by Tania Szabô
‘When he’s back, I’ll make them a little more worn. The handlebars are covered in leather with a light – new battery – but don’t use it unless you must. The brakes’ll be checked and renewed if needed. Then we’ll exchange bikes. Now, where are you going next, Corinne? Can I help in any way?’ asked Marcel.
‘Well, I’d like to ask your help in a few things. For example, there’s an important viaduct, the Barentin viaduct, on the Rouen–Le Havre rail route to be blown up before our lot invade. The railway line to Dieppe must be cut to prevent enemy troops being transported. The main road arteries from the north to Rouen need to be made impassable if at all possible—’
‘Hey, hey, wait a minute. Let’s get to my workshop, where we definitely won’t be interrupted. No reason why I can’t ask a pretty girl in there, now is there?’
‘Absolutely not! And thanks for the compliment. I think!’ retorted Violette, grinning. She liked him.
They walked the short distance to Marcel’s workshop. Violette waited while he pulled at the door. No lock was in evidence, just like the garage. They went in.
‡
Violette and Marcel were soon ensconced in his comfortable but shabby office. At least Georges Philippon’s garage and Marcel’s workshops had survived the bombings, if a little the worse for wear. Violette shivered slightly in the chill but said nothing. No fire was lit and she presumed Marcel was, of necessity, careful about how much paraffin he used. The wind quickly dragged clouds across the sky, leaving only the occasional glimmer of sunlight. A frosty wind was gusting in from the northeast, rattling through the shell-tattered building.
‘The group that Charles had most contact with has now been all but destroyed,’ commented Marcel as he went about attempting to provide a little heat from a battered paraffin stove, much to Violette’s relief. ‘His group, along with my own and Commandant Fantoma’s group, carried out some pretty successful sabotage, acquired all manner of coupons, identity documents for the forbidden and red zones and disrupted telecommunications and many rail links especially from Rouen to Le Havre, Abbeville and Amiens,’ explained Marcel, his pride edged with sadness and anger. ‘Some of the coupons and documents were sent over to London so that they can print up fakes, but we keep most of them as they are “de vrais faux papiers”. The chaps who get hold of these “real fake papers” are a secretive lot. Tragically, their leaders, Commandant Fantoma and his brother, Capitaine Cartouche, have been arrested and deported to Germany. Lucky they weren’t just shot out of hand. They were both very badly tortured but gave absolutely nothing away. Bloody brave buggers. I hope to introduce you to others in their group, Corinne. Charles, by the way, knew Fantoma as Lieutenant Marceau.’
‘Your two men showed unbelievable courage, I must say! In London we’ve produced many forged papers, including the most up-to-date German language passes that are required in this zone interdite. Charles also told us of an insurance agent who did not want his name mentioned, even in London, who provided him with a contact in the Town Hall and then supplied him with ration cards. I don’t think that contact is Lucien. I’ve got quite a few sets of papers and cards on me. A few sets are for my own personal use, so that I can change identity if and when necessary. There’s a cover story for each identity.’
‘Parfait.’ Marcel was fishing about among some papers strewn across his desk.
‘I understand that it was a pretty substantial cache of arms that Jo kept hidden.’
‘Yes, it was. And not just from the bloody Germans but from those young livewires he keeps on a short leash. They’d soon be out putting firecrackers under every German car, causing innumerable civilian reprisals. They’re under constant training now and complain in lively fashion that they’ve got nothing to fight with!’ He laughed grimly at the thought while Violette nodded. She concentrated and became utterly businesslike. She explained that, before the Allied invasion, actions needed to be undertaken to hinder the German military calling up reinforcements from any direction, adding that it would be good if he could help her find out whether any new installations were being prepared for launching some sort of rocket. British intelligence suggested that they would be able to reach London, so anything that could be discovered and passed on to London would be of the greatest importance. Violette expressed her desire to visit one of the sites to form her own picture.
Marcel thought that quite a tall order and said he would think it over that night. He described how scared everyone was since the Salesman circuit had been blown noting that many of his people had withdrawn and refused to do anything further. He considered Claude Malraux an incompetent and weak if not downright traitorous – not a good leader. He promised Violette that he would have a chat with a couple of people and see what he could come up with by the time Violette got back tomorrow. Marcel looked at the packet that Violette offered him for the bike: a large wad of franc notes to replenish his dwindling funds and sighed, calling it manna from heaven. She had already proven her good will by the fact of her coming from her safe home to this dangerous place. But the money was very gratefully accepted.
Violette retorted that it was not such a safe home and damned dangerous these days, what with the German bombers raiding London, thousands killed and maimed and dreadful fires.
Marcel concurred saying he did not know where they had found her but that she would do just nicely. He continued his report with his suspicion that most of Salesman and many of their people in the Diables Noirs and others in Normandy were shopped by an OCM courier. The OCM should never really have been allowed to have such wide-ranging knowledge of so many groups all over the country, including Russian and Polish communists, Gaullist and SOE circuits, as well as many home grown Résistance networks.64 I’ll get some coffee on the go and then you can be on your way.’
‘Great!’ exclaimed Violette, settling back in her chair.
She was intrigued by Marcel’s comment about the OCM as this coincided with her own thoughts that betrayal had begun much higher up than at individual group level or by local informers, although obviously there were those who assisted the Vichy police and the German security services.65 In fact, the Vichy police and Darnand’s Milice were the most dangerous. They were French and could all the more easily infiltrate any Résistance movement or catch an SOE agent whose French let him or her down.
‘Marcel, can you tell me a little about the OCM, the Organisation civile et militaire? I don’t fully understand its raison d’être nor its members.’
As Marcel made some aromatic fresh coffee and rustled up a few amandier de Bouziques and biscuits zézettes66 he explained to Violette that the OCM was a civil and a military organisation that recruited high-ranking and junior French officers into its service along with French professionals in the teaching sector, law and various industries. Many of the officers were right wing but not of the Nazi mind-set. This was where its weakness lay.
Violette never suspected that the French would embrace fascism. But in her walks around the town she had seen it in the faces of passers-by, including some fonctionnaires. There were many who wanted nothing more than the return to an ordered, disciplined life, who continued to be very concerned by the eruption of communism since the early 1930s; maybe some had already been involved in suppressing communist groups. This did not make them Nazis but they were thus vulnerable to Nazi tendencies and to being manipulated by Nazis to betray their friends, family and country.
‘Roland Farjon was a young leading officer from a wealthy family, a graduate of the Saumur military academy. He’s even a distant relative of Charles de Gaulle. He was leader of the Nord A Region before he was arrested in October in 1943 by the Gestapo,’ explained Marcel. ‘It’s pretty well agreed he delivered several hundred of his men and women to the Germans. Firstly through his unbelievably arrogant carelessness, then allegedly by handing over friends and comrades under interrogation. Couldn’t hack the claustrophobic cells and harsh questioning, I imagine. Pity he hadn’t remained an officer soldier pure and
simple. That’s his kind of courage, his kind of leadership. He would have been a fine leader, cool and courageous in the face of the enemy at the front line. In the Résistance you need a different kind of courage. Met him once, a bit high-handed, certainly overconfident. Nevertheless, a charming, handsome man, amusing to be with in normal circumstances, fine soldiering character, a good organisational brain – but not a clue as to security.’
‘Does Region A include Rouen and surrounding area?’ asked Violette, troubled by the devastating news and unintentional betrayal. ‘Is that how we lost about a hundred of our best Frenchmen and women in Charles’s Salesman circuit?’
‘Yes, in part. The Germans – SD and Gestapo, in fact, ably assisted by the Milice – have been observing then arresting members of the Résistance gleaned from the lists of names and addresses that Farjon had stupidly written down in clear. He hadn’t bothered to put them into code! Then they had group members or exterior helpers followed and observed over a period of weeks, possibly a couple of months or so and, in that way, found out who their contacts were or arrested them (or both) and got as much information as possible from them through interrogation, beatings and, frequently, torture. Then they would often shoot the poor bastards. Excusez-moi, mademoiselle. Another OCM leader in the south called André Grandclément also caused innumerable arrests.67 His was betrayal of the worst kind, and he even declared that he did so to protect the Maquis there. He took the German, who had befriended him and so easily turned him, to the various dumps, handing over weaponry and equipment, food stores and clothing dropped by London.’
‘Ah, yes, I know something about Grandclément. He worked with a pal of mine who’s still down there, but I won’t go into that.’
‘Right, Corinne, nor should you,’ exclaimed Marcel. ‘You’re pretty canny for your age.’
‘Good training and common sense, that’s all,’ replied Violette modestly. She sipped some coffee.
Marcel went on to explain that reception organisers and wireless operators (unlike circuit organisers who probably knew within twenty-four hours either through the police or their own men if there had been arrests) could not easily know if, for example, a safe-house had been blown in a district they had not visited lately. Such a difficulty was aggravated by rumours of Allied night-time air attacks, which raised doubts in many heads about which side to be on. There were also the usual collabos in each town and village; such rogue elements could even be found in families committed to the Résistance, sometimes through indoctrinated ideology but more frequently for revenge, spite and pecuniary reward. But it was rare that a collabo horizontale betrayed anyone in the Résistance. These women, a few men too, were often prostitutes or simply succumbing to the need for money and sustenance to keep themselves and their children alive. Some enjoyed it for the fun and danger it presented. They liked being on a German officer’s arm, being entertained and receiving gifts, but they would never betray their friends. They often displayed surprising bravery in helping the Allies by passing on intelligence they picked up in such company. A dropped comment between enemy officers or soldiers in a dance hall about supplies or transport from one place to another could lead to sabotage activities being directed at a certain railway or road convoy a few hundred miles away.
Violette felt it was essential that the Farjon case be passed on to her superiors in London. They might have been aware of it but perhaps had not realised the devastating effect of such far away but far-reaching betrayal. Violette pressed Marcel for any details he could give her.
Continuing, Marcel described the Résistance as not just one single organisation but an all-too-often changing unstructured series of disparate groups and groupings. The Free French powers in London and France hoped that the OCM and the organisations directly linked to de Gaulle in London could bring them all under one umbrella group. André Malraux was instrumental in this but not succeeding too well from all accounts – especially with the communists and those groups who trust no one but their own chosen people. In fact, some were wondering what this author was up to, and said he should stick to writing. And, naturally, leaders and their groups felt threatened by the fact that they could lose their autonomy and security by coming under some distant, centralised organisation. He joked that Paris might have always been partial to centralised government, but the provinces were not! They both laughed over that Gallic characteristic and drank their coffee in companionable silence for a while.
Violette commented that Marcel seemed to know an awful lot about the higher strata of the Résistance in the area asking how that was possible. She felt she could not have met a better person to pass on some of my instructions and ask how she could give financial aid or who could connect her to the next person.
The BCRA(M)68 had given Marcel a certain mission leading up to the time the Allies arrived. Part of that mission was to liaise between about twenty small groups from Senlis to Pas-de-Calais, Abbeville and Amiens as far north as Lille and west to Caen. That was why Violette was directed to talk to him rather than anyone else at this point. Violette rejoined that their jobs meshed perfectly.
They talked on, discussing the situation in Rouen and further afield until Marcel suggested Violette join him for lunch at the Gare Rive Droite on the other side of the river. He had convinced himself of her bona fides and character during their chat and was now keen to introduce her to a couple of other undercover people – without her realising it. They had spent more than enough time here. That snooping Gestapo agent could have followed them and might come back at any moment.
First Marcel wanted to find a basket to go on the front of Violette’s bike. She chimed quickly that he should not forget one for the back as well, if possible. He said he would do his best, raising his eyebrow at her sassy boldness and saying he would be just be a couple of minutes.
While he was gone, Violette pulled out a piece of rice paper from a hidden recess in her bag and made some coded notes on their discussions. She did not want to forget anything.
‡
* * *
61 The Organisation civile et militaire (Civil and Military Organisation) had the remit to bring together under one central authority all the disparate Résistance, Maquis and military groups.
62 Chleus = pejorative for a German during the Second World War.
63 En pékin = in mufti, in plain clothes.
64 As M.R.D. Foot leads us to believe, ‘it was certainly never any part of F section’s intention to send them straight to their death; nor indeed were their deaths intended by anybody else on the Allied side. They were unfortunates who happened to be caught on the exposed flank while it was exposed.’ Here, he is referring to the spring of 1944, around the time of Violette’s April mission, where several agents were dropped along with provisions to the Phone and Butler circuits that had been operated by the Gestapo over the previous four or five months.
65 ‘It was the networks in the areas we have been studying most closely, Paris and the highly civilised Loire valley and the industrialised north, that were most heavily hit [by German infiltration and the capture of agents]. There was not much here that survived from the early days to greet D-Day’, Jean Overton Fuller, German Penetration of SOE, p.147.
66 Amandier de Bouziques – an almond biscuit from Bouziques that melts in your mouth, even today made by hand with the same natural products. The zêzêtte de Sète is another delicious small biscuit with vin rosé manufactured in the picturesque Mediterranean town of Sète. Both are excellent Languedoc-Roussillon biscuits to accompany coffee or aperitifs.
67 André Grandclément, the chief of OCM Bordeaux, French double agent, and his wife were court-martialled, sentenced to death and executed by a French Forces of the Interior (Forces Françaises de l’Intérieur – FFI or ‘Fifi’ as it was nicknamed) tribunal at Belin, 28 July 1944 (Set Europe Ablaze, by Edward Henry Cookridge (pp.206–8). See David Thompson, A Biographical Dictionary of War Crimes Proceedings, Collaboration Trials and Similar Proceedings Involving France i
n World War II, 1999–2002.
68 BCRA(M), Bureau central de Renseignement et d’Action (Militaire) = Central Bureau of Action and Information (Military). This was run by Dewavrin, in Duke Street in London. See also the RF sections in Foot’s Official History of SOE.
14
Back across the River to Gare rue Verte and Dinner with Philippe at the Brasserie Marigold
Thursday 13 April 1944
Marcel returned with two worn but solid baskets that Mich had found. He fixed them to her bicycle, and then he and Violette pedalled off, back over the bridge towards Gare Rive Droite. As they rode down the ramp from the bridge, they were stopped by a Wehrmacht soldier whose duty it was to check cyclists in pairs between their twenties and forties. He did not know what he was looking for, but would do his duty carefully. He asked politely enough for their papers, identities and zone passes and checked them agonisingly slowly. He asked a few questions. Marcel, somewhat aloof, answered him in monosyllables while Violette gave the impression to the young German soldier that he was being a complete ass. But she did answer all his questions in a dutiful manner. His eyes travelled from her laughing eyes, lingering down her body to her feet, trying to regain his authority, but to no avail. In the end, he angrily waved them on. He saw nothing malicious in the laughing eyes – just teasing, which had made him blush.
‘Poor bugger,’ Marcel laughed that she had left him pink as a lobster and warned her not to overdo it.
They rode on, careful to obey traffic regulations on hand-signals and crossings, finally parking their bikes to the left of the station. Most of the vehicles, Violette was unsurprised to note, were German military, many crammed with weapons. Transporters carried all sorts of appropriated merchandise, most hauled to Germany or used by the occupying forces in France. Rouen was, and is today, an important communications link between the south and the north; it was strongly defended by the enemy and actively sabotaged by the Résistance.