Great Escapes (27 page)
Saying his grateful farewells to the Davreux family, Bill Randle and Dédée set off on what was to be a potentially hazardous journey. On entering the station they boarded the train and seated themselves at either end of the carriage. The journey to Brussels was uneventful and the train only had two stops before arriving dead on time. They disembarked and walked out of the station. Dédée was met by a young woman who embraced her, then arm in arm they walked away. Bill Randle followed at a discreet distance until they reached a crossroads where they separated. Bill followed the other girl, who led him through the town towards a church in a market place.
The church was the Notre Dame du Sablon, and walking up the steps behind her, Bill went through the ritual that he had been shown by the Davreuxs. Once inside he made his way over to the third row on the right-hand side of the altar, passing the young guide who sat with a headscarf on appearing to be at prayer. The moment he sat down, Bill noticed that his guide got up and left. After what seemed like ages, but was in fact only minutes, a portly-looking gentleman sporting a Belgian
boutonnière,
sat beside him.
Without saying a word the man glanced at Bill, got up and left. Bill waited for about a minute then followed him. As he walked out into the sunlight, he saw the man on the other side of the road who indicated with a slight gesture of his hand for Bill to follow him. They walked through a park then across a busy main road and finally into a block of flats. Because the lift was out of order, they had to walk up the stairs until they reached the fifth floor. The guide knocked on the door, which was quickly opened, and he stepped inside, gesturing for Bill to follow him. Inside Bill was introduced to a middle-aged lady by the name of Madame Marechal.
After inviting him into her sitting room, Madame Marechal explained the rules of living in her home. She reminded him that he was staying in an apartment that was situated in a block of apartments in the middle of Brussels. She also said that the apartment block was frequented by Germans who were always visiting certain young ladies who lived in the block. She explained that although most of the girls were all right, it was known that there were a few collaborators amongst them. Taking him on a tour of the apartment Madame Marechal showed him the various rooms and warned him always to stay away from the windows and to move about the flat as quietly as possible. She was supposed to be a woman alone and anyone hearing extra noises coming from her apartment might become suspicious. With a wide grin, she then pointed to a trapdoor in the ceiling and tapped on it with a bamboo pole. Bill was surprised to see the trapdoor open and even more surprised when the face of his rear gunner, Bob Frost, appeared.
Bob swung down from the loft, quickly followed by Dal Mounts, the American member of his crew. Then another body appeared, a blond-haired, Germanic-looking young man. He introduced himself as Freddy Frankowski, a Polish bomber pilot who had been shot down during the German invasion of Poland. The Resistance had picked up Bob Frost and Dal Mounts just a day after being shot down.
He was the told that ‘guests’ were only allowed to eat in the kitchen. They also could only flush the toilet once a day because excessive use might cause questions to be asked. The four men took it in turns with the sleeping accommodation, two downstairs in the bed and two on the mattress in the loft.
After he had settled in, Dédée visited. She took Bill to one side and asked him to check out the Polish pilot’s story, as her Resistance colleagues were a bit concerned about him. Bill discreetly questioned him during the evening, and when Dédée visited the following day he told her that he was satisfied that the man was genuine.
For the next three days the four men relaxed as best they could, conscious of the fact that they would have to be vigilant at all times concerning the way they moved about the apartment. Then on the third evening, Dédée arrived to tell them that they were being moved to Paris the following morning. She would be their guide and they were to travel in pairs. Bill paired up with Freddy Frankowski and Bob Frost with Dal Mounts.
The following morning they said their goodbyes to Madame Marechal and set off for the station. Dédée had briefed them fully the night before, but she went over it once again after handing them their tickets. She told them that there would be a three-hour wait at Lille and the only slight problem that she could foresee was at the border crossing at Bassieux, where Customs officers checked everybody and everything. They were not, however, looking for escaping airmen.
As the train pulled in, a very attractive woman suddenly joined Dédée and the pair of them got into the carriage. The train was packed but two German soldiers gave up their seats for the two women. Bill Randle and the other three men found themselves crammed into the packed carriage standing amongst a number of German sailors and their kit bags. Fortunately, the sailors appeared to be off the same ship and talked excitedly between themselves and ignored everyone else. At one of the many stops, the sailors got off leaving the carriage almost empty.
As they approached the frontier, a conductor came through the train making everyone aware of the fact. At the border the train stopped and everyone was ordered out onto the track. This was because the station platform was very small and was taken up by rows of tables where Customs officials waited, each with a German soldier standing behind him. As they shuffled along the track towards the platform, Bill and Freddy had attached themselves to an old lady who was struggling to walk and carry her luggage. By the time they reached the Customs officials Bill was helping and fussing over the old lady, giving the impression he was a relative. Suddenly there was a disturbance by one of the tables when a man in a trench coat suddenly raced down the embankment and up the other side, heading towards a clump of trees. A shot was fired after him, but he was long gone before any of the officials could react.
The four men went through without any problems, the officials still distracted by the episode with the man in the trench coat. Getting back on the train the party settled back for the journey to Lille. The remainder of the trip was uneventful and on reaching the station, they all got off. The two women parted company and Bill Randle watched as Dedée walked across the road to another group of men who were dressed very similarly to Bill and his companions. He immediately realised that this was another group of evaders on their way down through the escape chain.
Dedée briefed her party again, saying that they had three hours to wait before the train to Paris was due to leave and so she had arranged for them to get a meal at a restaurant close by the station. She told Bill that because he could speak a little French he was in charge of the group and handed him a generous amount of francs. They were to be outside at 2 p.m. precisely ready to go to the station.
The four men entered the restaurant and were shown to a table upstairs close to a fire exit. Bill ordered the meal for all of them and included a bottle of wine. The only two other people in the upstairs room were two German soldiers, who barely glanced up as they were eating their meal.
The meal was served and promptly devoured with great relish and as the coffee was being served Dal Mounts whispered to Bill that he needed to go to the bathroom. Bill indicated that it was behind a curtain that was situated behind the cashier’s desk. Dal Mounts went behind the curtain, then the next moment there was a woman’s shriek and the curtain was thrown back showing Dal Mounts struggling with the lavatory Madame outside the female toilet. A hushed, embarrassed silence fell over the room. Bill quickly got to his feet and went over. Dal Mounts by this time had recovered his composure and was indicating to the woman by pointing to his ears and mouth, that he was deaf and dumb.
‘Mon ami est idiot,’
said Bill to the woman, slipping a one-franc coin on her plate. Taking Dal Mounts by the arm he led him into the gents’ toilet. Laughter replaced the embarrassed silence as everyone realised that a mistake had been made by the simpleton, but Bill decided that the party should leave. Paying the bill, Bill apologised once again and started downstairs. Suddenly a hand was placed on his arm and a voice whispered in English, ‘You really must try and do better or you will never get back to England.’ Bill never looked round, but just kept walking down the stairs and out into the street, a cold sweat running down his back.
Crossing the road, they met Dedée who had heard what had happened and was not amused. Angrily, she led the way back to the station just in time to board the train to Paris. By the time they reached Paris her anger had faded and she was back to her normal, happy self. Leaving the train at Gare de L’Est, the group proceeded down to the Metro where they were given a book of tickets and instructions on how to use them. Boarding the Metro train they headed out of the city to a district called Oudinot. They were taken to an apartment house in a quiet residential area and upstairs to a suite of rooms. This was to be their safe house and where they met Dedée’s father Fréderic de Jongh.
It was from this apartment that all the final arrangements were made for escapees and evaders to make their journey across France and into Spain. This was the Comète Line’s holding facility for all allied soldiers and airmen attempting to get back to England. The long journey by train to St Jean de Luz was fraught with danger, so specialist guides had to be recruited and only so many evaders and escapees could be taken at any one time. It was a human conveyor-belt system that held dire consequences for everyone should anything go wrong.
The group was told that it could be some time before their turn came, so in the meantime they were permitted to go out and see the sights of Paris. They were told to keep away from the restaurants and to take sandwiches or buy snacks. They would eat all their main meals in the apartment. Bill Randle described the experience of sightseeing in Paris with hundreds of German soldiers doing the same thing, as completely surreal. The group was aware that the more relaxed they became, the more chance there was that they would become careless.
This was no more apparent that on one trip when Bob Frost and Bill Randle were crammed into a carriage on the Metro and Bill found himself face to face with a Luftwaffe Leutnant. As the train pulled into a station, the train lurched and Bob Frost shot forward into the German. An involuntary ‘Sorry’ came from Bob’s lips. The German was stunned and an incredulous look appeared on his face. Then the doors opened, and Bill and Bob forced their way out and up into the streets, expecting any minute to hear either shots, or a hue and cry starting up behind them, but fortunately nothing happened. The two men quickly got themselves swallowed up in the crowds.
This was a timely and salutary lesson for them both, and on their return they reminded the others to be on their guard at all times. One more slip like that could spell disaster for them and the group.
Another time Bill and Bob went to the cinema and after making sure their seats were close to the exit, settled down to watch the film. Before the main feature came on, there was newsreel footage about a detachment of French SS troops on the Russian Front. There were a large number of Frenchmen in the audience who took exception to the newsreel, and made it quite clear how they felt, with shouts and derogatory remarks aimed specifically at the German members of the audience. The whole auditorium descended into uproar and fights broke out between the two factions. Bill Randle and Bob Frost quickly slipped out of the cinema just before the police arrived.
During the evenings Bill took the opportunity to talk to Frederic de Jongh about the reasons why he and all the others risked their lives almost every day for the allies. His explained that those in the Comète Line felt they were soldiers too, although they never wore a uniform, and that by helping them to escape and enable the airmen to get back into the war, they would be playing their part in defeating the German army.
Then one morning they were told that they had to be ready to move that evening. First Class railway tickets had been purchased for them and they were to stay in the apartment until it was time to leave. The group spent the day practising their responses to questions that might be asked of them by French officials. This was to be one of the tensest journeys they had experienced. Entering their compartment they discovered that there were three spare seats. One was taken up by a young Frenchman who smiled at everybody then settled down to read his book. Minutes later two German officers entered and the train set off. Bill Randle noticed that the two Germans kept staring at the young Frenchman and muttering to each other. He could see that the object of their attention was the book the Frenchman was reading. Bill glanced at the book and was staggered to see that it was a copy of George Bernard Shaw’s
Man and Superman
– the English version.
The Germans spoke to the young Frenchman and he replied in fluent German and the next minute the three of them were conversing in what appeared to be a friendly and intense manner. Pleased that the attention was away from them, the group settled down and pretended to sleep. At Tours, the two Germans got off and when the train stopped at Orleans, so did the young Frenchman. With only the members of the group left in the compartment, they settled down to sleep. They were awakened by Dedée telling them that they were about to arrive in Biarritz where they had to change trains.
Disembarking from the train, the group moved to one end of the deserted platform and waited for Dedée who had left the station. She returned with a young woman and introduced her to the group as Nadine, who was to lead the group on the last leg of their rail journey to St Jean de Luz. The train pulled in a few minutes later and the group got on. The train stopped at every station, and a few wayside halts, and then after about an hour the train pulled into the last station on the line.
Excitement was growing within the group, as they could smell the sea air and the taste of freedom. The small town of St Jean de Luz was having its market day and the streets were crowded with local people buying and selling fish and vegetables. Nadine led the party around the harbour to a house in the Rue Gambetta.