“What a sharpshooter”: Escholier, Maquis de Gascogne, 152.
“fought bravely with their rifles”: Ibid., 150.
“I went and the Feldwebel”: BNA, HS 9/1407/1, “Court of Enquiry re Lt. Col. G.R. STARR (SOE), Feb. 1945.”
“They freed their prisoners”: Escholier, Maquis de Gascogne, 154.
A rear guard stayed: Walters, Moondrop to Gascony, 153.
“blow up the village”: Archives départementales du Gers, 42 J 134, “Activities of the Castelnau Battalion from 6 June to 3 July 1944.”
“Castelnau is destroyed”: Ibid.
“Castelnau of the Wolves fell”: Escholier, Maquis de Gascogne, 155.
“the Germans suffered 380 losses”: Archives Municipales de Toulouse, 85 Z 6, “Historique de l’Organisation.” SOE recorded the same totals. See Lieutenant Colonel E. G. Boxshall, “WHEELWRIGHT Circuit,” in E. G. Boxshall and M.R.D. Foot, “Chronology of SOE Operations with the Resistance in France During World War II,” December 1960, IWM, London, 05/76/1. Another French account was equally lopsided in favor of the colonel’s Hollywood Brigade: Germans, 253 killed and 149 wounded; French, 17 killed and 6 wounded.
George’s losses were “very light”: Escholier, Maquis de Gascogne, 155.
radio operator Lieutenant Parsons: Archives Municipales de Toulouse, 85 Z 6, “Historique de l’Organisation.” Parsons had by then transmitted eighty-four coded messages for Starr. Philippe de Gunzbourg, who was not present but spoke to many of the combatants, wrote that about twenty of George’s fighters were killed but that “German losses were much heavier.” See FNA, 72 AJ 39 I, pièce 8a, “Témoignage de M. Philippe de Gunzbourg,” 7.
“it was generally rumoured”: BNA, HS 9/1407/1, “Court of Enquiry re Lt. Col. G.R. STARR (SOE), Feb. 1945.”
“fifty partisans killed”: FNA, 72 AJ 38 I, pièce 8b, “Rapport de l’activité de la résistance dans les arrondissements de Bergerac, Barlat, et quelques communes du Nord du Lot-et-Garonne à partir du 7 juin 1944 par Philippe de GUNZBOURG.”
“That day had huge repercussions”: Ibid.
“Prisoners captured from the Second”: “Patriots in France Snarl Foe’s Lines,” New York Times, June 23, 1944.
Resistance that “has increased both in size”: “Army of the Interior,” New York Times, June 24, 1944.
“FFI have fought exceedingly well”: BNA, WO 219/112, “Special Report (France) No. 10.”
“The extra fortnight’s delay”: Foot, SOE in France, 350.
“With two soldiers” . . . “engine was already running”: Yvonne Cormeau, IWMSA, September 2, 1984, Catalogue number 7369, www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80007171.
greeted the first Jedburgh team: Walters, Moondrop to Gascony, 177.
Team Bugatti, commanded by: Olivier Matet, “Bataille du maquis de Campels, Juillet 1944, Commune d’Arbon, 31,” http://passion.histoire.pagesperso-orange.fr/bataille_maquis_campels.pdf. See also Major Robert E. Mattingly, USMC, “Herringbone Cloak—GI Dagger: Marines of the OSS” (Occasional Paper, History and Museums Division, Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps, Washington, D.C., 1989), 135, available at https://ia601304.us.archive.org/2/items/HerringboneCloakGIDaggerMarinesOfTheOSS-nsia/HerringboneCloakGIDaggerMarinesOfTheOSS.pdf.
“I brought KANSUL”: BNA, HS 9/1407/1, “Miss A. M. Walters, COLLETTE, WHEELWRIGHT, 18th September, 1944, REPORT ON MISSION IN FRANCE.”
Fuller “discussed the work”: BNA, HS 6/658, Yvonne Cormeau, interrogated by Captain Howard, 5.1.45.
“many ambushes against”: Archives Municipales de Toulouse, 85 Z 6, “Historique de l’Organisation,” 7. See also Colin Beavan, Operation Jedburgh: D-Day and America’s First Shadow War (New York: Viking Penguin, 2006).
captured a courier: Archives Municipales de Toulouse, 85 Z 6, “Historique de l’Organisation,” 7.
“a terrific morale lifter”: BNA, HS 9/1407/1, “Miss A. M. Walters, COLLETTE, WHEELWRIGHT, 18th September, 1944, REPORT ON MISSION IN FRANCE.”
“I sent him there”: George Starr, IWMSA, Recording 24613, 1978, Reel 16, www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80022295.
farming village of Lannemaignan: Archives départementales du Gers, 42 J 134, “Activities of the Castelnau Battalion from 6 June to 3 July 1944.” See also BNA, HS 9/1407/1, “Court of Enquiry re Lt. Col. G.R. STARR (SOE), Feb. 1945,” in which Starr stated, “The night of 21/22 June Capt Parisot and myself and the various officers went into consultation and it was decided that the whole should become one as quickly as possible and the whole should be under the command of Capt Parisot and I should devote myself to my real job, thus relinquishing command of the Maquis which I had commanded between 6 June and 21 June. This did cause some concern to the Castelnau Maquis as they said they wanted to serve under me. They threatened to go home if I didn’t command them. A few went home but the others did agree to serve under Capt Parisot. From then on I lived at the PC of Captain Parisot.”
“I didn’t give orders”: George Starr, IWMSA, Reel 15.
“a real society of nations”: Escholier, Maquis de Gascogne, 158.
“One of the chief reasons”: BNA, HS 9/1407/1, “Court of Enquiry re Lt. Col. G.R. STARR (SOE), Feb. 1945.”
“becoming a little queer”: Walters, Moondrop to Gascony, Hewson edition, 172.
“The men of the Maquis”: “Call for Arms for French Patriots,” Observer, June 25, 1944.
“Take this message”: George Starr, IWMSA, Reel 14.
“roared with laughter”: Ibid.
Abel Sempé had founded: Armagnac Sempé, whose motto is Sempé it Semper, was still in business in 2016. www.armagnac-sempe.fr/en.html#.
“The cars weren’t much good”: George Starr, IWMSA, Reel 7.
“It was also quite wrong”: BNA, HS 6/583, Anne-Marie Walters, “Report on Mission to France, 18 September 1944.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: THE GERMANS RETREAT
“Hilaire’s network totally dislocated”: Maurice Buckmaster, They Fought Alone: The True Story of SOE’s Agents in Wartime France (1958; repr., London: Biteback Publishing, 2014), 126.
“Towards 19.00 hours”: BNA, HS 7/122, Major R. A. Bourne-Patterson’s “British Circuits in France, 1941–1944, Appendix B, Report of Hilaire on Post-D-Day Activities.”
“Give them ten minutes”: Archives Municipales de Toulouse, 85 Z 6, “Historique de l’Organisation,” 7.
the maquis sabotaged cables: “Sabotage Darkens Toulouse,” New York Times, July 9, 1944.
“There are about 4,000”: BNA, HS 9/1407/1, “Court of Enquiry re Lt. Col. G.R. STARR (SOE), Feb. 1945.”
“Capt. Parisot decided”: Ibid.
“was a good fighting man”: Ibid.
“I never saw him again”: Ibid.
“I found out the man”: Ibid.
“I was informed that”: Ibid.
“I recognised it”: Ibid.
“a dropping operation”: BNA, WO 235/560, “Statement of Hans Kieffer, 29 November 1946.” Unless otherwise indicated, Kieffer’s comments on the British prisoners are from this nine-page sworn document.
“we had dropped into an ambush”: Serge Vaculik, Air Commando (New York: Dutton, 1955), 194.
“they were not able”: BNA, WO 235/560, “Statement of Hans Kieffer, 29 November 1946.”
interrogators drenched them: Vaculik, Air Commando, 202–7.
“Kieffer was alone”: IWM, J. V. Overton Fuller Collection, Box 8, File 2, letter, Ernest Vogt to Jean Overton Fuller, August 28, 1954.
“I actually met Ravanel”: BNA, HS 9/1407/1.
“Lawrence of Arabia”: FNA, 13 AV 53, Serge Ravanel interview, January 17, 1992. Quoted in Robert Gildea, Fighters in the Shadows: A New History of French Resistance (London: Faber and Faber, 2015), 363.
Ravanel appointed George: BNA, HS 9/1407/1, “Court of Enquiry re Lt. Col. G.R. STARR (SOE), Feb
. 1945.” Starr added, “I produce copies of three signals, two from London to me, and one from me to London dated respectively 22nd July, 21st July and 23rd July.”
promoting him to lieutenant colonel: Ibid.
“I wanted London”: Ibid.
“Do you think you could go”: Anne-Marie Walters, Moondrop to Gascony, foreword by M.R.D. Foot, introduction and notes by David Hewson (1946; rept., Petersfield, UK: Harriman House, 2009), 286 [1946 edition].
“permission was given”: BNA, HS 9/1407/1, “Court of Enquiry re Lt. Col. G.R. STARR (SOE), Feb. 1945.”
“She did not forgive Hilaire”: Raymond Escholier, Maquis de Gascogne (Geneva: Editions du Milieu du Monde, 1945), 171.
“Have had to send Colette”: BNA, HS 9/1407/1.
“I was to help rounding up”: BNA HS 9/1407/1, “Miss A. M. Walters, COLLETTE, WHEELWRIGHT, 18th September, 1944, REPORT ON MISSION IN FRANCE.”
“They set fire to the house”: Escholier, Maquis de Gascogne, 179–80.
Remembering the massacre: Ibid., 181. Madame Parisot said to Escholier that a woman from the village told her, “We will never forget that M. Parisot sacrificed all he had and risked his family’s life so the Germans would not cause us trouble. That was beautiful, that!”
“In southwestern France”: “French Guerrillas Cut Germans’ Lines,” New York Times, August 9, 1944.
“The attack was most successful”: BNA, HS 7/122, Major R. A. Bourne-Patterson’s “British Circuits in France, 1941–1944, Appendix B, Report of Hilaire on Post-D-Day Activities.”
“You are there”: Escholier, Maquis de Gascogne, 186.
Starr’s sign-off echoed: Leo Marks, Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemakers’s War (New York: HarperCollins, 1998), 45.
next major objective: Toulouse: Pierre Bertaux, Le Bataillon d’Armagnac: Un groupe de résistants pas comme les autres (Paris: Printemps, 1944), 9.
“They made the occupation”: “OSS Aid to the French Resistance in World War II: Operational Group Command, Office of Strategic Services: Company B—2671st Special Reconnaissance Battalion,” FNA, 72 AJ 84 I, Pièce, 9.
“Je ne suis pas”: “Les réseaux de résistance Eugène-Prunus et Hilaire-Wheelwright du SOE à Montréjeau sous l’occupation allemande de 1942 à 1944,” www.mairie-montrejeau.fr/fr/notre-bastide/histoire/doc_view/728-le-soe-a-montrejeau-sous-l-occupation-allemande-de-1942-a-1944.html. Fuller said, “I am not an orator. I am a soldier. I have a debt to acknowledge to France which aided the liberation of my country.”
Camilo’s Spaniards went behind: Archives départementales du Gers, 42 J 35, “Témoignage A. Ruiz et Manuel Fernandez.”
A German colonel shouted, “Nein!”: Escholier, Maquis de Gascogne, 189.
“We captured several lorries”: BNA, HS 7/122, Major R. A. Bourne-Patterson’s “British Circuits in France, 1941–1944, Appendix B, Report of Hilaire on Post-D-Day Activities.” See also La Commission Départementale du Gers de l’Information Historique, “1944: Les Années de Combat,” http://sdonac32.pagesperso-orange.fr/1944.htm.
Four German officers: Escholier, Maquis de Gascogne, 191.
“By his continual gallantry”: BNA, HS 9/1407/1, “Nr. 87 of 21st July 1944.”
“Termignon lost his temper”: Ibid., “Court of Enquiry re Lt. Col. G.R. STARR (SOE), Feb. 1945.”
“I am writing to your husband”: Escholier, Maquis de Gascogne, 192.
“What a spectacle”: Major Robert E. Mattingly, USMC, “Herringbone Cloak—GI Dagger: Marines of the OSS” (Occasional Paper, History and Museums Division, Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps, Washington, D.C., 1989), 145, available at https://ia601304.us.archive.org/2/items/HerringboneCloakGIDaggerMarinesOfTheOSS-nsia/Herring boneCloakGIDaggerMarinesOfTheOSS.pdf.
“The entire Pyrenees region”: “FFI Masters of Pyrenees,” New York Times, August 21, 1944.
“The French Forces”: “French Liberate Toulouse, Hendaye,” New York Times, August 22, 1944.
“He stopped the whole column”: Yvonne Cormeau, IWMSA, September 2, 1984, Catalogue number 7369, www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80007171.
“Maquisards, my brothers”: Escholier, Maquis de Gascogne, 195.
“more than 50,000 square miles”: “FFI Gain Control of 14 Departments,” New York Times, August 23, 1944.
“On his birthday”: BNA, KV 6/29, “Interrogation of J.A.R. Starr, 28th and 30th May, 1945.”
“read out to me a teleprint”: BNA, WO 235/560.
“so-called Commando raids”: Ibid., “Statement of Hans Kieffer, 29 November, 1946.”
“I was not able to see”: Ibid., “Statement of Fritz Hildemann, 30 December 1946.”
“Startled, the Germans did not”: Vaculik, Air Commando, 232.
“I opened my handcuffs”: BNA, WO 235/560, “Proceedings of the Military Court (War Crimes) Trial, NOAILLES case, Deputy Judge Advocate General, 22 April 1947.” See also Lorna Almonds Windmill, Gentleman Jim: The Wartime Story of a Founder of the SAS and Special Forces (London: Constable, 2011), 202–3.
“I made a run for it”: BNA, WO 235/560, “Proceedings of the Military Court (War Crimes)Trial, NOAILLES case, Deputy Judge Advocate General, 22 April 1947.”
“I was not present”: Ibid., “Statement of Hans Kieffer, 29 November 1946.”
“‘This is a Schwenerie’”: BNA, WO 208/4679, “NOTES ON INTERROGATION OF WERNER EMIL RUEHL, BORN ON 5.6.1905 IN MARXLOH, BY SQUADRON OFFICER V.M. ATKINS AT L.D.C. ON 24.10.46.”
“Now that you are going”: Jean Overton Fuller, The Starr Affair (London: Victor Gollancz, 1954), 182.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: “I SAID ‘SHIT’ TO DE GAULLE”
“The Resistance was”: Maurice Buckmaster, They Fought Alone: The True Story of SOE’s Agents in Wartime France (1958; repr., London: Biteback Publishing, 2014), 269.
“Around Ravanel, leaders”: Charles de Gaulle, War Memoirs: Salvation, 1944–1946, trans. Richard Howard (London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1960), 19.
“I was as close to him”: George Starr, IWMSA, Recording 24613, 1978, Reel 15, www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80022295.
“Parisot did not hear”: Raymond Escholier, Maquis de Gascogne (Geneva: Editions du Milieu du Monde, 1945), 199.
“He was a leader”: Ibid., 200–1. Lesur’s Resistance name was “Marceau.”
“the most durable”: FNA, 72 AJ 39 I, pièce 8a, “Témoignage de M. Philippe de Gunzbourg,” 7.
“a brave soldier”: BNA, HS 9/1407/1, “Court of Enquiry re Lt. Col. G.R. STARR (SOE), Feb. 1945.”
Camilo attended another ceremony: Archives départementales du Gers, 42 J 134.
fifty thousand armed men: “The Commissaires Challenged by Resistants: Toulouse and Poitiers,” Journal of Modern History 53, no. 1 (March 1981): D-1102–14.
“people who had been high-handedly arrested”: BNA, HS 9/1407/1, “Court of Enquiry re Lt. Col. G.R. STARR (SOE), Feb. 1945.”
“I am Colonel ‘Hilaire’”: Henri Amouroux, La grande histoire des Français sous l’occupation (Paris: Robert Laffont, 1998), 162. Amouroux quoted Starr’s Resistance colleague Pierre Peré, who said Starr had repeated the words to him. See also Robert Aron, Histoire de la libération de la France: juin 1944–mai 1945 (Paris: Librairie Arthème Fayard, 1959), 603–4. Aron quoted Starr as telling Bertaux he had more than a thousand men under his command.
“I said ‘shit’ to de Gaulle”: Ibid., 162. See also E. H. Cookridge, They Came from the Sky (London: Heinemann, 1965), 584.
“You will give him twenty-four hours”: Aron, Histoire de la libération de la France, 606. In one version of the encounter, de Gaulle relented and told Starr, “I see that you really know how to use the word merde.” In a second, Geoffrey Lucy wrote in “George Starr’s Secret War,” Reader’s Digest, June 1978, 199, that de Gaulle said, “I’ve heard two things about you, and now I know they’re true. T
hey say you’re frightened of nobody, and that you can swear like a Frenchman.” There is no primary source for either. Lucy went further in expanding on history with another unconfirmed story that King George VI, when he presented the Distinguished Service Order to Starr, said, “Ah, you’re the grand little chap who told de Gaulle off. Thank you.”
“Lastly ‘Colonel Hilary’”: de Gaulle, War Memoirs: Salvation, 1944–1946, 20.
he was “very, very upset”: Yvonne Cormeau, IWMSA, September 2, 1984, Catalogue number 7369, www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80007171.
When Serge Ravanel reported: Robert Gildea, “De Gaulle Makes Officers Cry and the General Politics of the Liberation,” January 13, 2014, https://exampleliberation.wordpress.com/2014/01/13/de-gaulle-makes-officers-cry-the-general-politics-of-the-liberation-by-robert-gildea. See also de Gaulle, War Memoirs: Salvation, 1944–1946, 20: “Before leaving Toulouse, I rescinded the order that kept the gendarmerie in barracks and restored these brave men to their normal duties.” Restoring the gendarmes’ authority without purging those who had oppressed them angered the maquisards as much as de Gaulle’s maltreatment of Serge Ravanel and George Starr. The Toulouse gendarmerie had arrested the city’s Jews in August 1942, three months before the Germans occupied the city. In 1943, when the Germans demanded the names of all Jews still living there, the police chief, Jean Philippe, resigned. He went underground with the Resistance, but the Germans captured, tortured, and executed him. He was a notable exception to the rule of the Toulouse gendarmerie’s collusion with the Third Reich.
Rather than thank Landes: Roger Landes, foreword to David Nicholson, Aristide: Warlord of the Resistance (London: Leo Cooper, 1994), i.
another SOE agent, Peter Lake: “Peter Lake,” obituary, Daily Telegraph, July 12, 2009, www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/military-obituaries/special-forces-obituaries/5811738/Peter-Lake.html.
“And therefore we were glad”: Cormeau, IWMSA, September 2, 1984.
“Hilaire himself, unfortunately”: BNA, HS 7/122, Major R. A. Bourne-Patterson’s “British Circuits in France, 1941–1944,” 94.
“Forget the false beards”: Jane Clinton, “Love and Training Spies,” Daily Express, September 1, 2013, www.express.co.uk/news/uk/426006/Love-and-training-spies-WWII-secret-army-member-tells-how-she-learnt-to-be-a-good-liar.
They Fought Alone: The True Story of the Starr Brothers, British Secret Agents in Nazi-Occupied France Page 36
