They Fought Alone: The True Story of the Starr Brothers, British Secret Agents in Nazi-Occupied France
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Without the assistance and encouragement of countless friends, colleagues, relations, hosts, hostesses, researchers, and editors, I would not have been able to complete this book. I owe the greatest debt to my gallant agent, Ed Victor, who recognized from the moment I mentioned the Starr brothers saga that their story needed telling. Moreover, he gave moral and editorial support throughout the research and writing. He was reading the final draft two days before he—to the dismay of clients, friends, and family alike—died. Charlie Brotherstone of Ed’s literary agency took over from the master to see this book through to publication. I am grateful to him and his agency colleagues Edina Imrick, Linda Van, Hitesh Shah, Georgina Le Grice, and Burt Salvary. Ed Victor, among his other fine qualities, left behind a first-class team to carry on his work.
The strenuous exertions of two formidable women proved invaluable: Parisian researcher Lisa Vapné and my editor at Penguin Press, Ann Godoff. Among Mlle. Vapné’s dogged accomplishments was leading me to local archives throughout Gascony, to which résistants and résistantes left their memoirs, diaries, and correspondence. This treasure trove of information informs this book as much as the documents in the national archives of Paris, London, and Washington. She introduced me to George Starr’s wartime collaborator, Jeanne Robert, in her retirement home near Bordeaux and participated fully in our discussion. She also put me in touch with the mayor of Castelnau, Maurice Boison; local historians Alain Geay, president of the Association des Amis du Réseau Victoire; and Jacqueline Geay. Thanks to her, I also met Robert Darroux. Aged twelve in 1943, he began assisting his father, local café proprietor Joseph Darroux, in Resistance actions with George Starr, and he shared many amusing reminiscences. These French people, of whom their country can be proud, spent hours in the mayor’s office telling me about George Starr, Yvonne Cormeau, Anne-Marie Walters, Roger Larribeau, and the other heroes and heroines of this tale.
Ann Godoff, who demonstrated her faith in this saga from the moment Ed Victor presented it to her, kept a close eye on its progress. When I submitted the first draft in the form of an overlong manuscript, she forced me to turn it from a scholarly account of the Starr brothers’ activities into the taut tale of ambiguity, romance, and danger that it needed to be. Her meticulous editing, redolent of publishing’s Golden Age, compels me to acknowledge her as not only an editor, but as a coauthor. The differences I had along the way with both Lisa and Ann merit apologies, which I offer them here, while thanking them for all they did.
It would be remiss of me not to single out David Hewson, historian of SOE in the Gers and former Household Cavalry officer with whom I share a love of Ireland’s Blackwater Valley, for his advice, expertise, contacts, and fact-checking. Without his assistance, this book would contain egregious errors and lack stories that his sources provided. He put me in touch with David Harrison, another SOE authority whose wise counsel guided me much of the way, and whose expertise far outweighs my own. Both Davids gave generously of their time and knowledge.
I must also offer profound thanks to Jeanne Robert, who gave me hours of her time to tell me about life in Castelnau-sur-l’Auvignon with George Starr. Her energy and enthusiasm were boundless, despite her advanced years and the recent loss of her daughter, Michèle. I am grateful as well to members of the Starr family for weeding out errors in the manuscript, providing photographs and letters, and giving insights into the characters of both brothers: George Starr’s son, Alfred Starr; his grandson, David Cochu; and John Starr’s daughter, Ethel Starr Lagier. This book would not have been possible without them.
Thanks must go also to an old friend, Rupert Scott, for guiding me through the old training grounds at Beaulieu, Hampshire, where the Starrs and nearly three thousand other SOE agents studied, and to Beaulieu’s archivist, Sue Tomkins. Phil Tomaselli assisted me through the labyrinth of SOE files at the British National Archives in Kew, which he knows better than anyone else living. He was unfailing in his assiduous determination to root out every detail of the Starr story. I must also thank researchers Stephen Kippax, Steven Tyas, and R. W. O’Hara for their help.
Others to whom I owe debts are my old friends and colleagues Jonathan Randal, Sarah Helm, and Allan Massie, as well as SOE specialists Elspeth Forbes-Robertson, Paul McCue, Noreen Riols, Anne Whiteside, Yvette Pitt, and Rosy Frier. In Paris, I am thankful to Eliza Peynel and Marcello Simonetta. My gratitude extends to Francis J. Suttill, son of SOE organizer Major Francis Suttill and author of a fascinating biography of his father, Shadows in the Fog. In London, I owe Lauren Smith a debt for the hours she spent printing, without complaint, scans of thousands of archival documents.
Archivists in Britain and France made valuable contributions: Neil Cobbett of the British National Archives; Madame Rey at the Archives Départementales du Gers in Auch; Amelia Briaris of the Imperial War Museum Research Room in London; Julie Baffet and the rest of the staff at the Musée de la Résistance Nationale in Champigny-Sur-Marne; Daniel Korachi-Alaoui, archives assistant at the Canterbury Cathedral Archives; Chantal Pagès of the Archives Départementales de Haute-Garonne; Claire Landais, Direction des Affaires Juridiques, Ministry of Defense, Paris; Belgian Diplomatic Archives Documentalist Didier Amaury; and Priscilla de Schaetzen of the Belgian Embassy, London. I am grateful also to the directors and staffs at the Centre d’Etude et de Recherche de la Résistance Toulousaine; the Comité de Résistance pour l’Histoire de la Libération de Toulouse et de sa Région; the Archives du Comité d’Histoire de la Seconde Guerre Mondiale; the Amicale du Réseau Hilaire-Buckmaster au Mairie de Losse in les Landes; and the Service Historique de la Défense, Paris.
Anyone who has lived and worked in France cannot help but come up against the occasional obstinacy and obstructiveness of its bureaucracy. Some of my research met with the determined resistance of certain officials to releasing documents that belonged in the public domain. Without the strong intervention of a French former journalist and ex-spokesman of the Defense Ministry, Pierre Bayle, the Ministry of Defense would not have released records of the investigation into charges of collaboration against John Starr. The ministry held out for five years before releasing seventy-year-old files that mentioned no living persons and posed no national security issues. I am grateful to Pierre Bayle for achieving what French friends called a “miracle.”
I would like also to thank the directors and staff of the Special Forces Club, London, for granting me access to their extensive library and other facilities. The members of the Special Operations Executive Yahoo! group were informative with their many posts on almost every aspect of SOE operations.
Anarchic conditions in the Provençal village where I bought a house in which to write left me unable to work in peace. Official indifference was a reminder of the behavior of much of the French establishment during the occupation, actions that were redeemed by the courage of a then unpopular minority. That and my peripatetic life left me at times dependent on the kindness of, not strangers, but good friends. Many made me welcome in their country houses to write out of season and undisturbed. They are Chris Whittle and Priscilla Rattazzi-Whittle in East Hampton, New York, whose hospitality knew no bounds and whose generosity was unlimited; John and Ania Borrell at Kania Lodge, Sytna Góra, Kartuzy, Poland, the most beautiful site imaginable to retreat from a troubled world; Barone Alessandro and Baronessa Caterina de Renzis at Castello Sonnino, Montespertoli, Italy, whose fine wines and good humor made writing a pleasure; Natasha Grenfell, who afforded me a brief stay near the beach in Hampshire, England; and Rupert and Vanessa Fairfax at their superb spread in Lincolnshire, England, where I passed many happy hours in their company and from which they kindly took me to the races nearby. All of my hosts and hostesses were unfailingly tolerant, generous, and gracious, and my hope is one day to repay them in kind, somewhere.
While exploring the Gers, I stayed at the Lacassagne Maison d’Hotes in Larressingle. Its proprietress, Maïder Papelorey, provided me with the excellent Gascon foo
d that George Starr praised in an earlier time, and shared her knowledge of the region’s history. I do much of my writing in cafés rather than in isolated rooms and would like to acknowledge the kind service and good coffee of, in France, Café du Midi and Café des Cerises in La Roque d’Antheron; Café de l’Etang in Cucuron; Café Gaby in Lourmarin; and Café du Cours in Reillanne. In Italy, my congenial workspaces were Florence’s Caffè Ricchi and Pasticceria Paolini, and Lo Chalet and Jack’s Bar in Montespertoli. In Long Island, I frequented, happily, Sagtown Coffee and the American Hotel Bar in Sag Harbor, the Poxabogue Fairway Restaurant in Wainscott, and John Papas Café in East Hampton. The garden of the Crown Hotel in Stamford, Lincolnshire, offered tranquillity, decent coffee, and good service in abundance. In Beirut, work would have been impossible without strong coffee and liberty to smoke at Caffeine in Zareef, Younes in Hamra, and Dar Bistro in Wardieh Square. Thanks to all of you.
Finally, the staff at Penguin Press—assistant editor Casey Denis, copy editor Jane Cavolina, and production editor Ryan Boyle—carried the project through the home stretch to the finish line. While they share credit for the book’s strengths, its flaws are mine.
Charles Glass
Castello Sonnino
Montespertoli, Florence, Italy
NOTES
The following abbreviations are used in the notes section.
BNA: British National Archives
FNA: French National Archives
IWM: Imperial War Museum
IWMSA: Imperial War Museum Sound Archive
Tribunal Militaire: Tribunal Militaire de Paris, Ordre d’Informer 1546, 19 juin 1950, Dépôt central d’archives de la justice militaire, Division des Affaires Penales Militaires, Ministère de la Defénse
PROLOGUE
“Courage was their”: Maurice Buckmaster, They Fought Alone: The True Story of SOE’s Agents in Wartime France (1958; repr., London: Biteback Publishing, 2014), 268.
He moved to France: Ibid., 3.
he was a “tall man”: Patrick Howarth, Undercover: The Men and Women of SOE (New Haven, CT: Phoenix Press, 2000), 186–87.
“was for the safety”: Leo Marks, Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemakers’s War (New York: HarperCollins, 1998), 75.
More infiltrations, of men and women, followed: Anthony M. Webb, ed., The Natzweiler Trial (London: William Hodge, 1949), 17. Webb wrote, “From the spring of 1941 ever-increasing numbers of British and British-trained men dropped by parachute or landed from aircraft or submarines in occupied countries and in Germany and Italy.”
“Only the English”: Jean Overton Fuller, The German Penetration of SOE: France, 1941–1944 (Maidstone, UK: George Mann, 1975), 50.
“In the eyes of the French people”: Olivier Wieviorka, The French Resistance, trans. Jane Marie Todd (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2016), 30.
CHAPTER ONE: AN UNEXPECTED ENCOUNTER
“It was no use trying”: Maurice Buckmaster, They Fought Alone: The True Story of SOE’s Agents in Wartime France (1958; repr., London: Biteback Publishing, 2014), 134.
Lieutenant George Reginald Starr: BNA, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, HS 9/1407/1. Starr received his second lieutenant’s commission on July 18, 1942, and was promoted to lieutenant on October 15, 1942. His military identification number was P/241286.
“It was more than a hunch”: George Starr, IWMSA, Recording 24613, 1978, Reel 4, www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80022295.
“too rough even for the Polish navy”: M.R.D. Foot, SOE in France: An Account of the Work of the British Special Operations Executive in France, 1940–1944 (London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1966; rept., London: Whitehall History Publishing with Frank Cass, 2004), 65. The Seadog’s sister ship was the felucca Seawolf, under another Polish naval officer, Lieutenant Marian Kadulski.
“It turned every way”: George Starr, IWMSA, Reel 14.
Watremez had been George’s classmate: George Starr, IWMSA, Reel 15. Starr explained, “The Watremez family were from Vendôme. They had a factory, and they made gloves or something. There was the father and the mother and the two sons, and we all went to school together, Lycée Vendôme. And I took his name because I thought well, if I’m checked, they’ll never give me away. That’s why I took it.”
“My family motto”: The Starr family motto is Vive en Espoir. Email from Alfred Starr to the author, September 19, 2016.
“Rodolphe is expecting you”: BNA, HS 9/1407/1.
Baron Philippe de Vomécourt: Philippe de Vomécourt, Who Lived to See the Day: France in Arms, 1940–1945 (London: Hutchinson, 1961), 24–25. After the fall of France, Vomécourt escaped to England, trained with SOE, and parachuted back to his homeland. His brother Pierre, code name “Lucas,” had established SOE’s first circuit in France, AUTOGYRO. See Buckmaster, They Fought Alone, 21.
“an extremely courageous officer”: BNA, HS 9/1346/2.
“I swear I had the surprise”: George Starr, IWMSA, Reel 2.
Sansom was a beautiful young woman: Ibid. Odette Sansom told the interviewer that Jan Buchowski “refused to take me. He said, ‘What am I going to do with women onboard?’ ‘Well,’ I said, ‘we’ll do anything. Wash apples, something. We had all day.’ The fact was, if he liked it or not, he was supposed to take us to France. And so he did. It didn’t make things terribly easy, but we did manage to get there.” See also Jerrard Tickell, Odette (1949; repr., London: Headline Review, 2007), 126.
Sansom was born: Tickell, Odette, 28.
Odette sent her letter: Ibid., 47.
This led to an interview: Odette Marie Céline Sansom, IWMSA, Catalogue number 9478, Reel 1. Odette Sansom recalled, “As far as I was concerned I thought, ‘Well, this is the end of it,’ because, of course, I should never get my photographs back. And they were very innocent photographs. Most, I should say, were of no use at all to anybody, because they were photographs of my brother [Louis] and myself, taken on the beaches of France. But I was very surprised, because a few weeks after I had a letter thanking me and asking me if it would ever be possible for me to come to London and have an interview at an address given.”
Sansom cruised from Glasgow: BNA, HS 9/648/4. See also Squadron Leader Beryl E. Escott, The WAAF (London: Shire Publications, 2001), 64–68.
“Arriving at the position”: Brooks Richards, Secret Flotillas: The Clandestine Sea Lines to France and French North Africa, 1940–1944 (London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1996), 569.
John Ashford Renshaw Starr: BNA, HS 9/1406/8.
“Are you going now?”: George Starr, IWMSA, Reel 14.
Lieutenant Buchowski recorded: Richards, Secret Flotillas, 569.
“It was your fault”: George Starr, IWMSA, Reels 14 and 20.
CHAPTER TWO: CALLED TO THE COLORS
“Most of our agents”: Maurice Buckmaster, They Fought Alone: The True Story of SOE’s Agents in Wartime France (1958; repr., London: Biteback Publishing, 2014), 122.
Dr. Starr donated land: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/1998/01.29/TwoSchoolstoBen.html and https://ia802604.us.archive.org/16/items/historyofstarrfa00star/historyofstarrfa00star.pdf.
lifelong phobia of heights: Alfred Starr, email to the author, November 1, 2016.
“Those men, they were salt of the earth”: George Starr, IWMSA, Recording 24613, 1978, Reel 1, www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80022295.
briefly married to: Alfred Starr, email to the author, August 22, 2016.
John studied art: Ibid.
“During the civil war”: George Starr, IWMSA, Reel 1.
volunteer for the Royal Air Force: BNA, KV 6/29, letter from A. D. Starr to the Chief Constable, Newcastle, Staffordshire., December 18, 1941.
“We heard Chamberlain”: George Starr, IWMSA, Reel 2.
“all hell broke loose”: Ibid.
to work with Phantom: Andy and Sue Parlour, Phantom at W
ar: The British Army’s Secret Intelligence and Communication Regiment of WWII (Essex, UK: Cerberus and Ten Bells Publishing, 2003).
“direct line to Downing Street”: Ibid.
“I spoke last night”: Pétain’s speech can be heard at http://wartimespeeches.net/content_04/1940-06-20%20announcement%20of%20french%20surrender.mp3 [inactive].
“I remember him sitting”: George Starr, IWMSA, Reel 16.
friend named Maurice Southgate: BNA, HS 9/1395/3.
“His father and mother”: George Starr, IWMSA, Reel 15.
Southgate was born: BNA, HS 9/1395/3. Flight Lieutenant Southgate was promoted to squadron leader on June 17, 1945.
German dive bombers sank his ship: Raye Dancocks, “The ‘Lancastria’—a Secret Sacrifice in World War Two,” BBC History, www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/lancastria_01.shtml.