Olivier Vievloka (7:53)

Before D Day, the French Resistance gave many, many piece of intelligence to the British mainly, and to a certain extent to the Americans. General Donovan, who was leading the Office of Strategic Services, which is the ancestor of the CIA, considered that the French had given 80% of the information necessary to Plan Overlord.

Narrator (8:24)

But despite the value of such intelligence, Allied planners have been reluctant to grant the French Resistance an official role on D Day.

Olivier Vievloka (8:33)

At the very beginning, the Resistance was really, really weak. They had no means of fight, no weapons, no means of transmission and so on. In 1944 that was not the case. The French Resistance, I think that it gathered around, I don't know, 200,000 people. But the repression led by the Germans and the Vichy police was very harsh. That was the first problem. And the second main problem was that the Allies did not believe in the French Resistance. The French Resistance was keen to fight on and for D Day to help the Allies to liberate France. But it was not really associated with the Allied plans.

Narrator (9:27)

To some extent the Allies are right to be wary because there is no singular French Resistance. Rather what we have is a bunch of disparate groups with different methods, aims and agendas. Their would be unifier. A brave patriot called Jean Moulin has already been betrayed, tortured and executed. Sean Rees is a historian and biographer. Her books include Lucy Obrach, the French Resistance heroine who defied the Gestapo.

Sean Rees (10:01)

It's much more helpful really, even as late as May 1944 to think of it as multiple Resistances. These multiple groups, some of which were not even aware of each other.

Narrator (10:14)

The biggest resistance group, the Communists, seem more interested in revolution and liberation. Meanwhile, the ORA Organisations de Resistance de l'armee are united by something else. Their hatred of France's self appointed leader, General Charles de Gaulle, now living in exile in Algeria. De Gaulle is a difficult man at the best of times and he hasn't exactly endeared himself to the Allies either. US President Roosevelt has warned General Eisenhower not to trust him as far as he can throw him. Even British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who's been bending over backwards to accommodate. The Free French leader has grown exasperated with him. Churchill's SOE have been working behind enemy lines, coordinating resistance activities on the continent. But de Gaulle doesn't seem to appreciate their help.

Sir Anthony Beaver (11:13)

Sir Anthony Beaver SOE was there helping the Resistance and we were parachuting in arms to them and all the rest of it. But de Gaulle didn't like the Resistance from the point of view that they were dealing with the British. As far as he was concerned, the British were almost as bad as the Germans. He wanted at one stage to arrest SOE officers. So, I mean, there was this terrible sort of tension. I mean, when the main French force, which was later going to cross over the channel, the French 2nd Armored Division arrived in England, what was the very first thing they should do? But they held a solemn mass in honor of Joan of Arc, whom the British had burnt at the stake.

Narrator (11:59)

This is a message from sponsor Intuit.

Claire Molly (12:01)

TurboTax Taxes was getting frustrated by your forms.

Narrator (12:05)

Now Taxes is uploading your forms with a Snap and a TurboTax expert will do your taxes for you. One who's backed by the latest tech.

Claire Molly (12:13)

Which cross checks millions of data points for absolute accuracy. All of which makes it easy for you to get the most money back guaranteed. Get an expert now@turbotax.com only available with TurboTax Live full service.

Narrator (12:25)

Seek guaranteed details@turbotax.com guarantees. Titanic Ship of dreams, the new podcast from the award winning Noiser Network. Join me, Paul McGann, as we explore life and death on Titanic. I'll delve into my own family story following my great uncle Jimmy as he tries to escape the engine room. We'll hear the harrowing tales of the victims and the testimonies of the lucky survivors.

Claire Molly (12:50)

I saw that ship sink and I saw that ship break in half.

Narrator (12:55)

Titanic ship of dreams. Listen, wherever you get your podcasts. Personality clashes aside, General de Gaulle presents practical problems as well. For a start, his own intelligence outfit is as leaky as a sieve. Giving them secret information about the D day plans would be highly risky.

Sir Anthony Beaver (13:15)

The French had a useless old fashioned code for communications which the Germans could break straight away. And the British knew this. And this is why they could not give the French any information about the forthcoming invasion. And de Gaulle was absolutely furious. But they could not trust French communications for keeping things secret. It wasn't because they felt that, you know, the, the Free French had been infiltrated by Vichy or anything like that. That wasn't the problem. The problem was simply the Kurds.

Narrator (13:48)

When it comes To D Day, General de Gaulle is very much out of the loop.

Sir Anthony Beaver (13:53)

They didn't tell de Gaulle until the last moment. And then he was flown to Britain and he of course exploded with anger. So at the last moment you have to go suddenly forbidding the French liaison officers from taking part in the invasion. And I mean, you know, at one moment Churchill lost his temper and wanted to have DeGault flown back in chains to Algiers because he regarded this as treason and a betrayal, in fact, of the Allied cause.

Narrator (14:23)

But with Dieter approaching, there has at least been a mending of the fences, an entente cordiale. After all, as Churchill put it in a letter to President Roosevelt, it is very difficult to cut the French out of the liberation of France. Relations have improved in part thanks to the appointment of some palatable figures. In February 1944, the late Jean Moulin's former colleague Georges Bidot is made head of the Committee of National Liberation. The various French resistance groups meanwhile, are placed under the command of General Marie Pierre Koenig and the Force Francaise de Linterieux, or ffi.

Sean Rees (15:05)

Koenig was a very, very useful person for the Allies to find because he represented de Gaulle. He was loyal de Gaulle, but he was much, much easier to deal with both from above and from below. He was a very important part of bringing the disparate elements, the Allies, the Gaullists, the Resistance, on the ground all together and pulling in one direction.

Narrator (15:28)

As part of the ffi, the French Resistance becomes an official army. Its leaders are granted officer ranks. Resistances are issued special armbands. In theory, this affords them combatant status in accordance with the Geneva Conventions, though it's doubtful that the Germans will recognize such distinctions. In any case, there will be no such official cover for the SOE agents. For the past four years they have been following Churchill's orders to set Europe ablaze. They've coordinated with local partisan movements throughout German occupied Europe. In France, that work is undertaken by Section F. But before they're dropped behind enemy lines, new recruits are given some pretty intense training at elite commando camps. Unassuming French speaking Brits are transformed into undercover agents, guerrilla warriors schooled in wireless operations, demolition techniques, weapons skills and hand to hand combat. Claire Molly is an award winning biographer. Her books include the Spy who Loved the Women who Flew for Hitler and Agent Zoe.

Claire Molly (16:49)

They are trained in the use of guns and explosives and in silent killing, which is killing just with a rope, a knife or their bare hands.

Narrator (16:58)

Unusually, despite such bloodthirsty tactics, SOE is an equal opportunities employer, a Significant number of their recruits are female.

Claire Molly (17:08)

The interviews were the same for the women and for the men. For example, for F Section their chief interviewer was a man called Selwyn Jepsen. He was looking for the same thing essentially in women as he was for men, which was language skills, knowledge of the country. But he wasn't looking for a sense of heroism or self aggrandizement that was seen as quite dangerous. They were looking for patriotism and courage. And actually Selwyn Jepsen thought that the women were better suited for the work. He said it was. The women had a special kind of cool and lonely courage, but I think that was what SOE required. I don't think that's necessarily female specific, but I do think it was incredibly.

Narrator (17:48)

Courageous work, given the risks involved. No one can be conscripted into soe, male or female. You have to volunteer. Harry Verlander lied about his age when he joined the army at just 16. Within a couple of years he was volunteering for a transfer.

Harry Verlander (18:11)

We saw one notice came up on the board. Wireless operators required. A knowledge of a foreign language would be an advantage. May entail parachuting. I said, I know two French nursery rhymes. Odoo.

Narrator (18:28)

Within a month, Harry finds himself called for an interview in Oxford.

Harry Verlander (18:33)

There There were about 400 men. There was a lot of people there and we were just told a little bit about what was required of us. At the end of every sort of lecture they said, if you don't want to go any further, you can leave, you can go home, you'll give a point for the weekend and then go back to unit. At the end of the day we were questioned again and if you wanted to carry on, you just said so.

Narrator (19:05)

Transferred to a camp near Peterborough. Eventually Harry is sent to Fairfield Aerodrome in Gloucestershire where he waits for his ride across the Channel.

Harry Verlander (19:21)

It was probably about nine in the evening when we left Fairford. It was a four hour trip because the plane was going out into the Atlantic and coming in over the Bay of Biscay in this plane they opened up the center of the this bomber and there was this, this enormous great hole. You could have stood a coach in there, a couple of coaches. It looked that big, it was so wide and we dropped 300ft. That's very low. But it's to arrive close together of course.

Narrator (20:04)

Where the parachuted in like Harry Verlander or transferred via small lysander aircraft. The RAF's so called spy taxis. Almost 500 SOE agents are landed behind enemy lines in France. They will play a Crucial role, transmitting messages, acting as circuit leaders, arming locals from dropped weapons canisters, drilling them on tactics, explosives, the ins and outs of assembling a Sten gun.

Claire Molly (20:36)

They are the lifeblood connecting these groups. And they're really working from 1943 forward on build up for D Day. What they want to do, they want to ensure that the French Resistance army is coordinated. And so SOE was coordinating between these different groups.

Narrator (20:56)

For the American Office of Strategic Services, a direct link to the Resistance is invaluable. After all, a stick of dynamite placed on a railway track is far more effective than trying to bomb it from 10,000ft. By June 1944, the resistance have chalked up 808 locomotives against the combined Air Force's 307. It's a high stakes game. The French paramilitary police force, the Melisse, has emerged as their new Bec Noir.

Sean Rees (21:32)

Their specific objective was to counter the Resistance, which also gives you an idea of just how much the Resistance had grown and had become powerful by that time. The other thing that the Milice were tasked with was rounding up the Jews, organizing the deportations. The official narrative in post war France was that these were just a few bad apples. When the documentation was scrutinized 30 years later, it turned out that this was not really the case.

Narrator (21:59)

Captured Resistance operatives can expect to receive rough treatment, but then so too can ordinary French civilians. Hitler has issued an order for every so called terrorist attack. At least 100 French hostages must be executed in retaliation. Around 30,000 die as a result of such collective punishment. All the same, the ranks of the Resistance have been growing. The introduction of a compulsory work order in 1943, the Service de travail obligatoire, or STO, has been quite the recruiting sergeant. Spring Fest and Ego Days are here at Lowes right now. Get a free select EGO 56 volt battery with purchase of a select trimmer blower or mower kit. Plus, shop today for new and exclusive items you need for your lawn. So get ready for spring with the latest in innovation from Ego, the number one rated brand in cordless outdoor power only at Lowe's, we help you save. Offer valid through 4. 2. Selection varies by location. While supplies last. In the mountains and forests of France, Republican veterans of the Spanish Civil War have been holed up waiting to continue the struggle against fascism. They are now joined by bands of young men dodging the work order. Living rough in the wilderness, they form themselves into ad hoc paramilitary groups.

Sean Rees (23:35)

You've got what is currently known as the Maquis, the Ex Spanish Republicans who came across the border after the Spanish Civil War were an extremely important part of the resistance in the south. But a large number of the resisters who were living out up in the mountains with rifles over their shoulders were young men who were escaping the compulsory work service.

Narrator (23:55)

The obligatory work order also sees a shift in SOE priorities. With male civilians in France co opted by the government, it's time for female operatives to come to the fore.

Claire Molly (24:07)

If there are able bodied men in France, they are required to work in German factories. Either back in Germany they're deported, or in factories like, I don't know, Peugeot, Renault that had taken over to produce German aircraft for the war effort. So all the men are being used in that way. So really if any man is moving around France, it he is immediately very suspect. So the women are sent out to be the couriers and they are taking arms and ammunition. Of course, they're also taking wireless sets, they're taking messages. So 39 women were sent into France and 13 of those did not return.

Narrator (24:44)

Despite the risks, by the spring of 1944, SOE are in contact with 137 active resistance groups throughout France of all sizes and persuasions. There are around 100,000 armed resistances ready to rise up when needed. Meanwhile, as D day approaches, the most effective intelligence network in Normandy, the Brotherhood of Notre Dame, is able to add hundreds of photographs to the intel already being amassed by the Allies. Yet still almost no one knows for sure where the invasion will take place, not even General de Gaulle. To keep the Germans on the hop, resistance operatives must act on trust, blindly, without knowing how they fit into the overall game plan. All too often they are the sacrificial pawns.

Sir Anthony Beaver (25:43)

You had SOE operations with the French Resistance all over France, partly also to prevent the Germans from knowing exactly where the invasion was coming. If everything had been concentrated in Normandy, they would have known Normandy was going to be the place. So it had to be everywhere. And this was also one of the problems, was it meant that the French Resistance was rising in revolt almost all over France. And many of course were killed as a result.

Narrator (26:12)

In fact, Normandy, despite its preferred shoreline, is at a disadvantage when it comes to resistance fighting. Its rolling fields and winding lanes offer little cover for hit and run guerrilla raids, in contrast with the Mackie activity that can be launched from the wilds of the interior. Fortunately, Brittany, Normandy's neighbour to the west, does have more rugged terrain. There are 30,000 maquisards massing there, ready and willing for action. Their time will come in the early hours of D Day, before the beach landings begin, a French paratroop outfit, the Dezieme Regiment des Chasseurs, will be parachuted in to marshal them, the first French soldiers to set foot on home soil since 1940. And so all that remains is to rouse the French resistance to action. As the ships and troops assemble in the Channel ports, it's all down to the BBC. Across France, and especially the coastal areas, it is the voice from across the water, BBC Radio Laundre, which will give them their cue, thanks to those mysterious massage personnel.

Claire Molly (27:35)

I mean, they sound like complete gobbledygook. So they might say the cat is blue or the lions are leaping, or Mabel's had a child, or whatever it is. And the Germans knew they meant something, but got a clue what they meant, of course, because they were pre agreed term for different local groups.

Narrator (27:50)

On 1 June, Radiolondre broadcasts the phrase L'heure du combat bien dra, the hour of battle will come. Then from the 1st to the 3rd of June comes a repeated line, the opening of a Paul Verlaine poem, Les singlongs de violant de l'autom, the long sobs of autumn violins indicating the invasion is imminent. More than a hundred different cryptic alerts are broadcast, including the one Guillaume Mercado, in his Bayeux basement, responds to. On the eve of D day, that Same night, at 9:15, there comes a follow up. Bless mon coeur d'une langueur monotone wound my heart with a monotonous languor. This is the call to action. By the time D Day comes around, SOE wireless operator Henri Diacono has been in France for four months, an impressive feat since the life expectancy of SOE operatives is typically measured in weeks.

Harry Verlander (29:05)

As all these circuits in France, we had messages. Our message was Germaine Pirouette. When we heard that message, it meant the landing will occur in the forthcoming fortnight. And after that, when it was repeated a second time, it meant the landing is for tomorrow morning. At that time we had about two groups of 300 men who were ready for action.

Narrator (29:39)

First is Plan Violet, the destruction of communications. Then Plant Bleu disrupting power grids. Plant Vert means sabotage of railway lines and trains. With the German military machine forced onto the roads, Plante Tortue, Plan Tortoise will come into effect, attacking or blocking the traffic.

Sean Rees (30:05)

The SOE had tasked their various groups, first of all to attack the communications network. Forcing the Germans to use their radios meant that Bletchley park could intercept their communications. Secondly, they wanted to blow up the railways in order to force the Germans to use tanks, because tanks is much more difficult to get tanks all the way across the country, they have to use roads. Roads can be more easily blocked and destroyed. And thirdly, they wanted the Resistance, wherever they started operating, to absorb German power so that there were fewer troops and fewer armaments that could get to the Normandy beaches.

Claire Molly (30:40)

So when the message personnel built up, suddenly for D Day, all of these ops were confirmed over the BBC. So, okay, it's time to go. We have to put sand in the locomotive engines over here. We have to close this road. And that could be by felling trees or bring down a pylon. And hundreds more than that, you know, thousands of minor operations all across the country through these networks did a fantastic job in slowing the German military reinforcements up north to Normandy.

Narrator (31:09)

One of those called to action is SOE agent Pearl Witherington, codenamed Pauline. Since her circuit leader Maurice Southgate was captured by the Gestapo. Among Pearl has been running her own Resistance network.

Claire Molly (31:24)

She said she heard on 5 June, the day before EC Londra, letting them know that they had to then go into action. She said the messages came over to cut the lines and the routes and to make havoc. So, of course, being obedient, that's what they did, and they went in and she ended up leading an army of the Maquis as well into battle. I think there was certainly a degree of panic, chaos and confusion, and a lot of that led to a lot of bloodshed, but ultimately it was incredibly effective.

Narrator (31:55)

In Burgundy, eastern France, all train traffic will be halted due to the actions of Chemin Faire, a resistance group formed by railway workers blowing trains in tunnels and then diverting rolling stock onto deliberately exposed tracks, making them sitting ducks from the roaring RAF typhoons. Pearl Witherington's new wrestler network will inflict more than 800 interruptions on the train lines between Paris and Bordeaux. Elsewhere at Saint Marcel, near Rennes, 3,000 fighters of the Breton Resistance will gather at their weapons dump, ready to take on a local Wehrmacht regiment. On the eve of D Day at Montauban, near Toulouse, a young SOE operative named Anthony Brooks is tipped off about a consignment of 63 tonne Tiger tanks that have been shipped in, kept in railway sidings, disguised underneath the shells of French railway cars. This is the assembly point for the infamous Waffen SS 2nd Panzer Division, known as Das Reich. They've been brought over from the Eastern Front, but for now they're being held back, ready to storm whatever Part of the Channel coast the allies eventually land on. Brooks learns from some local school children that the railway sidings are unguarded. In the company of a handful of local teenagers, he's able to siphon off the railway car's axle oil and replace it with an abrasive substance that his colleagues in London have parachuted in. The next day, as the invasion gets underway, Das Reich prepares for action. But the train moves only a short distance before the wagons seize up. 92 panzers are left stranded. The nearest alternative train cars, it turns out, are 100km away, forcing the tanks onto a cumbersome road journey amid a convoy of 1200 vehicles. The tank's steel tracks are not designed for lengthy road travel. The detour will shred them. The local Macchi will harry the patched up SS division as it proceeds, slowing the panzer's progress towards Normandy. Michel de Bourbonpan was co opted by the American Oss.

Harry Verlander (34:36)

We went in to blow up a railway bridge. We went with the Maquis in a truck and stopped on one side, put other people on both sides of the bridge to tell us if anyone would be arriving. And then we went under the bridge and we were down there putting those explosives on different points. And the guide that was waiting rushed back and said Germans arriving. And then we climbed out of the bridge and got into the truck and couldn't start the truck anyhow. We got away from there and after a very short time, because we only had five minutes to get out of there, we heard the bridge blow.

Olivier Vievloka (35:27)

We.

Harry Verlander (35:28)

Went back and see it. The bridge disappeared. They couldn't use it again. It was absolutely incredible.

Narrator (35:34)

Das Reich should have reached Normandy in just three days, but it will take more than a fortnight to get there. They retaliate viciously, hanging 99 civilians in the village of Toul and wiping out the nearby village of Oradour Sur Glane. Men are shot in the legs and then burned alive. Women and children herded into a church which is set on fire. Of a population of around 650, only six residents survived survive the massacre. Among the dead are 247 children. The shocking fact is that when it comes to D day French civilians suffer more casualties than anyone else. And not just at the hands of the Germans.

Olivier Vievloka (36:26)

Generally speaking, Normandy was a nightmare because many, many, many towns had been bombed. You can quote Caen, you can quote Le Havre, but you can quote Coutances. You can quote Saint Lo, you can quote Valognes. You have, I don't know, I suppose around 20 cities which were erased at 60, 70 or 80% by the allied bombs.

Sir Anthony Beaver (36:53)

Altogether, probably anything up to 15,000 French civilians were killed during the preparations for Normandy. And I remember being deeply shocked when finding that if one totted up all of the French civilians killed by the British and the Americans during the Second World War, it was more than the total number of British civilians killed by the Luftwaffe. Even with the blitz and the V bomb attacks later on, I must say I was shaken by that.

Narrator (37:28)

On D Day, the French Resistance offers a priceless gift to their fellow countrymen. A morale boost after four miserable years of occupation. From the proliferation of V for Victory signs on walls all over France to the reclamation of the tricoleure. Self belief is back when the Resistance.

Sean Rees (37:51)

Emerged with their guns and their trucks and singing their songs and singing the Marseillaise. And so it gave an immense boost.

Narrator (38:00)

Vichy Prime Minister Pierre Laval is worried. He makes a special radio broadcast. The French government stands by the Armistice of 1940. He warns and appeals to Frenchmen to honor their country's signature. After the war, Laval will be tried and executed on a charge of treason. Right now, his words fall on deaf ears, and France is soon sliding towards anarchy.

Sean Rees (38:28)

And so what you get in June and July 1944 is a lot of very angry young men with guns running around taking vengeance on people, excited as hell, thinking they've got right on their side and doing a lot of things which were hushed up later.

Narrator (38:44)

The chaos is dangerous for everybody. On D Day itself, 124 resistance fighters are killed by friendly fire, coming out of hiding to greet the Allied soldiers. Meanwhile, at caen prison, where 87 resistance are being held, they're brought out in batches of six by the Gestapo for summary execution. Because the French Resistance was a secret army, one that kept no official records, it's impossible for us to quantify the precise number of actions carried out on D Day, just as it is to identify who exactly took part in them. It's estimated that over a thousand acts of sabotage take place, causing massive and crucial disruption to the Nazi war machine. Decades later, in his memoirs, General Eisenhower will praise the role of the Resistance on D Day and beyond. Their contribution to the liberation of France, he will claim, was worth 15 divisions.

Claire Molly (39:57)

Eisenhower believed that SOE collectively shortened the war by about six months. And he said they played a very considerable part in our complete and final victory.

Narrator (40:07)

Others consider the supreme Commander's estimate to be rather generous.

Sir Anthony Beaver (40:12)

Altogether, there were nearly some 30,000 maki. Only a small percentage actually had weapons, but they did help tremendously. Later on, General Patton was asked, in fact, by Allied journalists, what was the role of the Resistance in operations for Normandy and the liberation of France? And Patton for once was slightly more subtle than he was usually. And his reply was better than expected but less than advertised. And that put it actually quite succinctly.

Narrator (40:41)

I think arguably the biggest contribution of the Resistance to D Day comes far away from the invasion beaches.

Olivier Vievloka (40:50)

The main actions were made out of Normandy. The idea was to transform Normandy in an island totally isolated, where the Germans would not be able to enter.

Narrator (41:06)

France's role in the success of D Day will be crucial to the country's post war narrative.

Sir Anthony Beaver (41:13)

The whole myth of the Resistance and of the Liberation was absolutely essential for French politics to try to give this impression of La France resistante and the idea that France had liberated itself, which was of course very irritating for the Americans and the British. But one has to understand this from point of view of the reality of French humiliation from 1940, the moral quandary of the Vichy years and collaboration with Germany.

Olivier Vievloka (41:46)

You don't have one unique France, you have many. Francis and the country was totally scattered.

Sean Rees (41:58)

You know, a destroyed country with people at each other's throats had to be given some narrative to allow the country to go forward, to pick itself back up. And it was one that the Allies were happy to fall in with.

Narrator (42:23)

In the next episode, General Dwight D. Eisenhower spends the eve of D Day racked with nerves. As Supreme Commander, he writes a heartfelt letter of apology to be released if the operation fails. And from airfields in England, the first Allied planes take to the skies. That's next time. Special thanks to Martin Cox for the excerpts from his Our Secret World War II Archive. To view the full interviews, visit legacy.org.uk that's L E G A S E.org.uk.