F Section SOE

The Story of the Buckmaster Network

Marcel Ruby

• Publisher: Leo Cooper
• Year: 1988
• Print ISBN: 9780850526806
• eBook ISBN: 9781473813960
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World War II
• Index: History

The F-Section of the SOE was a department that stood for French Section, whose job it was to carry out Churchill's famous command to 'set Europe alight'. This is the story of F-Section.

CONTENTS

Foreword

Introduction

PART I: SOE and the Buckmaster Networks

1. Special Operations Executive

2. Colonel Buckmaster

3. SOE and the French

PART II: SOE in Action

1. Laying the Foundations

2. Action

3. Undercover Agents

PART III: SOE in France

1. The Reckoning

2. The Setbacks

3. The Sacrifice

Epilogue

Bibliography

Index

FOREWORD

by Jean Pierre-Bloch¹

No one is better qualified to write this book than Marcel Ruby, author of numerous works on the French resistance and winner of the Comité d’Action de la Résistance award for literature. It is also a timely book. An epic saga of the British secret service agents and SOE’s Buckmaster groups, it makes a thrilling story.

At a time when many writers, glossing over the horrors of mass deportation, are trying to impose their own ignoble version of resistance history, it is salutary to recall the days when France was struggling to repel the Nazis and their accomplices in the Vichy régime. For this is the story that should be told. The first steps towards an organized resistance in France were taken by SOE. Many of us, among the first SOE agents, were unaware of what was happening in London, thanks to de Gaulle’s reservations about the British. In 1941, as far as we were concerned, the men who fell from the sky had been sent by de Gaulle, and that was all that mattered. But Marcel Ruby demonstrates how those early agents, both French and British, opened the door to a better understanding, so that London had a clearer idea of what was going on in France, and vice versa.

At that stage of the war, many of those who later proved their worth in the resistance were either counselling prudence or flatly refusing to offer us the slightest help. For them, Nazi Germany had won the war, was on the way to world domination, and we had better just accept it.

But as we proved, even in those early days, there was a movement towards resistance in France, doing all in its power to help the British in their lonely stand against Hitler.

Once again, let us thank Marcel Ruby for his lively and accurate account of the Buckmaster groups and their exploits.

1. Former minister, MP and chairman of LICRA, as well as one of the first agents in the Buckmaster networks.

INTRODUCTION

All secret service agents, or so the general public fondly imagines, are supermen like James Bond. They live wildly exciting lives, unravelling machiavellian plots, courting death at every turn, performing feats of prodigious daring in defence of vital interests. Equipped with sophisticated weapons, they belong to a world of violence, alcohol and lovely women. And they always win.

The reality is very different. It often exceeds in dramatic intensity anything that cinema has been able to invent. The secret agent, man or woman, who undertakes such work is seldom prepared for the pitiless war in the shadows. With precious little else to help them, they must rely on their own courage and common sense to fulfil the impossible tasks they are set. They must watch themselves at every turn. But they are only human. They know what fear is; they know the constant anxiety of living in enemy territory – where, nevertheless, they sometimes find real, true friendship and bravery. Sometimes even love. Sometimes prison, torture, deportation or death….

Winston Churchill’s orders to SOE and the Buckmaster groups were brutally simple: ‘Set Europe ablaze!’

And so, under the leadership of the legendary Colonel Buckmaster, men and women of exceptional strength of character threw themselves into the savage fight, their enthusiasm undimmed by all the risks.¹

In the secret war, truth really was stranger than fiction. This book shows how honest citizens transformed themselves into redoubtable terrorists. How they made parachute landings by night, duly equipped with a cyanide pill – just in case. How the reception committee was often missing – or replaced by a German one. How three courageous brothers, then a handful of agents, managed to weave a veritable spider’s web of resistance groups over the whole country.

How each group was organized: the logistics (utterly reliable people who hid arms, money, addresses of those responsible for local operations); the clandestine radio operators (whose role, apparently modest, was in fact essential – and terribly dangerous – for without them the agent was isolated and useless); and, of course, those who were directly responsible for taking action in the field.

How the agents were relentlessly pursued by the Gestapo and its allies, French collaborators. How they fell into traps, as at the Villa des Bois in Marseilles, or into the hands of Mathilde Carré (‘La Chatte’), whose exploits were the subject of a recent film – but who was finally used to hoodwink the Germans. How they fell victim to certain passeurs, those whose duty it was to lead them along the escape lines but who led them instead to imprisonment in the Spanish camp at Miranda; or were betrayed by people seeking to save their own necks or by others actively working for the Nazis. How certain highly regarded people made a pact of honour with the Germans – and later paid the price for their mistake. But also how the imagination, cool heads and astonishing ingenuity of people like Ben Cowburn often served to outwit the enemy and his accomplices.

How the handful of Buckmaster groups managed to destroy vital economic and military targets – usually by means of plastic explosives – like the metal-pressing plant at Fives-Lilies, the propellor works at Ratier, the wireless factory at Ronchin, the Ducatillon oil refinery at Willems, the sluice at Roubaix, bridges, intricate machinery, trains carrying fuel or munitions, giant cranes, railway equipment, the main transformer for the submarine base at Bordeaux, etc., etc. How the famous Peugeot works at Sochaux, turning out cars and trucks and also tank turrets for the Wehrmacht, were put out of action with the knowledge and help of their owner, Robert Peugeot.

And above all, how Buckmaster’s people provided arms, training and active guidance to the maquisards and resistance workers, notably following the Normandy landings when they managed to delay a German tank regiment on its way to the battlefront. The reader may well be surprised to find some familiar names cropping up here.

From the SOE doctor interned in Buchenwald concentration camp, to the dainty elegant figure of a young Hindu princess who became an SOE heroine, shot in the back of the head at Dachau, the story of the Buckmaster groups could well be turned into a whole series of thrillers or spy films.

Marcel Ruby
1 May 1985

Suddenly appearing as if from nowhere, old Curly was already running towards us, making frantic gestures.

‘My god, where have you been?’ he yelled. ‘They’ve been waiting for you for an hour, circling round and round. What the hell were you doing?’

‘But it isn’t time yet,’ we protested. ‘We said midnight or one o’clock, and it’s only what – eleven twenty now.’

‘Time or not, they’re here. And at that altitude it’ll be a miracle if everybody in the country hasn’t spotted them.’

Moonlight flooded the clearing in front of us, about nine hundred metres by three hundred. Beyond it stood the forest, covering the horizon; for some reason I found this reassuring, perhaps because its shadows offered a refuge from the moon’s floodlit stage.

The aircraft – one of ours, of course – was still circling overhead. We set to and laid out the huge white paper cross which Dupuy had brought. Curly stationed himself at one end, Dupuy at the other, with me in the middle, each clasping a flashlight. The aircraft came straight over us but they didn’t drop anything. What was happening? We had given all the right signals.

We waited so long I began to get worried. ‘Hey, Dupuy,’ I called softly, ‘you don’t think…?’

‘It could be an enemy plane? Yes. Put your torches out.’

We had just switched off our flashlights when three parachutes left the aircraft above. At last! We ran towards the nearest man who had already landed in the middle of the clearing and was getting out of his harness. As we approached he stood up, gun in hand, shouting, ‘Who’s there?’

I gave him the password and he lowered his gun. Dupuy joined us with the second man, who was pointing at the trees. ‘Our friend has got stuck,’ he said.

We found the third man at the edge of the forest, somewhat scratched but safe, and began to guide them towards the road. There was no time to lose.

‘It’s not over yet,’ one of the parachutists said. He spoke excellent French and I took him for a Gaullist officer. ‘You’re supposed to be getting three crates of weapons and two radio sets.’

But the aircraft had vanished.

‘We weren’t told about that,’ Curly said. ‘It probably isn’t meant for us. Anyway, the plane has gone now. The best thing we can do is look after these fellows. And it won’t be all that easy, getting them away. That plane of theirs was droning round and round for hours and the alarm’s probably been raised already. We’ll have to get them hidden as fast as possible.’

He was right. And so the two parachustists who were going with Curly gave us the bundle of 500 letters (written by refugees in London to their families in France), as well as their revolvers and two million francs in 1,000-franc notes which were urgently needed in Marseilles.¹

This dramatic scene described by Jean Pierre-Bloch took place not in June 1944, on the eve of the Normandy landings, but way back in October 1941. Barely a year after the German invasion and occupation of most of France, intelligence agents were already flying out from England and making parachute drops onto French soil, to be met by French patriots. And so, even then, despite the Gestapo and Vichy authorities, there were obviously close links between France and Britain. These men and the weapons and funds they brought would help the bitter struggle against the occupying forces and collaborators.

How was this possible, so soon after the greatest defeat in French history? Who were these men rallying to the cause, backing the gallant French resistance in its fight against an enemy who then seemed so invincible?

Colonel Buckmaster’s SOE was still unknown. And yet …

1. Despite a general reticence born of genuine modesty, the author ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Full Title
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents