Secret Flotillas

Vol. I: Clandestine Sea Operations to Brittany, 1940-1944

Brooks Richards

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2004
• Print ISBN: 9780714653167
• eBook ISBN: 9781135774424
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

With the fall of France, almost the entire coastline of Western Europe was in German hands. Clandestine sea transport operations provided lines of vital intelligence for wartime Britain. These 'secret flotillas' landed and picked up agents in and from France, and ferried Allied evaders and escapees. This activity was crucial to the SIS (Secret Intelligence Service) and the SOE (Special Operations Executive).

This authoritative publication by the official historian, the late Sir Brooks Richards, vividly describes and analyses the clandestine naval operations that took place during World War Two.

Appendix A:
Clandestine Sea Transport Operations to North and
West Coasts of France, 1940–44

Operation Code name	Department	Pinpoint	Ship	Object	Results and remarks
Period: June-August 1940
	SIS (Section D)	Carantec	MTB29	To rescue Mme de Gaulle and family.	19-20/6 -Unsuccessful; family had left via Brest on a merchant ship.
AFB/SL01	SIS (Cohen)	Nr Brest	French MTB	(1) To land 1 agent 20/6. (2} To re-embark agent 1/7.	20/6 -Land ng successful. 1/7 -Agent re-embarked.
AFB/SL02	SIS (Cohen)	Cherbourg	French MTB	To land 2 agents.	2/7 -Attempt to land agents failed tirough faulty compass. No turtner attempt made.
ANGER	SIS (Cohen)	Cherbourg	French MTB	To land 2 agents.	2/7 -Agent (Lt. Hubert Nicolle) successfully landed. 10/11 July -Agent successfully re-embarked.
	SIS (Dunderdale)	Le-Guilvinec	ex-French Navy F/V Le-Petit-Marcel	To land 1 agent (Hubert Moreau) for an intelligence reconnaissance and bring him back to the UK.	26/7 -Sailed from Falmouth. 27-28/7 -Landing successful. 30/7 -Returned to Falmouth.
A5/SL01	SIS (Cohen for Free French	nr St-Pabu (see Results and remarks)	MTB	To land 1 agent and later re-embark him.	30/7 -Agent taken to pinpoint but refused to land. Later landed and returned by fishing boat. This must have been Jacques Mansion, de Gaulle’s first emissary. Mansion subsequently placed pinpoint at Plojgasnou, near Morlaix.

Operation Code name	Department	Pinpoint	Ship	Object	Results and remarks
Period: August-October 1940
Free French 2e Bureau	Pointe-de-la-Chèvre	French F/V Jiji	To land Jacques Mansion.	Early August -Landing successful.
SO2/SLO1	Section D (SIS) (S02/SOE)	(1) Primel, near Morlaix (2) Anse-de- Bréhec	1/8 Beigian Motor Yacht; MTB for subsequent attempts	To land 4 agents.	1/8 Attempt by Section D failed, owing to expedition’s encountering German convoy. 10 subsequent attempts organised by Section G3 (Slocum) failed, mostly owing to weather or enemy action. Agents machine-gunned 11/10 while attempting to land at Anse-de- Bréhec. Operation abandoned.
A5/SL02	SIS (Cohen and Free French)	Hourtin lighthouse, nr Bordeaux	HMS/m Talisman	To land 3 agents (Bohec and 2 British agents, according to BCRA archives).	2/8 -Unicentified agents landed successfully.
DCO/SL01	Directorate of Combined Operations	Guernsey	MA/SB 40	(1) To land 1 British Sergeant to contact 5 DCO personnel left behind in a raid on Guernsey. (2) To re-cmbark whole party of 6.	2/8 -Sergeant Ferbrache landed. 5/8-Ferbrache re-embarked. Remainder of parly had given themselves up to tho Germans.
A5/SL03	SIS (Cohen and Free French 2e Bureau)	Mouth of R. Orne (Langrune)	MDV 1 and MA/SB 40	(1) To land 2 agents 4/8. (2) To re-embark agents 7/8.	4/8 -Agents St Jacques and Corvisart successfully landed. 7/8 -No agerts seen at pinpoint. Subsequently returned via Spain.
	SIS (Dunderdale)	Douamenez	F/v Rouanez-ar-Peoc’h	(1) To land 2 agents (Hubert Moreau and another). (2) To re-embark them 12 days later.	4/8-Rouanez-ar-Peoc’h sailed from Falmcuth. 5/8-Agenls successfully landed. 17/8-Huoert Moreau successfully re-emDarked.

Operation Code name	Department	Pinpoint	Ship	Object	Results and remarks
Period: September-October 1940
A5/SL04	SIS (Cohen)	Guernsey	MTB	(1) To land 2 agents 3/9. (2) To picK up one or more agents 6/9.	3/9 -Landing successful. 6/9 -Operation tailed due lo faulty compass. Weather prevented further attempts. One of the agents concerned was Lt. Hubert Nicolle of the Guernsey Militia, who spent the rest of the war as a POW.
	SIS (Dunderdale)	Douarnenez	Rouanez-ar-Peoc’h	(1) To land Hubert Moreau 6/9. (2) To re-embark Moreau anc mail at subsequent dale. (3) To land Roger Lefèvre. WT operator, and collect mail 27/9.	5/9(?) -Sailed from Falmouth. Landing successful. Rouanez-ar-Peoc’h returned to base. Moreau, feeling himself compromised, took passage from Douamenez before the agreed date on an Etel tunnyman, which returned him to England, where Burgaud. v/ho accompanied him, was interrogated on 19/9. Rouanez-ar-Peoc’h returred to Douanenez 27/9 witn Lefèvre. alter making a stop at Sein to land Prosper Couillandre.
A5/SL05	SIS (Cohen)	Jersey	MTB	To land 1 agent	5/9 -Strong tidal stream forced MTB to use main engines near coast Noise alerted defences. Landing abandoned.
G3/SLO1	SIS (Siccum) (combined with operation for Free French 2e Bureau)	lle-de-Sein	Rouanez-...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• List of Illustrations
• List of Maps and Figures
• Preface to the Second Edition
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements to the First Edition
• Acknowledgements to the Second Edition
• Introduction
• I. The Lost Battle for France: May–June 1940
• II. The British Clandestine Services In the New Strategic Context
• III. Slocum’s Section and the First Operations to Northern France
• IV. First Contacts With the West Coast of France
• V. August–October 1940
• VI. November 1940–March 1941
• VII. Did the Abwehr Allow L’Émigrant to Escape?
• VIII. SOE’s Aspirations and Operations: August 1940–June 1941
• IX. SOE’s Endeavours to Set Up Independent Sea Transport to Brittany, 1941
• X. April–November 1941
• XI. October 1941–February 1942
• XII. November 1941–June 1942
• XIII. January 1942–March 1943
• XIV. West Coast: November 1942–October 1943
• XV. North Coast: Winter 1943–44
• XVI. The Aber-Benoît Saga: November–December 1943
• XVII. North Coast and the ‘Var’ Line: August 1943–April 1944
• XVIII. The ‘Shelburne’ Escape Line: January-March and July– August 1944
• XIX. July–August 1944
• XX. Operations for SIS: January–August 1944
• XXI. Escapes By Sea from Brittany: 1940–44
• Epilogue
• Notes
• Appendix A: Clandestine Sea Transport Operations to North and West Coasts of France, 1940–44
• Appendix B: Clandestine Escapes and Contacts At Sea By Vessels from Breton Ports, 1940–44
• Appendix C: Recommendations By Captain Slocum for Awards to Members of the 15th MGB Flotilla and Inshore Patrol Flotilla
• Appendix D: Comments On Marie-Louise Rendezvous
• Bibliography