The Secret Ministry of Ag. & Fish

by Noreen Riols

  SOE was Churchill’s ‘baby’, and Churchill was the supreme authority. Since we were under his protection, as long as he was in power not even the combined efforts of MI6 and General de Gaulle were able to remove us from the scene. But, after the war ended, Churchill was no longer in power. At the general election in July 1945 he was ousted, and SOE lost its protector.

  Unfortunately the spirit of unity and the entente cordiale that characterized F Section did not stretch to our links with General de Gaulle’s BCRA. Although both organizations were working to free France from Nazi occupation and oppression, they did not work together. On the field level, members of F Section were on friendly terms with their opposite numbers in the BCRA. It was General de Gaulle who was the problem. Having refused to accept Pétain’s armistice with the Germans, the general had decided to continue the fight from a base in England, prophetically stating in his now historic call over the airwaves of the BBC on 18 June 1940 that ‘France had lost a battle, but had not lost the war’, hence his idea that he was incarnating France, not a defeated nation, but a future victorious country.

  At first, Winston Churchill admired de Gaulle’s courage and determination. When Pétain signed the armistice with Hitler and France fell under German domination, he sent a plane to evacuate the general and his family to England. ‘General, you are all alone,’ Churchill declared. ‘Well, alone, I stand with you.’ (‘Vous êtes tout seul. Eh bien, je vous reconnais tout seul.’) On 2 August, on Pétain’s orders, the Permanent Military Tribunal at Clermont-Ferrand not only stripped Colonel (acting General) Charles de Gaulle of his military titles and his French nationality, but also confiscated his property and condemned him to death for treason, for deserting his country for a foreign power in time of war. Churchill immediately gave both the general and his staff all the help and assistance they needed, not least by allowing him access to the French Service of the BBC.

  But the talented team behind the BBC French Service’s broadcasts to occupied France, composed mostly of well-known journalists, were treated with ‘veiled hostility’ by de Gaulle’s staff. The general later faced strong opposition in London itself from many fellow countrymen who had initially supported him. They objected to his rigid, dictatorial attitude, and La France Libre and other non- (or anti-) Gaullist newspapers began to appear on the London news stands.

  Strangely, the more dependent de Gaulle was on the British, the more determined and belligerent he became, behaving as if he were a head of state. It was therefore unavoidable that de Gaulle’s relationship with Churchill would quickly deteriorate. Clashes between these two men, both with strong personalities, became more and more frequent and acrimonious. In 1943, after one of their violent exchanges, Churchill exclaimed: ‘Look at this man. He’s alone. He has nothing. He has no country. He has no army. Yet he behaves as if were as powerful as Stalin.’ What the general failed to understand was that all he possessed he owed to Churchill, and that without Churchill he would be nothing. He appeared to have forgotten, or perhaps he preferred not to remember, the French saying ‘Qui t’a fait roi?’ (‘Who has made you king?’).

  General de Gaulle was a fiercely proud, patriotic, chauvinistic man. He strongly objected to any interference by a foreign power in France’s affairs and refused to allow English to be spoken at his HQ in Carleton Gardens. Any person crossing the threshold, should they not speak French, was obliged to go through an interpreter. This rule was absurd, since his second-in-command, Colonel de Wavrin, spoke perfect English, and most of his officers were fluent in the language of Shakespeare. Leo Marks, who frequently went to Carleton Gardens to instruct the officers in coding, said that he knew most of them understood what he was saying since he always introduced an amusing anecdote into his lectures, and they always laughed before the interpreter had got round to interpreting it.

  In an effort to wipe out SOE and be solely responsible for organizing clandestine operations in France, de Gaulle allied himself and worked closely with MI6. He declared that any French citizen fighting under the British flag was a traitor sold to foreign interests, and that once France was again free, any French man or woman who had been a member of SOE would be court-martialled for having served with a ‘foreign power’! Mercifully I don’t think he carried out his threat.

  The contemptuous name ‘amateur bandits’ by which MI6 referred to us was the brainchild of Claude Dansey, the assistant chief of MI6 whose role was to liaise with SOE. It is even reported that he delighted in SOE’s failures, and rejoiced at the collapse of the Prosper réseau. Can it be true that Dansey rejoiced at this barbarity, this terrible tragedy? What is true is the dislike, which almost amounted to hatred, between Dansey and General Gubbins, head of SOE. Unfortunately, neither made any attempt to disguise the fact, which must have warmed the general’s heart.

  A few years ago I was horrified to read, in a British Sunday newspaper, the Maurice Dufour story. According to an investigation conducted by Michael Bilton, a journalist, Dufour, a Frenchman working for MI6, was posted in 1941 as a supervisor at a Vichy government internment camp for British prisoners of war. From there he organized the escape to Britain of dozens of downed RAF crews. Believing the Germans to be suspicious of his activities, Dufour fled to Lisbon, and from there was flown to England.

  According to the journalist, Dufour, having cooperated with British Intelligence, was brutally tortured by BCRA security agents in the basement of 10 Duke Street, one of de Gaulle’s headquarters in London. Bilton claimed that several other Frenchmen were submitted to the same ordeal. According to the records, Paul Manuel, after being tortured, committed suicide in this cellar. But the distinguished forensic scientist Sir Bernard Spilsbury, who performed Manuel’s autopsy, declared that suicide was not the cause of death. Manuel had been strangled before being strung up from a pipe in a corner of the cell in order to simulate suicide. After these facts came to light, the cellar at Duke Street where these atrocities had been committed was officially closed by the investigating British authorities. But the British government, wishing to avoid further conflict with General de Gaulle, is said to have covered up these crimes.

  Whether this story is true, I cannot say. Many French people I have spoken to doubt it. But Bernard Spilsbury was a well-known and highly respected pathologist, perhaps the most respected pathologist of the time, so it is difficult to imagine that the story is a complete fabrication.

  The general, who, from what the account stated, was aware of these crimes committed in, and against, a country which had protected and sheltered him, appeared to have forgotten that France was a defeated country, now under the German boot. He ignored the fact that if he had an organization, any power at all, it was because Britain, the ‘foreign power’ he so fiercely opposed, had granted him refuge, given him an HQ from which to operate and fed, clothed and financed his Free French Army and the members of his organization.

  Michael Foot’s official history of SOE was published in London in 1968, and the French translation completed shortly afterwards. But its publication was banned by the general. As far as he was concerned, SOE had done nothing. It was his set-up, the BCRA, which had organized and carried out all the resistance in France. Consequently, the French edition of SOE in France only appeared on the shelves of bookshops in France in 2008.

  When the general returned in triumph to France in 1944 he tried to crush any mention, and erase any memory, of SOE; and his treatment of some SOE agents he met was despicable.

  ‘Hilaire’ – George Starr – had been infiltrated by felucca and fishing boat into south-west France in December 1942, from where he made his way to the foot of the Pyrenees to set up the Wheelwright réseau. He had worked tirelessly for more than two years, arranging drops of materials, recruiting and training Resistance members into a fighting unit, always one step ahead of the Germans. He was never caught. In a victory parade before General de Gaulle he marched at the head of his army of 1,000 résistants. This did not please the general. He was incensed that an Englishman
should lead a group of French fighters, so, when Starr was presented to him after the ceremony, de Gaulle ordered him to leave France immediately. In other words, he was summarily told to get out! Starr apparently replied, ‘Je vous emmerde’ (‘To hell with you’). Stunned that anyone could speak to him so disrespectfully, de Gaulle gasped, ‘I beg your pardon?’, whereupon Starr replied, ‘General, have you been away from your country for so long that you’ve forgotten the language?’, turned on his heel and walked away.

  Roger Landes, who headed an army of 5,000 résistants, was given by the general two hours to leave France. ‘Xavier’ – Richard Heslop – organizer of the Marksman réseau, a remarkable man, but then they all were, who had become almost a legend in the Ain, where he operated, was given by the newly formed administration thirty-six hours to leave the country. Yet another agent, who had worked in the Bordeaux area, was pushed forward by his Resistance group to be introduced to General de Gaulle, who was making a victory tour of the area. He was told by the general in no uncertain terms that he was not welcome in France and given ten minutes to leave. He apparently asked the general if he might reply, was granted permission, said, ‘Merde,’ and walked away.

  General de Gaulle was very afraid his countrymen would believe that it was not his 55,000-strong Free French force alone which had brought about the final victory and the liberation of France, and he did everything in his power to suppress, if not erase, the memory of SOE – ably assisted, no doubt, by MI6. When he became president of France in 1945 de Gaulle showered medals and decorations on his BCRA agents and office staff, even down to the typists. But SOE agents were ignored. They received nothing – and were even denied pensions.

  As far as I was concerned, the French Ministry of Defence has consistently refused to grant me the status of veteran. The reason given? The UK, where SOE operated, was not a war zone, and SOE not a fighting unit! But the real reason is that I was a member of SOE. Had I belonged to the BCRA, the general’s organization, I would have been given a veterans card over twenty years ago.

  However, out of the blue in March 2013 I received an unexpected call from the veterans minister’s PA inviting me to lunch with the minister, Monsieur Kader Arif, at the Ministry, when he would be pleased to give me my veteran’s card. After almost twenty-two years of constant refusals I couldn’t believe my ears. So I accepted his invitation. It was a delicious lunch in a beautiful setting with the only woman general in the French Air Force and a delightful French naval captain present. To my astonishment I was given the seat of honour at the table, on the right of the minister. He was charming and not only gave me my card, but also an enormous bouquet of flowers and the Médaille des Volontaires de la Résistance as well. It was a special card, I learned afterwards, which goes with the medal. I know that this is thanks to that ‘little girl’ who almost suffocated under the blanket when listening to the BBC during the war. Sabine, who is now a doctor of law, has become my friend. Since she often works in close collaboration with the government, I know she spoke to the minister about my frequent requests and refusals. Sometimes life works in strange, mysterious ways!

  Radio operator Henri Diacono, who had behaved so courageously in the face of danger, received his Legion of Honour decoration when he was in his seventies. And then it was not pinned on his chest by the French president at the Elysée Palace, but by a former F Section agent, during a simple ceremony at the Free French Club in Paris.

  Despite their outstanding acts of bravery, no member of SOE was named to the prestigious roll of 1,038 Resistance heroes known as the Compagnons de la Libération, even though General Eisenhower had stated in May 1945 that the disruption of enemy rail communications, the harassing of German road transports and the continual, increasing strain placed on German security forces throughout Europe by SOE’s organized resistance played a very great part in our complete and final victory. Military historians credit SOE, along with other Resistance fighters, with delaying the arrival of large numbers of German reserves for the Battle of Normandy, but SOE was not honoured in the commemoration of the battle in 1994.

  This dismissive, disdainful, one might almost say cruel treatment, this refusal to acknowledge or even believe the British contribution to the Resistance and the Allied efforts towards the final liberation of France, extended even to local French-born members of the Resistance, recruited by SOE on the ground. It was not only British-trained agents who were ignored, but also de Gaulle’s own compatriots, those who had responded to his call from London in June 1940 to resist and join in the struggle against Nazi Germany. They had indeed answered his call and resisted but had joined SOE – the ‘wrong side’.

  What the general could not deny, though he made every attempt to prevent the facts from being known, are the following figures. They were quoted, during a conference held at the residence of the British ambassador to France in December 2008, by Jean-Louis Crémieux-Brilhac, who had been a close adviser to General de Gaulle when he was in London. He is now not only the best-known but also the official historian of clandestine operations from England during the Second World War.

  480 F Section agents were infiltrated into occupied France by the RAF. Of them, 30 were women, 15 of whom never came back, executed, after being horribly tortured, in one of the infamous concentration camps – usually Ravensbrück. Altogether 104 F Section agents gave their lives for France whilst on missions. This figure does not include those agents who disappeared without trace and whose fate is still unknown.

  329 high-risk pick-up and landing operations (224 successful, 105 failed), with 446 passengers landed and 655 (including rescued air crews) flown to England.

  470 résistants were picked up and 211 agents landed by the Royal Navy.

  425,000 résistants were trained into fighting units, and equipped with tons of supplies, parachuted in by the RAF: Sten guns; millions of cartridges; mortar rounds; hand grenades; radio transmitters; combat boots, clothing; food; and enormous sums of money.

  The RAF also dropped millions of tracts over occupied France.

  During the Normandy landings in June 1944, SOE’s prior undercover operations and sabotage behind enemy lines saved the lives of thousands of Allied soldiers.

  But in November 1970, General de Gaulle went to his grave still denying SOE’s immense contribution to the liberation of France – and even its very existence.

  PART TWO

  The Aftermath of War, the Dream – and the Reality

  Chapter 16

  The war ended and the ‘peace’ began. But not the peace we had dreamt of during those turbulent years. The Second World War changed everything beyond recognition. Some former agents who had performed heroic acts never really recovered from their traumatic experiences. They found it hard to accept this ‘peaceful’ world, which was far from the peace they had fought for, and to which they had hoped to return.

  Many agents received very poor post-war treatment. For the most part they were ignored, not only by General de Gaulle but also by the British authorities which had sent them into the field; their value and their contributions to the war effort were never recognized.

  Lise de Baissac, Yvonne Baseden and Pearl Cornioley had to wait until they reached a ripe old age before receiving their wings. Lise had hers pinned on her breast at ninety-nine! She died shortly after. I remember seeing a photograph of the ceremony, Lise standing to attention, as slim and upright as ever, smiling happily as the wings were at last fastened to the lapel of her jacket. Pearl and Yvonne were in their eighties before they received this deserved recognition. In February 2012, one month after her ninetieth birthday and more than ten years after receiving her British ‘wings’, Yvonne’s wartime activities were finally recognized by the French authorities. At a private ceremony in London, where Yvonne now lives, Admiral Edouard de Coriolis, the French defence attaché, pinned her French wings onto her dress. But I don’t think the French ever honoured in this way Lise and Pearl or any of the other F Section women agents who had parachuted in
to France.

  Radio operator Henri Diacono, after having performed heroic deeds while working in occupied France, discovered on his return to London that he had been demoted from captain to lieutenant! And it was as a lieutenant that he retired. Perhaps it is not surprising that, when he was approached and asked to join Force 136 operating in the Far East, parachuting agents behind the lines into the Burmese jungle to fight the Japanese, he declined the offer.

  Like Henri, Krystyna Skarbek, known as Christine Granville, was also poorly treated by the authorities after the war. A Polish countess who had carried out undercover work with her husband in her native country, she escaped to Egypt after her husband was killed, from where she was recruited by SOE’s Cairo office and sent to England for training. She was parachuted into France to work as a courier for the Jockey réseau, where she carried out amazing and courageous acts of bravery. It was she who orchestrated the eleventh-hour release of Jockey’s organizer, Francis Cammaerts (‘Roger’), and his two companions from a prison cell in Lyons, where they were awaiting execution at dawn that morning. When the war ended, she was no longer able to return to her native Poland, where both her own and her husband’s estates had been confiscated. Almost penniless, Christine was obliged to work as a chambermaid in a hotel, before taking a job as a stewardess on a cruise ship. In 1952, she was murdered: stabbed to death in the foyer of the third-rate London hotel where she lived.

  Nancy Wake, who was awarded the George Medal and three Croix de Guerre with palm and one with star, the Médaille de la Résistance, the American Medal of Freedom and the insignia of a Chevalier of the Legion d’Honneur, the Order of Australia and the New Zealand Returned Serviceman Gold Medal, was the most decorated woman agent of the war. But when in 1997 Nancy left her native Australia and returned to England, she was obliged to sell her medals in order to live.