A warning seems appropriate about the text above. While it exploits the best available sources, many details remain obscure, especially about the struggle in the defile before the beach approach was cleared, because personal memories were fallible or flawed. I have sought to piece together a jigsaw with many pieces missing. In Biting’s immediate aftermath several of the leading participants composed personal accounts – Frost, Vernon, Cox, Charteris, Young, Pickard and Cook. Interviews were also recorded with the three German prisoners, albeit not greatly enlightening or coherent. Few of the Germans who occupied the radar site and Bruneval defences in the early morning of 28 February 1942 gave post-war testimony – many lay in Russian graves. We shall never know for sure about the experiences of some participants, especially those of five of the six members of C Company who became PoWs, because their own accounts are incomplete or less than wholly convincing – only the wounded Sutherland’s fate is self-explanatory and conclusive. None of those who missed the beach evacuation is believed to have attended post-war reunions of Bruneval veterans.
Meanwhile the contemporary German narratives are fragmentary, and obviously designed to be exculpatory. Some of the story has required informed guesses, based on the circumstantial evidence – this is especially true about the timings of events on the ground, for which no complete record was ever made. Moreover, while we may be sure that, once back in England, plenty was said among the interested parties and their commanders about the blunders and misfortunes, in the wake of success nobody wished to parade dirty laundry by committing adverse comments to paper.
In the references below, UKNA denotes the UK National Archive and IWM the Imperial War Museum. I have conducted my own research in the French historical accounts cited in the bibliography, and thus quotations derive from my own free translations. I hope that these justly reflect the original texts.
Introduction
‘As you reach each window’ Brooke, Alan War Diaries 1939–45 ed. Alex Danchev and Alan Todman Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2001, 26.x.41
‘beyond the compass of our stride’ Churchill to Auchinleck 30.x.41 Churchill War Companion Documents Vol. 3 p.1392
‘we in Combined Operations’ Millar, George The Bruneval Raid Cassell 2002 p.xiii
1: Reg
‘My childhood was steeped’ Jones, R.V. Most Secret War Penguin 2009 p.39
‘Tell him from me’ ibid. p.83
‘The path of truthful duty’ Jones, R.V. ‘Temptations and Risks of the Scientific Observer’ Minerva Vol. X, No. 3 p.446
‘Are we not tending to lose our sense of proportion’ UKNA DEFE40/2 Harris memo of 1.ii.41
‘He told me how impressed’ Jones p.183 Most Secret War
‘Look, Charles’ ibid. p.236
2: Dickie
‘Enterprises must be prepared with specially-trained troops’ WSC 6.vi.40 Churchill Companion Vol. 3
‘What can you hope to achieve’ Terraine, John The Life and Times of Lord Mountbatten Arrow Books 1968 pp.112–13
‘You are to give no thought to the defensive’ Fergusson, Bernard The Watery Maze: The Story of Combined Operations Collins 1961 p.88
‘The Chief of Combined Operations always remained an agent’ Smith, Adrian Mountbatten: Apprentice War Lord I.B.Tauris 2010 p.306
‘He is a pretty wonderful man’ Ziegler, Philip Mountbatten: The Official Biography Collins 1985 p.171
‘I have been greatly criticised’ ibid. p.172
‘owing to a series of misfortunes’ quoted Ziegler p.132
‘Mountbatten was not a good flotilla leader’ ibid. p.145
‘He conducted at least two protracted love-affairs’ ibid. p.53
‘Mountbatten delighted in the planning’ ibid. p.167
‘the PM is ruining him’ Bruce Lockhart, Robert Diaries 1939–45 ed. Kenneth Young Macmillan 1980 p.191
‘a wholly irrational prejudice against you’ Bishop, Patrick Operation Jubilee: Dieppe 1942 The Folly and the Sacrifice Penguin 2021 p.98
‘There was no justification’ Brooke diary 5.iii.42 p.236
‘A strange character’ Smith p.307
‘Mountbatten was by all odds’ Wedemeyer Reports New York 1958 pp.108–9
‘I want him to exercise influence’ Churchill Papers 20/53 letter to Pound 5.ii.42
‘must be judged a marked failure’ Churchill Papers 20/88 Companion Volume 17 p.43
‘Procedure: CCO [Mountbatten] has bright idea’ UKNA AIR39/43
‘Mountbatten was a likely lad’ Ziegler p.207
3: Boy
‘John Frost wrote’ Frost Nearly There Pen & Sword p.70
‘in the hope that he would not hit the water’ Gale, Richard Call to Arms Hutchinson 1968 p.117
‘Gentlemen, someone once described’ Saunders, Hilary St. George The Red Beret: The Story of the Parachute Regiment at War 1940–45 Michael Joseph 1952 p.32
‘It simply and almost, it seems, apologetically’ ibid. p.41
‘the next recollection I have’ By Air to Battle p.9 Air Ministry 1943
‘The RAF at Ringway’ St. George Saunders p.46
‘He is the best-looking thing I have’ Forster, Margaret Daphne du Maurier Kindle edition Random House 2015 p.92
‘is trying to teach me’ ibid.
‘My dears, I am delighted’ ibid. p.94
‘couldn’t see the sense in military life’ ibid.
‘I feel I mustn’t leave Tommy too much’ ibid. p.101
‘She wanted what she thought she had married’ ibid. p.102
‘Can you picture me going around the married quarters’ ibid. p.116
‘a sour old army wife in an Indian hill station’ ibid. p.155
‘She didn’t understand half the things he talked about’ ibid. p.164
‘ebullient … indeed a beau sabreur’ IWM81/11/1 Carrington MS memoir Chairborne Soldier
‘He possessed all the virtues’ Powell, Geoffrey The Devil’s Birthday: The Bridges to Arnhem 1944 Buchan & Enright 1984 p.38
4: Rémy
1’THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY SECRET AGENT I EVER MET’
‘The English are pigs’ Lecompte-Boinet, Jacques Mémoires d’un chef de la Résistance Felin 2021 p.99
‘mauvais coucheurs’ de La Vigerie interviewed in the 1968 documentary film of Marcel Ophuls Le chagrin et la pitié
‘None fitted the conventional picture’ Amouroux, Henri La vie des Français sous l’Occupation 1961, Kindle edition p.73
‘Resistance was still, and for a long time to come, ill-organised’ Lecompte-Boinet p.104
‘lacked all social status’ Kerrand, Philippe L’étrange colonel Rémy Champ Vallon 2020 p.73
‘We were betrayed, dishonoured’ Rémy, Colonel Le Refus: Mémoires d’un agent secret de la France Libre France Empire 1998 p.39
‘Nous commençons à zéro’ Kerrand p.84
‘I have worked in business’ Rémy p.52
‘the most extraordinary secret agent’ quoted Kerrand p.88
‘became a magnificent turntable’ Rémy p.76
‘His biographer Philippe Kerrand is almost contemptuous’ Kerrand p.120 and passim
‘He suggested that German soldiers’ ibid. p.100
‘this operation would be spearheaded by 150,000 paratroops’ ibid. p.136
‘a certain number of the reports you have sent us’ ibid. p.162
‘My informants were whispers’ ibid. p.186
‘The network inspired by [Rémy] was several times’ Baumel, Jacques Résister Albin Michel 1999 p.103
‘given the considerable risks he took’ Kerrand p.181
‘every network had its quota of traitors’ Guerin, Alain Chronique de la Résistance Omnibus 2000 p.676
‘avalanche of contagious illnesses’ Lecompte-Boinet p.90
‘We did as you asked us!’ Rémy Le Refus p.186
‘Why are you crying?’ ibid. p.301
‘the foundation stone of our secret operations’ Le Figaro 31.vii.84
‘the Germans deployed’ Pollack, Guillaume L’armée du silence Tallandier 2022 p.198
‘Broadway ran such men as Gilbert Renault’ Jeffery, Keith MI6: The History of the Secret Intelligence Service 1909–1949 Bloomsbury 2010 see pp.394–5
‘He suggested the French Service of the BBC’ Kerrand pp.203–4
‘If he talks, there is likely to be a massacre’ Rémy p.299
‘Ask, and it shall be given’ ibid. p.314
2 BRUNEVAL
‘swift execution of orders was often rendered impossible by agents’ Pollack p.196, letter of 21.viii.41
‘the nature of the questions’ Rémy p.339
‘I love the work that I do’ Kerrand p.191
5: Johnny
1 C COMPANY
‘a man who knew just exactly’ Frost, John A Drop Too Many Cassell 1980 p.40
‘he hoped eventually to enter politics’ Millar p.184
‘My own first thought’ Frost p.2
‘I had not very much idea’ ibid. p.17
‘It was action that was wanted’ Gale p.116
‘a wild crew’ Millar p.6
‘What struck me so forcibly’ Frost p.28
‘Why, that’s the surest way of becoming a prisoner’ ibid. p.36
‘We smiled at each other’ ibid. p.30
2 TILSHEAD AND INVERARAY
‘I didn’t like this at all’ ibid. p.38
‘someone else would be found’ ibid. p.39
‘This was to be a combined operation’ ibid. p.40
‘the guardroom door yawned’ ibid. p.47
‘Sir, shouldn’t we tell Cook’ IWM Cook 95/5/1
‘He wished to show that line infantrymen’ IWM family publication My War by Bill Westcott, 1998
‘Even the subalterns had enough’ Frost p.41
‘The possibility of being left stranded’ ibid. p.41
‘We were left in no doubt’ ibid. p.42
‘The slightly-built “Hun’s” real name’ Jewish Virtual Library, Martin Sugarman
6: Charlie
‘It seems incredible, even at this distance of time’ Jones Most Secret War p.238
‘Don’t be worried too much’ ibid.
7: ‘Party’ Planning
1 ‘PICK’
‘it mightily impressed the enthusiastic young officers’ IWM Carrington 81/11/1
‘He disliked publicity stunts’ ibid.
‘Our chief complaints against the Air Staff’ Kennedy The Business of War p.178
‘Carrington believed that if the principal exponent’ IWM Carrington 81/11/1 Chairborne Soldier MS
‘When this war is over’ Forster p.163
2 THE ENEMY
‘A small enemy force, probably not more than 10’ Bromley-Martin copy of Biting operational order, sold at Spinks sale 17001 lot 433 12.iv.17
‘As long as they can dig and shoot!’ MH conversation with Hugo Frost 20.ix.23
‘There had been a vexed debate’ Foot, M.R.D. and Langley, J.M. MI9: The British Secret Service That Fostered Escape and Evasion 1939–45 Bodley Head 1979 pp.84–5
‘Lulworth was “a very bad show”’ UKNA AIR39/43
‘It will be a great pity’ UKNA PREM3/73
‘The last rehearsal’ Frost p.43
‘We are all thoroughly miserable’ ibid. p.47
8: The Jump
‘I suppose you know there’s to be a commando raid’ IWM Carrington 81/11/1
‘Aha! You have no idea’ Frost p.47
‘fleetingly, during pauses in the conversation’ ibid. p.48
‘We paraded as a strange new bombload’ ibid. p.48
‘I feel like a bloody murderer!’ ibid. p.49
‘They marched past like Guardsmen’ Pickard personal narrative Airborne Assault Museum
‘We knew so little … The Germans were to us’ Frost p.49
‘Morale in the aircraft was terrific’ IWM PA Young 17/2/1
‘So have we sung many times’ Frost p.50
‘We could not believe our good luck’ IWM Cook 95/5/1
‘At Carlton Gardens Passy, and indeed de Gaulle’ Rémy pp.163–4
9: Henry
‘unfortunately we failed to spend quite as much time’ Frost p.62
‘Then we were seen’ IWM Young 17/2/1
‘it became extremely uncomfortable’ Frost p.51
10: Junior
‘It was scrubby and difficult country’ Charteris personal narrative Airborne Assault Museum
‘a fast lollop’ ibid.
‘The Germans were still very confused’ Frost p.52
‘By then the parties were getting’ Charteris personal narrative
‘The object had been achieved’ Frost p.53
11: Cook
‘began to think that we should not get back’ Charteris personal narrative
‘It looked as though we were going to be left’ Frost p.54
‘By God, it’s coming off!’ Charteris personal narrative
‘Never had such ungainly vessels’ IWM PA Young 17/2/1
‘The enemy’s fire’ Charteris personal narrative
‘Your inspiring message received pm Friday 27 Feb 1942 was much appreciated by all’ IWM Cook 95/5/1
‘The German prisoners must have thought’ IWM PA Young 17/2/1
12: The Prizegiving
1 CELEBRATIONS
‘You have put’ Frost Nearly There p.73
‘Our ration’ Frost Nearly There p.74
‘The Prime Minister wishes Dr Jones’ UKNA PREM3/73
‘Dr Jones’s claims in my mind’ Churchill Papers 20/67, Documents Vol.17 p.481
‘Now, he said gloomily, he was wondering if she was a fifth columnist’ Jones Most Secret War p.244
‘in some respects, the set’ UKNA AVIA26/1872
‘We got into trouble’ Frost p.59
‘The glider pilots’ quartermaster’ ibid. p.40
‘Their heroic guides were dispatched’ letter published in 3.ii.46 edition of regional newspaper Havre Libre
2 THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE
‘I felt his loss more than any other’ Jones Most Secret War p.232
‘Between ourselves, the Resistance is a bluff’ Gillois, André Histoire secrète des Français à Londres Hachette 1973 p.164
‘All that I have done’ Millar p.201
‘the principal creator of his own legend’ Albertelli, Sébastien Les services secret du général de Gaulle, le BCRA 1940–44 Perrin 2009 p.46
‘He did not have any trouble’ New York Times obituary of R.V. Jones 19.xii.97
‘Although one of Britain’s most famous’ MH conversation with Hugo Frost 20.ix.23
‘One of the last surviving Bruneval’ Paradata, Airborne Assault Museum, Duxford
‘such an operation properly demanded’ Peveler in RAF Journal May 1944
‘But the Germans, general!’ Beevor, Antony Arnhem: The Battle for the Bridges Penguin 2018 p.27
‘[Browning] unquestionably lacks the standing’ quoted Armageddon p.40
‘a first-class leader’ Bruce Lockhart p.527
‘My own reaction was one of exhilaration’ Hughes-Hallett interviewed on Mountbatten Life & Times prog. 5, Reel 3, p.4
‘the appointment presaged Mountbatten’s’ Amery, Leo The Empire at Bay: The Diaries of Leo Amery 1929–45 ed. John Barnes and David Nicholson Hutchinson 1988 13.iv.42
‘There was no knowing what discussions’ Brooke diary p.242 28.iii.42
‘the most successful combined operation’ IWM Carrington Chairborne Soldier MS
‘the successful execution by Major Frost’ Millar p.xiii
‘I remained convinced … that the commandos’ Brooke diary p.185 note on entry for 25.ix.41
‘Eisenhower would have been better served’ Powell p.252