My War in Two Armies: Part 3 of 10 - Contact with the French Resistance

After a year of occupation, resistance in France was changing from passive to active. Encouraged by the French broadcasts of the BBC, resistance organisations were beginning to form, many of them for the distribution of anti-German propaganda leaflets and similar activities. The decreasing number of German troops in France, owing to their commitments in other countries, also helped. The food and fuel position was however beginning to worsen, rationing was further increased and Parisians who were able to travel to the country did so in order to bring back food; others supplemented their rations by growing vegetables in allotments outside Paris. I was in touch with two other of my colleagues of French Railways in London who were in Paris at the time: Louis Vauchez and José Emeric, both of whom were employed at the Railways’ Paris offices.

On the 3rd September 1941, while I was still working at the Gare d’Austerlitz office, Tortochaux told me that it was possible to send a letter to England through José Emeric who, he said, was a member of a “de Gaullist” organisation which was in touch with the Free French HQ in London. He explained that a party of “volunteers” might soon be leaving France to go to England. He was unable to give me further details but suggested that I should see Emeric for more information of the scheme. I was immediately interested in the possibility of getting to England by any method and I went to see Emeric at his home the same evening. He told me an amazing story about his “de Gaullist” activities which consisted of distributing anti-German leaflets. He promised to introduce me to his chief who, he felt sure, would be prepared to include me in the next party to leave France.

Two days later I saw Emeric again at his home and met his wife who told me how she lived in fear of what would happen should her husband get caught with the bundles of leaflets he carried around Paris. Emeric explained to me how the members of his organisation held secret meetings in cafés and that I should soon meet some of his friends. The following day Emeric asked me to meet him in a café at place St Sulpice where he would introduce me to his chief.

I arrived at the café at the appointed time and was met by Emeric who took me to a room inside where eight or ten other people were gathered. I was presented to the chief, referred to as Charles, who told me that he would arrange for me to be included in a group of 15 members of the organisation who were going to join the Free French forces in England. He added that I should keep the strictest secrecy regarding the organisation’s meetings and plans, and that I should hold myself ready to leave Paris at a day’s notice. Vauchez and Tortochaux were the only two people outside the organisation who knew of my intentions and I thought it wiser not to mention anything to my relatives in Paris and Thomery.

The next meeting I attended was on the 12th September in a large café in place de Rennes, opposite the Gare Montparnasse, when all 15 of us who were to leave Paris met to discuss our travelling arrangements. The average age of the party was about 20, but it soon became apparent that very little preparation and planning had been made for the journey. Some of the party understood that we were to be picked up by an aeroplane outside Paris, but as I expected that scheme was denied at the next meeting on the following day at another café in Montparnasse, and a more realistic plan was devised. This time it was decided that the party of 15 would split up into smaller groups of four or five men travelling separately from Paris to the unoccupied south of France and would meet at Pau near the Pyrenees. Here another member of the organisation would meet us and give us instructions for the next part of our journey, which would be through Spain and possibly Portugal. We knew nothing of the person we were to contact at Pau except that his name was Max and the address at which we were to call on him.

The leader of the group to which I was to belong was Docteur Pierre Poupault, a surgeon who had been a medical officer in the French Army. Poupault was a lively, high-spirited man of about 35, who immediately inspired both confidence and respect. I was lucky to be in his party and he proved himself to be the most enthusiastic and resourceful one of us. It was thanks to him that I was eventually able to get across to Spain. We all agreed with the project and to meet again the following evening to finalise details and fix the date of our departure from Paris.

The next day I went to Thomery to see my uncle and aunt and to collect a few belongings and personal papers in case I should not find time to return to Thomery again. I decided not to tell my relatives of my intended departure, as until I knew the result of our next meeting that evening I did not know when I should be leaving for Pau.

At our third and final meeting it was decided that to avoid further delays we would leave Paris early the next morning, 15th September. This unfortunately did not allow me sufficient time to say goodbye to my uncle and aunt in Thomery but I asked Tortochaux to visit them to explain the position and hand them a letter from me.

After drawing out all the money I had in the Post Office, some 5,000 francs, and writing a letter to the Railways to give my notice which was to be posted to them two days after my departure, I spent the night at Tortochaux’s where I packed the minimum of my things in a small bag.

Early the next morning I left Villeneuve-St-Georges (where Tortochaux lived) by train and arrived at the Gare de Lyon in Paris. I then walked across to the Gare d’Austerlitz where, as arranged the previous day, I met my three travelling companions: Docteur Poupault and the other two who were Lieutenant Blanchard, aged about 40, an airman of the 1914-18 war, and Jean Cartier, 30, an air-gunner in the French Armée de l’Air. Also at the station were five or six other members of the organisation who had come to see us off. We took our places in the packed train and waited.

At 8.45am our train, the Paris to Bordeaux express, left with a number of German officers and soldiers on board, so we were careful not to enter into conversation with anyone. Our destination was Tours where we arrived at noon. After leaving the train we arranged for our hand luggage to be sent by train to a station on the other side of the frontier between occupied and unoccupied France. So we registered our bags to Chateauroux, where we would collect them after crossing the demarcation line. That crossing had to be attempted clandestinely, since we had no permit to leave occupied France and we could not continue the journey by train any further. We were now unencumbered and would appear less conspicuous when approaching the area of the frontier.

After having lunch in a restaurant in Tours, we went to the local coach station and inquired as to the time of the next bus to the village of La-Haye-Descartes which was as close as we could travel by public transport to the demarcation line. We found that the next bus was not due to leave Tours until 4.30pm so we spent the time at our disposal playing cards in a café.

When the time came, we took our places in the bus which was packed full of local people. We arrived at La-Haye-Descartes at 6 o’clock and we were about one mile away from the frontier. The village was a fairly large one but we realised that four strangers walking down the main road together might arouse curiosity, especially as places situated near the border were usually watched. Poupault went on ahead while Blanchard, Cartier and I followed at intervals some way behind. We soon arrived at a café where Poupault said we were to wait for him while he contacted a guide he knew who would get us across into unoccupied France the same evening.

It was not long before Poupault returned for us; we followed him to the other end of the village where we arrived at the house of his friend who was a veterinary. We were made very welcome and were given coffee and a liqueur after which Poupault’s friend gave us instructions which we were to follow very closely. His daughter, who was only about 15 years old, would lead us to a place in the country outside the village, where we would be met by our veterinary who would then see us across the border. He told us that by reason of his profession he was allowed a special permit which enabled him to travel on both sides of the border line and that he got to know the times and the exact places of the German patrols. He often had occasion to smuggle people across with the aid of members of his family.

As 7.15pm we left the house guided by the veterinary’s daughter. Poupault and Cartier walked in front; Blanchard and I following some distance away keeping the others in view. We were soon outside the village and continued along a country lane which was well hidden most of the way by woods on either side. After covering a distance of about a mile we were shown where the frontier stood, which was about half a mile from our present position. We continued on our way, and so far we had not met anyone. We appeared to be proceeding in a direction parallel to the border. Eventually we stopped and our guide beckoned to a very young girl of about eight or nine years old who came from a nearby farm. She was able to warn our guide not to attempt the crossing at that place as she had just seen a German patrol from where she had come. We then continued along the lane until we entered a thickly wooded part of the country where we were met by the veterinary leaning on his bicycle. He took over from here and his daughter, to whom we were all very grateful, returned home alone.

After crossing through the wood we emerged in a field and walked over the rough ground, spreading out so as not to attract too much attention should there be any German soldiers. We were not heading directly for the demarcation line and having reached the end of the field we had to pass through more woodland at the other end of which was some open land. From there we could see a farm some 300 yards away through which, the veterinary informed us, the frontier passed. We could observe in the distance a line of short wooden posts painted white which the Germans had placed to indicate the frontier. Before leaving the cover of the trees, we kept out of sight while the veterinary made signals to two young girls who appeared to be waiting over on the farm and to which they replied. He then told us that the way was clear and that we should make a quick dash for the farm. Without any further delay we all ran as fast as we could and when we reached the farm the girls advised us that the road beyond the farm was clear but that we should hurry away from the frontier area.

We were most thankful to the veterinary and to his young assistants for having got us safely into unoccupied France. They did this job at considerable personal risk and never accepted any reward for the service they gave to the many people who wanted to cross the frontier. We parted company with the veterinary and after leaving the farm we soon came to a main road which we had to follow for some distance before we came across the French unoccupied zone control post. Here we found a French soldier at the barrier; he escorted us into the guard room where the sergeant in charge asked us to sign a register and produce our papers. This was a formality and we were allowed to proceed on our way.

One of the main obstacles of our journey to the south had been successfully overcome and we felt very pleased with ourselves.

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