Young, Brave and Beautiful

by Tania Szabô

  He then bent over to Violette and spoke quietly in her ear, ‘I want you to pedal over later in the day to Madame Lazerat in her grocery shop – take some explosives – and get an idea of what, if anything, can be done. See what she’s made of. First, I’ll sort out which instructions to pass to her.’

  ‘Great,’ said Violette. ‘I’ll get moving late morning, after a sleep and checking with you to see what else crops up.’ She would endeavour to find out more about Madame Lazerat and, if it felt right, pass on the instructions from London that Philippe had given her. The woman certainly seemed ideally placed, reflected Violette. She was looking forward to the ride, discovering the layout of the area and meeting more people. She loved this job, she thought, even as fatigue crept over her. But she knew how to disguise her tiredness with smiles and the right questions. To yawn on the job was not an option.

  They drank Pernod, chatting animatedly, and then partook of a glorious omelette aux fines herbes, salad with baguettes and charcuterie, while surreptitiously trying to judge each other’s mettle. After the shortages of London, even though SOE agents fared better than most, it was still wonderful to eat food that was truly fresh. Every now and then laughter burst forth – a good sign of co-operation to come, perhaps, thought Philippe.

  They made provisional plans and it was generally agreed that Violette would go the next day to the neighbouring groups on a circular trek east by bicycle or car to meet with leaders of smaller cells. Jean-Claude would be found a secluded but high safe house to keep in contact with London. Philippe wished to meet with Georges Guingouin. Colonel Charles said they would first meet his own group, the Bistrot Maquis and take it from there. Philippe explained that they would also broaden their zone of activity to include Montauban, Brive and Tulle in the south and certainly Limoges, possibly Châteauroux and La Châtre towards the north.

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  Charles Gaumondie was a neat man in his mid-forties with a small pointed face, blond hair with thick darker brows and a long aquiline nose. He welcomed the SOE team with a warm smile. Seasoned Maquisards, with confirmed successes behind them, he, his brother-in-law, Albert Faye, and Paul Renaudie had been involved with the Maquis since 1941, when they had organised one of the first Résistance groups operating from Magnac-Bourg from September 1942, with Georges Guingouin keeping a close eye on them in the early years. A year earlier, using grenade sticks they had made in Léonard Lornac’s forge, they had blown up the botteleuse, a wheat-packing factory in Croisille-sur-Briance.

  Colonel Charles was the leader of the local Maquis. He was a saxophonist in a bal-musette119 by trade, and a soldat de deuxième classe but with no war experience. He was in the FFI for the Limousin area and had a wider brief than was first apparent to Philippe.

  Philippe was utterly put out by the man, and over the weeks to come became deeply suspicious of him. He reported angrily to Baker Street that Colonel Charles was acting as a decoy for Georges Guingouin, who was head of the local FTP (the ‘feared’ communists). I wondered about the word ‘decoy’, but realised that, although Philippe’s English was near perfect, he phrased some sentences in a French style and tended to use some unexpected words that did not quite fit. Probably, he just could not think of the English expression ‘front man’.

  It seems that, at this time, Charles Gaumondie did all of those things. In addition, he was the only area contact for Maurice Southgate (Hector), who had been captured as Violette and Philippe flew back to London on 1 May, as well as for Anastasie (Jacques Dufour) and Samuel.

  Georges Guingouin seemed to have steered well clear of Anastasie, considering him too much of a loose cannon.

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  Violette looked at her cheap French watch and saw that it was almost half past eight. She was surprised that she was fully awake and refreshed after so little sleep. The rest of the house was still quiet. She could hear the subdued chatter of people across the square and the bell of the shop below, tinkling each time someone entered. A horse and cart rumbled by, someone shouted as a bicycle bell rang out.

  There was a quiet tap on her door. ‘Entrez!’

  The door was pushed open and a small head peered in. It was Pierrot, Madame Ribiéras’ son, about seven years old, maybe eight. ‘Maman asked me to bring you your breakfast, mademoiselle.’

  ‘Oh, merci. Breakfast in bed!’

  The youngster laughed softly and placed a tray on the bed and, with a shy smile, quietly crept back out. Violette heard the other bedroom door being opened and trays taken in to murmurs of sleepy men saying thank you.

  Violette did finally get out of bed, washed, brushed her teeth, and dressed in a simple short-sleeved summer dress and wedged shoes. As she dressed, she suddenly remembered the date: 8 June. Her daughter’s birthday. She hoped that Tania was with Reine and Charlie in Stockwell and that the same sun was shining down on them all. Violette sent a birthday wish on the gentle breeze wafting northward. And then she pushed such thoughts to the back of her mind. She had much to do and great distances to travel to do her bit to win the war.

  At around nine o’clock she went downstairs into the kitchen. Anna Ribiéras was on her own and greeted her with a warm smile, pouring her another cup of coffee.

  Anna and the reception committee were impressed by the uniforms as all the agents who had been through SOE training schools and dropped that midyear into France were given British military ranks and therefore uniforms, including the French nationals. This was done to help protect them should the enemy take them. Holding military rank should have ensured they would become prisoners of war and not tortured or shot out of hand.

  Looking around, Violette asked where the men where. Madame Ribiéras told her they were still enjoying breakfast in bed and thought they would soon be down.

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  The weather had given an inauspicious start to the Normandy landings but the British, American, French and Canadian contingents had still successfully established a strong foothold on the beaches and were now advancing on Cherbourg and Caen. Rommel was rushing back to France to take control of his ground forces, having ordered troops to converge on Normandy from wherever they were stationed.

  SOE had been preparing for D-Day and its aftermath since early 1943. The SOE sections had also joined forces with SIS (British Secret Intelligence Service), the fledgling SAS (British Special Air Service) and the American OSS (American Office of Strategic Services); sometimes with good grace, sometimes with petty bickering. The job in hand for these services was to confuse, obstruct and slow down, if not prevent, the German rush into Normandy. So, during the months of April to July intensive effort was put into hampering and harassing in all directions: enemy troops from the Belgian border to Paris, enemy bases in the south of France along the Mediterranean coastline and those installed a little north of Toulouse at Montauban, and the SS-Das Reich Panzer Division endeavouring to manoeuvre north.

  The overall plan for D-Day, code named Overlord and Neptune, was ingenious, intricate and superbly jigsawed into neat interlocking pieces. Not everything went to plan, nor were all operations intended to fit into this neat jigsaw. Many operations were mere trompe d’œil, stratagems, decoys, or diversions to hoodwink and confuse German intelligence.

  Weaponry and ammunition, money and other supplies, as well as daring agents, valuable aircraft and priceless pilots were expendable to defeat an implacable enemy. However, the idea of suicide missions was anathema to the British. In their training, agents were psychologically tested to ensure they had no suicidal tendencies. A dead agent is, after all, a useless agent.

  Violette and the rest of Philippe’s team in Sussac had a pivotal role in that overall jigsaw, as had her mission to the zone interdite in April. Was her solitary April mission part of the jigsaw, but only as a diversion devised by the British and Baker Street to confuse the Germans? Was Violette one of the decoys? The Salesman circuit was clearly blown; it was a dangerous area to enter for as long as she did and was almost impossible to find the remnants of the ci
rcuit, difficult to compensate damaged families financially and persuade Résistants there to plan attacks and sabotage co-ordinated specifically to Operation Overlord and the Allied invasion. Yet she did these things and discovered new intelligence on the V rockets, getting out alive with a great deal of information and delivering it safely to London. These important successes make it seem more likely to have been a genuine mission rather than a red herring.

  If Violette had been considered ‘expendable’, then her masters did not know her very well. She was a small but perfectly honed cog in a very large and complicated machine. But what of this new mission?

  Would she be betrayed this time?

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  The swathe of land from Cherbourg, south through the western Loire valley, Vendée, Bordelais and the hinterland to Montauban, was the major danger area for the Allies. So first they flew in SOE agents, liaison officers, wireless operators, instructors, food, clothes, arms and ammunition to prepare the ground.

  From Châtellerault to Tulle and east to west Clermont-Ferrand to Angoulême was the large area Violette’s team was to work in, sometimes criss-crossing and extending into areas of other SOE agents doing similar work. Lines were indistinct; co-operation all-important. More agents and couriers were dropped with Jedburgh teams with further detailed plans for obstructing enemy communication lines – roads, rail, telephone and telegraph. Then the American, British and Canadian airborne troops followed shortly afterwards.

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  Among those at Madame Ribiéras’ corner shop at ten o’clock on the morning of 8 June were the communist commandants Fernand Philibert and Roger Magadoux of the OS.120 Philibert, a stocky man of about thirty-five, perhaps forty, with dark hair, high forehead and a square face, was the very epitome of a seasoned warrior.

  Also there was Rousselier’s (Rivier’s) right hand, Capitaine Annick (real name Lliane-Annick Bojekowlska), of Russian Trans-Caucasian descent. After being introduced, she listened intently without saying much. She reported back to Rivier on the events of the night and the team from England. She and Violette immediately took to one another. Annick thought Louise exquisite, especially her magnetic eyes. She had heard a rumour that Louise had done some pretty extraordinary things in the north of the country but did not know quite what. Colonel Rousselier (Rivier) was a polytechnicien who had been an active officer.121 He was a good-looking man in his thirties. In 1942, he had first commanded the AS – the Armée Secrète of Region 4 (R4) in Toulouse before taking over the leadership of the FFI in R5, then much later, the 12th military region in April 1945.

  Another one present was Jacques Dufour (Anastasie), a risk-taking Pétainist gendarme committed to the Résistance. He was somewhat akin to Bob Maloubier in personality but without Bob’s training, discipline and slower-burning courage. Anastasie flitted from one group to another with great but dangerous bravura (dangerous for others, more than for himself, some say), but doing his best and somewhat petulant in his demands to London. London kept a very British ‘cool’ in its replies and supplies to him, much to his voluble disgust. Anastasie was flanked in the kitchen by Maquisards in his group.

  Also present were part of Georges Guingouin’s initial team: Adrien Meymerie, Adrien Petignaud and Raymond Barre,122 who all lived in Sussac and were all committed communists. Pierre Magadoux arrived too, a seasoned Résister who would also participate under Philippe in the battles of Mont Gargan, and the seizing of an SS-Das Reich division armoured car on 9 June. His brother Roger was very close to Colonel Guingouin, a fully seasoned Résister but not a Maquisard. He often took on dangerous missions with his own unit.

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  The team of Violette, Philippe, Bob and Jean sat in the courtyard of the grocery shop. The others gathered and joined them. Roger Magadoux, Barre, Petignaud, Meymerie, Anastasie and Annick milled around and pulled up rickety chairs and stools. A couple remained standing, pacing the yard.

  Jean-Claude Guiet stood up, ‘I need to go up to the room, sort out the radio. Last night was not a good enough reception and I want to try and improve it.’ He did not like to be in such a crowd. It was time to make his excuses and leave. ‘Need to find a safe-house on higher ground, Charles.’

  ‘Will do. Are you going to send my message, mon Brave?’ Asked Philippe.

  ‘Yes, Major. I’ll repeat your last night’s message just to make sure everyone knows we’re here and safe. I’ll send it before this one. Neither is too long so there should be no problem.’ He turned and walked to the door.

  ‘Thanks, Claude,’ called Philippe as Jean-Claude left. Violette smiled as he passed her. Damn sweet girl, Jean-Claude thought as he looked down into her sparkling eyes.

  He went quietly up to the room to set up his wireless set in a new position. Reception was not good enough from the room the three men were sharing. Concerned that he might need to move somewhere else if he could not get a decent reception in the upper floors of the shop, he decided to try the wire in Violette’s room to see whether that would help. He had some difficulty attaching the wire so it travelled unobtrusively around the wall joint and ceiling to the window, but after fiddling a while, he finally managed. Jean-Claude fixed it so well that Violette used it after he had left for his safe-house. It was still in place nearly twenty years later.

  Once Jean-Claude had erected his wire, taken out his silks123 and laid them next to his radio-set on the bed, he worked meticulously, coding the messages Philippe had instructed to be transmitted to London, informing their masters of their arrival and that meetings were already taking place with the various Maquis groups to pass on instructions and that plans were progressing. Bob was immediately sent to begin training units in weaponry, sabotage, use of explosives and security. While Jean-Claude was working on his messages, the others made plans in the cool of the shaded yard.

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  ‘Look,’ explained Philippe yet again to their most loquacious visitor, Jacques Dufour, ‘we’ve got to get these plans and directives, along with some personal messages from London, down to Arnac-Pompadour, a short hop from Tulle, as soon as possible. But Louise has to go on a couple of other sorties before meeting with Captain Jack and Colonel Berger.124 However, she needs to see them no later than the 10th, two days from now. It’s absolutely imperative.’

  ‘No problem, easy! I’ll do that. Leave the lass here, out of danger’s way. I don’t think you’ll be getting much joy out of Colonel Berger, though,’ was Jacques Dufour’s supremely confident and dismissive reply. He had no idea who Violette was or of what she was capable, and had no idea that she knew the two men rather well.

  ‘As it is,’ continued Philippe noticing Violette’s eyes raised to the sky. ‘We were delayed trying to get here by the bloody weather, then the German patrols prevented the reception team from receiving us a couple of nights ago so we had to fly all the damned way back!

  ‘Louise, not you, Anastasie, must meet with Captain Jack after she’s completed a couple of other runs for us to co-ordinate activities from Poitier, Châteauroux down to Brive-la-Gaillarde. You will act as her escort and bodyguard. Do you understand that?’

  ‘A vos ordres, mon major!’ said Anastasie with a sarcastic curl to his mouth.

  ‘You can then take her on to meet other leaders in the region, as Captain Jack will probably be too busy to do that. But let him guide you as to whom she should meet. Right?’ Philippe cocked his eyebrow towards Anastasie.

  ‘Bien sûr.’ The curl was turning into a slight smile.

  ‘The SS-Das Reich has left its barracks in Montauban and already caused a lot of trouble,’ continued Philippe. ‘Today, you, Anastasie, should go east while Louise goes to meet a Résister, Madame Lazeret, about fifteen miles from here. She can go on one of the bikes.’

  ‘There’s a bike just out front,’ replied Anastasie. ‘But it’s very dangerous because the Germans have forbidden cars and bikes to the population unless they have proper papers. Shouldn’t she be accompanied by one of us Maquis?’

  ‘That
is a problem,’ sighed Philippe. ‘Anyone around the table able to provide papers for Louise to ride a bike? Maybe as a delivery girl for farms or a travelling milkmaid or something?’

  Laughter burst forth at this, but Annick said she actually had some identity and pass papers on her. She took the papers from a compartment in her bag, hidden behind a lining that opened with a concealed zip.

  ‘Here you are; Isabelle Durand, laundry woman. Curzac. How’s that?’

  ‘Just perfect. I’m Isabelle Durand, laundry woman from Curzac. Where’s that?’

  ‘It’s actually on your way from Sussac so you can ride through and get an idea of what it’s like in case you’re stopped. A tiny village with a pretty château in the hills.’

  ‘Great. It won’t be necessary for me to be accompanied. You all have more important things to do and I’ll be better on my own, anyway. I’d like to make a move now. Can someone draw me a map and show me on the maps you’ve got? That way I’ll have a pretty good idea of the route and any major buildings or landmarks. It all helps, not only to get there, but if I’m stopped or need to make a detour. It’ll only take a few minutes and then I’ll have memorised the route and landmarks.’