NOTES

Abbreviations Used in the Notes

ADG: Archives départmentales de la Gironde, Bordeaux

AN: Archives nationales, Paris

CMSM: Combined Military Services Museum, East Maldon, Essex

IWM: Imperial War Museum, London

TNA: The National Archives, Kew, London

Introduction

F. W. D. Deakin: The Embattled Mountain, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1971.

Fitzroy Maclean: Eastern Approaches, London, Penguin Books, 1991.

Prologue: The Execution

slingbacks with raised heels: ADG 59J 119.

Chapter 1: Bordeaux – Beginnings

‘The population …’: Quoting an interview with Colonel Reile of the Abwehr, August 1982, Robert Marshall, All the King’s Men, London, Fontana paperbacks, 1989, p. 165.

zone non-occupée: Also known as the zone libre.

Abwehr: The Abwehr took over all classical espionage and counter-espionage, including intelligence operations in foreign countries. As the war went on, the Gestapo also got engaged in the business of external spying.

Gestapo: The name Gestapo comes from the first letters of their long name Geheime Staatspolizei (State Secret Police).

Geheime Feldpolizei (GFP): The GFP drew nearly all its staff from the Gestapo and also had responsibilities for ‘anti-terrorist’ activities in occupied territories, as did the intelligence arm of the SS.

‘[amongst] the upper bourgeoisie …’: H. A. Ree report, December 1943, TNA HS 9/1240/3.

Hôtel de Ville: Known as the Palais Rohan after Archbishop Ferdinand Maximilien Mériadec de Rohan who restored the building in 1771.

‘The English, …’: Capitaine Charles du Tertre, the head of the Bordeaux chapter of the Centre d’Action Anti-Bolchévique (CAA), Elly Rous-Serra, Les Renards de l’ombre: la Mission Baden–Savoie, Paris, Nouvelles Éditions Latines, 1985, p. 529.

‘The Jewish question …’: Letter from Daniel Gallois to Gilles Perrault, 5 November 1975, AN 72/AJ/68.

requisitioned a nearby château: Château Pérenne, Saint-Genès-de-Blaye.

‘Anyone who gives shelter …’: ADG 59J 188.

Italian submarines: Italian submarines were excluded from the concrete bomb shelters – a matter which caused great tension between the German and Italian submarine crews.

Atlantic beaches: The US Army under General Pershing had landed here in the First World War.

60,000 German troops: These included Indian Regiment 950 (made up of prisoners from the Indian Army in North Africa and Italy).

two infantry divisions: 708th and 159th Reserve Division.

Panzer division: 11th Panzer Division.

army headquarters: 1st Army HQ.

soldiers’ brothels: This was in Rue Laliment. The building, now demolished to make way for flats, was next to No. 22, Kruse’s statement, S.I.R 1018, TNA WO 208/3601.

Lion Rouge nightclub: Ibid.

Côtelette: Ibid.

Blaue Affe: Ibid.

rate of exchange: After occupying France, the Germans enforced on the French an exchange rate of 1 Reichsmark for 20 francs compared to 1 Reichsmark for 11 francs in June 1940, see https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00652826/document.

‘occupied Europe …’: Mark Seaman, The Bravest of the Brave: True Story of Wing Commander Tommy Yeo-Thomas – SOE Secret Agent Codename ‘The White Rabbit’, London, Michael O’Mara Books, 1997, p. 65.

‘Bordeaux …’: Landes IWM interview, Reel 2 (15' 17"), IWM SR 8641, 03-01-1985.

‘Neighbours reported …’: Caroline Moorhead, A Train in Winter, London, Vintage, 2012, p. 145.

‘[They believed] their duty …’: Daniel Grandclément, L’Énigme Grandclément, Paris, Balland, 2003, pp. 94–5.

spring and autumn fair: La Fête Foraine, first held in 1923 to show off the products of France’s colonies.

Photographs from 1940: Erwan Langeo, Bordeaux 1940–1944, la Place des Quinconces traverse la guerre, Erwan Langeo, 2015, pp. 21–2.

‘understand and be resigned’: See http://www.liberation.fr/evenement/1997/10/08/bordeaux-1er-juillet-1940-23-heures-l-horloge-passe-a-l-heure-allemande-du-27-juin-1940-au-27-aout-1_218974.

Laiser Israel Karp: Philippe Souleau, La Ligne de démarcation en Gironde 1940–1944, Périgueux, Fanlac, 1998, p. 195.

Hans Reimers: Colonel Rémy, Les Soldats du silence: mémoires d’un agent secret de la France Libre, Vol. 2, Paris, Éditions de la Seine, 2002, p. 97.

discovered in Bordeaux harbour: He was assassinated at the junction of the Boulevard George V and the Rue de l’Ormeau-Mort in the centre of the city. His briefcase contained detailed plans of the German coastal defences around the Gironde estuary. These, with other plans for the ‘Atlantic Wall’ Hitler was constructing to protect Festung Europa (Fortress Europe, those parts of continental Europe occupied by Nazi Germany), were in due course smuggled back to London in one of the most important intelligence coups of the early part of the war.

257 ‘Resistance martyrs’: René Terrisse, Face aux pelotons Nazis: Souge, le Mont Valérien du Bordelais, Bordeaux, Éditions Aubéron, 2000, p. 189.

secret British estimates: Summary of SOE activities for the prime minister, Quarter, October–December 1942, TNA HS 8/250. The total numbers for 1940 to 1944 were: about 20,000 executions (including shot and fallen Maquisards) and 67,000 (non-racial) deportations. See Peter Lieb, email to author, 23 February 2016.

foreign-controlled spy networks: These included Mithridate, Jade Amicol, Ajax, S.N., CND Castille, R. Marine, IS-IC, La France Vivra and F2 (run by the Poles).

city backstreet: The Impasse Sainte Ursule, about 400 metres back from the Quai des Chartrons.

He had been wounded: There is some confusion over Duboué’s record in the First World War. One document (‘History of the OCM’, CMSM) records that he was awarded the Croix de Guerre, while another (‘Histoire Secrète de la Résistance dans le Sud-Ouest’) reports that he was disciplined for deserting his post in the face of the enemy.

the Grand Café …: Delmas, Agenda-annuaire Delmas 1944, Bordeaux, Éditions Delmas, 1943, p. 54.

Café des Marchands: No. 83 Quai des Chartrons. The café was also known locally as the Café du Commerce, but should not be confused with the much larger and more prestigious café of the same name in the city centre, the Grand Café du Commerce et de Tourny, of which Jean Duboué was the manager. Molly’s Irish Pub now stands on the site.

at fifty: Information on him (under Payere) in TNA HS 7/13 gives a date of birth of 1878, but TNA HS 9/75 (SOE F Section agent Claude de Baissac’s personal file) gives his age as fifty-three in 1943.

next door: In 1940 he lived at 84 Quai des Chartrons, but moved to 20 Rue de Colmar, closer to the centre of Bordeaux, sometime in the early 1940s.

Duboué and Paillère: Duboué’s alias was ‘Jean-Jacques’, and Paillère’s aliases were ‘Léon Poirier’, ‘Ludovic Petit’ and ‘84’.

clandestine escape route: The Édouard line was originally set up by SIS in 1940. This route was passed over to SOE, who used it as an escape route for their agents and occasional downed pilots and escaped prisoners on the run.

British consulate: The consul at the time was Sir Henry Farquhar.

murderous enmity: When SOE’s prize Prosper network in Paris was rolled up by the Germans in mid-1943, ‘Claude Dansey (effectively the head of SIS) marched in, clapped his hands and declared “Great news, Reilly. Great news … One of the big SOE networks in France has just blown up.”’ Memoirs of Sir Patrick Reilly, Bodleian Library Ms Eng c6918 (fols 200–50). Reilly was personal assistant to Menzies.

‘Though SOE and SIS …’: J. G. Beevor, SOE: Recollections and Reflections 1940–1945, London, The Bodley Head, 1981, pp. 75–6.

Colin Gubbins: The titular head of SOE was the Minister of Economic Warfare (Hugh Dalton, and then the Earl of Selborne). Gubbins’s title was Director of Operations.

‘shrewd …’: Robert Leroy SOE personal file, TNA HS 9/916/2.

codename ‘Alain’: His alias in the field was ‘Louis’.

SOE ‘ghost ship’: HMS Fidelity. Fidelity was originally a French merchant ship which SOE purloined for landing agents on the French coast, TNA HS 8/831.

debt and unpaid bar bills: Reports of Egbert V. H. Rizzo, head of the Édouard Line, TNA HS 8/154.

director of warehouses: Directeur de Manutention.

Breton marine engineer: called Le Hellec.

‘detailed reports …’: Leroy file, French military archives, Château de Vincennes, Paris.

‘most vital cargoes’: Lord Selborne to the prime minister, 9 May 1942, minute entitled ‘Blockade Runners’, microfilm, TNA HS 8/897.

‘[stop] the trade altogether’: Ibid.

‘Bonjour à Mouton’: private archive of Yves Léglise.

Chapter 2: Roger Landes

Piccadilly line towards central London: Landes probably took the tube from Manor House, the nearest station to his parents’ apartment, to what is now Embankment station (then known as Charing Cross/Trafalgar Square).

Barnet: He was known to family and friends as Bernard, author interview with Alain Landes, 15 November 2015.

‘his smallness …’: Charles Corbin interrogation, TNA HS 9/352/3.

War Office building itself had been hit: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2243951/The-astonishing-interactive-map-EVERY-bomb-dropped-London-Blitz.html.

‘We are sending …’: David D. Nicolson, Aristide: Warlord of the Resistance, London, Leo Cooper, 1994, p. 6.

Arthur Parks: His father was French sports correspondent for a reputable British newspaper. He once said he got his job because ‘he knew how to keep his mouth shut’, author email correspondence with Noreen Riols, 7 December 2010. See also Noreen Riols, The Secret Ministry of Ag. & Fish, London, Macmillan, 2013.

grand room: One of the common reminiscences of nearly all SOE agents who passed through Orchard Court was of the black marble bathroom, which was regarded at the time as a marvel of decadence and luxury.

Simon was also brief …: Nicolson, Aristide, p. 8.

A30: Now known as the A3.

two giant sequoias: author telephone conversation with Richard Souchard, 1 February 2015. The cast-iron plaques were stolen in the 1980s.

‘magnificent, strong …’: SOE F Section agent Henri Déricourt, quoted in Marshall, All the King’s Men, p. 133.

Meoble Lodge: Special Training School No. 23.

Two ex-Shanghai policemen: William Fairbairn and Eric-Anthony Sykes. These two invented the FS (after the initials of their surnames) fighting knife – more famously known as the commando dagger, which remains to today the shoulder symbol of British commando units.

ex-chartered accountant: ‘Killer’ Green. He undertook his own mission to France later in the war and also helped with the interrogation of returning agents. His full name was Donald Ernest Farrance Green. See http://www.specialforcesroh.com/showthread.php?30225-Green-Donald-Ernest-Farrance-(Killer).

SOE’s ‘finishing school’: Special Training School No. 31, also known as ‘Group B’.

‘an excellent operator’: Claude de Baissac SOE personal file, TNA HS 9/75.

Gilbert Norman: After an early childhood spent in France, he had been dispatched in his early teens to a minor English public school – Ongar – after which he followed his father into chartered accountancy.

‘He has the eye …’: Roger Landes’s SOE personal file, TNA HS 9/880/8.

Chapter 3: Friedrich Dohse

his father, Hinrich: Dohse’s father’s name is stated as Hinrich in Dohse’s interrogation by the British, 24 June 1946, TNA KV 3/238.

commercial college: Handels Kollege, Hamburg.

Friedrich joined: On 1 May 1933.

‘Golden Party Badge’: Goldenes Ehrenzeichen der NSDAP.

Hamburg suburb: Altona.

married and with two young children: He was married to Erika, née Jennerjahn, who was three years his junior; his children were a daughter Heidi and a son Harro.

counter-espionage section: Section IV2.a.

BdS: Befehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei und des Sicherheitsdienstes.

‘Though not a political Nazi …’: Quoting an interview with Hans Kopkow, 3 June 1983, Marshall, All the King’s Men, p. 166.

one account: TNA KV 3/238.

‘little God’: Michel Bergès interview with Dohse, April 1985, private archive of Michel Bergès.

another senior SS intelligence officer: Josef Kieffer.

personal driver: Karl Braun.

old spy network: One of these spies was Jean Osvald, a senior police officer in Marseille, whom Bömelburg saw at the Petit Nice restaurant. Osvald was in fact a double agent who worked for the French secret service from the mid-1930s to the end of the war.

‘enhanced interrogation …’: Dohse’s memoirs exist in two forms. The first, which is more complete, is written in Dohse’s own handwriting and was given to the author by Michel Bergès. The second is an edited version which was typeset and prepared for publication (but never published) by the Swiss publishers Favre and was unearthed by the Bordeaux-based historian René Terrisse. All further references to these memoirs in this book come from this second typeset version, rather than the original in Dohse’s handwriting, ADG 59J 209.

‘I didn’t need …’: Michel Bergès interview with Dohse, April 1985, private archive of Michel Bergès.

‘did not terrify, he demobilised’: Gilles Perrault, L’orchestre rouge, Paris, Fayard, 1989, p. 325.

‘half French’: Walter Machule written statement, ADG 59J 67.

wily and clever …: The French have a single word – rusé – which combines all these attributes and is often used to describe Dohse by those who knew him.

‘KdS Bordeaux’: KdS – Kommandeur der Sicherheitspolizei und des Sicherheitsdienstes.

Avenue du Maréchal Pétain: The buildings were numbers 197, 220, 222 and 224. The road is now known as Avenue de la Libération Charles de Gaulle. It had been first renamed Avenue du Maréchal Pétain shortly before the Germans arrived in 1940.

liaison officer: Dohse statement to Capitaine Stienne, Military Judge, Bordeaux, 13 December 1949, private archive of Michel Bergès.

detective superintendent: Kriminalkommissar.

eight weeks younger than Dohse: Born on 13 September 1913 in Neumünster.

‘I took …’: Michel Bergès interview with Dohse, April 1985, private archive of Michel Bergès.

‘everyone in KdS feared him’: Hans Bordes evidence, ADG J59 67.

Chapter 4: André Grandclément

Amélia: Her full name was Amélia Marie Céleste Sophie Valérie de Barolet.

‘the invisible ghetto’: Grandclément, L’Énigme Grandclément, p. 15, quoting Perrault, L’orchestre rouge.

Franklin Jesuit College: Now Middle School and High School Saint-Louis de Gonzague 12 Rue Benjamin Franklin, 75116 Paris.

period of preparation: What the French call classes préparatoires or prépas. This is a period of preparatory study before tertiary education to prepare a candidate for the next stage of his/her study.

‘So now I am going …’: Grandclément, L’Énigme Grandclément, p. 19.

‘At eighteen …’: Ibid., p. 18.

one of his father’s friends: Colonel Toussaint.

The couple married …: Grandclément, L’Énigme Grandclément, p. 19.

Mnay who knew him: One of those who described Grandclément was Gilbert Comte, see his statement, 23 March 1945, ADG 59J 119.

‘intelligent, amiable, …’: newspaper cutting, no date, private archive of Yves Léglise.

‘He greatly overestimated …’: The words of Friedrich Dohse, Jacques Sylvain interview with Dohse, 1987, ADG 59J 65.

‘himself badly …’: Charles Corbin’s interrogatory, TNA HS 9/352/3.

close to the Croix-de-Feu: Police report by Special Inspector Delmas, 24 November 1941, ADG 59J 107.

‘a faithful partisan’: Ibid.

‘official mistress’: The French word for the state of official mistress is concubinage.

‘Their love …’: Grandclément, L’Énigme Grandclément, pp. 119–20.

covert organisations: A local organisation called Groupe Ouest (Group West) and a right-wing movement of young people, especially students, in the Bordeaux area, which he led, called La France Vivra (France Will Live On).

school teacher from Bordeaux: Jean Ferrier.

escape line to London: Lucienne Souillié, History of the OCM, Fonds Calmette, ADG 62J 1.

eau de vie: Alcohol distilled from the leftover of wine pressings. See Aristide archive, CMSM.

‘With Lucette …’: Grandclément, L’Énigme Grandclément, p. 54.

Chapter 5: A Happy Man and a Dead Body

‘brutal and stupid’: Notes by René Terrisse concerning Kunesch, ADG 59J 67.

‘the cosher-in-chief’: Le matraqueur-en-chef. The rubber cosh is referred to in French as a nerf de boeuf because the strand of the whips were often made of the sinews of oxen.

Marcelle Louise Sommer: Née Freierling.

Claire Keimer: Author interview with Michel Bergès, Biscarrosse, 11 June 2015.

108 individuals: Rapport Reillac, pp. 72–81.

‘[German] officers …’: Simon Kitson, The Hunt for Nazi Spies: Fighting Espionage in Vichy France, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2007, p. 34.

Johann Dollar: Ibid.

10,000 francs: René Terrisse, À la botte de l’occupant: intinéraires de cinq collaborateurs, Bordeaux, Éditions Aubéron, 1998, p. 47.

‘murder brigade’: ‘La Brigade des Tueurs’, Moorhead, A Train in Winter, p. 134.

‘I said to Poinsot …’: Jacques Sylvain and Fabien Pont interview with Dohse for Sud-Ouest, June 1987, ADG 59J 65.

paramilitary organisations: Phalange Raciste and Hauskapelle (a German word meaning ‘private chapel’ – in this context it denotes an intelligence organisation working as a separate organisation within a larger intelligence structure) who were chiefly informers.

197 Avenue du Maréchal Pétain: The French owner was Mme Marguerite Touchard. The house has since been demolished and the site is now the garden of a small house which lies back from the main road. There is some confusion about the number as one British interrogation report puts the address as 189 Avenue du Maréchal Pétain (now Avenue de la Libération Charles de Gaulle), not 197.

The building: See the evidence and sketch maps provided by Kruse, S.I.R 018, TNA WO 208/3601.

interrogation cells: Dohse’s concluding interrogatory by Captain Stienne, Military Judge, Bordeaux, 13 December 1949, private archive of Michel Bergès.

‘just an administrator …’: Michel Bergès interview with Dohse, April 1985, private archive of Michel Bergès.

Dohse’s personal chauffeur: Christian Joyaux.

driven to his favourite restaurant: Perrault, La Longue traque, p. 324.

‘Mr Gutsman …’: Harold Goodman, vice-consul in San Sebastián (said to have been SIS). He had close contacts with the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War and was involved in the famous ‘dirty shirt affair’ of December 1938. Michel Bergès interview with Dohse, April 1985, private archive of Michel Bergès.

‘I liked the good life …’: Jacques Sylvain and Fabien Pont interview with Dohse for Sud-Ouest, June 1987, ADG 59J 65.

‘Dohse loved Bordeaux …’: Perrault, L’orchestre rouge, p. 326.

destroyed a power station: Operation Josephine B.

senior communist: Pierre Louis Giret.

1,600 men and 100 officers: Evidence of Jean Ferrier to Arthur Calmette, February 1948, private archive of Michel Bergès.

almost the whole of southwest France: The Departments of Basses-Pyrénées, Gironde, Landes, Charente-Maritime, Vendée and Deux-Sèvres.

fourteen active units: Case history of the Secret Army group of the Gironde, author unknown, private archive of Yves Léglise.

Café des Chartrons: 101 Quai des Chartrons.

country train: I am grateful to Patrick Canel for his research into Labit’s journey that morning, email to Sylvie Young, 19 April 2016.

trained by SOE: Trained and parachuted in by SOE’s R/F Section, rather than F Section. His operation was called ‘Bass’.

Ginette and her mother: Patrick Canel, email to Sylvie Young, 19 April 2016.

Henri Labit’s mother, Henriette: Author interview with Alain Landes (son of Ginette Corbin), 2 November 2015. There is a second version of this story which indicates that Henri Labit’s mother recognised her son from a photograph, see KdS Bordeaux, ADG 59J 67, ‘Le KdS de Bordeaux: juin 1942–août 1944’.

SOE radio operator: Marcel Clech alias ‘Georges’, ‘André’, ‘Marcel Cornic’, ‘Sanction’, ‘Marcel Lesueur’, ‘Yves Lebras’, ‘Georges 60’ and ‘Bastien’. He landed near Cannes from HMS Unbroken.

Raymond Henry Flower: Alias ‘Gaspard’ and ‘Gaston’.

‘no powers of leadership …’: Raymond Flower SOE personal file, TNA HS 9/522–5.

Yvonne Rudellat: Alias ‘Jacqueline’ and ‘Suzanne’; SOE codename ‘Soaptree’; false identity in the name of ‘Jacqueline Viallat’, TNA HS 9/1289/7.

secretly landed: She was landed from the felucca Seadog and was the first female SOE F Section agent to be infiltrated into France after training.

‘cold grey eyes …’: Stella King, Jacqueline, London, Arms and Armour, 2006, p. 227.

‘investigate the possibilities …’: Claude de Baissac’s final instructions can be found in his SOE personal file, TNA HS 9/75.

Chapter 6: Scientist Gets Established

deserted aerodrome: This is now Nîmes airport – Aéroport de Nîmes-Alès-Camargue-Cévennes.

open field: Nîmes golf club occupies the area now.

Claude Boucher: According to de Baissac’s file in the French Military Archive in Château de Vincennes, Paris, he also used another alias, ‘Michel Roanet’, at this time.

‘And how long …’: Claude de Baissac debriefing, 13 November 1944, TNA HS 6/567.

Rue Avezac-Macaya: Now renamed Rue Andie Mayer.

Édouard line: Its motto was ‘Chercher, Recevoir, Passer’ – ‘To seek, to receive, to pass on to England’.

password sequence: Claude de Baissac instructions, 24 July 1942, TNA HS 9/75.

two of Dohse’s agents: Mme and Mlle Bourdeix, pork butchers at 9 Cours du Médoc. They were members of the Groupe Collaboration, whose names were on a list found after the war in the offices of the Gestapo in Paris, private archive of Yves Léglise.

nearest radio operator: Marcel Clech.

Moulin de Saquet: Also pronounced ‘Saquette’ in the area. Its exact position is Lat. 44° 42' 30" N, Long. 00° 09' 16" W, operation report, 161 Sqn (RAF Tempsford), TNA AIR 20/8452. The building now on this site, a pretty, low, single-storey farmhouse next to the ruins of the old mill, is run as a chambres d’hôtes by a charming English couple called Val and Vito Traill. The site, which is well sheltered from prying eyes by woods, is now a vineyard. Visit to Targon area by the author, 3 April 2011. See also Michel St Marc, Le Canton de Targon sous l’Occupation 1939–1945, Villenave d’Ornon: AAPA, 2007.

more detailed report: Claude de Baissac report, 19 September 1942, TNA HS 9/75.

Drancy: The infamous French internment camp near Paris where all those awaiting deportation were detained.

Chapter 7: A Visitor for David

Great North Road: Now the A1.

RAF Tempsford: Tempsford was home to the RAF’s 138 and 161 Special Duty Squadrons, which carried out all infiltrations and exfiltrations of agents and supplies throughout Europe from 1942 onwards.

Here, after being dressed: This procedure is taken from a description given in King, Jacqueline, p. 170.

Georgian mansion: Gaynes Hall, known at the time as Station 61.

large farmhouse: Gibraltar Farm.

‘L’ tablets: ‘L’ tablets came encased in a rubber cover which was placed in the mouth and bitten. Death followed fifteen seconds later.

An hour before departure …: The details contained in this description are taken from the descriptions of the standard preparations for all agents going into France, Freddie Clark, Agents by Moonlight, Stroud, Tempus Publishing, p. 77.

Three further attempts: On the first occasion Gilbert Norman was due to jump with Landes. His orders were to join the Prosper network in Paris run by Francis Suttill. Suttill had, however, failed to send a message to London to indicate that he was ready to receive his new colleague, so SOE cancelled the drop.

Bois Renard: Three kilometres southeast of Nouan-sur-Loire, Loir-et-Cher, Lat. 47° 40' 10" N, Long. 01° 35' 89" E.

Gilbert Norman: Alias ‘Archambaud’. He was originally assigned to Corsica, but re-tasked to join Suttill.

local mayor: Maurice Dutem, at the time, the mayor of Mer.

first women: With Lise de Baissac.

nearby farm: Owned by a Benjamin and Suzanne Bossard.

‘the horse found …’: Clark, Agents by Moonlight, p. 238.

‘more a social event …’: Landes’s debriefing, 2 December 1944, TNA HS 6/574.

Rudellat: Alias ‘Jacqueline’ and ‘Soaptree’, with a false identity in the name of ‘Jacqueline Viallet’.

Lise de Baissac: Alias ‘Artist’, with a false identity in the name of ‘Irène Brisse’.

a month previously: On 24 September 1942.

returning to his job: Landes’s personal file, TNA HS 9/880/8.

Café des Colonnes: No. 6 Place des Quinconces. It is now an insurance office.

‘I have a letter …’: Dialogue taken from an interview with Roger Landes published over several days in Sud-Ouest. This specific dialogue was published on 29 August 1948, private archive of Yves Léglise.

Café Gambetta: A small backstreet café at the time, in fact Cave Gambetta, No. 36 Rue Bouffard. It is a trinket shop today.

‘David is out of town …’: private archive of Yves Léglise.

they couldn’t hear him: In his debriefing in August 1943, Claude de Baissac comments that ‘it is impossible to transmit from Bordeaux owing to the Iron Belt, but it is possible to do so from the other side of the river’. It is not known whether he was referring here to the metaphorical ring of German ‘iron’ round the city, or some natural phenomenon to do with high concentrations of iron in the soil.

Chapter 8: Crackers and Bangs

Allied landings in North Africa: Operation Torch, which took place on 8 November 1942.

‘sabotage …’: ‘History of F Section’, TNA HS 7/121, p. 7, and M. R. D. Foot, SOE in France: An Account of the Work of the British Special Operations Executive in France 1940–1944, London, HMSO, 1966, p. 222.

Victor Charles Hayes: Codename ‘Printer’, field alias ‘Yves’, his local aliases were ‘Charles’, ‘Charles le Chauve’ (‘Charles the Bald’ – on account of his lack of hair) and ‘Charles le Démolisseur’. He landed at a site close to Montbazon.

parachuted into a site: This was Hayes’s second mission in France.

Coirac reception committee: This was led by Mme Jeanne Bonnevie, one of the very few women in France who was in charge of a Resistance parachute reception committee. She lived with her husband at Château La Bertrande (now home to winemakers Anne-Marie Gillet and Jean-Marc Bourguinat) opposite the church in the village of Omet.

Mary Herbert: Her SOE codename was ‘Jeweller’.

waiting for a flying boat: With Landes and Mary Herbert were Marie-Thérèse Le Chêne alias ‘Adèle’ and Odette Sansom alias ‘Lise’.

‘Robert the Tipsy’: Robert l’Ivrogne.

‘too sophisticated for my new life’: Author interview with Denise Hèches, Tarbes, 29 March 2011.

village near Bordeaux: Omet, where he was staying with Jeanne Bonnevie.

in a matchbox …: Mary Herbert debriefing, 30 January 1945, TNA HS 6/567.

set for 12 December: Based on the testimony of SOE’s historian Professor M. R. D. Foot on a now lost document. This stated that the Scientist team were carrying out their final reconnaissance for the attack on the morning of 11 December 1942 ‘before they attacked the following night’. See Dr Tom Keene interview with M. R. D. Foot, 26 January 2004. In a telephone conversation with the author on 25 April 2011, Professor Foot confirmed that, in his researches for his book SOE in France, he had had sight of a document which confirmed this.

only recently woken up: Senior Gestapo Commander in France Helmut Knochen statement, 6 January 1947, private archive of Michel Bergès.

demolition team arrived: Author interview with Alain Landes, 3 November 2014.

pandemonium and chaos: Author interview with Jean Trocard, Bordeaux, 30 March 2011. M. Trocard was a conscripted labourer in Organisation Todt.

‘to capsize …’: Papers of Walter Schnöppe, by kind permission of the Deutsches U-Boat Museum, Cuxhaven, Germany.

‘all means necessary’: Copies of German signals held at the Royal Marines Museum, Eastney, trans. Christine Tochtermann.

German admiral: Admiral Johannes Bachmann.

Operation Frankton: See Paddy Ashdown, A Brilliant Little Operation, Aurum Press, London, 2012.

‘difficult to comprehend’ …: Keitel’s message was sent on 15 December 1942, TNA HS 9/75, trans. Christine Tochtermann.

‘At the critical moment …’: Scientist target report, 22 March 1943, TNA HS 9/75.

causing serious damage: Though there were some claims that two U-boats were sunk in consequence – see Foot, SOE in France, p. 248.

sunk by them: TNA HS 8/22.

conférence de Poitiers: The conference was preceded by a meeting between de Gaulle’s BCRA and SOE a month earlier in London in which it was agreed in principle that SOE would provide the arms and equipment needed by French Resistance organisations in France, making Baker Street, in effect, the French Resistance’s quartermaster for the remainder of the war.

reorganise the entire underground OCM structure: Tasks were distributed as follows: 1er bureau (Troop Command): Commandant Paillère; 2ème bureau (Intelligence): Colonel Camplan; 3ème bureau (Planning): Commandant Joubert; 4ème bureau (Logistics): Commandant Souques – see AN 72 AJ 130 A.I.6.

reach an ‘agreement’: Instruction to Landes, 19 October 1942, TNA HS 9/75.

having control of …: Manuscript document from General Rollot to Henri Michel, 29 October 1959, AN 72 AJ 130 A.I.6.

‘[to] establish a new system …’: Manuscript document written by André Grandclément when prisoner at Bouscat in September 1943, private archive of Michel Bergès.

‘very able and trustworthy’: De Baissac debriefing, 6 January 1945, ‘Circuit & Mission Reports’, TNA HS 6/567.

‘an official status …’: Ibid.

‘a major …’: Manuscript document from General Rollot to Henri Michel, 29 October 1959, AN 72 AJ 130 A.I.6.

‘In the course of 1942 …’: ADG 59J 209, pp. 23–4.

Chapter 9: Businesses, Brothels and Plans

Neither … was Baker Street: To their fury, SOE were deliberately excluded from the Chiefs of Staff Committee, which essentially ran the war, and were therefore not formally briefed on the results of Casablanca, though they may have heard of its conclusions informally.

‘[in] 1943 we had …’: Maurice Buckmaster, They Fought Alone, London, Biteback Publishing, 2014, p. 225.

radio engineer: Jacques Bureau – see Jean Overton Fuller, Déricourt: The Chequered Spy, Salisbury, Michael Russell, 1989, pp. 356, 358.

20 January: They were wed in a service at the mairie. There is some confusion as to whether the date was 20 or 21 January 1943 (for instance, a Wikipedia entry suggests 20 January 1943, while L’Enigme Grandclément, p. 119, claims 21 January).

‘All André’s friends …’: Arlette Caussé – see Grandclément, L’Énigme Grandclément, p. 120.

‘like a windmill’: Michel Bergès and René Terrisse interview with André Maleyran, Reel 2 (18' 50"), private archive of Michel Bergès.

‘At that time …’: Michel Bergès and René Terrisse interview with André Maleyran, Reel 2 (20' 45"), private archive of Michel Bergès.

‘I left the meeting …’: Landes letter in Historia, issue 305, February 1973, private archive of Michel Bergès.

resort to borrowing: See TNA HS 9/462/5 and HS 9/608/8, and ADG 59J 119.

90,000 francs: Bourne-Paterson letter to Venner, 26 January 1946, TNA HS 9/608/8.

‘refused to provide …’: Dr Alain Boyau report, started 4 March and completed 11 April 1944, private archive of Michel Bergès.

Sélections Cinématographiques du Sud-Ouest: Guy Penaud, Histoire secrète de la Résistance, Bordeaux, Éditions Sud-Ouest, 2011, p. 60, and ‘Direction de l’enregistrement des Domaines et du Timbre de la Gironde’, ADG 59J 119.

narrow backstreet of Bordeaux: 11 Rue Fernand Marin – also the home of Madeleine Nicolas, a Scientist agent.

one of Grandclément’s close friends: Louis Cassagne, letter from Mlle Rateau passed on to commissaire Lescure, ADG 59J 119.

mistress: Mlle Haderne.

bought a brothel: Letter from Mlle Rateau passed on to commissaire Lescure, ADG 59J 119.

‘a lot [of girls] working …’: Landes IWM interview, Reel 3 (05' 15"), IWM SR 8641, 03-01-1985.

‘I knew a pimp …’: Michel Bergès and René Terrisse interview with André Maleyran, Reel 1 (15' 18–45"), private archive of Michel Bergès.

wood close to Arcachon: At Lat. 44° 38' 04" N, Long. 01° 10' 17" W – now a patch of wasteground just off the southwestern corner of Arcachon golf course.

spate of parachute drops: Bourne-Paterson report, TNA HS 7/122.

‘to arm a Division’: Nicolson, Aristide, p. 46.

‘[in 1943] the supply …’: Hans Luther, Der französische Widerstand gegen die deutsche Besatzungsmacht und seine Bekämpfung, Tübingen, 1957, trans. Christine Tochtermann.

‘great concern’: ADG 59J 209, p. 20.

‘I asked the Luftwaffe …’: Ibid.

‘We were able …’: Ibid.

Chapter 10: ‘Je suis fort – je suis même très fort’

17 March 1943: Operation Trainer.

the Lysander’s range: Allowing a 20 per cent contingency for headwinds and diversions, the effective range for a Lysander based on the English southern coast at RAF Tangmere, was 550–570kms. Later versions of the Lysander were fitted with external fuel tanks, but these were only very rarely used for SOE operations.

four secret agents: John Goldsmith alias ‘Valentin’, Pierre Lejeune alias ‘Delphin’, Robert Dowlen alias ‘Richard’ and Mme Françoise ‘Francine’ Agazarian alias ‘Marguerite’.

bring four back: Claude de Baissac alias ‘David’, France Antelme alias ‘Renaud’, Raymond Flower alias ‘Gaspard’ and André Dubois alias ‘Hercule’.

Henri Déricourt: There is strong evidence to indicate that Déricourt was in fact a double agent, working both for Bömelburg and MI6.

‘Je suis fort …’: ‘I am strong – I am very strong.’

‘Extremely intelligent …’: Scientist target report, 22 March 1943, TNA HS 9/75.

Colonel André Dewavrin: Alias ‘Passy’.

parachuted into France: On 26 February 1943 (the first attempt was on the 23rd), Colonel Passy, Mémoires du Colonel Passy, Paris, Éditions Odile Jacob, 2000, p. 520.

estimated at 42,000: Arthur Calmette, L’O.C.M. Organisation Civile et Militaire – Histoire d’un Mouvement de Résistance de 1940 à 1946, Paris, Editions Presses Universitaires de France, 1961, p. 102.

organisation in Bordeaux: This was Mission Arquebuse-Brumaire comprising André Dewavrin alias ‘Arquebuse’ and Pierre Brossolette alias ‘Brumaire’.

‘You have your own regions …’: Michel Bergès interview with Christian Campet and Roger Landes, June 1984, CMSM.

‘lazy student’: Claude de Baissac finishing report, 10 April 1944, TNA HS 9/75.

‘state of siege’: Suttill report, 9 March 1943, TNA HS 9/183.

D-Day was not imminent: Quoted in Francis J. Suttill, Shadows in the Fog, History Press, 2014, p. 90, citing Maurice Buckmaster, Specially Employed: The Story of British Aid to French Patriots of the Resistance, Batchworth Press, London, 1952.

one of their intelligence agents: Agent 95030 – his identity is not known, Calmette, L’O.C.M., p. 104.

‘as the invasion approaches …’: Ibid.

‘elaborate camouflage …’: Thaddeus Holt, The Deceivers: Allied Deception in the Second World War, London, Phoenix, 2005, p. 477.

highest councils of the war: Specifically the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee.

visit to Vichy: This probably took place around the end of May 1943.

deciphered a telegram: This telegram appears to have been lost. But an SOE paper of 20 August 1943 analysing the message gives a very clear indication of both its contents and importance, TNA HS 6/339.

roads and bridges … mined: France Antelme’s ‘Bricklayer’ report, 23 March 1943, TNA HS 9/44.

stay-behind network: Similar German ‘stay-behind’ networks were created in the Balkans.

Bordeaux midwife: There are some indications – e.g. in the Aristide archive, CMSM – that this may have been Jeanne Chaigneau, a nurse who was one of Dohse’s agents and lived at 21 Rue Emile Combes, Bordeaux.

German wireless school: Run by Dr Joseph Götz.

two escape lines: These were in addition to the totally separate escape lines set up by MI9 through the area.

21,000-strong: Basses-Pyrenées, 700 men; Landes, 2000; Gironde, 11,000; Charente-Maritime, 500; Charente, 1,500; Poitou, Vendée, Vienne, Deux Sèvres, 5,000. Reports Nos 1 & 2, brought back by Lysander, 16/17 June 1943, TNA HS 9/75.

‘It is … also undoubted …’: ‘F Section History and Agents’, TNA HS 7/121.

forest clearing: Lat. 44° 43' 30" N, Long. 0° 52' 24" W, TNA Air 20/8297.

‘nights of the full moon’: Often referred to by the French by the codename ‘Charlotte’.

‘Even heaven recoils …’: ‘Le Ciel épouvanté, contemple avec horreur, la face de ce monstre.’ Probably derived from Racine’s play Phèdre, Act 5, scene 6: ‘Le ciel avec horreur voit ce monstre sauvage’, http://www.revue-texto.net/Reperes/Cours/Mezaille/theramene.html.

‘The full moon period …’: This account is taken from several reports, including ADG 59J 233 and ADG 59J 107. I have slightly altered the quoted text for ease of reading in English.

‘Very good …’: TNA Air 20/8287.

‘At around one …’: TNA Air 20/8287.

‘“Polish pilots”’: Many of the RAF Special Squadron pilots were Polish.

Marcel Eusèbe Défence: His SOE codename was ‘Weaver’; his various aliases were ‘Dédé’, ‘Maurice Doare’, ‘Michel Delaplace’, ‘Marcel Darcy’, ‘Vasili’ and ‘Tie’.

calm and taciturn nature: Interrogator’s report on Défence, TNA HS 6/436.

‘Direct hits …’: Target Germany: The US Army Air Force’s Official Story of the VIII Bomber Command’s First Year Over Europe, HMSO, London, 1944, p. 90.

‘revolting aggression …’: The words of Adrien Marquet, http://www.liberation.fr/evenement/1997/10/08/bordeaux-1er-juillet-1940-23-heures-l-horloge-passe-a-l-heure-allemande-du-27-juin-1940-au-27-aout-1_218974.

L’Alouette: Landes debriefing, 2 December 1944, TNA HS 6/574.

safe houses: 174 Avenue de la République, the home of Mme Caralp-Jardel; 43 Cours Portal, the home of Paul Masuy; 52 Avenue du Jardin Public, the home of Paul Chevalier; and Rue David Johnston, the home of Robert Furt.

and Marguerite: Alias ‘Jacqueline’.

6,200 arrests: Rous-Serra, Les Renards de l’ombre, p. 519.

six major sabotage attacks: An attack by a team led by Duboué and Hayes on the main transmitter for U-boats on 5 April; attacks led by Dussarrat on high-tension cables near Dax on 19 April and 20 May; the sabotage by Hayes of pylons at Facture, also on 20 May; the sabotage and sinking of ships in Pauillac harbour by Duboué and Hayes on 13 May. See among other sources Penaud, Histoire secrète, p. 121, and Dussarrat’s report, 15 June 1944, ADG 59J 117.

Chapter 11: A Birthday Present for Friedrich

‘a few seconds …’: Suttill, Shadows in the Fog, p. 123.

farm worker’s cottage: named Le Cercle.

Canadian agents: Frank Pickersgill alias ‘Bertrand’ and Ken Macalister alias ‘Valentin’.

just above her left ear: Evidence of Comtesse Souris de Bernard, see King, Jacqueline, p. 65.

General Charles Delestraint: Delestraint was arrested on 9 June 1943 as he left La Muette Metro station in Paris.

most important intelligence coup: Archives départementales du Loir-et-Cher, 1375 W70, quoted in Suttill, Shadows in the Fog, p. 149.

capture of a British agent: TNA HS 9/1430/6.

‘particularly dangerous’: Josef Kieffer’s deposition on oath, 19 January 1947, TNA HS 6/426.

‘must be rooted out …’: ‘British Circuits in France, 1941–44’, by Major R. A. Bourne-Paterson, June 1946, TNA HS 7/122.

He died: Jean Moulin died on 8 July 1943.

Andrée Borrel: According to Henri Déricourt, Francis Suttill also shared her favours – though Déricourt’s word on this, as on so much else, is not to be trusted. See Fuller, Déricourt, p. 107.

under German control: He was directed by the German radio spymaster Dr Josef Götz, who was a master at playing what the Germans called fünkspiel (‘the radio game’) in which captured Allied radios were ‘played back’ under German direction to the British. Götz had some successes, of which the operation involving Gilbert Norman was one. The British operation Double Cross, already well underway at the time of the fall of Prosper, was far more successful, controlling every single German spy landed in Britain and their radios, for the entire duration of the war – see Ben Macintyre, Double Cross, London, Bloomsbury, 2012.

‘unusual, hesitant …’: Report, 5 August 1943, TNA HS 9/1110/5.

signal criticising him: Suttill, Shadows in the Fog, p. 186, and Charles Wighton, Pin-stripe Saboteur: The Story of Robin – British agent and French Resistance Leader, London, Odhams, 1959, pp. 216–17.

in the northwest: He had caught the 0700 train from Gisors, 60km northwest of Paris, that morning.

backstreet hotel: Hôtel Mazagran, 18 Rue de Mazagran. It is now a Chinese massage parlour.

Borrel’s flat: 57 Rue des Petites Ecuries.

new restrictions: http://www.liberation.fr/evenement/1997/10/08/bordeaux-1er-juillet-1940-23-heures-l-horloge-passe-a-l-heure-allemande-du-27-juin-1940-au-27-aout-1_218974.

confined to intelligence-gathering: ADG 59J 209, pp. 25 and 27.

bicycle shop owner: Lucien Ducros.

twenty-two-year-old son: Jean Ducros.

and broke: Jean Ducros, police report, 17 July 1943, AN 72 AJ 131; Rapport Borderie, p. 19; and René Terrisse, Grandclément: traître ou bouc émissaire?, Bordeaux, Éditions Aubéron, 1996, pp. 32–3, 36–7, private archive of Michel Bergès.

‘an organised … Resistance movement …’: ADG 59J 209, p. 28, and Penaud, Histoire secrète, pp. 68–9.

his codename – ‘Bernard’: The other was ‘Martin Roland’.

two hundred: Poinsot speaks of about 150 arrests and René Terrisse of seventy-six.

Colonel Grandier-Vazeille: Colonel Paul Étienne Grandier-Vazeille’s alias was ‘L’Alouette’.

‘If you will not talk …’: Dohse’s concluding interrogatory, 13 December 1949, by Captain Stienne, Military Judge, Bordeaux, private archive of Michel Bergès.

‘I hope you now understand …’: Ibid.

orders of the time: From 1 June, a new regulation stated that all affairs threatening the security of German troops would be dealt with only by regional KdS.

one of Grandclément’s close contacts: Lucien Banizette.

‘a bloody mess …’: Written statement by Guy Morand alias ‘Jules Labat’ to René Terrisse, quoted in Terrisse, Grandclément, pp. 57–8.

the address: 12 Rue Leberthon.

Chapter 12: The Wolf in the Fold

‘to show the Gestapo …’: Stanislas report, 21 January 1944, TNA HS 9/76.

ex-police inspector: Inspector of Police Philippe Chatelier.

one of Poinsot’s men: Inspector Roger Laffargue.

Lucette’s cousin: Arlette Caussé.

one of his key lieutenants: Roger Laffargue.

‘Why shouldn’t I? …’: Laffargue’s evidence, 25 October 1944, ADG 59J 108.

‘not someone emotionally equipped …’: Michel Bergès interview with Dohse, April 1985, private archive of Michel Bergès. The present author has made some alteration to the sentence order for greater clarity.

‘in a hurry’: Michel Bergès interview with Christian Campet and Roger Landes, June 1984, CMSM.

250 men and women: This number is Dohse’s estimate. A French police report dated 23 August mentions 116 arrests, Terrisse, Grandclément, p. 61. In Rapport Reillac, p. 135, by André Grandclément’s arrest day, 200 persons affiliated to OCM Bordeaux had been arrested.

Fort du Hâ: Now destroyed and built on except for two towers that remain.

1,250 fugitives: Luther, Der französische Widerstand, p. 47, translation by Christine Tochtermann (quoting an article in Paris Match, 8 December 1951, by M. Bechendari).

‘French underground leaders …’: Marshall, All the King’s Men, p. 212, quoting Director of Press and Publicity, War Office Report 19–25 August 1943, COSSC/182X; now in SHAEF SGS 381, pre-invasion file MMR – US NA.

1,061 in August: Luther, Der französische Widerstand, p. 49. The British figure is somewhat lower at 630, TNA HS 7/10.

977 containers: Ibid.

Twenty-two containers: Parachute drops in 1943, ADG 59J 233.

more than seventy containers: TNA HS 8/225.

2.1 million francs: F Section summary sheet – francs sent to the field – 1943, TNA HS 7/121.

200,000 francs: The equivalent of around £40,000 today.

‘to be reimbursed …’: Dussarrat SOE personal file, TNA HS 9/462/5.

after the war: The debt was duly honoured.

local businessmen: The other was a Monsieur H. Barraille.

Paris café: The Café Villard, behind the École Militaire. André’s ex-school friend, Marc O’Neill, was also there.

‘live in hiding’: Translation of a letter from Artagnan dated 28 August 1946, TNA HS 9/608/8.

Grandclément had lent: Using one of his aliases – ‘Puligny’.

business friend and partner: Charles Michaud.

contact in Dax: Grandclément mentions an ‘agent’ but it is not clear whether this is a commercial or a Resistance ‘agent’.

two Portuguese women: Simone Ferrier and Marie-Louise Cunka-Vaz.

A prisoner: Grandier-Vazeille, Rapport Borderie, p. 23, private archive of Michel Bergès.

‘some cinema concern …’: Extract from Bayswater interrogation of Corbin, 4 February 1944, TNA HS 9/608/8.

report to Baker Street: Mary Herbert debriefing, TNA HS 6/567.

‘The Gestapo came …’: This conversation has been constructed from the Landes report (‘L’affaire Jardel’) of this incident, TNA HS 9/76.

‘He bent down …’: Landes IWM interview, Reel 3 (9' 20"), IWM SR 8641, 03-10-1985.

autumn equinox: 21 September.

field in the Loire valley: LZ Torticolis, 2km east of Couture-sur-Loire, http://www.plan-sussex-1944.net/anglais/pdf/infiltrations_into_france.pdf.

one passenger: Nicholas Bodington.

The returning passengers: ‘Organisation of David’s Circuits’, 1 September 1943, TNA HS 9/75.

‘This was a woman …’: Michel Bergès interview with Christian Campet and Roger Landes, June 1984, CMSM.

‘of 42 [sic]’: She was born in 1903, making her, in fact, forty in 1943.

received the DSO: Claude de Baissac was amongst the first in SOE to receive this medal.

Chapter 13: The Trap Closes

‘in a very unstable …’: Marcel Défence debriefing, 25/26 January 1944, TNA HS 6/436.

one of them: Benjamin Passet, alias ‘Albert’, Marc O’Neill’s deputy.

Paris restaurant: 43 Place du Trocadéro.

‘so obsessed …’: René Terrisse interview with Charles Verny, November 1984, private archive of Michel Bergès.

senior members: Marcel Pelletier, the Vichy Police Commissioner for Paris, and Max Knipping, Milice delegate for the maintenance of order in the northern zone.

‘I was extremely suspicious …’: Thinières evidence, 29 June 1945, private archive of Michel Bergès.

‘If there is no invasion …’: Jean Sanders report about Grandclément’s activities, 1 September 1944, TNA HS 9/608/8.

several reports: Claude de Baissac reports, August 1943, TNA HS 9/75.

report written by Grandclément: He was later to claim that Rollot had a hand in this.

‘All this has been achieved …’: TNA HS 9/808/8.

‘lucky to survive …’: De Baissac report on Gestapo activity, 7 September 1943, TNA HS 9/75.

from Bordeaux to the Pyrenees: The Gironde, Landes and Basses-Pyrénées departments.

464 containers: SOE report, 16–24 August 1943, TNA HS 8/225.

French double agents: Jacques Désoubrie alias ‘Jean-Jacques’, ‘Jean Masson’, ‘Pierre Boulain’, ‘Jacques Verge’ and ‘Capitaine Jacques’ belonged to the Lilles Gestapo. In June 1943, Désoubrie had infiltrated and caused the destruction of the Comet network, one of the most successful and largest of MI9’s escape networks in France.

another member: Marc Vuillemin.

affording little cover: Fuller, Déricourt, p. 214.

Restaurant Monte Carlo: The Restaurant Monte Carlo, Avenue de Wagram, is still there, though its terrace has been covered in.

fellow prisoner: Marc Vuillemin.

Chapter 14: The Deal

Dohse called in: There are many accounts giving details of the progress of Dohse’s interrogation of Grandclément. In the main I have followed the account given by Dohse himself, except where this is obviously inaccurate (as for instance in the timings of what happened to Grandclément in Paris). The main sources for Dohse’s account are: TNA KV 3/238; the British record of Dohse’s July 1946 interrogation; Dohse’s own memoirs, ADG 59J 209; his interview with Michel Bergès in April 1985, private archive of Michel Bergès; and Grandclément report written on 10 July 1943, TNA HS 9/608/8.

‘One did not see …’: Perrault, La Longue traque, p. 324.

‘more like a conversation …’: Ibid., p. 326.

‘Don’t worry …’: Conversation constructed from Dohse’s own words, Michel Bergès interview with Dohse, April 1985, private archive of Michel Bergès.

Commandant John: Commandant Alexandre John, a judicial policeman from Lübeck who had arrived in July to head Dohse’s department. But he lasted only a few weeks before leaving.

period of freedom: TNA HS 9/608/8. Grandclément claims in his report of 10 July 1944 that he was allowed a whole day out.

‘The actions …’: Document given by André Maleyran to Michel Bergès and René Terrisse, 11 January 1986, private archive of Michel Bergès.

German security official: Höherer SS- und Polizeiführer Frankreich (HSSPFF, Commander of the SS and Head of the German Police in France), Carl Albrecht Oberg.

Chapter 15: Arms and Alarms

Rue Robert d’Ennery: No. 69.

‘You go …’: Michel Bergès interview with Christian Campet and Roger Landes, June 1984, CMSM.

wash and shave: Although, in Corbin’s first account of this event, he says Grandclément showed him the scars from his beating in Paris, his later accounts claim that, when he saw him with his shirt off while shaving, he noted there were no marks on his back.

‘insignificant revelations’ …: Conversation constructed from Landes’s report, TNA HS/7/96.

‘It was a decision …’: Landes (Stanislas) report, TNA HS 9/76.

‘ten per cent’ …: Corbin’s report, 11 January 1944, TNA HS 9/352/3 (confirmed by Robert Mollié’s evidence, ADG 59J 109, and Stanislas report, TNA HS 9/76).

act of treason: Grandclément report written on 10 July 1944, TNA HS 9/608/8.

‘In this very grave …’: Rapport Reillac, p. 140, and Rapport Boyau, p. 6, private archive of Michel Bergès.

‘I am doing …’: Rapport Boyau, p. 6, private archive of Michel Bergès.

local Resistance chief: Robert Mollié.

Sunday 26 September: Maleyran said it took place on Monday the 27th.

‘For the first time …’: ADG 59J 209, p. 62.

‘From the moment …’: Juge d’Instruction Stienne’s confrontation with Landes/Dohse, 5 August 1947, private archive of Michel Bergès.

young Maquisard: Paul Salles.

‘Two armed men …’: ADG 59J 209, p. 62.

forty containers: Testimonies concerning the amount of arms collected that day differ.

Chapter 16: Progress and Precautions

‘fresh and beautiful’ …: ADG 59J 209, p. 63.

‘The day passed …’: Ibid. p. 65.

nine days previously: From thirty-five-year-old documents belonging to Alan and Sue Johnson-Hill, Château Meaune, Maransin, Gironde.

parachute reception committee chief: Pierre Louis Duzon.

‘No doubt was possible …’: Manuscript version of Dohse’s memoirs, pp. 43–4 (it does not appear in the printed version).

changed for each drop: Flight Sergeant Mills report for 18/19 September, TNA Air 20/8500.

DJ342951: Buckmaster, They Fought Alone, p. 219.

‘the English!’: private archive of Yves Léglise.

taken over by the Germans: Speech given on 25 October 1986 when a commemorative plate was inaugurated at Lestiac in honour of Jean and Marie-Louise Duboué, private archive of Yves Léglise.

‘there was trouble brewing’: Mary Herbert debriefing, 30 January 1945, TNA HS 6/567.

seven major caches: Pissos (Sabres), La Brède, Temple, Lacanau, St Médard, St Jean d’Illac and Blaye, ADG 59J 209.

parachuted British arms: Mary Herbert debriefing, 30 January 1945, TNA HS 6/567.

‘Stens by the thousands …’: Robert Marshall interview with Horst Kopkow, 30 June 1983, by kind permission of Mr Marshall.

‘little gun’: This enthusiasm for the Sten, of which 4.6 million were produced during the war, would have come as a surprise to many in British and French circles, who found the Sten clumsy, unbalanced and highly prone to going off accidentally if dropped – as the author can personally attest. Despite the fact that the Sten became the iconic weapon associated with the French Resistance, its habit of unleashing a whole magazine of rounds when handled without respect also cost many Resistance lives.

three other key Resistance leaders: Robert Mollié, Gérard Cazenave [probably Franck Cazenave] and Léonce Dussarrat.

‘what threat …’: ADG 59J 209, p. 75.

‘It was this [step] …’: Ibid., p. 77.

gendarmerie: In the Place Hector Serres.

‘Too late?’: Letter written by Léonce Dussarrat to Historia’s readers, probably in 1972, with the kind permission of Alban Dubrou.

German policemen: Feldgendarmes.

‘Your Resistance activities …’: Maleyran testimony, quoted in Terrisse, Grandclément, p. 132.

‘I lost …’: ADG 59J 209, p. 78.

Chapter 17: The Battle of Lestiac

secret letterbox: The letterbox was used by the Confrérie Notre Dame (CND) network of Colonel Rémy.

Jean Paillère’s home: 20 Rue de Colmar.

friend’s house: Robert Furt.

suburb of eastern Bordeaux: Lormont.

run-down café: Café du Port de la Bastide.

‘It wasn’t the first time …’: Landes report, 21 January 1944, TNA HS 9/76.

‘It’s them! …’: The dialogue here is from a letter from Suzanne Duboué to a friend, 10 May 1993, private archive of Yves Léglise.

battle of Lestiac: This narrative has been assembled from several sources, chief among which is a manuscript account by Suzanne Duboué, Jean Duboué’s evidence of 18 September 1945 and a manuscript letter to CND-Castille’s Colonel Lecomte, private archive of Yves Léglise.

‘Do you know …’: Suzanne Duboué manuscript account, private archive of Yves Léglise.

‘We are soldiers …’: Ibid.

‘You have nothing to fear …’: From an account written after the war by Jean Duboué, private archive of Yves Léglise.

laid her gently: Manuscript letter from Duboué to Colonel Lecomte, CND-Castille, private archive of Yves Léglise.

‘It’s time …’: Conversation constructed from Jean Duboué’s evidence of 18 September 1945, private archive of Yves Léglise; Dohse interview by Jacques Sylvain and Fabien Pont for Sud-Ouest, ADG 59J 65; and Michel Bergès interview with Dohse, April 1985, private archive of Michel Bergès.

‘I am aware …’: Conversation constructed from Jean Duboué’s manuscript account, private archive of Yves Léglise.

revelations produced: Poinsot’s office (SAP) report, Bordeaux, 20 October 1943, private archive of Yves Léglise.

‘at the disposition …’: ADG 59J 209, p. 94.

‘For only the second time …’: Landes report, 21 January 1944, TNA HS 9/76.

one of Landes’s men: François Nicolle.

‘FROM PEULEVÉ’: The signal was sent from ‘Mackintosh’, the alias for Peulevé’s radio operator. In the text aliases were used rather than plain language, e.g. ‘Yves’ for Hayes and ‘Stanislas’ for Landes, TNA HS 9/421, vol. 3.

Léo Paillère’s sons: See Payère (Pallière) personal information, TNA HS 7/13.

Chapter 18: Maquis Officiels

‘The institution …’: F Section summary sheet, 1943, TNA HS 7/121.

‘[There have been] …’: Summary of SOE activities for the Prime Minister, TNA HS 8/250.

Vidal: 88 Boulevard du Président Wilson The building, now a shop selling hearing aids, remains largely unchanged to this day.

‘I thought he agreed …’: Dohse’s interrogation by Military Judge Stienne, 17 August 1947, private archive of Michel Bergès.

policy in Yugoslavia: Similar agreements were also made with Ukrainian nationalists and the royalist EDES in Greece. But these agreements were for strictly limited periods.

Cercle Européen: European Circle.

‘as an act of treason …’: ADG 59J 209, p. 95.

‘It seemed to me …’: Ibid.

‘A meeting …’: Ibid.

Abwehr officer: Erich Vermehren, who defected from Istanbul in February 1944, Macintyre, Double Cross.

defect to the British: It is intriguing to note that at exactly this time (September/October 1943) a Spanish agent working for a British escape line reported that Dohse, who always claimed to have an ability to get messages through to London whenever he needed to, was seen in conversation with Michael Cresswell, MI9’s representative in northern Spain, at Irun, just over the Spanish border (where he often went on his way to San Sebastián for weekends with Claire Keimer). Unhappily, no MI9 telegrams or reports from Cresswell survive.

secret location: Held at Jean Ferrier’s house. Some say this was held at the end of October, but the presence of Hayes indicates that it must have been before his arrest. Others present included Léo Paillère and his son Danny, Colonel (Jean Pierre Tessier, baron) de Marguerittes, Duboué and – according to some sources – Colonel Marcel Patanchon alias ‘Desjardin’, OCM Resistance leader for southwest France – see Terrisse, Grandclément, p. 133.

official order: Letter of 11 January 1952 from the Service Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionage (SDECE) to André Dewavrin (alias ‘Colonel Passy’), Pascal Convert, La Constellation du Lion, Paris, Éditions Grasset, 2013, p. 132, f/n 51, confirming that: ‘à la date du 28 octobre 1943, la section C.E. (contre espionage) de la DSRA a invité la Section A/M sous le No. 12.871/BRAL-C à transmettre à CLOVIS l’ordre de faire exécuter GRANDCLEMENT et MADAME, en suggérant de confier cette mission au groupe 313 de la Charente.’

Chapter 19: Lencouacq

‘under his command’: Dohse’s interrogation by Military Judge Stienne, 17 August 1947, private archive of Michel Bergès.

Maquis de Lencouacq: Full name: OCM Groupe Robert Secteur Nord-Landais, from a letter, 8 June 1993, ADG 59J 111.

anonymous young man: Paul Salles’s alias was ‘Popol’.

Guy Bertrand: Alias ‘Le Boulanger’.

control of André Grandclément: And another Resistance commander, Robert Mollié.

local café: The Café Lavigne, Ychoux. The building, now deserted, remains much as it must have been in 1943.

north of Lencouacq: Lat. 42° 12' 12" N, Long. 0° 26' 44" W. Nothing remains of the farmhouse, but the two great oaks are still standing.

28 October: Unheaded letter, 20 May 1993, ADG 59J 111.

one other: Henri Lacaze.

‘Grandclément explained …’: The words of Robert Mollié, quoted in Perrault, La Longue traque, p. 272.

head of the Lencouacq Maquis: Guy Sarramagnan alias ‘Le Sergent’.

his commander: Colonel (Jean Pierre Tessier, baron) de Marguerittes alias ‘Colonel Pierre’.

but one: Franck Rollot.

‘We put the ambush …’: Paul Salles evidence, 16 June 1943, private archive of Michel Bergès.

‘[Our chief]’: Guy Sarramagnan.

local muleteer: His name was Gasparos.

returned to their base: There is an interesting sequel to this story. The German commander at Lencouacq, a strikingly handsome man, had an affair at around this time with the local postmistress, who was a notable beauty. Sometime after the Germans left, the postmistress gave birth to the commander’s child. After the war, the woman was divorced from her husband and was married again to a man who knew and accepted that the father of her son was the German commander. The son himself, however, was told by his mother only on her deathbed. Some years after the war the son travelled to Germany to meet his real father, who acknowledged the boy and took him under his wing. Author interview with Alban Dubrou, 16 June 2015.

Chapter 20: Of Missions and Machinations

Louis Joubert: Alias ‘Ney’.

‘He was one …’: Notes from Joubert’s son, Daniel, private archive of Michel Bergès.

local Bordeaux Resistance command: Eugène Camplan.

‘Impossible …’: Louis Joubert statement, AN 72AJ 131. B.IV, and another statement by Joubert, copied to Arthur Calmette, 3 June 1953, private archive of Michel Bergès.

early evening: The time of the meeting was 17.00 hours.

academic friends: Marcel Beaufils, Professor of German at the Lycée Pasteur, Paris, Père Riquet evidence, 31 March 1950, private archive of Michel Bergès.

‘He told me …’: Père Riquet evidence, 31 March 1950, private archive of Michel Bergès.

‘[He] assured me …’: ADG 59J 209, p. 93.

‘Grandclément believed …’: Report given to Marcel Défence by Père Riquet, 26 January 1944, TNA HS 6/436.

Dohse’s villa: 145 Route du Médoc.

one of Dohse’s senior colleagues: Närich.

Bordeaux region: Effectively the departments of Gironde, Landes and Charentes.

‘You people …’: Recollection of Louis Joubert to his son, private archive of Michel Bergès.

‘that the protocol …’: Michel Bergès interview with Dohse, April 1985, and Dohse interrogation by the French secret services, 21 July 1948, private archive of Michel Bergès.

‘Then you’ll have …’: Dohse’s interrogation by Military Judge Stienne, 17 August 1947, private archive of Michel Bergès.

‘You are going …’: Michel Bergès interview with Dohse, April 1985, private archive of Michel Bergès.

more hard line: Bömelburg handed over to his deputy Josef Kieffer, who was much more ‘conventional’ in his approach.

‘What do you think …’: Conversation taken from Larrose’s testimony, 1 April 1950.

German tribunal: He had been sentenced to death by the Feldkommandantur’s tribunal, Dohse’s interrogation by Military Judge Stienne, 17 August 1947, private archive of Michel Bergès.

‘in order to …’: Penaud, Histoire secrète, p. 154.

‘Being a respected soldier …’: Interrogatory of Dohse, 20 July 1949, private archive of Michel Bergès.

‘Our chief aim …’: ADG 59J 209, p. 112.

‘We were at the end …’: Manuscript document from Roger Landes, probably written in the 1980s, CMSM.

‘HAVE TRIED …’: Penaud, Histoire secrète, p. 122.

‘escaped Canadian commando’: Charles Corbin debriefing, TNA HS 9/352/3

Claude Bonnier: Alias ‘Hypoténuse’, ‘Bordas’ and ‘Bordin’. Landes met Eugène Camplan on the same day, no doubt for the same purpose. See Landes’s letter to Joubert’s son, Daniel, 28 January 1990, private archive of Michel Bergès.

‘health grounds’: Handwritten notes about Charles Corbin with Jean Charlin, fellow resistant, quoted as a source, ADG 59J 111.

burnt his radio codes: Penaud, Histoire secrète, p. 122.

Chapter 21: Crossing the Frontier

Izpegui pass: Known in France as Col d’Izpéguy.

24 November: Nicolson, Aristide, p. 69, gives 29 November as the date that Landes began his journey out of France, but Landes’s own report to SOE (HS 9/76) indicates that it was the 24th.

Fernande and André Bouillar: Fernande Bouillar was known as ‘Nanotte’, ‘Les Passages en Espagne’, ADG 59J 188.

‘He immediately inspired …’: Extract from one page of a publication (no title), ADG 59J 111. The spelling of Bouillar is probably a French corruption of the Spanish ‘Boyar’.

local fisherman: His name was Mattéï; he was apparently paid a retainer of 100,000 francs a month.

cross by the Izpegui pass: The description of Landes’s journey, capture and stay at Miranda is taken from a combination of four principal sources: Landes’s long manuscript account and his interview with Michel Bergès, June 1984, CMSM; Nicolson, Aristide, p. 68 et seq; his reports, TNA HS 9/76; and his letter to Jean Serres, 3 June 1990, CMSM.

‘deserter’: Probably from the Service du Travail Obligatoire (STO), a compulsory labour scheme for young French people.

single-storey building: It is still there – abandoned and a little the worse for wear, but substantially as it must have been in 1943.

came ‘on behalf of Stanislas’: ‘Je viens de la part de Stanislas’, addendum to Stanislas report, 24 January 1944.

mountain railway: Situated just above the town on its southern edge, this line is now derelict, though the remains of the station can still be seen.

six gold sovereigns: The document specifies ‘gold to the value of £6 sterling’ but it is clear it refers to sovereigns, SOE internal correspondence concerning Corbin, 7 June 1944, TNA HS 9/352/3.

rickety bridge: The bridge has been replaced by a modern one, carrying the highway at this point, but the piers of the old bridge are still plainly visible as are the buildings of the old frontier posts.

‘At this moment …’: Jacques Sylvain and Fabien Pont interview with Dohse for Sud-Ouest, June 1987, ADG 59J 65.

friend and colleague: Walter Kutschmann, Criminal Komissar in Hendaye. No. 182 on the Nazi War Criminal list, he was tried for the multiple murder of Jews in Poland after the war.

exchanging for francs: About 4,000 francs. The unofficial exchange rate at the time was 5 pesetas for 100 francs.

‘Louis et Charles sont bien arrivés’: ADG 59J 209, p. 108.

‘In our heavy boots …’: Joubert diary, 20 December 1943, private archive of Michel Bergès.

‘The talk was full …’: Ibid., 30 December 1943.

‘Louis et Charles sont bien arrivés’: Penaud, Histoire secrète, p. 155.

running water … ‘German deserters’: Landes manuscript account, CMSM.

‘[The bath] was …’: Ibid.

Chapter 22: Cyanide and Execution

no less than ten: Rollot, Thinières, Joubert, Paillère, Duboué, Maleyran, Mollié, de Marguerittes, Ferrier and Grandier-Vazeille.

Colonel Rollot: Alias ‘Arnaud’ and ‘Jacques’.

Eugène Camplan: Alias ‘Vignault’.

Camplan was a man: Thinières’s description of Eugène Camplan is from Penaud, Histoire secrète, p. 113.

‘would bring [the ‘traitor’] down’: Marcel Défence debriefing, 25 and 26 January, 1944, TNA HS 6/436.

Camplan voted: Joubert voted with Camplan. Others present were Grenier, Patanchon, de Marguerittes and Camplan’s deputy, Yves Toussaint, Penaud, Histoire secrète, p. 131.

One group: Camplan, Joubert and Toussaint.

‘hardliners’: Léo Paillère, his two sons and de Marguerittes.

‘military dignitaries’: Délégué Militaire Régional.

‘very young-looking …’: Jacques Nancy, quoted in Penaud, Histoire secrète, p. 136.

Jacques Nancy: Alias ‘Sape’.

radio operator: Louis Durand alias ‘Kyrie’.

one of Bonnier’s closest lieutenants: Jean Lapeyre-Mensignac.

‘that Bonnier …’: The evidence of Lapeyre-Mensignac quoted in Penaud, Histoire secrète, p. 157.

two of Camplan’s men: The brothers Lespine – François alias ‘Alain’ and Frantz alias ‘Denis’.

a café in Bordeaux: The Café Clémenceau.

‘Chez Dupont, tout est bon’: ‘Everything about Dupont is good.’

isolated wood: Le Bois de Limaux, 6km north of Ruffec, Police Inspector Durand report, 1 April 1947, in Penaud, Histoire secrète, p. 180.

‘Camplan has been …’: Philippe André, La Résistance confisquée, Paris, Éditions Perrin, 2013, p. 116.

several signals: Two messages, numbers 35 and 62, sent by de Gaulle’s Intelligence Bureau (BCRA) to Bourgès-Maunoury, see f/n 13 in Penaud, Histoire secrète, p. 165.

military chief: Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury, de Gaulle’s Délégué Militaire National (DMN).

promotion to Untersturmführer: TNA KV 3/238.

‘He is intelligent …’: Joubert diary, 8 January 1944, private archive of Michel Bergès.

early February: ADG 59J 209, p. 108. Machule gives the date as mid-January.

‘I was ordered …’: Ibid., p. 112.

‘urgent family reasons’: Machule’s evidence, Hanover, 20 April 1953, ADG 59J 67.

café in Bordeaux: the Café Cardinal.

other colleagues: Among them: Marcelle André, Emma, Julien André, Francine Bonnet, Jules, Poinsot’s secretary – Penaud, Histoire secrète, p. 189.

‘Ten or so minutes …’: ADG 59J 209, p. 119.

One of Bonnier’s close lieutenants: Léon Nautin.

in a bar: La Chope aux Capucins.

one of their senior Resistance colleagues: Banicq (also spelt Bannicq and Banick) alias ‘Benoît’.

‘Following meetings …’: Document signed by Pierre Grolleau, Yves Toussaint and André Banicq, 20 March 1944, private archive of Yves Léglise.

job in Germany: As an Inspector of the Service du Travail Obligatoire compulsory labour scheme. Michel Bergès interview with Dohse, April 1985, private archive of Michel Bergès.

One report: Alain Boyau’s report, started 4 March and completed 11 April 1944, private archive of Michel Bergès.

‘Roger reviendra …’: Michel Bergès interview with Christian Campet and Roger Landes, June 1984, CMSM.

Chapter 23: Aristide Returns

‘evasive and contradictory’: Letter from Maj. R. H. Warden, 22 January 1944, TNA HS 6/436.

Buckmaster was waiting: Buckmaster’s diaries, by kind permission of Maurice Buckmaster, and with thanks to David Harrison for his help in gaining access to this document.

‘no important divergences …’: ‘A summary of Principal Points in Actor’s Report’, 24 January 1944, TNA HS 6/436.

Swiss gold watch: It was also common practice for Scientist agents to wear a gold ring. If arrested, the police would normally allow this to be kept if it was claimed as a sentimental possession. The ring could then be used as a bribe or sold for cash in a tight spot.

‘[He is] not …’: Letter from MI5 interrogator, TNA HS 9/880/8.

‘As far as …’: ‘A summary of Principal Points in Actor’s Report’, TNA HS 6/436.

‘Do you still …’: Nicolson, Aristide, p. 88.

‘bring together …’: Terrisse, Grandclément, pp. 207–8, translated from the French.

two main roads: The Route Nationale 137 (now the D137) and what is now known as the E606.

‘so rich …’: Landes IWM interview, Reel 3 (17' 40"–18' 05"), IWM SR 8641, 03-01-1985.

les naphtalinards: Or naphtalinés, the naphthalene brigade.

‘the ordinary …’: Landes IWM interview, Reel 3 (17' 40"–18' 05"), IWM SR 8641, 03-01-1985.

‘The manner …’: ADG 59J 209, p. 88.

Around 300: Mme Souques testimony, quoted in Penaud, Histoire secrète, p. 196.

two-storey townhouse: 19 Rue du Bocage. According to Charlin, Grandclément had also taken out a lease on accommodation in the Hôtel Graciosa in the Cours Anatole France, Jean Charlin evidence to Police Inspector Borderie, 27 March 1945, ADG 59J 119.

Allyre Sirois: Alias ‘Gustave’.

neighbouring SOE circuit: Which would be run by Charles Corbin.

field close to Auch: The actual site was a field on the Montfort property at Nougaroulet, 6km north of Marsan. This was the same parachute site on which de Baissac had landed on his return to France in the spring of 1943.

Landes and Sirois jumped: Because of the wind the pilot dropped his passengers (they were referred to as ‘Joes’) from a height of 150 metres, instead of the usual 300. Most of the details which follow come from Landes mission report of 4 December 1944, TNA HS 6/574.

Renée Daubèze: Landes’s report refers to her as Mme Nougadère, but this is probably an alias.

‘When they …’: http://sdonac32.pagesperso-orange.fr/1944.htm.

Resistance doctor: Dr Pol Angelé.

‘Then he came …’: Landes manuscript account, c.1980s, CMSM.

radio and … crystals: Michel Bergès interview with Christian Campet and Roger Landes, June 1984, CMSM. There is some confusion about this event. In his June 1984 interview Landes says he was not carrying a radio, only the crystals. The manuscript letter mentions the radio but not the crystals. Landes’s report in HS 9/880/8 says he reached Bordeaux ‘without incident’.

‘ARRIVED SAFELY …’: Nicolson, Aristide, p. 96.

the man who had driven him: Robert Furt alias ‘Fortage’.

flu epidemic: Some sources give the cause of death as a heart attack, which is of course perfectly compatible as a consequence of flu.

one of the key contacts: Franck Nicole, an early courier for Scientist and the keeper of a safe house in Bordeaux.

‘Most Frenchmen …’: Report on Corbin’s interrogation, 10 February 1944, TNA HS 9/352/3.

Chapter 24: ‘I come on behalf of Stanislas’

Deputy Supreme Commander West: His area of responsibility covered all of France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

‘1. We are not …’: Peter Lieb, Konventioneller Krieg oder NS-Weltanschauungskrieg? Kriegführung und Partisanenbekämpfung in Frankreich 1943/44, Munich 2007, pp. 263–4.

‘The main task …’: The italics are in the original: ‘Der Militärbefehlshaber in Frankreich’, Ia Nr. 558/44 g.Kdos v. 12.2.1944. Betr.: Banden-und Sabotagebekämpfung, BA-MA, RW 35/551, courtesy of Peter Lieb.

German operation: Operation Wildfang I and II. It is worth mentioning that in the Wehrmacht’s report on this operation, they blame the Gestapo in Bordeaux (and specifically Dohse) for heavy-handedness – email from Peter Lieb, 23 February 2016.

Machule instructed Dohse: This is Dohse’s own description of this event, which should therefore be treated with caution.

auxiliary units: Hauskapelle.

youth labour camps: Chantiers de Jeunesse.

‘The French workmen …’: Dr. 5 and 6. Kontrollkommission Toulouse. Br. Tgb. No.: 137/44g, Toulouse, 24 April 1944, AN 40/1210. Re: Addendum to the report on the campaign against terrorists in the area South and East of Captieux (Gironde), courtesy of Peter Lieb, AN AJ 40/1210.

personal intervention: Dohse claimed to have obtained the release of 1,600 of the least suspect of the detainees, along with a further 190 who were already in prison in Bordeaux awaiting transportation. He also claimed to have turned a blind eye to a minor administrative subterfuge which resulted in the ‘spiriting away’ of a further 150 of the young men.

His first choice: Pierre Chevalier alias ‘Luc’.

Louis Christian Campet: Alias ‘Lancelot’.

Commandant Édouard de Luze: Alias ‘Marceau’.

reports he received: From Pierre Chevalier.

numbering some 300: 289 men, 15 officers and 35 NCOs, Landes report, 25 September 1944, giving his strengths in May 1944, TNA HS 6/574.

organisation in the port of Bordeaux: Led by Pierre Roland.

another at Mérignac airport: Led by Pierre Chatané, or Chatanet.

their chief Roger Schmaltz: Alias ‘Fernand’.

good relations with the cheminots: The number of cheminots involved with Landes was 145, Penaud, Histoire secrète, p. 221.

300 men: Landes report, 25 September 1944, TNA 6/574; he mentions 400 men ‘pour les Landes’ in his manuscript account, CMSM, and they are 500 in Penaud, Histoire secrète, p. 221.

1 April 1944: Manuscript account from Roger Landes, probably written in the 1980s, CMSM. There is dispute about this date. Landes placed the first drop to his new network as being on 9 April 1944 at Monplaisir, Landes report, 25 September 1944, TNA HS 6/574.

area Resistance chief: Compte Rendu d’activité du groupe Beliet, commanded by Captain Franck Cazenave. The code-phrase was ‘Le cercle devient carré’ (‘The circle becomes square’), ADG 59J 107.

‘run on gangster lines’: Pierre Meunier report, 13 August 1944, TNA HS 9/1026/4, and Michael Cresswell dispatches from Hendaye, September 1944, TNA HS 9/880/8.

‘dismissal …’: Landes report, 4 December 1944, TNA HS 6/57.

‘with a slight …’: Landes report, 25 September 1944, TNA HS 6/574.

Pierre Charles Meunier: Alias ‘Moralist’, ‘Édouard’, ‘Édouard le Canadien’ and ‘Le Grandiose’.

John Manolitsakis: Alias ‘Jean Manot’ and ‘Prophet’.

‘combination of boy-scout …’: John Manolitsakis SOE personal file, TNA HS 9/984/8.

safe house: The home of Marcel Attané.

7 August 1944: He finally arrived in England on 12 December.

‘Gestapo plant’: Landes letter, 12 August 1944, TNA HS 9/1026/4.

dispatched Meunier: He arrived back in London on 10 August.

Chapter 25: ‘Forewarned is Forearmed’

‘This was …’: ADG 59J 209, p. 114.

May 1944: Max Hastings, Das Reich: The March of the 2nd Panzer Division through France, June 1944, London, Pan Books, 2000, p. 24.

Jean-Baptiste Morraglia: Alias ‘Dufour’, ‘Acoustique’ and ‘Lemaitre’.

General Morraglia: Jean-Baptiste Morraglia was promoted to FFI ‘brigadier-general’ on 22 August 1944, http://www.generals.dk/general/Morraglia/Jean-Baptiste/France.html.

‘There were men …’: Gabriel Delaunay evidence, quoted in Penaud, Histoire secrète, p. 214.

‘We had to be …’: Aristide-Triangle (Landes-Gaillard) activity report, ADG 59J 120.

one commentator: Charles Gaillard alias ‘Triangle’.

‘of the English’: The word ‘English’ was transposable in the France of the time for ‘British’.

‘refused to work …’: Reported conversation by Gaillard, Landes report, 25 September 1944, TNA HS 6/574.

‘wouldn’t last long’: Nicolson, Aristide, p. 100.

arrest of … Harry Peulevé: In Brive-la-Gaillarde, 160km west of Bordeaux, on 21 March 1944.

‘In my view …’: Dohse’s interrogation by Military Judge Stienne, 17 August 1947, private archive of Michel Bergès.

his quarry escaped: At the Bar de l’Oasis on 10 March; Noël was warned by a waitress.

The ambush failed: On 20 May.

sabotage attack: Police report, 1 July 1944, ADG 59J 118.

Landes was ‘running’: Landes report, 5 December 1944, TNA HS 6/574.

more than 5,000 Maquisards: The full strengths were: Basses-Pyrénées, 150 men; Landes, 4,012 men; Gironde, 1,200; Charente, 100 men – Landes report, 5 December 1944, TNA HS 6/574.

‘Dohse had succeeded …’: ‘La répression à Bordeaux’, no date, private archive of Yves Léglise.

‘forewarned is forearmed’: The phrase in French is ‘Un homme averti en vaut deux’, which is the colloquial equivalent. All the messages concerning D-Day had been brought to Bordeaux by Claude Bonnier in November 1943. Following Bonnier’s suicide, London had wanted to change them, fearing they were compromised. However, as they were not sure the necessary message would get to the Resistance on time, it was decided on 14 May 1944 that both messages (the old and the new) would be transmitted, TNA HS 8/444. The new alert message was ‘Tout le monde sur le pont’ (‘Everybody go to the bridge’) and it was transmitted on 1 June just after ‘un homme averti en vaut deux’, TNA HS 8/444, and André, La Résistance confisquée, pp. 150–51.

in the southwest: The French referred to this as ‘Région B’.

‘Jupiter met Mercury …’: ‘Jupiter rencontra Mercure et le déluge commença’, Penaud, Histoire secrète, p. 223.

‘Venus …’: ‘Vénus! O femme superbe et héroique’, ibid.

‘Cupid fires …’: ‘Cupidon lança sa flèche et l’amour commença’, ibid.

two-storey townhouse: 30 Rue Méry, Caudéron, home of Marcel Expert.

Léonce Dussarrat’s representative: Henri de Mesmet.

a representative of de Luze’s men: Robert Duchez.

Chapter 26: ‘This Poisoned Arrow Causes Death’

23.15: The time given in most secondary sources is 21.15, but this does not take account of the fact that, at this stage of the war, German time was two hours ahead of British time.

‘strike’ signals: ‘BBC Radio Messages in WWII’, TNA HS 8/444.

‘The flood team …’: ‘La brigade du déluge fera son travail.’

‘Don’t be tempted …’: ‘Ne vous laissez pas tenter par Vénus.’

‘This poisoned arrow …’: ‘Cette flèche empoisonnée causa leur mort’.

Attacks by Landes’s forces: ‘Résumé des Services rendu dans la Résistance’, TNA HS 9/880/8.

‘The Departments …’: Army Group G War Diary, appendix 153, quoted in Hastings, Das Reich, p. 76.

‘GERMAN TROOP TRANSPORTS …’: ADG 59J 116. Given the fact that this report is a compilation of several reports from different sources, it seems most probable that it is the copy of a situation report sent by Landes to London, rather than the report of a single commander to Landes.

‘the action taken …’: Paul Gaujac, La Guerre en Provence 1944–1945, Lyon: Presses Universitaires de Lyon, 1998, p. 66. Gaujac cites Alfred D. Chandler Jr (ed.), The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower: The War Years, Baltimore, 1970, Vol. 3, no page number.

‘Morale …’: On 20 June; Pierre Meunier interrogation, 17 August 1944, TNA HS 9/1026/4.

‘Numerous sabotage attacks …’: Diary entry, Monday 26 June 1944, ADG 59J 118.

‘Labour Exchange’: Bourse du Travail.

near Dax: Thétieu.

Milice base: It was a Milice française base

(uncorroborated) source: The original source of this is not known. Moreover, it does not appear in any other source, ‘Léon des Landes’, ADG 59J 28/1.

‘These are our prisoners! …’: ADG 59J 116.

‘mere sabotage chief’: Landes report, 25 September 1944, TNA HS 6/574.

‘has the advantage …’: Terrisse, Grandclément, p. 215.

second radio operator: Robert Angelaud alias ‘Julot’.

a third in operation: Bonaparte, alias ‘Cheval’ and ‘Napoléon’. He had actually been recruited and trained on Landes’s first mission.

Morse-compatible teleprinter: See teleprinted messages, Aristide archives, CMSM.

‘in good faith’: Nicolson, Aristide, p. 107.

Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Gaillard: Gaillard fled France to London in 1942 where he joined de Gaulle’s secret services (BCRA). He was parachuted into France on 14 September 1943 as the assistant to the DMR for the Rhône-Alpes region (Bourgès-Maunoury). Later transferred to the Provence-Côte d’Azur military region, he was finally appointed DMR for the southwest on 11 May, serving until the end of the war.

love of good company: Aristide-Triangle (Landes-Gaillard) activity report, ADG 59J 120.

almost a month: On 7 August 1944, Landes manuscript account, c.1980s, CMSM.

rented apartment: Hôtel Graciosa, 49 Cours Anatole France, Bordeaux. This was not in fact a hotel, but a building full of furnished apartments for let.

terrace of a café: The meeting took place at the Café Plantier in the Barrière du Médoc, 408 Boulevard du Président Wilson.

one of his group: Georges Fabas evidence, quoted in an untitled document, ADG 59J 118.

cheese shop: Établissements Ballanger, 37–39 Rue Élie-Gintrac. In the Agenda Annuaire Delmas 1944, it is listed as a charcuterie.

tram had broken down: A post-war enquiry – see Rapport Borderie, 1945 – confirmed that this may indeed have been so, as there was an interruption in the electricity supply that day.

Two days later: At 1700 hours on 28 June.

The following day: This narrative has been constructed from Josette Lassalle’s descriptions given in Une Bordelaise dans la Résistance, p. 61, and her evidence, Rapport Borderie, 1945, pp. 3–4, and ADG 59J 118.

‘He didn’t ask …’: Josette Lassalle, Une Bordelaise dans la Résistance, Bordeaux, Mollat, 1996, p. 61.

two men: André Danglade alias ‘Dréan’ and Jean Mouchet alias ‘Jeannot’.

a narrow sidestreet: The Rue Mouneyra.

‘two other men’: Henri Capdeville and Georges Fabas.

one of the assassins: André Danglade.

‘I am the only …’: Penaud, Histoire secrète, p. 240.

Chapter 27: A Deadly Charade

‘Important information …’: Report of Regional Intendant responsible for the maintenance of order, 8 July, ADG 59J 119; HSRSO, pp. 236–37; and Terrisse, Grandclément, p. 262.

‘he picked up …’: Madeleine Nicolas evidence, 7 April 1945, ADG 59J 120.

one of his Resistance friends: Roger Callot evidence, 5 July 1945, ADG 59J 119.

met with colleagues: The meeting was held in Marcel Ferreira-Texeira’s office across the street from the garage Le Colisée, 104 Rue du Palais Gallien, Bordeaux.

‘Moulleau 10 July 1944 …’: Grandclément report, 10 July 1943, TNA HS 9/608/8.

ex-army FFI colonel: Jean de Milleret alias ‘Colonel Carnot’.

‘a Vichy supporter …’: Landes report, 25 September 1944, TNA HS 6/574.

sun so hot: Deforges, La Bicyclette bleue, p. 178.

ramshackle farm: Richemont Farm. There is a memorial on the site, which is now in open farmland.

Pierre Poinsot’s police: Poinsot himself had in fact left by this time. The SAP were commanded by René Penot in this operation.

Dohse later claimed: Dohse’s interrogation by Military Judge Stienne, 17 August 1947, private archive of Michel Bergès.

and a friend: Henri Lacaze

his ‘bodyguard’: Augustine Duluguet evidence, 17 July 1947, ADG 59J 119.

‘A couple came …’: Ibid.

‘restaurant in Biganos’: Biganos is 10km east of Arcachon.

‘They [the Resistance] …’: Augustine Duluguet evidence, 17 July 1947, ADG 59J 119.

hitched a lift: The following account is compiled from testimonies by Georges Lozes, Gilbert Comte, Pierre Favard, Pierre Tastet and Augustine Duluguet, ADG 59J 119.

Le Volant d’Or: 11 Rue du Hautoir, Delmas, Agenda-annuaire Delmas 1944; now the Rue du Héron.

‘fast-response team’: Groupe France, whose chief was André Noël.

beyond the range: The Lysander used by SOE at this time of the war (the Mark III, equipped with long-range tanks) had a maximum range of 1400km for the round trip. Allowing for a 20 per cent contingency for headwinds and diversions, this meant that, for a Lysander based on the English south coast at Tangmere, the effective range was 550 to 570km; that is all north, but nothing south of an arc roughly from the Île de Ré to Limoges. There were several Lysander operations carried out south and west of this at this period of the war, but these were by aircraft based in Algiers, not London. Hugh Verity, We Landed by Moonlight: Secret RAF Landings in France 1940–1944, Wilmslow, Air Data Publications, 1995, pp. 224–25.

one of his senior lieutenants: Georges Lozes alias ‘Mérillac’.

‘We had as yet …’: Georges Lozes evidence, quoted in Penaud, Histoire secrète, p. 242.

‘Neither he …’: Jean Charlin report, 22 July 1944, ADG 59J 119.

safe house: The home of Robert Judicie in Rue Chateaubriand.

‘We have to leave …’: Augustine Duluguet evidence, 17 July 1947, ADG 59J 119.

‘a group …’: Ibid.

Citroën: The resistant who supplied the vehicle, Pierre Tastet, said it was a ‘camionnette Citroën C4’.

‘useful in England’: Mme Chastel’s testimony after the war, and Pierre Favart evidence, 26 April 1945, ADG 59J 119.

‘prisoners’ were armed: Sud-Ouest, 8 March 1998, by kind permission of André Duvignac.

‘If André lies low …’: Penaud, Histoire secrète, p. 245.

‘show signs of nervousness’: Pierre Favart evidence, 26 April 1945, ADG 59J 119.

moved again: Pierre Tastet evidence, 29 May 1951, ibid.

27 July: There is confusion about the precise dates here. Landes’s reports place the events two days earlier. But I have chosen to follow the dates given in nearly all other French sources, see ADG 59J 119.

‘German patrols in the area’: Pierre Tastet evidence, ADG 59J 119.

a restaurant: From the restaurant Chez Lagaillarde, 5 Rue des Douves, Pierre Tastet evidence, 29 May 1951, ADG 59J 119.

27 July: The timings given from here on in this chapter need to be treated with caution as they differ in the original accounts, including in the versions given afterwards by those who were actually there, e.g., Landes, Campet, Bordes and Max Faye.

‘We have Grandclément!’: Penaud, Histoire secrète, p. 247.

parachute reception chief: It was Cazenave who had commanded the reception party for Landes’s first delivery of arms in late March.

‘It’s a trap!’: Landes report, 25 September 1944, giving his strengths in May 1944, TNA HS 6/574.

‘court martial’: Landes IWM interview, Reel 3 (3' 40"), IWM SR 8641, 03-01-1985.

Lucette washed …: Police report, 5 September 1946, ADG 59J 119.

‘I give you …’: Landes report, 25 September 1944, giving his strengths in May 1944, TNA HS 6/574.

arrived at a junction: The spot is called La Layère, Lat. 44° 23' 16" N, Long. 0° 50' 21" W.

‘she felt the cold …’: Nicolson, Aristide, p. 127, and Michel Bergès interview with Christian Campet and Roger Landes, June 1984, CMSM.

finished off: According to later legend, Marc Duluguet murmured ‘Vive la France’ as he died.

Chapter 28: The Viper’s Nest

Lucien Nouaux: Alias ‘Marc’.

one of his men: Pierre Laparra alias ‘Lefèvre’.

the driver: Pierre Favart.

the ‘departure’ of André Noël: There is a double meaning to this word in French. It can mean a literal departure, but it is also, as in English, used as a euphemism for death.

Gaillard’s man: Gilbert Comte.

the home of a colleague: Renée Laurent.

‘Perhaps you will …’: Renée Laurent evidence, 7 March 1945, ADG 59J 120.

sought by and given to: Sent by Gaillard to Comte.

playing cards at a restaurant: The Restaurant de Bayonne.

his mistress: Madeleine Nicolas.

an acquaintance: Jean Izaguirre.

‘Please give my apologies …’: Jean Izaguirre evidence, 11 April 1945, ADG 59J 120.

with his lover: Noël left a briefcase full of documents with Madeleine, asking that this should be handed on to Jean Charlin.

lifelong friend: His childhood friend, Jean Barry.

‘Have confidence …’: Dr Jean Barry evidence, 30 May 1945, ADG 59J 120.

Resistance contact: Gilbert Comte.

nearby restaurant: The Bar des Ambassadeurs.

five of Landes’s men: Alban Bordes, Michel Choisy, Monge, Gaillac and Pierre Soulé. The driver was called Dupin.

Château Grattequina: The château has now been completely renovated and is an elegant hotel. It is situated 200m from the Blanquefort (White Fort) built to protect Bordeaux by the English king Edward the Confessor.

fishing jetty: At Port Lagrange, Parempuyre.

‘BRAVO! …’: Telegram ‘From Home station to Aristide’, 24 August 1944, ADG 59J 120.

‘I suppose …’: ‘Philippe Henriot Revanche’. Dohse interrogation by the French secret services, 21 July 1948, private archive of Michel Bergès.

The Rex: The cinema, built in the 1930s, has now been knocked down, leaving an empty space currently used as a car park. The address is 163 Rue Croix de Seguey, Bordeaux.

‘to the bar’: Le Richelieu, 4 Place des Quinconces.

fifty further escapees: The British record of Dhose’s July 1946 interrogation, TNA KV 3/238.

François Charles Cominetti: Alias ‘Colonel Charly’ and sometimes known as ‘Charlie’. After the war there was some confusion as to whether Cominetti was the man behind these transactions and the issue remains disputed even today. However, in an interview with Bergès in April 1985, Dohse confirmed that Cominetti, when they were both in Fort du Hâ prison after the war, admitted to him that he was the person who delivered the pilots.

betrayed by Cominetti: In his IWM interview Landes acknowledges that one of his men tried to sell him to the Germans, IWM SR 8641, 03-01-1985.

a German commander: Colonel Herbold.

the mayor of Bordeaux: Adrien Marquet.

Heinz Stahlschmidt: He later adopted the French name ‘Henri Salmide’, his Resistance alias.

the port was saved: There are doubts about this story. Some research suggests that the port of Bordeaux was saved because of a deal between the Bordeaux Resistance and the commander of 159th Reserve Division, Albin Nake. This agreed that the demolition of the port would not take place if the Resistance gave the Germans free passage out of Bordeaux. This practice was not uncommon in other places in France, e.g. Clermont-Ferrrand, Cherbourg and, of course, most famously, Paris. Email from Peter Lieb to author, 23 February 2016.

‘WE AWAIT YOUR REPORT …’: Telegram ‘From Home Station to Aristide’, 24 August 1944, CMSM.

After Dussarrat occupied Dax: On 23 August.

especially against women: After the war, Landes commented that he regarded this treatment as deeply unjust as many of the women who suffered these punishments had in fact been working for the Resistance – some of them were, in fact, the prostitutes who had given him shelter from time to time, Landes IWM interview, IWM SR 8641, R3, 03-01-1985.

‘as a kind of dictator…’: Hendaye ‘Dispatch No. 3’ to the embassy in Madrid, 19 September 1944, TNA HS 9/880/8.

‘the most picturesque …’: Report from Major Ayer on the political situation in southwest France, ‘British circuits in France 1941–44’, TNA HS 7/122.

‘HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE …’: Telegram ‘From Aristide to Home Station’, 31 August 1944, CMSM.

‘NEARLY 1K PRISONERS’: Ibid.

‘(COMMUNIST FORCES) …’: Telegram ‘From Aristide to Home Station’, 15 September 1944, CMSM. The communist forces in question were the Francs-Tireurs et Partisans (FTP).

Chapter 29: Two Hours to Leave France

interim mayor of Bordeaux: Jean-Fernand Audeguil.

the new commissioner for police: Commissaire Bonhomme.

commander of the FFI: Colonel Joseph Druilhe alias ‘Driant’, Commandant of the 18th Region of the FFI.

the French officers: General Chevance alias ‘Bertin’ and Colonel Jean de Milleret alias ‘Carnot’.

newsreels of the day: http://www.ina.fr/video/AFE86002821. Landes identified by his son Alain, email to the author, 5 December.

the French Minister for War: André Diethelm.

‘de Gaulle made …’: Allyre Sirois alias ‘Gustave’ report, 9 October 1944, TNA HS 6/587.

‘It is with deep joy …’: Penaud, Histoire secrète, p. 292.

‘I hope, mon Général …’: Ibid., pp. 293–94.

What followed: This account has been pieced together from several different accounts by Landes. The core source is TNA HS 6/574.

‘You are English …’: Landes IWM interview, IWM SR 8641, R2, 03-01-1985.

the city préfecture: 23 Rue Esprit-des-Lois.

‘that he was English …’: Memorandum, 7 October 1944, forwarded by Duff Cooper to London, TNA FO 371.

‘Neither you …’: Penaud, Histoire secrète, p. 294.

Bordeaux authorities: The host was Commissioner of the Republic Gaston Cusin.

That same day: 21 September 1944.

a British diplomat: Probably written by Michael Cresswell alias ‘Monday’ of MI9, who acted as British consul in San Sebastián at the time and clashed swords with Landes.

‘the hideous crime …’: TNA HS 7/122, British circuits in France 1941–44, and André, La Résistance confisquée, p. 226.

‘refused to obey …’: Duff Cooper telegram to London, 22 September 1944, TNA FO 371.

‘YOU HAVE ALREADY …’: Telegram ‘From Home Station to Aristide’, 21 September 1944, CMSM.

‘MY STATE OF HEALTH …’: Ibid.

‘IF STATE OF HEALTH …’: Ibid., 22 September 1944.

‘KEEN TO RETURN …’: Ibid., 24 September 1944.

sumptuous black limousine: It would be poetic to imagine this was Dohse’s old Cadillac – but unhappily there is no evidence to support this.

‘secret meetings’: Memorandum, 7 October 1944, forwarded by Duff Cooper to London, TNA FO 371.

Chapter 30: Nunc Dimittis

156 never saw France again: ‘Historique du Réseau “Denis – Aristide – Buckmaster”’ by Jean Duboué, 1951, ADG 59J 107.

‘a liability …’: Jean Duboué SOE Personal File, TNA HS 9/452/4.

on a British mission: On the Judex Mission, 1944–45.

‘in great need’: Manuscript letter from Claude de Baissac to Mme Duboué, 11 December 1944.

25,000 francs: About £5,000 today.

spent the rest of the war: Accompanied by my daughter Kate, I visited and interviewed Suzanne in Nice in February 2011. She was already suffering from mild dementia and mistook me for a Gestapo officer. She refused to tell me anything, but was happy to speak at length to my daughter about her experiences and recollections.

‘On 6th February 1944 …’: TNA WO 309/1604. Bernau’s sentence was subsequently commuted to twelve years’ penal servitude which he served in Ostfriesland concentration camp, surviving a mass slaughter when 4,500 fellow inmates were killed wholesale with the use of anti-aircraft cannon. He survived the war.

three other SOE women agents: Vera Leigh, Sonya Olschanezky and Diana Rowden.

evidence gathered by SOE: By SOE’s Vera Atkins.

the judge: Lucien Steinberg.

‘The most terrible …’: Dominique Lormier, Bordeaux brûle-t’il? ou La Libération de la Gironde 1940–1945, Bordeaux, Dossiers d’Aquitaine, 1998, p. 56.

to avoid being hanged: Michel Bergès interview with Dohse, April 1985, private archive of Michel Bergès.

‘They wanted information …’: Jacques Sylvain and Fabien Pont interview with Dohse for Sud-Ouest, June 1987.

‘It was important …’: ADG 59J 28/1.

‘Sir, you will …’: Letter dated 22 November 1948, ADG 59J 28/1.

‘special [police] forces’: At that time the French included the SS, the SD and the Gestapo in special-forces category.

‘It is not our purpose…’: Local newspaper cuttings reporting on the court case, 4 May 1953, private archive of Yves Lèglise.

three policemen: Divisional Commissioner Louis Durand of the Judicial Police, Inspector Guimberteau and Inspector of Photography Pierre Vielcazal.

The captain: Captain Hermann, Direction Générale des Services Spéciaux (DGSS).

‘It’s definitely Grandclément.’: Inspector Pierre Vielcazal report, 7 September 1946, ADG 59J 119.

‘without the aid …’: Police Inspector Louis Durand evidence, 27 December 1944, ADG 59J 119.

One of the original members: A M. Cartier, the owner of a local sawmill.

‘To the memory …’: Grandclément, L’Énigme Grandclément, p. 196.

Shenley Military Hospital: On 18 December 1944, John Manolitsakis also arrived in Shenley having spent the five months since leaving Bordeaux wandering around Spain. Manolitsakis claimed he was in the hospital for a shrapnel wound in his back, but Landes concluded that he had had a nervous breakdown.

the town of Grik: In the early 1960s, the author was engaged on jungle patrols in the Grik area, where SOE’s wartime operations were still talked about.

an uprising against the British: Two years later, in 1948, the twelve-year jungle war between the British colonial administration in Malaya and Chinese Communist insurgents began. The Malayan Emergency cost the lives of 6,710 Chinese guerrillas, 1,345 Malayan troops 519 Commonwealth personnel and 2,478 civilians.

‘As a man …’: TNA HS 9/808/8.

They moved to London: 49 Winchester Court, London W8.

in 1949 had a son: 23 June 1949.

rented a flat: 29 Carlton Mansions, Holmleigh Road, London N16.

launching his business: Roger Landes Ltd.

semi in Stanmore: 42 St Andrews Drive, Stanmore, HA7 2NB. It cost £4,750.

firm of London jewellers: Ernest Jones.

retirement home in Surrey: Shannon Court Retirement Home, Hindhead, Surrey.

Epilogue: Post Hoc Propter Hoc

in a local newspaper: Sud-Ouest; it was first published in Sud-Ouest ’s national sister paper, France-Soir.

‘I am convinced …’: Caralp-Jardel evidence to Police Inspector Jacques Reillac, 21 May 1951, ADG 59J 119.

Bordeaux historian: René Terrisse.

one of André Grandclément’s descendants: Daniel Grandclément.

German intelligence: The Abwehr and Sicherheitsdienst.

share out any money: See Yeo-Thomas’s comments in Fuller, Déricourt, p. 36.