The Secret Ministry of Ag. & Fish (27 page)

But the talented team behind the BBC French Service’s broadcasts to occupied France, composed mostly of well-known journalists, were treated with ‘veiled hostility’ by de
Gaulle’s staff. The general later faced strong opposition in London itself from many fellow countrymen who had initially supported him. They objected to his rigid, dictatorial attitude, and
La France Libre
and other non- (or anti-) Gaullist newspapers began to appear on the London news stands.

Strangely, the more dependent de Gaulle was on the British, the more determined and belligerent he became, behaving as if he were a head of state. It was therefore unavoidable that de
Gaulle’s relationship with Churchill would quickly deteriorate. Clashes between these two men, both with strong personalities, became more and more frequent and acrimonious. In 1943, after
one of their violent exchanges, Churchill exclaimed: ‘Look at this man. He’s alone. He has nothing. He has no country. He has no army. Yet he behaves as if were as powerful as
Stalin.’ What the general failed to understand was that all he possessed he owed to Churchill, and that without Churchill he would be nothing. He appeared to have forgotten, or perhaps he
preferred not to remember, the French saying ‘Qui t’a fait roi?’ (‘Who has made you king?’).

General de Gaulle was a fiercely proud, patriotic, chauvinistic man. He strongly objected to any interference by a foreign power in France’s affairs and refused to allow English to be
spoken at his HQ in Carleton Gardens. Any person crossing the threshold, should they not speak French, was obliged to go through an interpreter. This rule was absurd, since his second-in-command,
Colonel de Wavrin, spoke perfect English, and most of his officers were fluent in the language of Shakespeare. Leo Marks, who frequently went to Carleton Gardens to instruct the officers in coding,
said that he knew most of them understood what he was saying since he always introduced an amusing anecdote into his lectures, and they always laughed before the interpreter had got round to
interpreting it.

In an effort to wipe out SOE and be solely responsible for organizing clandestine operations in France, de Gaulle allied himself and worked closely with MI6. He declared that any French citizen
fighting under the British flag was a traitor sold to foreign interests, and that once France was again free, any French man or woman who had been a member of SOE would be court-martialled for
having served with a ‘foreign power’! Mercifully I don’t think he carried out his threat.

The contemptuous name amateur bandits’ by which MI6 referred to us was the brainchild of Claude Dansey, the famous ‘C, head of MI6. It is even reported that he delighted in
SOE’s failures, and rejoiced at the collapse of the Prosper
réseau.
Can it be true that Dansey rejoiced at this barbarity, this terrible tragedy? What is true is the dislike,
which almost amounted to hatred, between Dansey and General Gubbins, head of SOE. Unfortunately, neither made any attempt to disguise the fact, which must have warmed the general’s heart.

A few years ago I was horrified to read, in a British Sunday newspaper, the Maurice Dufour story. According to an investigation conducted by Michael Bilton, a journalist, Dufour, a Frenchman
working for MI6, was posted in 1941 as a supervisor at a Vichy government internment camp for British prisoners of war. From there he organized the escape to Britain of dozens of downed RAF crews.
Believing the Germans to be suspicious of his activities, Dufour fled to Lisbon, and from there was flown to England.

According to the journalist, Dufour, having cooperated with British Intelligence, was brutally tortured by BCRA security agents in the basement of 10 Duke Street, one of de Gaulle’s
headquarters in London. Bilton claimed that several other Frenchmen were submitted to the same ordeal. According to the records, Paul Manuel, after being tortured, committed suicide in this cellar.
But the distinguished forensic scientist Sir Bernard Spilsbury, who performed Manuel’s autopsy, declared that suicide was not the cause of death. Manuel had been strangled before being strung
up from a pipe in a corner of the cell in order to simulate suicide. After these facts came to light, the cellar at Duke Street where these atrocities had been committed was officially closed by
the investigating British authorities. But the British government, wishing to avoid further conflict with General de Gaulle, is said to have covered up these crimes.

Whether this story is true, I cannot say. Many French people I have spoken to doubt it. But Bernard Spilsbury was a well-known and highly respected pathologist, perhaps the most respected
pathologist of the time, so it is difficult to imagine that the story is a complete fabrication.

The general, who, from what the account stated, was aware of these crimes committed in, and against, a country which had protected and sheltered him, appeared to have forgotten that France was a
defeated country, now under the German boot. He ignored the fact that if he had an organization, any power at all, it was because Britain, the ‘foreign power’ he so fiercely opposed,
had granted him refuge, given him an HQ from which to operate and fed, clothed and financed his Free French Army and the members of his organization.

Michael Foot’s official history of SOE was published in London in 1968, and the French translation completed shortly afterwards. But its publication was banned by the general. As far as he
was concerned, SOE had done nothing. It was his set-up, the BCRA, which had organized and carried out all the resistance in France. Consequently, the French edition of
SOE in France
only
appeared on the shelves of bookshops in France in 2008.

When the general returned in triumph to France in 1944 he tried to crush any mention, and erase any memory, of SOE; and his treatment of some SOE agents he met was despicable.

‘Hilaire’ – George Starr – had been infiltrated by felucca and fishing boat into south-west France in December 1942, from where he made his way to the foot of the
Pyrenees to set up the Wheelwright
réseau.
He had worked tirelessly for more than two years, arranging drops of materials, recruiting and training Resistance members into a fighting
unit, always one step ahead of the Germans. He was never caught. In a victory parade before General de Gaulle he marched at the head of his army of 1,000 résistants. This did not please the
general. He was incensed that an Englishman should lead a group of French fighters, so, when Starr was presented to him after the ceremony, de Gaulle ordered him to leave France immediately. In
other words, he was summarily told to get out! Starr apparently replied, ‘Je vous emmerde’ (‘To hell with you’). Stunned that anyone could speak to him so disrespectfully,
de Gaulle gasped, ‘I beg your pardon?’, whereupon Starr replied, ‘General, have you been away from your country for so long that you’ve forgotten the language?’,
turned on his heel and walked away.

Roger Landes, who headed an army of 5,000 résistants, was given by the general two hours to leave France. ‘Xavier’ – Richard Heslop – organizer of the Marksman
réseau,
a remarkable man, but then they all were, who had become almost a legend in the Ain, where he operated, was given by the newly formed administration thirty-six hours to
leave the country. Yet another agent, who had worked in the Bordeaux area, was pushed forward by his Resistance group to be introduced to General de Gaulle, who was making a victory tour of the
area. He was told by the general in no uncertain terms that he was not welcome in France and given ten minutes to leave. He apparently asked the general if he might reply, was granted permission,
said, ‘Merde,’ and walked away.

General de Gaulle was very afraid his countrymen would believe that it was not his 55,000-strong Free French force alone which had brought about the final victory and the liberation of France,
and he did everything in his power to suppress, if not erase, the memory of SOE – ably assisted, no doubt, by MI6. When he became president of France in 1945 de Gaulle showered medals and
decorations on his BCRA agents and office staff, even down to the typists. But SOE agents were ignored. They received nothing – and were even denied pensions.

As far as I was concerned, the French Ministry of Defence has consistently refused to grant me the status of veteran. The reason given? The UK, where SOE operated, was not a war zone, and SOE
not a fighting unit! But the real reason is that I was a member of SOE. Had I belonged to the BCRA, the general’s organization, I would have been given a veteran’s card over twenty
years ago.

However, out of the blue in March 2013 I received an unexpected call from the veterans minister’s PA inviting me to lunch with the minister, Monsieur Kader Arif, at the Ministry, when he
would be pleased to give me my veteran’s card. After almost twenty-two years of constant refusals I couldn’t believe my ears. So I accepted his invitation. It was a delicious lunch in a
beautiful setting with the only woman general in the French Air Force and a delightful French naval captain present. To my astonishment I was given the seat of honour at the table, on the right of
the minister. He was charming and not only gave me my card, but also an enormous bouquet of flowers and the Médaille des Volontaires de la Résistance as well. It was a special card, I
learned afterwards, which goes with the medal. I know that this is thanks to that ‘little girl’ who almost suffocated under the blanket when listening to the BBC during the war. Sabine,
who is now a doctor of law, has become my friend. Since she often works in close collaboration with the government, I know she spoke to the minister about my frequent requests and refusals.
Sometimes life works in strange, mysterious ways!

Radio operator Henri Diacono, who had behaved so courageously in the face of danger, received his Legion of Honour decoration when he was in his seventies. And then it was not pinned on his
chest by the French president at the Elysée Palace, but by a former F Section agent, during a simple ceremony at the Free French Club in Paris.

Despite their outstanding acts of bravery, no member of SOE was named to the prestigious roll of 1,038 Resistance heroes known as the Compagnons de la Libération, even though General
Eisenhower had stated in May 1945 that the disruption of enemy rail communications, the harassing of German road transports and the continual, increasing strain placed on German security forces
throughout Europe by SOE’s organized resistance played a very great part in our complete and final victory. Military historians credit SOE, along with other Resistance fighters, with delaying
the arrival of large numbers of German reserves for the Battle of Normandy, but SOE was not honoured in the commemoration of the battle in 1994.

This dismissive, disdainful, one might almost say cruel treatment, this refusal to acknowledge or even believe the British contribution to the Resistance and the Allied efforts towards the final
liberation of France, extended even to local French-born members of the Resistance, recruited by SOE on the ground. It was not only British-trained agents who were ignored, but also de
Gaulle’s own compatriots, those who had responded to his call from London in June 1940 to resist and join in the struggle against Nazi Germany. They had indeed answered his call and resisted
but had joined SOE – the ‘wrong side’.

What the general could not deny, though he made every attempt to prevent the facts from being known, are the following figures. They were quoted, during a conference held at the residence of the
British ambassador to France in December 2008, by Jean-Louis Crémieux-Brilhac, who had been a close adviser to General de Gaulle when he was in London. He is now not only the best-known but
also the official historian of clandestine operations from England during the Second World War.

But in November 1970, General de Gaulle went to his grave still denying SOE’s immense contribution to the liberation of France – and even its very existence.