Andrée's War (19 page)

On 23 December 1942, a resistance activist named Fernand Bonnier de la Chapelle, described by writer Charles Williams as one of many ‘hotheaded young Gaullist paramilitaries', announced to l'abbé Cordier that he intended to assassinate Darlan. De la Chapelle was a member of the Corps Franc, a monarchist and ardent anti-Vichyiste: after the night of the US landings, when French troops had opened fire on the Americans, he and his friends felt betrayed by Darlan and subsequently regarded him as a traitor.

The following day, driven by Jean Bernard d'Astier (Henri's son), de la Chapelle arrived at Darlan's headquarters at the Summer Palace, where he shot and fatally wounded Darlan. De la Chapelle's plan was to escape to Morocco immediately afterwards, but he was caught and arrested. The next day, at noon, he was tried and executed.
^†

Following Darlan's death, Robert Murphy confirmed that President Roosevelt had refused to accept the Count of Paris as head of the Provisional government. As Roosevelt did not support de Gaulle, Giraud was appointed military Commander-in-chief of North Africa.

Politically, Giraud was regarded – possibly unfairly – by the Gaullists as nothing more than Darlan's successor, as he was still surrounded by Pétain's North African governor generals. Public opinion was, moreover, starting to shift in favour of de Gaulle, with many feeling that Giraud was marginalising members of the Resistance. Giraud was determined to hold
on to power, and the Americans remained firmly opposed to the prospect of de Gaulle taking control in Algeria.

Seventeen Gaullist activists were arrested on 30 December, some of whom had helped with Operation Torch. Giraud's explanation for these arrests was that, following Darlan's murder, he was concerned more attempted assassinations would follow.

On 10 January 1943, Henri d'Astier and l'abbé Cordier were formally arrested and charged with plotting against the State and of being accomplices in the murder of Darlan.

Ten days later, Marcel Peyrouton, who in 1940 as Minister of the Interior had signed a decree stripping the Algerian Jews of their French citizenship, was appointed Governor General of Algeria at Roosevelt's request.

In February 1943, the seventeen political Gaullist prisoners were released, but d'Astier and Cordier were held for a further nine months, possibly because Giraud feared they would build up support for de Gaulle, thereby undermining his authority. On 25 February 1943, Algiers became the capital of Free France and the provisional government of the French Republic began to establish itself.

The Times
reported on 1 January 1943 that: ‘To the British, and apparently to the American peoples, the whole affair appears on first hearing to be wildly confusing. How is it that pro-Allied Frenchmen can be arrested?'

The mystery surrounding Darlan's assassination may never be solved, especially while the French intelligence records remain closed. A large percentage of the British Intelligence records were destroyed. There is no doubt that Fernand Bonnier de la Chapelle shot him, but was he acting alone or under instruction? Many believe SOE were ultimately responsible for Darlan's murder.

 

*
Gandy,
La jeunesse et la Résistance
, page 70. The official reason for François d'Astier travelling with such funds was to support the ongoing Gaullist campaign in the region.

^†
Gandy,
La jeunesse et la Résistance
, pages 72–3. On page 77, Gandy explains that de la Chapelle was subsequently exonerated in December 1945 by the Court of Appeals in Algiers. A room in the Court of Appeals was named La Chambre Bonnier de la Chapelle in his memory.

A
few months before the Allied landings, d'Astier had recruited into his group a twenty-two-year-old named Jacques Sauvage, who had been working as a double agent for the French and the Algerian section of the German intelligence services, the Abwehr. Sauvage was later described as the most daring of the Orion Resistance agents. In the autumn of 1942, Sauvage was instructed by the Abwehr to travel to Paris and advise the Parisian collaborators of the impending military activities in the Mediterranean. Granted an
ausweiss
by the German authorities, he reached Paris in late October 1942. His other mission, per d'Astier's request, was to find Alain and warn him of the dangers lying ahead.

After the North Africa landings in November 1942 and the defeats in Russia, the terms of the armistice between France and Germany were declared void by the Wehrmacht, who subsequently occupied the Free Zone and therefore the whole of the country. As the progress of the war changed, the Wehrmacht became ever more aggressive, increasing their indiscriminate searches and ID checks on young men in particular.

After arriving in Paris, Jacques found Alain through the underground movement and he agreed to work with the group as an Orion agent. Despite the many trips he carried out between Algiers and Paris throughout 1942 and 1943, his Orion colleagues never understood how he was able to deceive the Abwehr so successfully while still remaining loyal to France. But it was clear he was a brilliant double agent; he watched and listened carefully to everything around him, no matter how trivial. He was only twenty-two years old in late 1943 when the French security services decided to move him out of danger to Morocco, where he joined the French army.

Conscious of the heightened danger in Paris, Alain and Biaggi set up
stricter security rules for their agents: retracing one's steps was forbidden, and all members were under strict instruction not to allow themselves to be followed – or if they were, to avoid their own homes and to make all possible attempts to lose their assailant. They were warned about the possibility of concierges acting as informers, spying on their movements, and they were told to keep well away from their friends, an order which must have been very difficult for a group of young twenty-somethings. They had to be more careful about the new friends they made, questioning rigorously the integrity and honesty of any new member they wanted to recruit. They were told never to meet openly in bars or restaurants unless there was an emergency. With the exception of Alain and Andrée, no member of the group was ever aware of the existence of more than two other members – so that if one of them was picked up by the Gestapo they would be unable to betray the group.

Towards the end of 1942, Alain was worried. He had not heard from d'Astier for some time and had no instructions as to how the group was to move forward. With no radio transmitters, they were unable to contact him directly. After much thought, he and Noël Le Clercq decided to leave France in search of d'Astier in North Africa. As Alain put it: ‘We must leave France and head for Algeria where we will get a better picture of what is going on.'
¹¹

Although she was taking great risks at work and for Orion, Andrée was still just a young girl at heart, and one who couldn't help feeling frustrated at times. On 24th October she wrote:

Well guess what, dear diary? Yesterday morning I had the honour of a visit from Rohrbach.

I was seriously surprised. He told me he had been trying to find me yesterday but because I was not around he gave up. He said he was looking for someone's file and decided he wanted to catch up with me. He invited me to dinner and I replied, ‘Yes, I would like to accept your invitation but do call me on Thursday to reconfirm.' By saying this I thought he could get out of it if he is only trying to be polite.

I am dying of boredom. Rohrbach certainly picked the right moment. If I had a boyfriend I would never go out with him.

It was not a great success. She updated her entry the following day:

By the way, dear diary, dinner with Rohrbach was seriously boring. After dinner we went to the pictures. Luckily he did not make a pass at me, which is just as well because I have decided I do not like him.

By Christmas, however, her indomitable spirit had prevailed. Andrée's diary entry for 25 December 1942 suggests that, despite their troubles, the Griotteray family were coping well:

It is Christmas Day 1942 and as usual I am at work. Last night it was Christmas Eve and the whole family got together and we had the most wonderful dinner. As an hors d'oeuvre we had a vegetable salad with mayonnaise, the main course was chicken and potatoes, we had some cheese and for pudding Maman made a cake and a chocolate mousse. We had some real coffee and a liqueur. It was all thanks to Maman, who had gone to Brittany for a week and managed to find some food, which she brought back to Paris. Last week I bought myself a black silk suit with the money I got from selling two bicycle tyres and with what was left over bought myself some wooden shoes. Last Monday I was invited to a theatre gala where I won a hat from Lemonier in the tombola.'
*

12 January
Tonight I am going to the Théâtre de l'Étoile with Margit. I have been several times to the cinema and have just seen
Un Grand Amour
with Zarah Leander, I also went to see
The Count of Montecristo.

Yesterday I went shopping with Maman and bought myself a navy-blue suit. I was not asked for any clothes coupons, but I had to hand in two old suits.

There was another reason for Alain's escape. On 15 February 1943, ‘le service du travail obligatoire' became law. Its introduction meant that every man aged forty-five or younger was forced to do industrial labour in Germany. This latest assault on the French male population led to the creation of many more escape groups, helping men and women who wanted to join up with the Free French forces in North Africa or in London. Alain and Noël waited restlessly for the day of their departure via the route they had so carefully plotted for many others. On 21 February they finally left Paris, travelled down to the Château d'Orion before setting off to make the difficult journey across the Pyrenees.

On 22 February Andrée wrote:

The news is far from encouraging. The Germans are enduring a large number of defeats on the Eastern front and have lost several major battles in Tunisia. It is now all-out war. They are picking up thousands of men off the streets in Paris and literally sending them off to Germany. Alain said he was not going to allow this to happen to him and has disappeared. We have no idea where he is or where he has gone. Papa is so unpleasant mainly because he is so worried and upset about everything going on around him. Maman is beside herself worrying about Alain and she certainly has every reason to be. As for me, I am praying for Alain.

Three weeks ago I was invited to lunch at The Claridge by Monsieur Machenaud's Secretary. We had a foie gras, a huge steak with béarnaise sauce and fried potatoes and for pudding a wonderful chocolate cake, the sort one could find before the war. A chauffeur was sent to pick me up from the office and, oh yes, I forgot to mention I was given two pears for Mother who was ill.
*

I need to get my bike mended because it would save the soles of my shoes not to mention how much money I would not have to spend on the
métro.

Crossing the Pyrenees during winter wasn't the only challenge escapees faced. Arrival in Spain did not come with a warm welcome; ‘mountaineers' were more often than not greeted by the Guardia Civil, who arrested them and placed them in prisons or holding camps. Meanwhile, in her book
Love and War in the Pyrenees
, Rosemary Bailey has estimated that in 1940 there were around 236,000 Spanish Republican refugees trying to escape Franco's Spain – often to end up joining the Maquis wing of the French Resistance. To prevent this, the French authorities set up similar holding camps on the French side of the Pyrenees, with similar living conditions – crowded, with little food and the poorest of sanitary conditions.
*
Among the escapees, Bailey notes that some 40,000 were anarchists, communists and republicans, whose civil war experience was vital to the French Resistance.

On 26 February, Andrée heard from her brother:

We received a note from Alain this morning. He says he is safe and has sent us his food and tobacco ration card but we have no idea where he is.

Alain and Noël must have reached Orion by the 26th, before leaving France for the dangerous journey to freedom. The journey across the mountains took two whole days and nights; Alain and Noël knew the dangers better than anyone, but they were excited to be doing it themselves.

They left the château, wrapped up against the freezing conditions and carrying only a small shoulder bag, and made their way towards the mountains. Cold, damp mist had already settled and made it hard to see much, but their spirits were high, despite what lay ahead. Higher and higher they climbed through thick mud, with icy winds whipping their faces. As the altitude changed, the wet ground turned to ice and they started to slip
and fall. Another few kilometres on and it started to snow. They stopped briefly at refuge huts along the way for a few hours' rest, before heading on. Although they felt confident that they were heading ultimately towards freedom, they knew that once they had reached Spain they would almost certainly be picked up by the Guardia Civil.

After forty-eight hours, the boys reached the Spanish border village; as they expected, they were arrested on arrival at the bus station and taken to the Miranda prison near Santander. It was renowned for holding political prisoners on a starvation diet of dry bread with little drinking water; serious episodes of dysentery were common, resulting in severe dehydration and weakness.

Thousands of young Frenchmen were similarly interned in various prisons by the Spanish authorities during 1943. Most were held for anything up to five months before being released – usually to make way for the next wave of French escapees arriving over the border. It was common knowledge that most of these men were heading for Barcelona or Malaga to board ships bound for North Africa; their detention was intended to be temporary, to control the number of people crossing the Spanish border.