistance,” 10; Piketty, “Pierre Brossolette, de l’exil au Panthéon,” 34–9; Piketty, Pierre Brossolette, 344–8.

99. Quoted in Deacon, “Fitting in to the French Resistance,” 261.

100. Jackson, Dark Years, 449–51. Notably, the flight which took Brossolete back to France, codenamed Atala, brought back Rene Massigli and Andre Manuel (as mentioned earlier). The flight was diverted to Tempsford, despite Passy having travelled to Tangmere to meet them. Bertram, Bignor Manor, 298–9.

101. “Note établie avec Paul Rivière sur les opérations d'atterrissage de fin 1942 à août 1944,” n.d. AN 72AJ/38/I.

102. Fl. Lt. Bridger, “SIREN II Report,” 146 TMAM. In an illustration of how deeply the flights penetrated into France, it is worth noting that Melay is only around 30 miles from the town of Vichy.

103. Albertelli, Services Secrets, 512.

104. My thanks to Martyn Cox for providing photos and an account of the event. See also Delaye-Fouqueau, Dans les pas, 51–5, 137–9.

105. The Special Forces Club, in particular, helped facilitate reunions between former resistors and Allied forces. Details of these reunions are outlined in the papers of Sir Douglas Dodd-Parker at Magdalen College, Oxford. See especially, MC:P2/4/2C/16.

106. Phone interview with Caroline Babois-Gentry (daughter of John Gentry), 24/08/17.

107. “Lysander Presented to French Government,” The Times, January 28, 1946, 3.

108. Bertram, Bignor Manor, 391–2.

109. Ibid., 391; “Remise d'un avion anglais aux invalids,” 01/02/1946, Gaumont Pathé Archives 46O5EJ 33113/227487; “Souvenir Paris,” 1946, Gaumont Pathé Archives 46OlGJ OOOO6/205889; “Remise avion anglais aux invalids,” 01/02/1946, Gaumont Pathé Archives 1946sLL/23375.

110. Buton, “Occupation, Liberation, Purges,” 238–41.

111. Bertram, Bignor Manor, 391–2.

112. First-day cover envelope with commemorative handstamps in author’s possession.

113. Bertram, Bignor Manor, 391–2.

114. Albertelli, Services Secrets, 512.

115. Gildea, Marianne in Chains, 379.