Great Escapes (24 page)

The three men returned to the safe house and explained their predicament to Georges. It was decided to contact Madame Samiez, as she was in contact with the Resistance organisation. A postcard was sent saying that all her friends were away and did she know of any others they could call on. The reply that came back a few days later shocked them to the core. In big, bold letters, the postcard read in English:

How the postcard slipped through without being spotted was a total mystery, one can only assume that the French postal workers concealed it somehow. Immediately plans were drawn up to move to the other side of the city. The three men then went to a small town called Romorantin, where James Langley had been given the address of a friend of Madame Samiez, who might be able to shelter them. It was at this point that James Langley began to feel depressed and isolated. He was on the run in a foreign country, speaking and understanding very little of the language and just hanging around waiting for someone to help him. In addition, his two companions spoke no French, had Scottish accents that were so strong that sometimes even he could barely understand them, and they both stood out like a sore thumb because of their height.

Unable to find the woman’s house, James Langley and Georges approached the home of the parish priest and asked for directions. He knew the woman and thought that she was away, but he said he would go and find out as it was unsafe to go out without the proper documents. He returned saying that the house was empty and because of the activity of Germans in the area they ought to return to Paris.

For the next few days the escapees stayed in their hotel, only venturing out occasionally during the day. Then on the fourth day word came that arrangements had been made to get them out of Paris. They were to go to the Gare d’Austerlitz at 6.45 a.m., where they should look for a man dressed in a black suit with a red handkerchief in his top pocket and carrying a newspaper. Langley was to approach the man and whisper the word ‘Mozart’ and then follow him out of the station. He would be given four tickets, and the four men would board the train for Bourges.

Entering the station, he saw the man waiting, but before he could say anything the man grasped him by the elbow and ushered him outside. Handing him the tickets he explained that they were to board the train one at a time but to enter the same carriage. As the train pulled away from the station, James Langley felt a mixture of relief and trepidation. At Vierzon the train was stopped and everyone ordered off. At first it was thought that there was going to be a thorough search of the train, but then it was discovered that the French and German border officials had not arrived. Vierzon was the checking point for those people travelling on into unoccupied France. At Bourges the four men and their guide got off. The three escapees and Georges walked around the town until evening, when their guide established contact with other members of the Resistance and a lorry arrived to take them on to the border.

The lorry stopped at a café just 500yds away from the border. The men entered the café, only to find it almost full of Germans. They were border guards, and it appeared that the guide knew most of them and appeared to be on friendly terms. After a few glasses of wine the four men settled uncomfortably down to wait for dark. Their guide did not seem to be fazed in the slightest with the German border guards, and joined in singing with them as more and more wine was consumed. As darkness started to descend the guards left and fifteen minutes later the guide took the escapees outside, where Langley discovered that they were not to be the only ones making the crossing into unoccupied France. It appeared that the guide also ran a rather lucrative business guiding people across for a fee – 1,000 francs per head. The group headed out some distance behind the German border patrol that had left some twenty minutes earlier. After crossing a field, they crawled under a hedge, into a ditch and then under a barbed wire fence and into ‘Free France’, as one of the party exclaimed.

After spending the night in a local hotel, which had been pre-arranged by the Resistance, the four men caught the train for Lyons. On arrival, Langley went to see the American Consul, George Whittinghill, who looked after British affairs when no British Consul was available. The Consul admitted that he personally could not help but he knew a man who could and Langley was invited to return to the embassy the following day to meet him. The following day Langley returned and was introduced to Raoul Beaumine, who immediately told Langley that he had known his father. Raoul then told him that his name had appeared on a Red Cross list of officers who had been wounded or were missing. The Red Cross had made enquiries and was told that he had been a prisoner of war but had escaped and was now on the run.

Raoul then said that there were two ways out – through France, over the Pyrenees and into Spain, or to Switzerland. Before he could answer, Georges, who had arrived soon after James Langley, intervened saying that he had another escapee outside. So it was decided to toss a coin for who went where, as Raoul could only take one person with him back to Switzerland. The coin was tossed and James Langley lost – he would have to go through France and into Spain.

Raoul Beaumine gave him the name and address of a family in Vichy who would be able to help him. He also gave him an address in Marseilles, the Seaman’s Mission, where his other two companions could find help and where he would go later. Langley and the other escapees headed for Vichy, to await preparations for them to be spirited away through Resistance underground. It has to be remembered that Langley now had only one arm, and what was left of that still needed regular dressing changes and attention.

After ten days of waiting, word came and James Langley headed for Marseilles, whilst his former companion headed towards Lyons and Switzerland. Marseilles was the only unoccupied port in France from which ships sailed to the French colonies and other parts on a regular basis. It was also the most crime-ridden city in Europe and was controlled in the main by gangsters. The local
gendarmerie
paid lip service to any loyalty to the Vichy government and was corrupt. Marseilles was flooded with refugees trying to leave the country and was a hotbed for spies and informers of all nationalities.

James Langley made his way to the Seaman’s Mission, which was run by Revd Donald Caskie. The mission had started life as a club for British seamen when they entered the port, but with the war no more British ships came. The Revd Caskie had been the Presbyterian Minister of the Scottish Church in Paris, but after the city had fallen had made his way to Marseilles. He had reopened the mission there, where it was used to house and help refugees, evaders and escapees, and later used as a cover for escape organisations. After spending just an hour in the mission, Langley decided that it was not safe to discuss any escape plans, as he suspected there were informers amongst the people staying there. He gave himself up to the
gendarmerie
by reporting to the guard on the gate of Fort St Jean. This had once been the recruiting fortress for the famous French Foreign Legion, and had its motto carved over the entrance:

On entering the prison, Langley discovered that there were fifteen other British officers who had given themselves up. All were waiting for the Resistance to get them to the frontier with Spain and, hopefully, over the Pyrenees. The officers were allowed to come and go as often as they pleased, providing they were present for the roll call on Monday mornings. Other ranks were confined to the prison, but British ingenuity prevailed and they regularly spent the evenings in Marseilles via an escape route through the latrines.

The latrines were basically a recess cut into the outer wall that in turn led to a tunnel, which was cleaned by means of the tide as it rose and fell. An iron bar across the hole served as a seat and by tying a rope to the iron bar the prisoners, after placing their clothes in a waterproof bag, could lower themselves into the sewer tunnel that led to the sea. The prisoner then crawled along the tunnel and into the sea. They then swam to the nearest jetty and climbed out, the swim having washed away most, if not all, of the sewage. They returned the same way.

After spending a week at the Fort, Langley decided to take a room at a small hotel. As long as he turned up every Monday morning for roll call, there was no problem. In fact the Commandant used to issue a week’s rations to all the officers and let them get on with it.

As the days passed it became obvious that to try and get over the Pyrenees in winter would be foolhardy to say the least. In Langley’s case, as a
‘mutilé de guerre’
(disabled serviceman) it would be doubly difficult climbing over the mountains with only one arm. He could be repatriated if he passed a medical board and be declared unfit for military service. So he decided to wait it out for this to happen.

Having decided that this was the simplest and most obvious way out for him, James Langley looked into different methods of aiding other, more able-bodied evaders and escapees to evade capture. Increasing pressure was being put upon the Vichy French government by the Germans to prevent escapees making it out of France via Marseilles. There was no organised escape organisation as such in place at the time, as most escapes were made in pairs with the help of members of the French Resistance. What was needed was an organised network where co-ordination and control was the order of the day. A network of safe houses needed to be set up close to the border of Spain, where escapees and evaders could rest prior to the arduous trip over the Pyrenees. One of these was a small farmhouse in the Pyrenean foothills owned by Madame Kattalin Aguirre. Here escapees and evaders rested before making the dangerous and arduous trip over the mountains. Madame Aguirre was later denounced and sent to a concentration camp but fortunately she survived and returned to her family after the camp was liberated by American troops.

Two apartments owned by Dr Rodocanachi and Louis Nouveau were the main safe houses in Marseilles, although there were a number of others that could be used in an emergency. Such was the secrecy surrounding the safe houses that Rodocanachi and Nouveau, although good friends, never knew that each other’s house was being used by the escape line.

Forged papers and documents had to be made, civilian clothes obtained and more and more safe houses found in Marseilles itself. Alternative methods of escape had to be considered and one of these was by sea. After all there were a number of ships flying flags of neutrality and conveniently visiting the port on a regular basis. One of the biggest problems facing the evaders was the language barrier. Those who did speak some French rarely knew enough to convince anyone that they were actually Nationals. Some of the evaders volunteered to stay in France and help set up an escape organisation, but in order to do so, only fluent French speakers would be of any use. There were however exceptions to the rule like Captain Ian Garrow of the Seaforth Highlanders.

In the formative years a Captain Murchie had headed up the escape committee, but when he made his escape over the Pyrenees, he handed the mantle of responsibility to Ian Garrow. Garrow had reached Marseilles at the end of 1941, after his 51st Division had been overrun at St Valéry-en-Caux. He spoke very little French, was tall and rangy and looked every inch a Scotsman. How he had managed to evade capture was a mystery, but he had an air of authority and confidence around him all the time, and appeared to be unfazed whatever the situation. Another of these ‘exceptions’ was a fighter pilot called Mike Malloney, whose aircraft had been shot down over northern France. He had been captured and interrogated after some days on the run, but had managed to escape and make his way to Marseilles. The three men, Langley, Garrow and Maloney, sat down and discussed the possibilities of setting up an escape committee through which evaders could be helped.

Then news came through that the Mixed Medical Commission, as it was known, was to sit and decide who was fit or unfit. The unfit were to be repatriated. Those who were deemed to be borderline cases were warned by the American Consul General that the medical examination was going to be thorough. Three days before the examinations, the men started depriving themselves of sleep and going on drinking sessions that would leave them with the mother of all hangovers. They did not wash or shave and rubbed their wounds until red and inflamed. In short they looked like human wrecks by the time they appeared in front of the medical board, which consisted of six doctors, two nominated by the Americans, two by the Swiss and two by the Vichy government. One of the doctors on the board was Dr George Rodocanachi, so Langley had one ally when he appeared.

One week later came the news that all those who had been assessed had passed the board and were to be repatriated, including James Langley. Langley’s stump was still giving him cause for concern, so he approached a French doctor for help. Although it was an offence to give aid to an evader, the doctor grudgingly agreed. He was very rough in his treatment and when offered payment for his services, he refused. When Langley commented about how rough the doctor had been whilst treating and dressing the wound, the doctor replied that he had meant to be. He said that he loathed the British because they had killed his grandfather at the Battle of Trafalgar and stolen a number of the French colonies. When asked why then had he bothered to help him, the doctor replied that he hated the Germans even more than he hated the British and would help anyone who was fighting them.

The German authorities then put increasing pressure on the Vichy government to clamp down on the security of the port of Marseilles, and the freedom experienced by escapees and evaders alike was at an end. Even the gangsters who controlled the underworld in Marseilles were finding it difficult to operate, although they still seemed to enjoy an unfettered lifestyle. After the war it was discovered that many of the gangsters were also members of the Resistance and they had used their chosen way of life to the detriment of the Germans.