Churchill's White Rabbit

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by Sophie Jackson


  Yet again 5 p.m. was an anxious hour and yet again there was no courier. Forest glanced at Brossolette and said: ‘Do we stay here?’

  Was this yet another innocent slip by the messenger despite the promises elicited from Sophie and Baudet about punctuality or had something happened this time?

  ‘Let’s hang on a little longer.’ Brossolette said, concerned that they had not made full alternative safe house arrangements yet.

  The hours ticked by unpleasantly slowly. 10 p.m. came and went with no sign of the messenger and now everyone feared the worst. Forest and Brossolette began packing their belongings. The Peyronnets watched with trepidation: if the two SOE men were so concerned then perhaps there was a real chance of their apartment becoming a Gestapo target. Saying their thanks and farewells, the two men left, Brossolette heading to stay with Claire in the rue de la Faisanderie and Forest moving into Jacqueline Devaux’s flat. They passed a fretful night wondering what had become of their friends.

  Early the next morning Maud paid a clandestine visit to the Peyronnets. The story they told her showed how dangerously close Forest had come to arrest. This time it had been no innocent delay that had prevented the courier arriving at 5 p.m. – he had been intercepted by the Gestapo and arrested. On his person was yet again another typed note, this time stating: ‘Mme P, 3 étage, 102 avenue des Ternes.’ The only relief was that there was no mention of Shelley nor were the extant addresses and details of so many comrades included this time.

  The Gestapo took the messenger to their offices and interrogated him. Miraculously the man, despite his naïvety, proved more courageous than Forest could have imagined. Faced with the quick-fire questions and threats of torture, he still insisted that he was engaged in the black market rather than anything subversive. He had been sent to the avenue des Ternes, a place he had never had cause to visit before, to meet with a potential customer, Madame Peyronnet. Threats failed to shake his story, which had a suitable ring of truth to it anyway. His tactics had the advantage of stalling the Gestapo and the delay was Forest and Brossolette’s saving grace.

  At 6 a.m. the Peyronnets had been raided by the Gestapo. It was a terrifying ordeal: a gang of Germans swept through the apartment searching for any sign of the two SOE agents. The concierge clung bravely to her loyalty to the Peyronnets and gave them no assistance, while Madame Peyronnet was able to discern from her interrogators the black market lie the courier had given and played on it. It was a devastating few hours, but by the end the Gestapo were satisfied that Madame Peyronnet was just another black market customer and left her home. Maud reported all this to Forest and it became apparent that there was no returning to the apartment. The two SOE agents set out to find a third safe house to cover their tracks and by 25 September they were settling into yet another apartment.

  But the drama was only just beginning. On 26 September Sophie told them that his offices had been raided by the Gestapo. Four months’ worth of incoming and outgoing communications, courier notes and file-loads of details on significant agents and resistance members had all fallen into German hands. Sophie himself had briefly been in Gestapo custody but had been released. Seemingly even the Germans found it hard to believe that such an incompetent man could have been sent to replace Moulin.

  Sophie’s right-hand man, Alain, had narrowly escaped arrest, while Nard had fallen foul of the round up. Brossolette pressed for more details of the confiscated material and was shocked to learn that ‘all courier papers in and out for the past four months, all telegrams in and out … and lists of names of prominent people connected with the resistance had been captured’.4

  On these lists were the names of senators Jeanneney and Farjon, and it was imperative that they should be warned as soon as possible. Forest changed to his newest identity, Tirelli, and once again parted company with Brossolette to go to a different safe house while his friend went to stay with Suni Sandoe.

  Just when it was most urgent to contact London and let them know what had happened, wireless communications were jeopardised. In late September Forest gave Oyster a message to transmit via one of his W/T operators known as the pianist, but he came under German suspicion before he could do so and had to disappear for a while. The pianist only transmitted his message on 14 October.

  More bad news was just around the corner. As the Gestapo mounted a breathtaking operation to sweep up all the resistance members on the lists they had so fortuitously captured, intelligence came to Forest that Massena was dead. Apparently his disappearance had been due to arrest by the Germans and to avoid breaking under torture he had swallowed his cyanide pill. A zonal chief codenamed Niel told the SOE men that he had conclusively established that the Gestapo knew the names of all the resistance officers who came to France in September; this of course included them. Niel claimed there was a serious leak somewhere in the system and Forest had to agree. Miserably he reported to London in early October that the resistance network Groupe Rabelais had been completely destroyed, all members having been rounded up in the previous two weeks.

  Meanwhile Forest had to keep his own safety at the forefront of his mind at all times. He and Brossolette were still in contact with Sophie and Baudet, but the pair were making life extremely dangerous for them. Often they failed to turn up to arranged rendezvous claiming they had too much work to do, so an agent de liaison was set up for them who would meet with the SOE men’s agent de liaison. It did nothing to improve the system. Sophie and Baudet’s lack of punctuality seemed infectious and soon their agent de liaison was proving just as unreliable, not helped by his being sent on ‘all sorts of errands’ to make it even harder for him to contact Forest or Brossolette.

  By now it was apparent this was all a deliberate ploy by Sophie and Baudet to infuriate and spite SOE. They were so sure of their own abilities that they quickly became a liability to those loyal to them. Forest referred to their idiotic use of their agent de liaison, which resulted in him being arrested, and his own agent de liaison had a narrow escape due to trying to restore contact. The situation was becoming hopeless and dangerous.

  A representative of CDLL reported that he had official information that 32,000 Gestapo men were in Paris to crack down on the resistance and that Forest’s father’s flat was under surveillance. This hardly surprised him and now he had conclusive proof that the Gestapo knew his name and that he was in the field. The hunt was on for Shelley.

  Forest was now a wanted man. The Gestapo had set tails on a number of agents de liaison and it was apparent that Forest was also being watched. Life began to become more precarious. Forest arranged through a CDLL member to get an authentic birth certificate, identity card and ration card under one of his pseudonyms in case the worst happened. He and Brossolette organised ten safe houses and six letterboxes between them. They would need them – during their remaining time in Paris five of the safe houses would be blown and one of the letterboxes would be rendered unsafe by Sophie’s actions.

  Forest was as settled as he could be in a safe house in Neuilly. Sophie was still a dangerous nuisance to him, phoning the house on a regular basis to try and arrange appointments despite the dangers it posed to both of them. Any attempt Forest made to impress this upon him was disregarded.

  On a dull morning Forest rose barely rested from his disturbed sleep. His mind was a muddle of mission objectives and fears as he walked to the window and pulled open the shutters. For a moment he hesitated. Was that someone peering from behind a partially pulled curtain in a house on the other side of the street? It was a fleeting incident, probably more coincidence than anything, but Forest could not shake the nagging doubt in his heart that something was amiss.

  Forest stayed in Neuilly for another night, trying to block out the fear that his presence there was blown. The next morning he opened his shutters and noticed the curtain twitcher opposite him was back. He no longer felt it was just a coincidence. Forest cast his eyes down into the road as casually as he could. There were several people going about their b
usiness, hurrying back and forth, but one man was hovering by the corner of the building opposite, seemingly without purpose. He was wearing the quintessential spy raincoat and had his eyes fixed on Forest’s apartment. There was no doubting it any longer – the safe house was blown.

  Forest left as fast as he could, having to leave some of his property behind in his haste. Immediately he informed Sophie of the discovery and once again his warnings were ignored. Forty-eight hours later Sophie held a meeting in the same house at Neuilly. The Gestapo must have wondered where this godsend had come from!

  The net was closing around them. Brossolette and Forest dined with Claire Davinroy one fateful night. Claire was a childhood friend of Brossolette’s and with the Gestapo drawing closer he didn’t want her to be put in danger because of his presence. After their meal the two agents left Claire, and Forest promised to see her the next day at a prearranged meeting.

  The night was uneventful for them and the next evening Forest appeared for his meeting with Claire, but she didn’t show. Forest was immediately anxious, as Claire was reliable and punctual, not someone who would be late if she could help it, and that she didn’t show at all had his stomach churning. He retreated to a little café with a telephone where it wouldn’t matter if his call was traced. Nervously he dialled Claire’s number. A woman answered.

  ‘Bonsoir, chère amie,’ Forest said.

  ‘Bonsoir chéri,’ replied the woman. ‘Come immediately, I am waiting for you.’

  ‘Oui,’ Forest answered and hung up.

  It had not been Claire on the phone.

  Brossolette was distraught when he heard the news. It was obvious that Claire had been arrested by the Gestapo and a trap had been set in her apartment to catch an unwary agent. He desperately tried to learn news of her via his resistance contacts. Slowly details came in. Another resistance agent, Gulliver, had been arrested, and the Gestapo had started circling around his friends and acquaintances. The concierge at the house in which he stayed had endured a frightening interview with the Germans in which she revealed that Gulliver’s apartment had been leased for him by a woman named Claire Davinroy. The Gestapo were quick to raid Claire’s flat at 6 a.m. the morning after Forest and Brossolette had left her. In the flat they found money left behind by Forest and incriminating documents on Claire’s desk.

  The only consolation for Brossolette was that it had not been his presence that had caused Claire’s arrest; it was one of those quirks of circumstance and a lucky escape for the two SOE men. Word went out that Claire was in the hands of the Germans along with her little white dog, which the Gestapo were trying to use to find her other friends: the dog barked at strangers and made a fuss of acquaintances it knew. For a time a man in a raincoat walking a small dog was a familiar sight at the rue de la Faisanderie where Claire had lived.

  Danger was everywhere and the Gestapo was working overtime in recruiting men to follow resistance suspects. At a meeting with Oyster, Forest realised that they were being followed. They quickly discussed their options and it was agreed that they should head to a Métro station and part company unexpectedly. Oyster would jump on a Métro train and Forest would head off on foot. The plan went as expected and the tail had to make instantly decide who to pursue. As Forest was on foot he set off after him, much to the SOE man’s amusement. Forest was never one to let danger stop him having a little fun and he spent an enjoyable hour leading his tail on a merry goose chase. The pursuer was wrapped in a grey overcoat (the movie cliché of the stalker in a long overcoat is in part based on truth) and suffered as he tried to keep up with Forest’s fast pace. Later Forest chuckled and suggested that the man must have lost weight in the course of that manic hour.

  But finally even he got bored of the chase and darted into a department store. While his pursuer was disentangling himself from a crowd of shoppers, Forest headed for the basement and nipped out a side-passage reserved for employees. It was a textbook tactic, but it worked perfectly.

  On another occasion Forest lost a pursuer by darting onto a Métro train, getting off casually at a station and then jumping back on just as the train was leaving again. But by far the biggest danger was still the recalcitrant Baudet and Sophie; the two of them were utterly oblivious to the hazards all around them.

  Brossolette and Forest met Baudet one day at an appointed place. To their horror Baudet arrived being followed by no fewer than three men. Brossolette tried to impress on the man that he had been tailed but he refused to accept it. Exasperated with him the two SOE men walked him quickly around a building and hid in an arched doorway. Within a short time all three of his pursuers hastily rounded the corner to keep up. Indignantly Baudet had to admit they were right and that he had led three German informers straight to the two agents.

  Somehow they had to lose the men. The first rule of eluding a follower is not to let the follower realise you are on to him. So the men doubled-back on their route and kept a fast pace with a number of turns to occasionally put them out of sight of the tail. At one such turn Baudet was unceremoniously sent packing and told to hurry down the rue Laborde and to vanish before the ‘sleuths’ (as Forest liked to term them) caught up. Baudet obeyed, already shamefaced by his foolishness. That left Forest and Brossolette with the problem of three tails.

  Both men walked briskly to the place St Augustin, discussing their options in hushed tones. There was no choice but to separate and try to lose the tails individually. All being well, they would meet an hour later.

  As they reached place St Augustin they spotted two vélo-taxis (bicycle taxis) hovering near the path.

  ‘Change of plan?’ Forest glanced at Brossolette, and in an instant they were racing for the taxis and each jumped into one.

  Forest directed his to the Champs Élysées and Brossolette headed to Pont Cardinet. Behind them the sleuths came to a grinding halt, unable to follow any further. Forest surreptitiously watched them disappear into the background and let out a sigh of relief. An hour later he was back with Brossolette.

  At this time Forest heard that incriminating papers found by the Gestapo had fallen back into resistance hands. After Gulliver’s arrest, which had sealed Claire’s fate, his network was rapidly rounded up and his headquarters searched for important papers. The Gestapo found intelligence the resistance had been gathering, in particular a document on the secret V-1 weapon the Germans were working on. In a moment of fatal overconfidence, the documents were left on a desk at the office, the Gestapo holding to the firm belief that all of Gulliver’s people were safely in their clutches and that the documents would be secure until the next day.

  But as with all things, someone had slipped through the net. This was a woman named Berthe, who had the courage to sneak back into the headquarters, with the compliance of the concierge, and steal back the documents. She took them to a safe house, hid them and then contacted Forest.

  By now word had spread about the arrests. One of Gulliver’s assistants had just returned from London when he heard the news. His life was in grave danger as his description was known to the Gestapo, so he went into hiding, but not before telling Forest about the significance of the papers Berthe had saved. There was no choice but to retrieve them.

  Forest paid a visit to the location of the safe house to assess its security. It was obvious that the Gestapo were all over it and would watch any visitors. It was entirely possible that they had planned to leave the papers behind just so that such a trap might be laid. Berthe was perhaps followed or the helpful concierge may have been collaborating with the Germans. Anything was possible, but for the time being what mattered was getting the papers.

  Forest formed a plan worthy of any secret agent. He discovered that a doctor lived in the same building as the flat where Berthe had hidden the papers. He went to the address with two companions, intending to tell anyone they met that he was ill and seeking medical advice. As it was the Gestapo had grown tired of their vigil and there was no one watching when they arrived. The papers were remove
d, the unimportant ones were destroyed, and the rest were sent to another safe house to be passed on to London when possible.

  Aside from dodging the Gestapo and acting like James Bond, Forest was still faced with the task of maintaining the crumbling foundations of the resistance movement. Something had to be salvaged from the wreckage, and, surprisingly, it came in the form of Joseph, the eager communist from FANA Forest had met on his last mission.

  Joseph was incomparable to the nightmares that were Sophie and Baudet. Despite their differing politics Forest formed a hearty respect for him and even considered him a friend in those turbulent days. He wrote:

  [Joseph’s] security measures were remarkable and he was an outstanding example of how clandestine work should be done; nothing was left to chance and he introduced me to one very useful method of holding a conversation in comparative safety. We would arrange to meet at the intersection of two streets but not show any sign of recognition, he would then lead the way to a hospital, I would follow him 30 or 50 yards behind, he would walk into the hospital through the visitors’ gate and go into the grounds where I joined him a minute or so later. We could then talk quite at our ease.5

  Joseph also proved an unexpected supporter of the centralising of orders via London, an issue that was controversial among the resistance. Forest was hopeful that Joseph might go to England for further training and Joseph agreed to the idea, but doubted that his party would ever allow it. He was a breath of sanity and common sense among the communists, far too many of whom were driven by the idea that they were the prime victims of the Nazis and therefore should be the only heroic resistance around. Slow communications and a complicated hierarchy meant that it was difficult to coordinate parachute operations with them and they were never quite the asset they could have been.

 

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