The man who gave the order for this heartless roundup was Vichy President Pierre Laval. Back in 1940, after using his media empire to support the Vichy government and Pétain as its dictator, Laval had been made president. He developed such close ties to the Nazis, that other Vichy officials requested his removal. Pétain complied in December 1941, but in April 1942 Pétain recalled him to the presidency. Ruthlessly rounding up the Jews and treating them in the most appalling manner would only be his first act of inhumanity.
Virginia kept London on top of things by sending off long, coded reports with outgoing agents. It was important that London know every detail of life in the zone libre. In one report she wrote:
People take a pretty sour view of the British these days, but they are still hoping for their victory and many, many of them are willing to help, but they would appreciate seeing something concrete besides retreating. They acknowledge the vastness of the task the British have taken on, but are not able to take the really broad view. However, a good part of the army is ready and the 153rd regiment here, whose officers are almost all Alsatians and Lorrainers, is ready to march tomorrow—with pleasure.
Virginia was driven to make everything she touched a success, but being a perfectionist had its downside. It was discouraging to see what was needed but not be able to force others into action. To be sure, she was gratified with the number of Resistance recruits who kept surfacing. There just wasn’t enough time to organize them properly.
May I urge again that a good executive and organizer be sent here. Talk to Olivier—he understands somewhat the situation. Actually we could use about six clever chaps in various centers this side. It’s a snowball, but you do need a certain number of perfectly and utterly reliable persons—persons from “home.”
A few weeks later, Virginia reported on the French mentality. This kind of information was vital for London. It allowed them to project what kind of support they might expect should the Allies ever be able to mount a landing on the continent of Europe.
The unrest in the south amongst the peasantry is growing. Continued interference by the government in their private affairs is getting them down. The fact that they cannot keep seed for plantings but must ask the ravataillement [sic] [Food Control Office)] for seed, and in order to get it, must promise from 50 to 99 percent of the harvest to the ravataillement, again has soured them considerably. Many are not planting wheat this year because they have to give it all back. The country folk are turning more and more against the government and more and more toward the English whom they don’t like, fundamentally. And of course, the wine situation is unbearable, the latest aggravation being that no wine can be served in the south, Marseille and Avignon, etc., with dinner in the evening. It is all flowing north.
The previous month, a colorful SOE agent by the name of Dennis Rake arrived in Lyon. Justin, as he was code-named, was completely open and honest with Virginia at their first meeting, telling her that he had joined SOE primarily because he was without family obligations. But he had a personal reason as well. He wanted to prove to himself and the world that just because he preferred romance with another man, it didn’t mean he wasn’t brave. He was as good a “piano player” as the next fellow, Rake told her. And if he died as a result, that was his fate. But it wouldn’t be for lack of bravery.
The direction of Rake’s preferences didn’t matter to Virginia and she told him so. Le Chêne had moved on to another réseau and HECKLER desperately needed another radio operator. She was grateful that he had come. Furthermore, embracing individuals’ differences had been part of her upbringing. Virginia had been the victim of prejudices at the hands of the Foreign Service. Sitting in war-torn France five years later, she presumed Rake had survived his share of rejection as well.
Her first message for him to send to London was of a personal nature. She needed some parts for Cuthbert, she told him, parts that weren’t available in Lyon. She asked him to include the message on his next “sked,” short for “schedule,” which was the radio operator’s scheduled transmissions. Rake told her he would be contacting London later that day and Virginia wrote up the message.
Cuthbert was in need of some new bearings at the articulation where the wooden leg met the foot. She didn’t know if there was a prosthetist in Lyon, but it didn’t matter. She wouldn’t risk going to a stranger. A woman with a strong accent and a wooden leg would become quite a topic of conversation and result in the kind of attention she had tried to avoid for about a year. Nor was she sure a London prosthetist could help her. Individuals who made them did so very precisely, and they didn’t share their techniques with others. Since hers had come from the United States, she was fairly certain that’s where the bearings would have to come from.
Virginia pared down all of this information as best she could and Rake sent off the message, never knowing who or what Cuthbert was. A few days later he received word back that she was correct in assuming that help would be needed from America.
Vera, again on behalf of the Inter-Service Research Bureau, had contacted Virginia’s mother, who was happy to procure the necessary parts. They were sent to London and from there, traveled to the zone libre in the rucksack of an incoming agent.
One morning in August, le Provost informed Virginia that he learned that the Gestapo wanted to question a Canadian woman. At the time, there were only a couple of women agents in unoccupied France that Virginia was aware of. None of them were Canadian and none of them were in Lyon. Since this discussion occurred between local Gestapo agents, she assumed they were looking for a local woman. There was only one they could be referring to: her.
To make matters worse, le Provost told her he had just heard from Labourier that Rake had been arrested. That would be an enormous blow for all of the area reseaux. Rake’s work was essential and with him imprisoned a vital link was removed from their chain. Of course that was only the half of it, the selfish half. His detention most certainly meant his enduring rough treatment at the hands of the gendarmes and the Gestapo.
Le Provost gave her arrest details, which he’d gotten fourthhand from Labourier who had heard from a contact who had gotten the information from the owner of the café in Montceau-les-Mines where Rake had been arrested. Evidently Rake was waiting to meet two other agents and appeared agitated that they had not yet shown up. A police inspector became suspicious and walked over to question him. He asked Rake what his profession was. A chemisier, shirtmaker, in Lyon was Rake’s answer. The inspector then asked how much he made and Rake told him eight thousand francs a month.
It was a ludicrously high amount and made the inspector even more suspicious. He ordered Rake to empty his pockets, which contained a great deal of money, all brand new, in numerical series, and not pinned. When the two agents he had been waiting for arrived, le Provost continued, they were also told to empty their pockets. One of them had a large amount of cash, and like Rake’s, it was unpinned and in a series. Furthermore, when the inspector looked at their cartes d’identité, the handwriting on them was identical, although the two men supposedly came from different towns.
The carelessness astounded and angered Virginia. London knew better than to send such suspect currency. And agents traveling together should have known to examine one another’s cartes, if only to make sure they could support each other’s stories if they were ever stopped and separated. It was a waste. There weren’t enough agents as it was. And now they’d lost another radio operator.
Le Provost told her that Rake was being held in a camp at Vernet, not far from Toulouse. The other two had been taken to Castres, another eighty kilometers farther east. Virginia and le Provost commiserated over the loss of Rake and the others, and then discussed the normal procedures following the arrest of an agent or one of the Resistance members. First and foremost was to gather information. It was like gold, and cost almost as much. But its purchase would determine if, when, and how an escape could be planned.
Virginia had observe
d the different agents who passed through Lyon. Each was responsible for his own security, and how he approached it depended on a variety of things, such as his cover story, mission and, of course, his personality. Rake’s arrest had been partially his fault and partially London’s. But she had met other agents who were downright cavalier about safety measures. They pooh-poohed London’s admonitions about not making rash decisions and avoiding Resistance candidates who talked too much. They ignored the rule never to talk about work unless discussing it with others would further its progress. These were basic rules they had all learned in their training at Wanborough.
Now that they were in the field and everything was authentic, including the bullets, some agents still couldn’t adhere to the rules. It was beyond Virginia’s comprehension. She was discreet to a fault. Several times over the past year, the feelings of one or another of her Resistance members were hurt. They felt they were being excluded from a discussion or a mission because she saw them as untrustworthy. That was not at all the case. Rather, it was because almost all work was done on a “need to know” basis.
Virginia felt responsible for the safety of every man and woman who had agreed to work with her. If the Gestapo picked them up, she didn’t know how she would react. But she hoped their capture would never be as a result of indiscretion on her part.
Since early 1942, a French courier by the code name of Étienne had come each week from Paris with information to transmit to London. He collected the news from reliable sources and occasionally brought microfilms to be sent as well. Virginia supplied him with money to pay his sources and the situation worked seamlessly until late July. Étienne told Virginia he wouldn’t be able to make the trip to Lyon any longer, but another man would take his place. It was someone she could have complete confidence in, he said. He told her not to worry about giving him the 150,000 francs needed for payment to their sources. The new man would see that they get it. And he would take care of reprinting and distributing the documents in the zone occupée as well.
As Étienne had promised, on the fourth of August a new courier did indeed arrive from Paris. He followed his predecessor’s custom and went to Dr. Rousset’s office to leave his package, giving the doctor the appropriate pass phrase. But Virginia had not yet left the money and documents for pickup, as Dr. Rousset hadn’t wanted her to leave such a large sum of money lying around. The new man said he was in a hurry and returned to Paris empty-handed. Virginia and the doctor discussed the situation and decided that when the courier returned, Dr. Rousset would notify her and she would bring the cash to his office.
It wasn’t until August 25 that the courier reappeared at Dr. Rousset’s door and asked to see “Marie.” When Virginia arrived, she scrutinized the man carefully. He was about five foot seven, the same height as she was, and just as slender. He had a receding hairline and bright blue eyes. But his hands were what she found most interesting. They were very delicate, the skin on the backs looked thin and soft, almost like the hands of a woman.
He was very cordial and introduced himself as Abbé Ackuin, codenamed Bishop. The abbé’s French was perfect, but his accent was decidedly German. He apologized for his delay in returning, saying he had been very concerned, as one of his best aides, Pierre, had been arrested. The abbé was afraid that Pierre had had an incriminating document with him at the time of his detention, so he thought it best not to risk the capture of himself or anyone else. He had therefore stayed home.
Virginia commented on his interesting accent, and the abbé explained that he had grown up in Alsace, near the German border. He went on to tell her that now he felt there would be no repercussions from the arrest of his aide and that he would continue collecting information from his “young men.” These were scouts, boys on the street, and members of the organization for adolescent boys that the French had founded to match that of the German Hitlerjugend.
The abbé told Virginia he was anxious to return to Paris and asked her for the money that would go to his contacts as well as the film he needed for the microphotographs. He promised to return the following Tuesday with more information.
Virginia’s instincts told her there was something not quite right about the abbé and she shared her thoughts with Rousset. She would ask London about him, perhaps they would have some useful information.
But Rousset thought her concerns were unfounded. He had heard that the abbé preached anti-Nazi sermons and he had seen him handing out pictures of de Gaulle after he left Rousset’s office on his previous visit. A German sympathizer would never do that, Rousset told her.
But Virginia wasn’t convinced. She contacted the circuit’s new piano player and had a message sent to London on his next sked. London replied the following day. The abbé’s bona fides checked out. She was told to continue working with him and supplying him with money, film for microfilming documents, and a radio.
Virginia’s concerns were heightened when she learned four days later that others in the Parisian group had been arrested. The arrests had occurred on August 15 and 16, ten days before the abbé’s visit. He couldn’t possibly have been unaware of them. But why hadn’t he said anything? What was he up to?
On September I, the day of the abbé’s scheduled return, a man arrived at Rousset’s office looking for asylum. The Gestapo wanted him, he told the doctor, who in turn explained to the man that he had come to the wrong place. But the man insisted, saying that he had been sent by the abbé.
When the abbé arrived the next day, Virginia had a long list of questions she wanted answers to. Her cordial demeanor from the previous visit was replaced with one of cool intensity. She demanded to know why he had sent a man to Rousset’s office. The abbé explained that he had needed help, but Virginia ordered him not to send anyone to them without discussing it with her first. He was to act as a courier for the réseau not a nursemaid. Then she confronted him about the other arrests in Paris and asked why he hadn’t told her about them. His response sounded plausible. He hadn’t been sure if the people had actually been arrested or had just gone underground. He didn’t want to bring her any more bad news on their first meeting. Furthermore, when he got back to Paris, he had given her money to a Resistance member by the name of Janine, who in turn gave it to the group’s banker. Now Janine was nowhere to be found and he didn’t know who the banker was. He was completely adrift, he complained. He insisted that he needed the names of other contacts in Lyon in case Virginia should disappear overnight like the others had.
The abbé looked genuinely upset, wringing his soft hands and biting his lip. Or was he nervous because he was not being truthful? Virginia’s gut told her that there was something not right in this scenario. She told him to go back to Paris and trace the people who had disappeared. He was to try to reorganize the group and return to Lyon on September 20 with his report. He would receive further instructions then.
Abbé Ackuin did not return to Lyon, however. Instead, he went to Puy- de-Dôme where he was able to work his way into GREEN HEART, the local SOE réseau that included the Newton brothers. Everyone in SOE referred to them as “the twins,” even though Alfred was nine years older than Henry. The abbé put them completely at ease with all he knew about the Resistance. They believed him to be a loyal French patriot who was familiar with other SOE agents. Through the relationship the abbé formed with the GREEN HEART members, he learned Virginia’s radio code name, as well as the code names of others in the HECKLER circuit.
Abbé Ackuin was the pseudonym used by Robert Alesh. Born in Luxembourg in 1906, his studies took him from there to Fribourg in Switzerland. After finishing at the university, he completed seminary training and worked in a variety of parishes in the area surrounding Paris. When the Nazis occupied northern France, a group within his current parish organized themselves into a Resistance group. Alesh aided them in their anti-Nazi activities. He handed out literature and photos of General de Gaulle, and helped in spiriting away local Jews.
In 1941, Alesh learned
of a vacancy within the French diocese. He applied for the position and was told by the German priest in Paris, who was in charge of making diocese decisions, that the job could be his if he swore an oath to Germany. Alesh had no problem with this since one of his family members was a parish priest in Berlin and his native country of Luxembourg was a part of the Third Reich.
Shortly afterward, Alesh was summoned to the office of the second in command of the Abwehr, the German military intelligence organization. It was known he had Resistance ties, he was told. Now, as a German, he was in a position to aid his country by acting as a double agent. The alternative was deportment to a concentration camp. Alesh quickly agreed to the new line of work.
It wasn’t long before he became a quick success at exposing Resistance members. To many, it was unbelievable that the clergy would stoop to such despicable actions. But Alesh felt no remorse and became very adept at espionage. Early on in the imprisonment of Pierre de Vomécourt, an escape was planned. Alesh, visiting the prison to listen to the confessions of the prisoners, heard about the plan and reported it to his superiors. The escape was foiled and de Vomécourt was put into solitary confinement. Alesh’s next target, the Abwehr told him, was in Lyon.
While the work that Virginia’s group was doing in Lyon was applauded in London, the Gestapo in the zone libre noted it as well. Condemned agents escaped from prison, pilots disappeared after parachuting to earth, acts of sabotage occurred in factories and on rail lines. The trail that the Gestapo was following in their investigations led to Lyon. And its number one goal became the capture of whoever was in charge there.
The Wolves at the Door: The True Story of America's Greatest Female Spy Page 16
