HPM: Henri Peulevé memoirs.
IWM: Imperial War Museum.
TNA: The National Archives, Kew.
1. In 1898 Leonard and another engineer, Charles Brown, patented designs for automating the manufacture of cartridge cases, which were successfully adopted during the First World War.
1. HPM.
2. Montgomery, B.L., The Memoirs of Field Marshal The Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, K.G., Collins, 1958, p. 49.
3. Quoted in Blaxland, Gregory, Destination Dunkirk, William Kimber, 1973, p. 42.
4. Erwin Rommel, ‘Blitzkrieg: German Breakthrough in the Meuse, 15 May 1940’, in The Faber Book of Reportage, Faber & Faber, 1987, p. 529.
5. Danchev, A. and Trotman, D. (eds), War Diaries 1939–1945: Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2001, p. 67.
6. HPM.
7. Quoted in Blaxland, Destination Dunkirk, p. 147.
8. HPM.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. Quoted in Hawes, S. and White, R., Resistance in Europe: 1939–1945, Allen Lane, 1975, p. 30.
1. Quoted in Mackenzie, W.J.M., The Secret History of SOE: The Special Operations Executive 1940–1945, St Ermin's Press, 2000, Appendix A, p. 753.
2. Beevor, J.G., SOE: Recollections and Reflections 1940–1945, The Bodley Head, 1981, p. 14.
3. Howarth, Patrick, Undercover: Men and Women of the Special Operations Executive, Phoenix Press, 2000, p. 186.
4. Maurice Buckmaster Personal File, HS 9/232/8, TNA.
5. Ibid.
6. Marks, Leo, Between Silk and Cyanide, HarperCollins, 2000, p. 75.
7. Bourne-Patterson, R.A., The British Circuits in France 1940–1944, p. ii, in HS 8/1002, TNA.
8. Buckmaster, M., They Fought Alone, Odhams Press, 1958, p. 127.
9. Vera Atkins interview (1987), IWM Sound Archive.
10. Ibid.
11. Vera Atkins interview (undated), IWM Sound Archive.
12. Roger Landes interview (1985), IWM Sound Archive.
13. Quoted in Masson, Madeleine, Christine, Virago, 2005, pp. 155–6.
14. Hawes, S. and White, R., Resistance in Europe: 1939–1945, p. 30.
15. Rigden, D., SOE Syllabus – Lessons in Ungentlemanly Warfare, World War II, Public Record Office, 2001, p. 361.
16. Ibid., pp. 361–2.
17. Peulevé Personal File, HS 9/1178/6, TNA.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
20. Louis Lee Graham Personal File, HS 9/607/1, TNA.
21. Peulevé Personal File, TNA.
22. Ibid.
1. Claude de Baissac Personal File, HS 9/76, TNA.
2. Ibid.
3. Gildea, R., Marianne in Chains: In search of the German Occupation 1940–1944, Macmillan, 2002, p. 28.
4. HPM.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Peulevé later learned that the man responsible for organizing their reception had no prior experience of this kind of work, no transport and was unsure of which field had been selected. Consequently he and his assistants heard the aircraft circling but were unable to signal to it.
8. HPM.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. Memo in Claude de Baissac Personal File, HS 9/75, TNA.
12. HPM.
13. Ibid.
14. Peulevé complained in his report that he had been given no contacts in the event of contingencies, though this was later rebuked by Buckmaster.
15. Leslie, Peter, The Liberation of the Riviera, J.M. Dent & Sons, London, 1981, p. 92.
1. Foot, M.R.D., SOE in France: An Account of the Work of the British Special Operations Executive in France 1940–44 (rev. ed.), Whitehall History Publishing/Frank Cass Publishers, 2004, p. 184.
2. ‘Carte Organisation’ report from D/R to D/CD, 27 Aug 1942, in HS 6/381, TNA.
3. Bodington report, 12 September 1942, in HS 6/382, TNA.
4. Report in Isidore Newman Personal File, HS 9/1096/2, TNA.
5. Ibid.
6. Buckmaster's evaluation in André Girard Personal File, HS 9/273/2, TNA.
7. Churchill, Peter, Duel of Wits, Hodder & Stoughton, 1953, p. 113.
8. F Section Diary, October to December 1942, HS 7/245, TNA, p. 206.
9. Churchill, Duel of Wits, p. 124.
10. Memo, 6 May 1943, in HS 6/381, TNA.
11. HPM.
12. Peulevé interrogation report, 11 May 1943, Peulevé Personal File, TNA.
13. Langelaan, George, Knights of the Floating Silk, Hutchinson, 1959, p. 183.
14. Poirier, J. (trans. John Brownjohn), The Giraffe Has a Long Neck, Leo Cooper, 1995, p. 40.
15. interrogation of Rake, 19 May 1943, in Rake Personal File, HS 9/1648, TNA. In a report by LAC Bromwell, an RAF prisoner and friend of Rake's in Jaraba, Le Chêne was singled out as ‘a thorough rogue’ who disclosed numerous details about his propaganda work, but also noted that Peulevé was ‘very discreet, and tried to make the others stop talking’. (HS 6/969, TNA).
16. Quoted in Cross, J.A., Sir Samuel Hoare: A Political Biography, Jonathan Cape, 1977, p. 333.
17. Rake, D., Rake's Progress, Leslie Frewin, 1968, p. 190.
18. Ibid., p. 196.
19. Buckmaster, They Fought Alone, p. 124.
1. Rake, D., Rake's Progress, p. 52.
2. ‘Special Operations Executive Directive for 1943’, Chiefs of Staff memorandum of 20 March 1943, in Stafford, David, Britain and European Resistance, Macmillan, 1980, p. 255.
3. Peulevé Personal File, TNA.
4. HPM.
5. Ibid.
1. HPM.
2. Ibid.
3. In a later report, André Grandclément estimated the number of arrests made in Bordeaux to have been fewer, between 100 and 150 (Grandclément Personal File, HS 9/608/8, TNA).
4. HPM.
1. Bourne-Patterson, The British Circuits in France 1940–1944, p. 90.
2. Quoted in Lacouture, J., André Malraux, André Deutsch, 1975, p. 298.
3. HPM.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Landes would later direct the execution of Grandclément and his wife near Berlin on 28 July 1944. André Noël was also killed by FFI forces a month later.
8. HPM.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
1. SOE's use of messages personnels began in 1941. A feature of the BBC French Service, these broadcasts were originally used to transmit messages from family or friends separated by the war, but were soon recognized by F Section as an ideal vehicle for simple clandestine communications, as the programme could be received by any household radio in France. Initially, a circuit would send a request for a supply drop or other assistance; if agreed to, Baker Street would then send back a short coded phrase to listen for on the BBC. The broadcast of this message would signal that the operation was about to go ahead.
2. Diary of George Hiller, courtesy of Judith Hiller.
3. Ibid.
4. Cyril Watney interview, 1988, IWM sound archive.
5. Cate, C., André Malraux: A Biography, Hutchinson, 1995, p. 311.
6. Having been informed by their headquarters in Paris that an unidentified transmitter was operating in the area, the local direction-finding team had brought in a reconnaissance aircraft, as the terrain in the area was impossible to cover by road.
7. HPM.
8. Ibid.
9. Despite the action on 10 March being referred to in his later SOE reports, no French sources can be found to substantiate it, though it may have been connected to an attack on a column of GMR and SD forces which passed through the area in early March.
10 HPM.
11. Ibid.
12. Violette Szabó Personal File, HS 9/1435, TNA.
13. Ibid.
14. Claude Malraux Personal File, HS 9/980/7, TNA.
1. Denise Freygefrond, ‘La Maison des Anglais’, in Histoire & Histoires de Malemort, Association des Amis de Malemort, Maugein, 2004, p. 19.
2. Peulevé report, 23 April 1945, in Personal File, TNA.
3. Correspondence with Francis Suttill; see also Foot, SOE in France, pp. 282–3.
4. Peulevé report, 23 April 1945, in Personal File, TNA.
5. Georgette Lachaud had in fact been arrested shortly after Peulevé's capture while delivering details concerning parachute drops, but fortunately swallowed the map she was carrying before being searched and was released several hours later.
6. Poirier, The Giraffe Has a Long Neck, p. 86.
7. Seaman, M., Bravest of the Brave, Michael O'Mara Books, 1997, p. 140.
8. HPM.
9. Ibid.
10. Peulevé had become suspicious of Herbin's increasing interest in Bloc-Gazo and told Lamory to keep him away from the premises, but saw him again at Lamory's house only a few days before the arrests. However, as Schmald raided the house with only a small force it's unlikely that Herbin had reported any signs of Resistance activity.
11. Marshall, B., The White Rabbit, Evans Brothers, 1956, p. 155.
12. HPM.
13. Noor Inayat Khan was executed at Dachau concentration camp in September 1944, and posthumously awarded the George Cross in 1949. Léon Faye died in Sonnenburg camp in January 1945.
14. Report by Alfred and Henry Newton, Part II, 26 April 1945, in HS 6/437, TNA.
15. ‘living in Avenue Foch…’: Peulevé report, 23 April 1945, in his Personal File, TNA.
16. Peulevé report, 23 April 1945, in his Personal File, TNA. Starr was later deported to Mauthausen concentration camp but survived the war. He was cleared of allegations of treachery on his return to the UK, but still continued to feel embittered by suspicions that his cooperation with Kieffer equalled collaboration.
17. HPM.
18. Note in Peulevé Personal File, TNA.
19. Minney, R.J., Carve Her Name With Pride, Pen & Sword, Barnsley, 2006, p. 168.
20. Seaman, Bravest of the Brave, p. 162.
21. Adapted from Seaman, M., Bravest of the Brave, pp. 164–5. In 1940 French military intelligence had secretly begun counter-espionage activities against the Nazis using regional ‘TR’ networks, which were based at bogus municipal offices of ‘rural works’ (Travaux Ruraux) in Paris, Lyon, Toulouse, Limoges, Clermont-Ferrand and Marseille. In 1943 Captain Vellaud was also entrusted with the job of creating a supporting network known as TR ‘jeune’ (junior). The BCRA (Bureau Central des Renseignements et d'Action) was the Free French secret service established by André Dewavrin (known as Colonel ‘Passy’) under the direction of de Gaulle in London. From 1941 it worked closely with SOE's RF Section, sending French nationals to conduct intelligence and sabotage work. TR and the BCRA were officially merged to form the DGSS (Direction Générale des Services Spéciales) in November 1943, but rivalries between them made integration slow and each continued to work independently well into the following year.
22. Minney, R.J., Carve Her Name with Pride, Pen & Sword, Barnsley, 2006, pp. 168–9.
23. Stéphane Hessel interview, June 2006.
24. HPM.
25. Ibid.
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid.
1. HPM.
2. Ibid.
3. Seaman, Bravest of the Brave, p. 170.
4. HPM.
5. Report by Alfred and Henry Newton, Part III, 26 April 1945, in HS 6/437, TNA.
6. Hessel interview, June 2006.
7. Quoted in Strachan, T. (ed.), In the Clutch of Circumstance: Reminiscences of Members of the Canadian Prisoners of War Association, Cappis Press, 1985, p. 235.
8. Hessel interview, June 2006.
9. Ibid.
10. Yeo-Thomas Personal File, HS 9/1458, TNA.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid. These messages were passed on to a colleague of Baumeister's in Dortmund but were never transmitted, and were only handed over to the Americans when they arrived in April 1945.
13. Seaman, Bravest of the Brave, p. 182.
14. HPM.
15. Hessel interview, June 2006.
16. Kogon, E., The Theory and Practice of Hell, Secker & Warburg, 1950, p. 195.
17. Ibid., p. 194.
18. Ibid., p. 195.
19. Although their names was apparently not called, camp records suggest that Heusch and Lavallée were also summoned and executed with Frager's group.
20. Hessel interview, June 2006.
21. Kogon, The Theory and Practice of Hell, p. 197.
22. Ibid.
23. Hessel interview, June 2006.
1. HPM.
2. Ibid.
3. Lorin, M., Schönebeck, un Kommando de Buchenwald: du Sabotage des Avions Nazis a l'Épouvante d'une Marche de la Mort, quatrième édition, Amicale des Anciens Déportés de Schönebeck – Mülhausen – Buchenwald, 2000, p. 16.
4. HPM.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. Yeo-Thomas papers, IWM.
10. Robin Brook interview, 1987, IWM Sound Archive.
11. Buckmaster, They Fought Alone, p. 188.
12. Peulevé family papers.
13. Annette Weston memoirs, Peulevé family papers.
14. ‘SOE Agents Repatriated from German Concentration Camps: Minutes of a meeting held at 64 Baker Street, on Thursday, 19 April 1945, at 1100 hours’, in HS 6/438, TNA. Following Atkins’ extensive investigations into F Section's missing agents, 104 casualties were eventually identified, just under a quarter of the total sent to France.
15. News Chronicle, 26 April 1945, p. 1.
16. Letter to Airey Neave, 16 April 1964, Peulevé family papers.
17. Following demands from Szabó's family for news on Violette's whereabouts, Vera Atkins travelled to Germany to trace the fates of Violette, Denise and Lilian, but it was not until receiving Schwarzhuber's testimony in March 1946 that she was able to confirm their deaths.
18. Note in Peulevé Personal File, TNA.
19. ‘Report by Major Peulevé’, in HS 6/437, TNA.
20. The atrocities at Tulle were overseen by Walter Schmald, the SD officer who had been responsible for Peulevé's arrest. Schmald was later captured by an AS maquis and executed in August 1944.
21. Report in George Hiller Personal File, HS 9/710/6, TNA.
22. Report in PE Mayer Personal File, HS 9/1011/7, TNA.
23. In a recommendation for the King's Medal for Service in 1946, Peulevé praised Arnouil's work in making the AUTHOR network a success: ‘He was the father of the circuit, without whom neither myself nor my successor would have been able to contact those who later became its leaders. He was directly responsible for the success of resistance in the Corrèze and, in addition, without hesitation conveyed more than 14 escaped allied airmen to Toulouse in his own car and 4 Russians from Nancy to the Maquis. He permitted wireless transmissions from his house, hid arms in his office, organised reception committees and subsequent transport of parachuted material. A very brave and devoted helper.’ (Arnouil Personal File, HS 9/54/8, TNA). Bertheau was posthumously mentioned in despatches in June 1946 for his work as AUTHOR's wireless operator and a plaque was erected to his memory in Meymac in 1990. In 2001 a memorial was also unveiled at the police station in Ussel to honour Louis Delsanti.
24. Peulevé Personal File, TNA.
25. Ibid.
1. Peulevé's promotion to Major had been approved in March 1944 but had not come into effect due to his capture. He assumed the rank on his return to the UK.
2. Peulevé was also awarded the Military Cross, but there appears to be no official record of it, making it impossible to be sure when he might have received it and for what action. The ribbon is still in his family's possession.
3. Peulevé family papers.
4. Vera Atkins archive, IWM.
5. ‘Last Days of Violette’, Sunday Times, 28 March 1965, p. 24.
6. Hastings, S., The Drums of Memory, Leo Cooper, 2001, pp. 165–6.
7. Letter, 7 February 1963, Peulevé family papers.
8. The Times, 25 March 1963, p. 12.
9. Peulevé family papers.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.