Churchill's White Rabbit (20 page)

Forest hoped that it wouldn’t come to that. At midnight he headed for the chosen landing site, and at regular intervals guards emerged from the bushes to confirm their identity, which further reassured him that at least security was being taken seriously in Arras. The plane was also on schedule and although there was a slight concern about the space available for take-off, everything went smoothly enough. One of the women discovered that she was indisposed to air travel and while perched on Forest’s knee (there was not room for everyone to sit down) she had to endure a bilious journey to England.

London was a stark change from the constant drama of Paris. Suddenly Forest was back in a world of stiff upper lips and pompous military hierarchy. An Air Ministry officer reprimanded him for not updating his uniform according to the latest orders. As the orders had only been issued a month before, Forest had the perfect excuse: he had been risking his life undercover in France. This failed to impress the officer, however. Even more depressing was the crisp white envelope he found at his house, pushed through the letterbox by some ‘kindly’ neighbour. Inside was a white feather and a note with the word ‘COWARD’ emblazoned on it. Apparently someone was under the impression that Forest was sitting out the war in an administrative role. He could hardly contradict them, though for his pride it was a bitter pill to swallow.

Note

1
.  Marshal,
Op cit
.

– 11 –

Farewell, Dear Brossolette

THE FOURTH YEAR OF the war was slowly drawing to a close with Forest sitting back behind a desk glowering at the future. Men who excel at wartime adventures rarely find peace in less hazardous work. Forest was frustrated. Brossolette was still deep in France and the snippets of news filtering into London suggested that his continued presence was becoming more and more risky.

Meanwhile the usual politics had Forest almost tearing his hair out. He had composed a damning report of Sophie and Baudet after his experiences in France, but there were supporters of the pair in London who refused to believe the allegations. Instead they set out to blacken Brossolette’s name and, by extension, Forest’s. Even the officials Forest was reporting to were torn by the remarks. Forest knew all this but could do nothing about it. Instead he was put in an office interviewing prospective candidates for the Jedburgh teams SOE was forming.
¹

He was also increasingly troubled about Brossolette’s safety in France. There was no doubting now that the Germans were actively searching for him and he needed to be rescued as soon as possible.

He was not the only one who was concerned. In December 1943 the Free French decided that it was time to bring back Brossolette and another agent, Emile Bollaert. Forest was given the task of organising the rescue operation and relished the chance to finally be doing something that could directly benefit his friend. He arranged for two Lysanders carrying four agents to France to pick up Brossolette and Bollaert before returning home.

On 10 December he drove to Tangmere airfield with the four nervous new agents. The Lysanders were ready and waiting for them, but the door of the plane was as far as Forest could go. He wished the men well and, despite poor weather, the aircraft took off on time. There was nothing Forest could do but wait for their return, hopefully with Brossolette safe and sound.

It was impossible not to have some concerns about the dangers of the operation. Every time an aircraft took off on operations during the war there was a high chance that it would not be coming back. Forest was a realist. He knew the risks, the many things, both mundane and disastrous, that could go wrong and cause the mission to abort. But he had to cling to the hope that soon his friend would be safely back in England.

Five hours passed and then the whine of an engine indicated the return of one of the Lysanders. Forest got up anxiously, but when the door opened he was disheartened to see the same agent he had wished-well only a few hours before, exiting it. The bad weather had deteriorated during the flight and it had been impossible for the pilot to make out the landing site. In the end he had had to return without landing.

There was still the hope for the second Lysander and Forest sat down to wait again. Two more hours passed, making it seven since the second Lysander had taken off. The time far exceeded the amount of fuel the aircraft had had for the journey and there was no longer any doubt that some accident had befallen it. Forest returned to London disappointed and more worried than ever about his friend.

As usual it took a couple of days for news about what had happened to filter in. The second Lysander had never even made it to the landing site. It had been shot down in a hail of anti-aircraft fire, killing the pilot and his passengers. The agents had never even had a chance to begin their work in France.

News on Brossolette was equally discouraging. While waiting at the landing site he heard that his safe house had been raided by the Germans, so when his aircraft failed to show he had to flee back to Paris. With the weather in England getting worse there was no hope of launching another mission soon and Brossolette was getting desperate.

In a message sent to London, Brossolette indicated that he was making arrangements with SIS (MI6) to get home on one of their cross-Channel naval operations. Forest was not pleased with this news and tried to convince his friend to hang on for another three weeks when the next moon period would enable him to send more Lysanders. For the time being Brossolette relented and agreed to wait.

It is hard to imagine the terror that hung over Brossolette in those last few days. Constantly on guard and with the dread that another Lysander operation might prove similarly abortive, he spent his days hiding from sight and watching his back. The burden of the fear must have become overwhelming – no surprise then that eventually he could take the situation no more and again started pursuing SIS sea routes for his escape.

Forest was unaware that Brossolette was reneging on his promise – he was working hard to have himself sent back to France to replace his friend as well as doggedly promoting the Maquis cause for greater numbers of parachute supply drops. There was nothing lacking in Forest’s determination and the culmination of his efforts was an interview with Prime Minister Winston Churchill to plead his case. In fact there had already been long discussions in Whitehall about the irregular drops being delivered to the Maquis and Forest’s opinion on the matter probably helped Churchill get the personal insight into the problem that enabled him to win the debate. The very next day Churchill was sending direct instructions that the amount of supplies to the Maquis should be increased and that not even bad weather should stall SOE’s endeavour to arm their secret army.

It was brilliant news for Forest, but his jubilation was short-lived. Arriving for work one day he was told that Brossolette had been arrested trying to use one of the SIS sea routes. Forest later recorded: ‘The blow was stunning. For a few seconds I was numbed, then my brain began to function again, thoughts came rushing through my head, in a flash I relived all our adventures.’
²

Though angry that his friend had disregarded his advice, he was hardly surprised, knowing the dangers that Brossolette faced. More importantly his mind raced about what to do for the best. It seemed the Germans were currently unaware of the significance of their arrest, but it would only be a matter of time before the dye Brossolette used to mask his distinctive white streak would fade and his real identity would become clear. He had to do something to rescue his friend and as his conscience tortured him about leaving his comrades behind for the safety of London, he began to plan his third mission.

What really happened to Brossolette? At the beginning of February Brossolette and Bollaert managed to secure passage on a SIS vessel. As is apparent he had already waited far longer than the three weeks Forest had begged him for and with the Germans snapping at his heels he could hardly be blamed for looking for another way to escape when his promised Lysanders seemed to have forgotten him. One night in February the pair boarded the
Jouet des Flots
, a small cargo vessel working for SIS, at Brittany. The plan was that the vessel would sail them all the way to Cornwall, but what happened next was pure bad luck.

When coming into shore in the depths of night the captain of the
Jouet des Flots
misjudged the tides and the vessel struck the bottom and sprang a leak. Even so, it should be able to limp to England, so the thirty-one passengers boarded and hoped for the best. It was not to be their night. The sea was stormy and in the heavy swells the engine became flooded and then failed, and before long
Jouet des Flots
was sinking. Her captain managed to beach her at Feunteunot Creek, near Plogoff, before she was lost completely and his entire passenger list was disembarked once again.

Fortunately the local resistance were well organised in the area and they rescued Brossolette and temporarily housed him at a local inn, planning to move him inland the next day. As promised a car called for Brossolette and Bollaert and they set off inland, tired and frustrated. It was not long before they ran into a German roadblock. The car’s papers and the false ones of the two agents were perfectly in order and could not be faulted, but the Germans on duty that day were clearly suspicious and after close questioning they found a crack in the men’s seeming ordinariness: they had no papers granting them permission to be in the Special Coastal Security Zone.

It was an appalling oversight. Somehow missed in the panic to get away, the vital missing papers placed Brossolette directly in the Germans’ hands, even if, for the time being at least, they were unaware of his significance. Whether SIS or Brossolette himself were to blame for the error, it was a foolish mistake. There was at least some consolation that the arresting Germans believed his false identity of Paul Boutet.

Rescuing him was imperative. Forest was desperate to save his friend, but loyalty would not be enough to sway his superiors into allowing him to go back to France. He had to make it clear to them how dangerous it would be to the resistance as a whole if Brossolette was identified: ‘If I got caught, I knew all that there was to know about the underground but, even more dangerous, I knew a very great deal about our staff planning. Supposing I talked under torture, I could give away a tremendous lot of information.’
³

With arguments like this Forest made it clear that Brossolette had to be extracted, no matter the risks. On 15 February the draft plan for Forest’s newest operation, Asymptote, was submitted to the head of RF Section. Significantly it ignored Forest’s intentions to rescue Brossolette and instead emphasised that this was another fact-finding mission designed to reinforce the security of the networks and ensure that they did not fall apart after the arrests of Brossolette and Bollaert as they had done after the loss of Jean Moulin. Forest decided that it was safest not to quibble about the wording; once in France he could do as he pleased, the important thing was getting there.

In the midst of all this, Barbara was conveniently left in the dark. She had devoted herself to Forest’s work with SOE, learning French, entertaining his colleagues and even joining the BCRA, but increasingly she found it hard to accept her lover’s attraction to danger. No sooner did she have him home to safety then he was yearning to be back in the action. Was it so wrong that she resented the loyalty he had for Brossolette when it seemed to completely override the loyalty he had to her?

It was no wonder then that Forest failed to tell her about Asymptote. Years later, with the war behind him, Forest realised the emotional agony he had put Barbara through, but at the time he was caught up in the whirlwind of events and nothing could deter him from returning to France. Was he right or wrong? Perhaps neither, or perhaps both. In wartime, loyalties inevitably become torn and for every serviceman that risked his life, whether at sea, in a plane or on land, there was a loved one waiting in misery at home for them to return, or not. Forest had his duty and for that he would risk Barbara’s love.

The first she knew of his intention to go back to France was when the wife of a BCRA officer phoned her and asked if she would like to visit once Forest had gone abroad. Understandably Barbara was furious. Accosting Forest with the information, he played on the age-old excuse ‘I was going to tell you’ and did his best to avoid her wrath. Barbara could not be appeased however, and in utter fury told him that even if he returned from this mission she would not be there to welcome him back. With the arrogance that was a prevalent part of Forest’s character, he told her equally bluntly that he was certain she would be waiting for him. With this discord still playing on his mind he finished his preparations for his mission.

There was an atmosphere of apprehension surrounding the preparations for Asymptote. Forest’s friends made efforts to dissuade him via Barbara, but their currently tempestuous relations made her in no fit state to persuade him. It did not help her state of mind that even senior members at the BCRA were convinced that Forest was heading for his death if he journeyed to France.

They were not the only ones with concerns. Forest was riddled with his own doubts and a deep sense of foreboding enveloped him: ‘For the first time, I had a feeling of impending disaster. I had a premonition that this time I would not get away with it…’