The Shelburn Line



'Bonaparte' Beach



MGB 503 in Dartmouth harbour - Dartmouth Museum



Raymond Labrosse - False ID



MGB 502 - Various



Sketch of Paul Campinchi - Paris Sector  2ndwwwblogspot.co.uk

Collecting evaders, SAS teams, French agents, and other civilians from a mined beach on the Brittany coast was a daunting prospect, especially with the highest tidal rise in Europe. The sea could deviate by as much as forty feet in a short time, and the coastline was guarded by the enemy and German E- Boats.
 
A section of Brittany beach codenamed ‘Bonaparte’ was targeted for personnel to be evacuated from Nazi occupied France by boat and the Shelburn Escape Line completed its first successful operation on the night of 28/29 January 1944. The Royal Navy’s 15th Motor Gun Boat Flotilla (MGBs 502 & 503) were used for the tasks,  and missions would always be carried out during a period of the month when no moon was guaranteed.  The special naval unit established in 1942 and based at the port of Dartmouth, had become familiar with clandestine work, so was a logical choice. The powerful Gun Boats had quiet motors, carried modifications to cut down noise in other areas, and with a top speed of 35 knots took at least 25 personnel including the crew. A Channel crossing could be made in less than 4 hours.
 
These were dangerous operations, with both seaborne and land based actions requiring accurate intelligence, secrecy, meticulous planning and preparation. For the Navy, bad weather could also be a deciding factor with hidden rocks and powerful currents. The difficult coastline tested their skills, as the high rising tide and danger of being spotted by the enemy added to the risks.
 
The formation of the Shelburn Line had grown out of a failed attempt in early 1943 to organise an escape network in France which culminated in seaborne evacuations (‘Oaktree.’) The Pat O’Leary Line had managed this method successfully but was overworked, and MI9’s Airey Neave and Jimmy Langley felt a similiar operation could be achieved on a bigger scale via ‘Oaktree.’
 
The other Escape Lines continued to carry out valuable work in getting evaders/escapers over the Pyrenees and through Spain to Gibraltar, but they were feeling both the strain of numbers and effects of enemy infiltration. Additionally, the length of time and distance involved before the airmen reached Britain, when set against comparative time/costs in training of pilots and crew was seen as an opportunity for ‘Oaktree’ to take some weight off the existing lines and increase the count of airmen returning to Britain and operational duty quickly.        

Vladimir Bouryschkine had been a member of the Pat O’ Leary line until his position had been ‘burned’ in 1942, forcing him to be picked up by boat and taken to Britain. He volunteered to return as head of the new ‘Oaktree’ line with French Canadian Raymond Labrosse who would be his wireless man. After a series of delays in trying to land the men in France by Lysander aircraft, they finally parachuted in 'blind' on 20 March 1943. The mission was beset with difficulties from the start. Both radios and one of their fold up bicycles were damaged in landing and neither man was initially able to contact London.
 
The plan to hook up with the Pat O’Leary line and use it as a base of operations from which to establish the ‘Oaktree’ network did not fully materialise. The line had already been infiltrated by traitor Roger Le Neveau and the men were hampered by a continuing lack of proper radio contact. They pressed on and Bouryschkine went to Paris, where safe houses and feeding the airmen would be arranged, before subsequently taking the evaders on to Brittany. He linked up with Paris man Paul Campinchi (‘Francois’) who agreed to take control of operations in the city.  Bouryschkine then returned to Brittany to organise the network there. With a failed attempt to arrange a coastal pick up, the evaders already waiting in the line were transferred to a group taking fugitives over the Pyrenees. It was this change which indirectly caused Bouryschkine’s arrest on a train at Dax with four evaders and a local organiser. Had he not become involved in that route, he would not have been operating in the area.  The group had lost its leader and when Labrosse learned of the arrest he was forced to escape over the Pyrenees to Spain with some evaders via the Burgundy escape network.
 
Once back in Britain, Labrosse convinced MI9 that with a properly organised network, and some changes to the setup, evacuations could still be successfully made via Brittany. He was confident that although a large part of the Pat O’Leary Line had been wrecked by Le Neveau’s treachery, the Paris section under Campinchi and some areas which Bouryschkine and Labrosse had worked on, had a good framework to develop, and they had retained enough security to function reliably.
 
MI9 responded by appointing French Canadian Sgt Major Lucien Dumais as head of the new operation.  Dumais had been captured at the Dieppe raid, escaped from a POW train and used the Pat O’Leary Line to return to England. His forceful drive, attention to detail, organisation and efficiency made him perfect for the role. He was flown in to France by Lysander with Labrosse to set up Shelburn on the night of 16/17 November 1943.
 
The men worked fast. By December 1943, Shelburn was ready to go. Safe houses were organised in Paris and Brittany, couriers with good local knowledge awaited orders and a beach codenamed 'Bonaparte' was selected at Anse Cochat. MI9 were informed that the line was operational.  
 
The evaders were spread across Paris and waited in their safe houses until a date for a rendezvous was near. The men were then guided down to the coastal area of Plouha and Guingamp. This was dangerous as special documents were required to travel in the region and the strategy used around the numbers of evaders being moved at any one time was unlike other escape lines. Once off the Paris train the men travelling together sometimes reached well into double figures. They were known to journey in a lorry posing as foreign workers involved in the maintenance or construction of coastal defences in the area.
 
The evaders waited in their safe houses until confirmation of the rendezvous was received via the ‘Ici Londres’ BBC ‘messages service to ‘our friends in France’. Once the message ‘Bonjour tout le monde a la Maison d’Alphonse’ was heard, the evaders were given food for their journey and then guided to the cliffs where they would hide whilst the guide checked the route and then the beach for mines. If mines were located the guide would mark them with a white handkerchief or cloth. Once the surf boat(s) from the MGB was sighted, the guide would signal the evaders to descend along the cliff path, avoiding the marked mines. On his way back to the cliffs, the guide would collect the handkerchiefs after he had made sure the men were safely aboard.
 
Although Shelburn did not operate for as long as some of the established escape lines, it was successful. From 29/30 January 1944 to 23/24 July 1944, over 119 evaders (mostly American) plus other escaping personnel were evacuated and taken to England.

Sources

Silent Heroes - Sherri Greene Otis
MI9 & MIS X Files
ELMS
www.conscript-heroes.com - visit recommended
www.mtb718.co.uk - visit recommended, especially footage of MGBs involved in Shelburn

 

 

Women and the Evaders Part Two

Herbert Spiller

Restaurant in Paris

John Dix

Jimmy Elliott may have ‘missed the boat’ or had a narrow escape, depending on which way events at the studio flat in Paris were interpreted (see last week’s post), but there was no doubting what was on offer to one American evader in France during 1944 when his guide took him to a safe address where he was left with a woman named Louise for the day. She followed him around the room making attempts to ensure his stay would be more than comfortable. Despite the language barrier the airman managed to engineer a course of action where refreshments and broken conversation became the only things on offer. As he reported afterwards - his evasion situation was difficult enough without any further complications.

 
In 1942 Warrant Officer Herbert Spiller was taken to a Paris flat by operator Marguerite who had collected him from a church. Spiller had gone to the church with the intention of seeking help and fallen asleep exhausted in one of the pews. Priest Abbe Dufour had taken him into hiding. The flat belonged to Marguerite’s parents and Spiller described the journey from the church to the flat:
 
‘ I felt Marguerite’s arm slip behind mine as she endeavoured to make it look as if we were more than passing strollers, and I mentally gave her full marks for her astuteness. She was by no means timorous, and as we looked at each other and smiled, I could see that her face had lost its sadness and had gained a certain air of defiance as if she was enjoying the moment of deception in front of the Germans.’
 
It is easy to understand how an evader and their helper living together in hiding could find themselves drawn to each other. Spiller sounds a note of caution around this:
 
‘I remember thinking that she was extremely brave taking me into her flat without a great deal of  assurance that I wouldn’t do her any harm or try to force myself upon her. I reflected though on the fact that if I had tried to do so my life would have been a little more at risk than it was at that moment. The thought of being pursued by her friends who had questioned me was chilling to say the least and I made a mental pledge to be a good boy at all times.’
 
This pledge could have been severely tested one night in the flat during an Allied air raid on Paris:
 
‘The evenings were better, with a good fire going and some happy hours teaching each other our mother tongues. It was cosy and innocent and I came to look forward to her return.’ (at night) In other circumstances it could, I suppose have led to an indiscretion, but the overshadowing presence of propriety and the possible repercussions…prevented me from losing my head. Although it very nearly happened one night hen I was shaken from sleep by the sound of gunfire in the distance, and the reverberation of bombs.

I slipped into the salon and drew the curtains to see several searchlight cones, heavy flak and the distant ground flashes of bombs. The din was deafening and as I watched dumbfounded I felt a touch on my shoulder. It was Marguerite in her dressing gown looking like a startled rabbit and shaking visibly. I naturally pulled her towards me and we clung together during the whole of the raid, until the noise had died down and her trembling had ceased.

I kissed her forehead and said ‘Are you alright? The RAF have no manners.

She gave me a wan smile. Yes I hope they did well’

It was an affectionate moment when things could have got out of hand, but it passed and Marguerite said ‘How about coffee?’ It was so incongruous, we burst out laughing as we let go of each other.’

 
Sometimes relationships developed further. Flying Officer Gordon Carter was a Canadian operating as a navigator in 35 Squadron. At 18.20 hours on 13 February 1943 his Halifax aircraft took off from Graveley, Huntingdonshie to mark and bomb the U-Boat base at Lorient. Carter’s life was to change dramatically when his aircraft was hit and he baled out.
 
During his evasion, he took the night train to Paris from Brittany in the custody of Georges Jouanjean who was a member of the Brittany resistance group.  Their contact had already been arrested by the Gestapo, but fortunately the flat was no longer under surveillance as the arrest had been made a few days previous. They returned to Brittany, and Carter stayed with Georges’ aunt in Carhaix. After a short time he was passed on to Georges’ elder sister Lucette who lived in Soursin. In order to make the bicycle ride between the two places less conspicuous, Georges asked his younger sister Jannine to accompany them. Carter takes up the story:
 
‘This she did and was impressed by the fact – as she still is today (I married her in 1945) that I cycled at her speed and repaired her chain while her brother was racing on ahead. Jannine and I spent a happy fortnight or so in Soursin.’     
 
Carter moved on to successfully evade, returning to France in 1945 after the war.
 
Secret Service operator Donald Darling worked from Gibraltar for substantial spells during the war. He was responsible for setting up and maintaining a network of agents and escape routes through France and Spain. Numerous evaders who reached Gibraltar were questioned by him. An interesting similarity showed up with some of the men as he described:
 
‘Evaders passing along another Line described being visited by a ‘cabaret artiste’ who called at their hide-out houses and flats, to ‘entertain them.’ Over the months I saw at least eight identical souvenir photographs of this lady wearing a pearl necklace and high heeled shoes, who otherwise had posed in the nude. We called her ‘The Fair Charmer’ and she was decorated after the War by the British Government for ‘Services to the RAF.’
 
One evasion which could translate to the silver screen is that of RAF Sergeant John Dix who was reported missing from an operational sortie against Nuremburg on the night of 27/28^th August 1943. He began his evasion from occupied Luxembourg eventually making it through to Gibraltar via Belgium, France and Spain via the Comete Escape Line.
 
In the early stage of his evasion his guide had a marked effect on Dix:  
 
‘About eight thirty, footsteps on the stairs, a tap on the door and in walked a dream followed by his host. The girl was beautiful, in her twenties, dark hair and wearing a flowered print dress. Dixie’s heart skipped a beat when she introduced herself as ‘Nicole’, took his hands and kissed him on both cheeks. He felt weak at the knees and did not know what to do next, he just held on to her hands and stared. His host was laughing at his obvious surprise, tears came into his eyes, tears of relief, as most of the tension of the past day or so seemed to drain away. She spoke almost perfect English. Dixie did not remember much about the next half hour; they were both laughing and talking as fast as they could go.’
 
‘Nicole’ was to guide Dix through some of the most dangerous journeys and near misses. Putting her own fear and safety aside, she risked everything to do her job before finally  leaving him in Brussels. For Dix he would continue his evasion south. As the pair were both being hunted by the Gestapo, Nicole was unable to return home to Luxembourg and had to remain in Brussels. The danger eventually became too great and after a spell of illness she was forced to flee to neutral Switzerland.  
 
A rare lighter moment between the couple occurred earlier in Dix’s evasion, on his birthday. Ever the gentleman, he behaved appropriately:
 
‘When Nicole returned she explained that it was too late for her to return to ….it was past curfew hours and she did not have a permit to be out after dark in this area. She would have to leave early in the morning to return to work and in the meantime would be staying the night with him. Dixie was stumped for words! He looked at the bed, just about big enough for one so being a gentleman he stuttered and stammered that she could have the bed and that he would sleep on one of the chairs.

She laughed, blew out the candle told him to get undressed and into bed and that she would sleep on top of the sheet and for him to behave himself. When she realised he was hesitating she said ‘Hurry up don’t be foolish, I am very tired, so please hurry and get into bed, so that I can get undressed.’

 
The temperature that night was between eighty and ninety degrees. Hardly surprising, and Dix slept inside the sheets and Nicole on the outside. He reported that:
 
‘He did not sleep a wink that night. The heat, small bed, champagne and brandy, the dangerous situation, a beautiful girl lying naked and asleep beside him was very powerful stay awake medicine.’
 
Sources:
 
MI9 and USAAF files

Silent Heroes – Sherri Greene Otis

Ticket To Freedom- Herbert Spiller

Free to Fight Again – Alan Cooper

Secret Sunday – Donald Darling

Come Walk With Me – John Dix Unpublished Memoirs

  

Women and the Evaders Part One

Jimmy Elliott - Photo For False ID

Montmartre 1940

Irina Demick - The Longest Day

German Soldiers on Steps to Sacre Coeur 1940

Women were often a key part of escape lines, acting as couriers, guides, plus running safe houses where evaders were sheltered, fed, and also nursed if they had injuries.

Files and personal accounts show that young girls; especially those in their late teens were excellent cover to ‘guide’ men on trams, trains and around the streets of town/cities. Sometimes the strategies around evaders walking separate from their convoyers were changed in favour of the girl and man linking arms to masquerade as a couple. The looks and body language shown in public to pass this off were rarely a problem for either party.

Evader Paul Kenney stepped off a train unsure of what to expect since he had been left by his previous helper one stop earlier. A young girl ran to him, threw her arms around his neck and gave him a big kiss. Kenney had never seen her before, but found it was very easy to join in the act, since he ‘was genuinely very happy and relieved to see her.’

Guide Amanda Stassart used the ‘courting couple’ routine in railway carriages when on the Paris to Bordeaux train with evaders, to avoid the wrong kind of passenger entering the compartment.

RAF Flying Officer Jimmy Elliott reached Paris via the Comete Escape Line. As he followed his guide from Gare du Nord, the young Scotsman’s perceptions of escape and evasion were about to be changed. 

‘Blondie set off along the street, with me bringing up the rear, but watching very carefully what was happening up ahead. She certainly was striding out purposefully at a high rate of knots. Perhaps I was concentrating so much on the elegant carriage of our new guide, or maybe I was admiring her legs too much, but the suddenly I was aware of a man having fallen in step beside me. In perfect English, I heard him say ‘Just keep walking, I have a few questions I would like to ask you, just answer them very quietly. He then proceeded to ask me a number of questions, mainly of RAF Service jargon – which only a genuine RAF type would know.

On our way to my temporary lodgings, I was able to take stock of this striking woman, who was at this moment my guardian angel. She was tall, slim, blonde and had the deportment of a mannequin. Typical of many Parisienne women even in wartime she was very fashionably and attractively dressed.  She was in a word – Elegant. Her age could have been anything between 35 and 50 years…’ 

Elliott was taken to temporary accommodation for the night (fireman’s flat at the fire station); a strategy he considered likely as a result of the ‘arrests’ which the man who walked alongside him earlier had mentioned. Madame Blonde gave him her code name of ‘Charmaine’ and when she arrived the next morning and he expected to be taken to a more permanent safe house before moving on from Paris. She advised she would take him to a studio in Montmartre where he was to remain for three or four days. Elliott’s mind was focused on the reason for this rather than anticipation of what awaited him there. He put it down to the recent ‘arrests.’ She must have made him wonder what path events might take, when he learned she had been married to a Frenchman, an American and an Englishman in that order, and with a smile and a wink she had said ‘You will be well looked after – Madame’s husband is in a labour camp – in Germany.’

Elliott said of Madame Charmaine:

‘I was much impressed by her idiomatic English and said so. Small wonder that her English was so fluent, if at times somewhat ‘barrack-room.’

Whilst her looks may have been something to admire, Elliott began to feel uneasy:

‘I met her more often than any of the other guides I was to meet on my journey. On every occasion, I couldn’t rid myself of the horrible feeling that whereas a successful resistance worker or agent should be able to merge into the background and become anonymous, she certainly did not meet those requirements. For that reason, I thought she just had to be in constant danger of arrest. Charmaine was so conspicuous that men could be seen turning in the street to admire her as she passed by.’ 

Once at the studio Charmaine explained that ‘Madame’ could not speak English and covered the ‘arrangements’ which had to be followed exactly,  to avoid discovery. These included a shared toilet on the landing which had to be rapidly accessed and vacated only when the coast was clear and if Madame went out, the advice given was not to answer the door, keep quiet and cross his fingers.

Elliott could understand a little of what his new host said if she spoke ‘lentement.’ He would subsequently have to dredge up long forgotten areas of his schoolboy French during his brief time there. In the light of Charmaine’s comments he began to anxiously look around the room:

‘The studio was a pretty spacious room and of course everything was open-plan. My great predicament was that I could only see one three quarter size bed. However in a corner of the room was a tiny curtained-off area, which I took to be where the artist’s models would change. If this didn’t contain a bed it promised to be an interesting night.’    

Behind the curtain Madame revealed a single bed and for the four nights Elliot slept there. During each evening he was wined and dined with Madame’s excellent cooking (probably obtained via the Black-Market), but he noticed that as the night progressed,  she always yawned on time and insisted on retiring to bed as early as 21.30 hours. When he asked the following morning if she slept well, he was always told that she did not.

On the second evening Madame advised Elliot that a visiting masseuse would be arriving at 09.00 the following morning for her, and he may wish to remain behind the curtain until the session was over. He decided to do this:

‘The sound of flesh, especially female flesh being massaged and pummelled can lead to disturbing feelings in the male of the species. However in the best interests of the security of the Comet Escape Line, and my own freedom I succeeded in sublimating them!’

 On day four when Charmaine came to collect Elliott, things became clearer:

‘I can clearly remember Charmaine and I leaving the somewhat broken down apartment block, turning left and walking down the hill towards the nearest Metro station. With a roguish twinkle in her eye she suddenly stopped and asked.

‘Did you have a good time Jimmy?’

‘Oh yes the food was really excellent, so was the wine and there were plenty of

English books to read as well.’ 

With a puzzled look she went on. ‘Yes - but did you enjoy yourself? You know what I mean.’ Seeing my embarrassment she shook her head in disbelief with the comment.

‘You – You English Gentlemen.’

Elliott went on to leave Paris and successfully evade. He never saw Charmaine again. (See earlier Post ‘The Little Lady in Black and Madame Blonde’)

When men and women found themselves cooped up together under the same roof, human chemistry sometimes intervened. One escape line reported an American airman had fallen in love with a girl living in the house where he was concealed, and he refused to continue his journey. In late 1943 a less savoury incident occurred at a house in Brussels as later relayed by USAAF B17 Bombardier and Second Lieutenant Joseph Milton.*

Milton had arrived at the apartment of Madame Yvette Beersel* who had been sheltering US flyer Alvis Williams* for some time, as he had a bad flak wound on his foot. Beersel was a nurse at a nearby hospital and had been tending the injury.

Milton quickly realised that she had been looking after more than the Williams injury, as it was obvious the pair had become involved. An uncomfortable situation developed, especially with Milton being an officer and having to witness inappropriate and risky behaviour. Williams initially slept on one of the couches for appearances sake, but this did not last long and he moved back into Yvette’s bedroom.

The relationship came to the attention of the escape line and key operator Gaston Mattys (Service EVA) visited the apartment to tell Williams to break it off. An unpleasant scene occurred as Williams told him to ‘F*** off.’

Soon afterwards, Milton continued the rest of his evasion journey with Williams  and during their Pyrenees crossing the latter spoke of marrying Yvette after the war, but with some reticence as he felt she was better educated than him. Williams did not marry her and it is not known whether the pair had any contact again.

During the early stages of their mountain crossing, Milton had to deal with another tricky situation. The party of four evaders were staying overnight in the loft of a barn at a Basque farmhouse. The farm family's daughter and her younger sister brought them food the next day.  The older girl was very physically developed and Wade Kentley* a B17 waist gunner began making advances towards her. Milton was the only officer in the group and had a responsibility to keep the men focused on their goal. Fortunately he spoke Spanish and asked the younger girl how old her sister was.  "Fifteen," she answered.  Kentley was told in no uncertain terms to stop that behaviour or suffer the consequences.

Later in the crossing Kentley decided he could not continue and wanted to give himself up to the Spanish. Their guide at that point was a 12-year old Basque boy and he told Milton that if Kentley did that, the Guardia Civil would use dogs and follow their footprints in the snow to catch up with the rest of the group, arrest them, and turn them over to the Germans.  Milton told Kentley that he would break his leg if he tried it.  That was the end of the matter.

 
*Not their real names

Sources:

One of Those Days – Unpublished Manuscript - James M Elliott 

MI9 and USAAF files

Silent Heroes – Sherri Greene Otis

Thanks to Bruce Bolinger for information on Milton

The Journey Ahead

Colditz Castle

Crete

Burma

Cafe in Paris During Occupation

Paris Restaurant 1943 - Andre Zucca

The Escape Line is now twelve months old. A blog which began around writing and talk of escape and evasion in World War Two quickly grew into something far bigger.

Away from the text books and historians, the personal experience of war at the sharp end has always fascinated me. Diaries, eyewitness accounts, debriefing reports and recorded interviews, draw the reader close to the individuals and what they went through. These sources of reference presented an opportunity to share what happened to Allied escapers and evaders and their helpers in a more personal way. The real experience often tells us more than any overview.  

The fugitives and those involved in any form of help became embroiled in a unique part of the overall conflict. They were drawn into ‘a war within the war’ as they battled against traitors and enemy attempts to smash the escape organisations. The Escape Line will always strive to include the kind of personal account and content which concentrates on the human story.   

 
Many thanks to everyone who has visited and read my posts over the last year - please do keep returning, as you have done in your thousands.  I will continue to blog weekly on Thursday or Friday.

In no specific order here is a selection of posts planned for the next 12 months:

Women and the Evaders

RAF Escapers from a Nazi Concentration Camp

The Wooden Horse

Colditz

Other Escape Lines

The Clergy and the Evaders

The Quickest Evader

The First One to Cross

Cafés, Restaurants and Cinemas

Escape by Lysander

Escape and evasion in Scandinavia, the Mediterranean, Middle East and South East Asia

The Late Arrivals Club

In the Jungle

MI9, IS9 and MIS – X

Gestapo, Geheime Feldpolizei amd Abwehr

 
Thanks again

Keith M

Next Week – Women and the Evaders

 

 

© Keith Morley

 

 

The Last Five Over



RAF Pilot Officer Len Barnes - False ID Photo

RAF Sergeant Ron Emeny - False ID Photo

USAAF Lt Colonel Thomas Hubbard - False ID Photo

USAAF Major Donald Willis - False ID Photo



Thanks note from Barnes - Pierre Elhorga's Notebook

Thanks note from Emeny - Pierre Elhorga's Notebook



Thanks note from Willis - Pierre Elhorga's notebook

Thanks note from Hubbard  - Pierre Elhorga's notebook





 



Thanks note from Cornett - Pierre Elhorga's notebook



 

On 4 June 1944, the last five evaders to cross the Pyrenees via the Comete Escape Line began the final leg of their journey close to the mountains. USAAF airmen Lt Colonel Thomas Hubbard, Major Donald Willis and Second Lieutenant Jack Cornett were already acquainted with RAF Pilot Officer Len Barnes and Sergeant Ron Emeny from Paris. They had travelled down to Bayonne ‘separately’ with their guides in the usual Comete style and had cycled through the hills to the Café Larre run by Martha Mendiara (see prev post on Café Larre), arriving just before nightfall.

Hubbard was a P47 Thunderbolt pilot with the nickname ‘Speed’. This character stamped him, as despite the risks involved, he had refused to surrender his Colt 45 pistol to Comete and still carried the weapon. Cornett flew the same make of aircraft whilst Willis, also a fighter pilot was on Lockheed Lightings.

Len Barnes and Ron Emeny were aircrew on separate RAF Lancasters. Both men had experienced tricky journeys to reach the Café Larre. Barnes the pilot was the only survivor of his crew to still be at large, whilst Emeny a gunner had also ridden his luck to reach this point.

The evaders had recorded their thanks in the notebook of Comete guide operator Pierre Elhorga. In the early morning of 4^th June the five evaders left on bicycles with their conyoyer, travelling to a wood where they hid for the rest of the day to wait for a Basque guide to collect them for the journey to the Spanish border. This area near the frontier was extremely dangerous and frequented by German patrols, hence the guides using remote back lanes and tracks.

As darkness approached, a short and stocky man brought them bread, cheese and milk. He only spoke Spanish, but Donald Willis was able to understand and translate the guide’s instructions to the others. His knowledge of the language had come from working around the Mexican border.

The journey became a relentless slog with the airmen struggling to cope with the pace and testing route which the guide was taking in order to avoid detection by German patrols. For the evaders, weeks and months on the run, sometimes with inadequate food had already begun to tell. Rest breaks meant more time in the danger area and the airmen sometimes had to beg for the group to stop.

After five hours of walking, they arrived at a river (a tributary of the Nivelle) forming the border between France and Spain. The guide stepped into the icy water, with the evaders struggling to keep up and retain their balance on the slippery rocks. Once out of the river, the party struggled on with another guide until 4:00 in the morning. It was essential to clear the immediate area as Spanish patrols were operational and the danger of arrest, imprisonment and being handed over to the Germans was a real threat.

Eventually the party was forced to stop as the evaders were unable to continue. After a stop and drink they struggled on, arriving just after sunrise at an old sheep shed where the guide left them for the day, with instructions to rest and he would return at dusk that night. Without food or drink, the airmen fell asleep exhausted.

The guide returned as promised and they left. Hubbard had developed badly blistered feet and was soon in agony with every step. Fortunately, Willis administered a last injection of morphine from his escape kit and they were able to continue. Just as the airmen reached a point where they were unable to carry on, two men came into view and waved them forward to follow. A few minutes later they reached an isolated farm where they were able to rest for the night in a barn.

 
The following morning, events took a more sinister turn. Willis overheard the agitated farmer telling his daughter not to speak to the airmen, or tell them exactly where they were. This was immediately relayed to the others and Barnes made the decision despite the physical state of the group to leave immediately. He quickly led the way out followed by the others and they later learned that one of the men who had led them to the house had been to the police. They were to have been arrested and returned to the Germans in France for a reward of a sack of grain for each airman.

 
The evaders had no map or knowledge of their current whereabouts. Willis had never surrendered his compass, so the group decided to move in a southerly direction. They soon arrived at a road, which they tracked seeking cover when necessary so as not to risk attention. After walking for another two days with no food and only water from troughs and streams the evaders decided they must finally ask for help.

 
So many accounts of evader’s journeys via the Larressore or Souraide routes over the Pyrenees show long periods without food or water, huge distances walked and minimal shelter being taken in rough stone sheep sheds or barns. They were dangerous times over inhospitable terrain. Despite most of these men being young, it is difficult to imagine how they kept going.

 
Willis and the other evaders passed through the foot hills near Oricain and spotted an isolated farm. They had to take a chance and make themselves known. The plan was to get food in exchange for French money, with Willis the only Spanish speaker doing the talking. They approached the farm and he knocked the door.

 
The farmer, startled by the five scruffy men in front of him, would not feed them and directed the party towards Pamplona, ​​a town lying a few miles below. He recommended they go to the police.

 
In the early afternoon of the 8 June, the men arrived in the town. No one had challenged them and they reached a park before collapsing with exhaustion. This was hardly surprising, as they have travelled around 100 km over the 5 days.

The last throw of the dice was to somehow try and contact the nearest British or American Consulate before they were finally arrested and imprisoned by the Spanish. Willis would try to reach the town Post Office, convince the clerk that a telephone call to the Consulate was imperative and persuade them to let him use the phone.

 
He managed to locate the Post Office and Willis succeeded in convincing the suspicious employee to allow him to make the call. The British Consulate in San Sebastian took the details but advised that they would be arrested immediately as the Police were sure to be notified. Leaving the Post Office, Willis noticed a Spanish Police Officer and two of his men ahead. It was over, and he knew it. The Policemen instantly spotted him and he told them where the other evaders were. Len Barnes remembered opening his eyes in the sun and staring at a gun barrel pointing at him.

What happened next did not follow the pattern experienced by many evaders picked up in Spain. A picture of dirty jails or camps before eventual release and transfer to the British authorities in Gibraltar would have been a likely scenario, but instead the evaders were taken to clean themselves up, then escorted to a restaurant and given food. The next day, they rested between three good meals and a spa, before being taken by bus to San Sebastian and from there on a short train journey to Irun where stayed in a hotel for a week.

Amazingly in Irun, they ended up only a few kilometres from the border with France and 30km from the Café Larre, where their epic journey began. After a week’s stay in a hotel and fresh clothes from an English family, the group were ready to move. Willis, Hubbard and Cornett were collected by a US representative from their Consulate in Madrid and then put on a train to Gibraltar. Hubbard and Willis flew to England on 28 June 1944 and Cornett followed on two days later. Barnes and Emeny spent one night in Sarragosa, five days in Alhama and two days in Madrid, before arriving at Gibraltar on 23 June. They were flown from Gibraltar on 24 June arriving at Whitechurch) on June 25 where they were debriefed the same day.

The last journey from Bayonne into Spain via the Comete Escape Line passed like many before; with exhaustion, lack of food, cold, inhospitable terrain and fear of capture testing the strength and spirit of the evaders. Events did take a more variant turn for the final five men whilst they were in Spanish custody and the days spent in Gibraltar must have mirrored the experiences of many previous evaders who had reached safety. A decision had already been made to abandon the Comete route to Spain due to the planned destruction of the French railway network before D-Day. Instead agents were ordered by London to create holding camps in remote areas and collect rescued airmen until they could be liberated by the advancing Allied armies. Evaders were to be assembled in camps in the Belgian Ardennes and around Châteaudun in France. This was also a political decision to try and prevent the death or incarceration of helpers and lodgers, and where possible avoid the key assembly point cities of Brussels and Paris where so many enemy infiltrations had already occurred. Comete agents were later brought under the umbrella of the new Marathon Network which covered the camps.

Sources:

MI9& MIS-X Files
evasioncomete.org

 

 

 

 

They Got Away Twice - Part Three



Bill Furniss-Roe - Free to Fight Again by Alan Cooper



Spitfire



Perpignon Railway Station During German Occupation

Flying Officer Bill Furniss-Roe was flying escort to Allied bombers for RAF 66 Squadron on 22 August 1943 when his Spitfire came under fire from enemy fighters. He managed to shoot one down before his own aircraft was hit and he was forced to crash-land in Normandy.

 

Furniss-Roe saw Germans coming up the road to begin the search for him, so under cover of a hedge he managed to run into a wood and hide until dark. This would be the start of two amazing ‘back to back’ journeys through occupied France and over the Pyrenees, separated in between by only a matter of weeks.

After dark he began to search the wood and located a small cottage. Taking a chance he knocked on the door and identified himself. For many evaders this was often a pivotal point which decided their fate. Some were given away to the Germans or local Police, others were sent on their way with or without a meal because of the risks around helping Allied servicemen. The penalties were severe and often resulted in execution, imprisonment or despatch to a concentration camp. Measures were also taken against the families. Some patriots did help. A man invited Furniss-Roe into a small room where several children and a woman eyed him with a mixture of surprise and apprehension. He was given some potato soup and Calvados – an interesting combination which must have matched the heat from his burning aircraft.

 
The man was not in the Resistance, but he knew someone who might be able to help. The risks were too great to keep the airman in the cottage, so the man took him back into the woods to a thick clump of bushes where he was given food and a bottle of wine to hide out with until the following night when the man would return.
 

Bill Furniss-Rowe was a logical and cunning thinker. After the man had left, he decided, to move over to another concentration of bushes around fifty yards away. This might give him an extra move in seeing who came back. The night was cold, he cat napped and drifted off to sleep intermittently before being awoken by something moving loudly in the undergrowth. Two woodcutters were working amongst the trees and he could not change his location without risking being seen. The decision to remain hidden went well, until he spotted several Germans in a line abreast moving through the trees and clearly looking for him. The soldiers passed close by but saw nothing. Around midday the woodcutters left and he waited amongst the clammy heat and flies for the man to come back after dark. Around dusk two men with bicycles returned to his original hiding place. He watched for a few moments, recognised the man from the cottage and made a final scan around to ensure they were alone before breaking cover.

The second man confirmed he was in the Resistance and issued instructions for Furniss-Rowe to follow him about fifty yards behind on the second bicycle. If the man was stopped for any reason Bill was to ride past, say nothing and show no signs of recognition. He was given an old mackintosh to wear and the pair set off passing several groups of German soldiers who did not stop them.
 
The destination was the Resistance man’s house, six kilometres away from the woods. Furniss-Rowe hid in the cellar for a few days whilst false identity documents were prepared. His papers showed him as a deaf mute (a strategy often used by escape organisations until the enemy became wise to it). Travelling with a guide he was taken to Paris by train and followed twenty or thirty yards behind as they walked through the city streets until he reached a bar where he was greeted inside by Mme Fabre, a large and variable woman of around sixty years. The bizarre scene that followed defied most of the usual rules of escape and evasion, as she openly introduced him to her son Georges, (who worked in the resistance and was employed at the Renault factory) and then to everyone else in the bar. Although the area of Clichy was renowned for its blanket anti German stance, this was a risky strategy.
 
Georges looked a typical caricature for the Resistance, with his slim figure and dark straight hair. It was easy to picture the man in his mid twenties with a beret, sub machine gun and cigarette sticking from the corner of his mouth.
 

Furniss-Roe’s stay in Paris had similarities to a few other evaders, but in general the string of cavalier events which took place were unusual. He stayed almost a month in the capital and during that time was shown the sights of Paris by Georges as if he was a tourist. Photos were even taken beside German soldiers and he celebrated his twentieth birthday in the bar with Mme Fabre and a party of around 5fifty people.

 
The next part of the journey (now accompanied by an Australian evader) took him by train to Perpignan, ready for an assault on the Pyrenees. The two men followed their guide out of the station to a small house and spent the evening and next day there. A hunched woman in her seventies looked after them and provided a large dinner, wine and brandy. The following evening they were hidden in the back of an old wood burning lorry and driven about 30 miles to a field where they joined up with around 20 to 30 Dutch and French people trying to escape the Germans.
 

Up to this point, events seemed frighteningly simple when compared to some accounts, but the situation was to become more difficult. Three guides were to take them on a gruelling journey in the cold across the Pyrenees mountains. The winter weather was beginning to close in and Furniss-Roe described what happened:

 

‘We had to go over the highest parts to keep away from German patrols – food was provided and shelter in huts. My most memorable meal was a delightful soup – tasty and hot – until I went back for more and saw the meat content was a pair of sheep’s lungs with lights attached, but I still enjoyed the second bowlful. It was incredibly cold – several had very bad frostbite and were left to make do as well as they could. I slipped on an ice patch into a very thorny bush which made my legs bleed badly- which soon became infected.’

 

He managed to make it to Spain, but was picked up and imprisoned in Pamplona:

 

‘My legs were very bad by this time and I could hardly walk. Nobody seemed to know how I could contact the British Consul and nobody seemed very interested. One guard was very covetous of my Omega watch so I managed, with help from the Spanish prisoners to tell him I would give him the case of the watch now and if he would contact the British Consul for me and the works when he came to see me. Two days later the British Consul came out and I parted with the rest of the watch. It took about another week for the consul to get the charge of entering Spain illegally against me waived and to get my release. I was then taken to a nursing home where I spent about three weeks whilst my legs healed. I was then put into a hotel in Pamplona where I stayed for about two weeks.’

 

Following this, Furniss-Roe was taken by coach to Madrid:

 

‘…about thirty of us who I had not met before, were taken by coach…and via a very drunken day at Williams and Humbert Bodega at Xerez ,then on to Gibraltar.’

 

He stayed about a week in Gibraltar before being flown back to the UK.

After interrogation, and a month’s leave, he was back on his Squadron. Shortly afterwards, on 25^th January 1944 while on a Ramrod mission over France, the engine of his Spitfire failed and he force landed 15 miles east of Le Treport. As the aircraft bounced and crashed to a stop, he must have cursed his unbelievable bad luck. German’s from a nearby flak battery quickly surrounded him at gun point. He was led away and locked in a wooden hut near to the battery. After being given food and water, a German officer began to interrogate him in English. No information apart from name rank and number was given, so Furniss-Roe was left in the hut and advised he would be taken to a POW camp the following day. 

 

At this point the escaper’s mind begins to work overtime, assessing the inside of his ‘prison’, assimilating information of what he sees and can remember about the outside. Furniss-Roe noticed the window frame in the hut was rotten and once all was quiet he picked at the whole of the rotten frame with a knife left from his meal. Once it was dark he managed to remove the whole frame, climb out and slip away into the camp containing the flak battery. 

At moments like this, the escaper needs luck to get his next break. Even in the dark, it would have been more likely for Furniss-Roe to encounter a guard or simply be spotted and apprehended. He described events:

 

‘I heard a lorry. I watched and saw it was stopping at huts to collect refuse. I went carefully towards it and saw it was driven by a Frenchman with one helper. I waited until their backs were turned then went under the lorry. When the lorry started up I found a foothold for my feet and hung on. After two or three more stops the lorry drove out of camp with me underneath. After about 200 yards we stopped at a crossroads where I dropped off and they went without me. It was about 4.00 am so I went to into a field and found a good hiding place for the next day.

After dawn I did not hear or see anybody until about 11am.when much to my surprise a Frenchman came straight up to me and asked if I was English. There was no point in arguing so I said yes. He told me he was delighted as they had been looking for me since yesterday, after the crash. He…whistled and a cart with two horses came galloping up the road. When it reached us I was pushed into a load of hay and we ambled gently along. I was taken to a house and put in a cellar with an American Colonel Leon Blythe, who had been there for a couple of weeks.’

 

Once again luck played its part in keeping the men free as Furniss-Roe recounted:

 

‘We spent about a week there awaiting identity cards and civilian clothes, after which we were put on a train to Paris. During this journey a German soldier got into our carriage and said ‘Guten Morgen.’ To my horror Leon answered him saying ‘Good Morning’ –whether the German thought he was speaking bad German …I don’t know – but no further conversation ensued. At Paris a guide took us to a very expensive flat in the exclusive Bois de Bologne area, where Leon and I stayed in the attic for about two weeks.’

 

The war was swinging in favour of the Allies and although D –Day had not arrived, there was a growing confidence and anticipation amongst the Resistance. This might explain what happened to Furniss- Rowe next, when he assumed a role and location that the author sees as being totally out of kilter for the usual escape and evasion practice in Paris at the time:

 
‘During this time and the subsequent four weeks we were in a hotel. I was engaged in interviewing personnel who claimed to be British but about whom the Resistance were worried might be German infiltrators into the Resistance network. The hotel was incredible. There must have been 100 Allied personnel there.’

He then travelled south and this time things ran smoother:
 
‘… some 40 of us walked across the Pyrenees to Andorra. On arrival we were taken to a nice hotel by somebody from the British Embassy in Madrid, then after two or three days sightseeing we were taken by coach to Madrid, then the usual drunken spree at Williams and Humbert ’ * (see first evasion.) ‘and then down to Gibraltar and flight home.’
 

He arrived back in the UK on 10 April 1943 and fittingly worked for a while with escape and evasion organisation MI9.

 

Bill Furniss-Roe’s almost unique two journeys read in places like a holiday jaunt, but this was never true. He clearly had a large slice of good fortune along the way, but there are clues in the sequence of events which suggest sometimes he made his own luck. Sections of the journeys may have been portrayed with a smiling simplicity, but the author’s view is one of the experiences being far more dark and dangerous than recounted. The fact that he achieved what he did in such a short space of time against overwhelming odds is testament to his skills, but also to those on whom  he depended to reach freedom.   

 

Sources

 

Free to Fight Again - Alan Cooper  

 

Further reading  - Believed Safe  Bill Furniss Roe

 

© Keith Morley