Churchill's White Rabbit (16 page)

Sophie and Baudet also reported that Massena had failed to appear for arranged meetings, but were not particularly disturbed by it. Considering their own security precautions, that was hardly surprising. Sophie shrugged and expected that Massena had been delayed. Brossolette furiously went over the incident of the late-night visit of the messenger with the written message and made it plain yet again that it was direly important that couriers should be on time and carry no papers. The two resistance leaders agreed but were far from moved by his fury.

Returning to the Peyronnets’ apartment, the SOE men were faced with the very real possibility that everything they had worked for was falling apart. Brossolette complained about Moulin and his insistence on being so indispensable. Forest felt more inclined to criticise the choices made in London over his replacements.

Yet again 5 p.m. was an anxious hour and yet again there was no courier. Forest glanced at Brossolette and said: ‘Do we stay here?’

Was this yet another innocent slip by the messenger despite the promises elicited from Sophie and Baudet about punctuality or had something happened this time?

‘Let’s hang on a little longer.’ Brossolette said, concerned that they had not made full alternative safe house arrangements yet.

The hours ticked by unpleasantly slowly. 10 p.m. came and went with no sign of the messenger and now everyone feared the worst. Forest and Brossolette began packing their belongings. The Peyronnets watched with trepidation: if the two SOE men were so concerned then perhaps there was a real chance of their apartment becoming a Gestapo target. Saying their thanks and farewells, the two men left, Brossolette heading to stay with Claire in the rue de la Faisanderie and Forest moving into Jacqueline Devaux’s flat. They passed a fretful night wondering what had become of their friends.

Early the next morning Maud paid a clandestine visit to the Peyronnets. The story they told her showed how dangerously close Forest had come to arrest. This time it had been no innocent delay that had prevented the courier arriving at 5 p.m. – he had been intercepted by the Gestapo and arrested. On his person was yet again another typed note, this time stating: ‘Mme P, 3 étage, 102 avenue des Ternes.’ The only relief was that there was no mention of Shelley nor were the extant addresses and details of so many comrades included this time.

The Gestapo took the messenger to their offices and interrogated him. Miraculously the man, despite his naïvety, proved more courageous than Forest could have imagined. Faced with the quick-fire questions and threats of torture, he still insisted that he was engaged in the black market rather than anything subversive. He had been sent to the avenue des Ternes, a place he had never had cause to visit before, to meet with a potential customer, Madame Peyronnet. Threats failed to shake his story, which had a suitable ring of truth to it anyway. His tactics had the advantage of stalling the Gestapo and the delay was Forest and Brossolette’s saving grace.

At 6 a.m. the Peyronnets had been raided by the Gestapo. It was a terrifying ordeal: a gang of Germans swept through the apartment searching for any sign of the two SOE agents. The concierge clung bravely to her loyalty to the Peyronnets and gave them no assistance, while Madame Peyronnet was able to discern from her interrogators the black market lie the courier had given and played on it. It was a devastating few hours, but by the end the Gestapo were satisfied that Madame Peyronnet was just another black market customer and left her home. Maud reported all this to Forest and it became apparent that there was no returning to the apartment. The two SOE agents set out to find a third safe house to cover their tracks and by 25 September they were settling into yet another apartment.

But the drama was only just beginning. On 26 September Sophie told them that his offices had been raided by the Gestapo. Four months’ worth of incoming and outgoing communications, courier notes and file-loads of details on significant agents and resistance members had all fallen into German hands. Sophie himself had briefly been in Gestapo custody but had been released. Seemingly even the Germans found it hard to believe that such an incompetent man could have been sent to replace Moulin.

Sophie’s right-hand man, Alain, had narrowly escaped arrest, while Nard had fallen foul of the round up. Brossolette pressed for more details of the confiscated material and was shocked to learn that ‘all courier papers in and out for the past four months, all telegrams in and out … and lists of names of prominent people connected with the resistance had been captured’.
⁴

On these lists were the names of senators Jeanneney and Farjon, and it was imperative that they should be warned as soon as possible. Forest changed to his newest identity, Tirelli, and once again parted company with Brossolette to go to a different safe house while his friend went to stay with Suni Sandoe.

Just when it was most urgent to contact London and let them know what had happened, wireless communications were jeopardised. In late September Forest gave Oyster a message to transmit via one of his W/T operators known as the pianist, but he came under German suspicion before he could do so and had to disappear for a while. The pianist only transmitted his message on 14 October.

More bad news was just around the corner. As the Gestapo mounted a breathtaking operation to sweep up all the resistance members on the lists they had so fortuitously captured, intelligence came to Forest that Massena was dead. Apparently his disappearance had been due to arrest by the Germans and to avoid breaking under torture he had swallowed his cyanide pill. A zonal chief codenamed Niel told the SOE men that he had conclusively established that the Gestapo knew the names of all the resistance officers who came to France in September; this of course included them. Niel claimed there was a serious leak somewhere in the system and Forest had to agree. Miserably he reported to London in early October that the resistance network Groupe Rabelais had been completely destroyed, all members having been rounded up in the previous two weeks.

Meanwhile Forest had to keep his own safety at the forefront of his mind at all times. He and Brossolette were still in contact with Sophie and Baudet, but the pair were making life extremely dangerous for them. Often they failed to turn up to arranged rendezvous claiming they had too much work to do, so an
agent de liaison
was set up for them who would meet with the SOE men’s
agent de liaison
. It did nothing to improve the system. Sophie and Baudet’s lack of punctuality seemed infectious and soon their
agent de liaison
was proving just as unreliable, not helped by his being sent on ‘all sorts of errands’ to make it even harder for him to contact Forest or Brossolette.

By now it was apparent this was all a deliberate ploy by Sophie and Baudet to infuriate and spite SOE. They were so sure of their own abilities that they quickly became a liability to those loyal to them. Forest referred to their idiotic use of their
agent de liaison
, which resulted in him being arrested, and his own
agent de liaison
had a narrow escape due to trying to restore contact. The situation was becoming hopeless and dangerous.

A representative of CDLL reported that he had official information that 32,000 Gestapo men were in Paris to crack down on the resistance and that Forest’s father’s flat was under surveillance. This hardly surprised him and now he had conclusive proof that the Gestapo knew his name and that he was in the field. The hunt was on for Shelley.

Forest was now a wanted man. The Gestapo had set tails on a number of
agents de liaison
and it was apparent that Forest was also being watched. Life began to become more precarious. Forest arranged through a CDLL member to get an authentic birth certificate, identity card and ration card under one of his pseudonyms in case the worst happened. He and Brossolette organised ten safe houses and six letterboxes between them. They would need them – during their remaining time in Paris five of the safe houses would be blown and one of the letterboxes would be rendered unsafe by Sophie’s actions.

Forest was as settled as he could be in a safe house in Neuilly. Sophie was still a dangerous nuisance to him, phoning the house on a regular basis to try and arrange appointments despite the dangers it posed to both of them. Any attempt Forest made to impress this upon him was disregarded.

On a dull morning Forest rose barely rested from his disturbed sleep. His mind was a muddle of mission objectives and fears as he walked to the window and pulled open the shutters. For a moment he hesitated. Was that someone peering from behind a partially pulled curtain in a house on the other side of the street? It was a fleeting incident, probably more coincidence than anything, but Forest could not shake the nagging doubt in his heart that something was amiss.

Forest stayed in Neuilly for another night, trying to block out the fear that his presence there was blown. The next morning he opened his shutters and noticed the curtain twitcher opposite him was back. He no longer felt it was just a coincidence. Forest cast his eyes down into the road as casually as he could. There were several people going about their business, hurrying back and forth, but one man was hovering by the corner of the building opposite, seemingly without purpose. He was wearing the quintessential spy raincoat and had his eyes fixed on Forest’s apartment. There was no doubting it any longer – the safe house was blown.

Forest left as fast as he could, having to leave some of his property behind in his haste. Immediately he informed Sophie of the discovery and once again his warnings were ignored. Forty-eight hours later Sophie held a meeting in the same house at Neuilly. The Gestapo must have wondered where this godsend had come from!

The net was closing around them. Brossolette and Forest dined with Claire Davinroy one fateful night. Claire was a childhood friend of Brossolette’s and with the Gestapo drawing closer he didn’t want her to be put in danger because of his presence. After their meal the two agents left Claire, and Forest promised to see her the next day at a prearranged meeting.

The night was uneventful for them and the next evening Forest appeared for his meeting with Claire, but she didn’t show. Forest was immediately anxious, as Claire was reliable and punctual, not someone who would be late if she could help it, and that she didn’t show at all had his stomach churning. He retreated to a little café with a telephone where it wouldn’t matter if his call was traced. Nervously he dialled Claire’s number. A woman answered.

‘
Bonsoir, chère amie
,’ Forest said.

‘
Bonsoir chéri
,’ replied the woman. ‘Come immediately, I am waiting for you.’

‘
Oui
,’ Forest answered and hung up.

It had not been Claire on the phone.

Brossolette was distraught when he heard the news. It was obvious that Claire had been arrested by the Gestapo and a trap had been set in her apartment to catch an unwary agent. He desperately tried to learn news of her via his resistance contacts. Slowly details came in. Another resistance agent, Gulliver, had been arrested, and the Gestapo had started circling around his friends and acquaintances. The concierge at the house in which he stayed had endured a frightening interview with the Germans in which she revealed that Gulliver’s apartment had been leased for him by a woman named Claire Davinroy. The Gestapo were quick to raid Claire’s flat at 6 a.m. the morning after Forest and Brossolette had left her. In the flat they found money left behind by Forest and incriminating documents on Claire’s desk.

The only consolation for Brossolette was that it had not been his presence that had caused Claire’s arrest; it was one of those quirks of circumstance and a lucky escape for the two SOE men. Word went out that Claire was in the hands of the Germans along with her little white dog, which the Gestapo were trying to use to find her other friends: the dog barked at strangers and made a fuss of acquaintances it knew. For a time a man in a raincoat walking a small dog was a familiar sight at the rue de la Faisanderie where Claire had lived.

Danger was everywhere and the Gestapo was working overtime in recruiting men to follow resistance suspects. At a meeting with Oyster, Forest realised that they were being followed. They quickly discussed their options and it was agreed that they should head to a Métro station and part company unexpectedly. Oyster would jump on a Métro train and Forest would head off on foot. The plan went as expected and the tail had to make instantly decide who to pursue. As Forest was on foot he set off after him, much to the SOE man’s amusement. Forest was never one to let danger stop him having a little fun and he spent an enjoyable hour leading his tail on a merry goose chase. The pursuer was wrapped in a grey overcoat (the movie cliché of the stalker in a long overcoat is in part based on truth) and suffered as he tried to keep up with Forest’s fast pace. Later Forest chuckled and suggested that the man must have lost weight in the course of that manic hour.

But finally even he got bored of the chase and darted into a department store. While his pursuer was disentangling himself from a crowd of shoppers, Forest headed for the basement and nipped out a side-passage reserved for employees. It was a textbook tactic, but it worked perfectly.

On another occasion Forest lost a pursuer by darting onto a Métro train, getting off casually at a station and then jumping back on just as the train was leaving again. But by far the biggest danger was still the recalcitrant Baudet and Sophie; the two of them were utterly oblivious to the hazards all around them.