SOE F Section networks

These are the networks, also known as circuits, (réseaux in French) established in France by F Section of the British Special Operations Executive during World War II. The clandestine networks were "dedicated to encourage and aid resistance" to the German occupation of the country. Activities might include gathering intelligence, organizing and supplying indigenous resistance groups, and sabotaging transportation, communications, and industrial facilities. A typical SOE network had three personnel: (1) Circuit organiser: leader, planner, and recruiter of new members. 2) Wireless Radio Operator: send and receive wireless messages to and from SOE headquarters in London, encode and decode messages, maintain wireless sets. (3) Courier or messenger: travel between organiser, wireless operator, and resistance groups to deliver and receive messages, and, on occasion, deliver explosives and other equipment. Large networks sometimes had more than one courier and wireless operator.[1]

See also: SOE F Section timeline and List of female SOE agents

Each network was given a name and each individual belonging to the network had one or more code names and aliases which he always used in France. For example, SOE organiser George Reginald Starr was the organiser of the Wheelwright network and known as "Hilaire" to French contacts in the resistance and to other SOE personnel.[2]

Nearly fifty SOE networks were operating in France when the country was liberated from German control in 1944. Forty-three circuits were no longer existent at that time of which 31 had been destroyed by the Germans. Many agents served in more than one network and had more the one code name. [3]

Approximately 470 SOE agents served in France during World War II.[4] The Valençay SOE Memorial in Valençay, France lists the names of 91 men and 13 women who were killed or died in prison while serving as SOE agents.[5]

Networks and members

Acolyte

June 1943 – September 1944

  • Robert Lyon {Adrien), organiser (also known as Gilbert Calvert)
  • Jean Coleman (Victor), organiser
  • Robert Martin, real name: Albert Grinberg (Ibis), wireless operator

Acrobat

August 1942 – May 1944

Actor

May 1944 – September 1944

Adolph

A network in the region of Tours, Orléans and Vierzon, attached to Physician/Prosper in late 1942.

Archdeacon

A network which was meant to be established by Frank Pickersgill and John Kenneth Macalister, who were both captured in June 1943 immediately upon arrival in France. The network became an operation run by the Germans.

Joseph Placke, an assistant in the wireless section at 84 Avenue Foch, impersonated Pickersgill, and MacAlister's captured radio and codes were used to transmit false messages to London, arranging parachute drops of supplies, which of course fell into German hands. The fake operation continued until May 1944 and resulted in the capture of a sabotage instructor and six other agents sent to join the network.

Asymptote

Operation Asymptote was mounted in February 1944, while the Operational Instructions[6] were quite clear, the disguised objective was to rescue two agents Émile Bollaert and Pierre Brossolette who had been captured on 2 February 1944 while trying to leave Brittany by boat. F. F. E. Yeo-Thomas (alias Shelley, alias Asymptote alias Cheval) and Maurice Lostrie (alias Trieur) were dropped on the night of 24 February 1944 by a RAF Halifax of 161 Squadron on DZ (Drop-zone) Sarrall, 16km NE of Montluçon, Allier. Yeo-Thomas was captured by the Gestapo on 21 March 1944. Brossolette died while trying to escape the next day.

Author

Autogiro

The first SOE network, organised in the Paris area by Pierre de Vomécourt, but which was destroyed in spring 1942 after being betrayed by Mathilde Carre.

  • Georges Bégué — wireless operator; the first SOE agent in France, arriving by parachute the night of 5/6 May 1941.[7][8]
  • Noel Fernand Rauol Burdeyron (real name, Norman F. Burley) — agent, single-handedly derailed German supply train by pulling up a rail, Autogiro's only successful attack
  • Christopher Burney — assigned to assist Burdeyron
  • Marcel Clech — wireless operator
  • Raymond Henry Flower
  • Pierre de Vomécourt — organiser

Bricklayer

A small network specialised in the economical and financial matters in view of the allied landing on D-Day. The French members were mainly businessmen, lawyers, bankers and engineers.

Carver
  • Charles Henri Lucien Corbin – organiser

Chestnut

Cinema

Clergyman

Detective

Digger
  • Charles Beauclerk – wireless operator
  • Emile Gerschel – instructor
  • Peter Lake
  • Jacques Poirier – organiser

Diplomat
  • Maurice Dupont

Ditcher
  • Guy D'Artois — organiser
  • Lt. Jean Renaud-Dandicolle, M.C. (aka John Danby)

Donkeyman

A network organised following the collapse of Autogiro and built on the remnants of Carte. It had small groups over the whole of France.

Farmer

A network organised in the Lille area.

  • Francois Reeve - saboteur
  • Arthur Staggs – wireless operator
  • Michael Trotobas – organiser

Farrier

An operation to organise aircraft landings and the reception of agents sent by such means.

Fireman
  • Alexander Campbell – assistant
  • Edmund Mayer – organiser
  • Percy Mayer – organiser
  • Patricia O'Sullivan — wireless operator

Footman
  • George Hiller — organiser
  • Cyril Watney – wireless operator
  • William Hawk Daniels – OSS instructor
  • Richard Pinder – instructor
  • Guy S. Songy – OSS instructor

Freelance
  • John D. Allsop – instructor
  • Andre Michael Bloch – instructor
  • Rene Dussaq – assistant
  • John Farmer – organiser
  • Denis Rake – wireless operator
  • Reeve Schley
  • Nancy Wake — courier

Headmaster

Heckler/Saint

Heckler: August 1941 to November 1942, Saint: April 1944 to August 1944

  • Paul Goillot – organiser
  • Virginia Hall - creator of Heckler, wireless operator of Saint
  • Henri L. Laussucq aka Henri Lassot
  • Henry Riley – organiser

Historian
  • Nicholas Allington – assistant
  • Lilian Rolfe — wireless operator
  • Andre Studler – assistant
  • George Alfred "Teddy" Wilkinson – organiser

Inventor

A sub-circuit of the Physician network.

Japonica

Jockey

A network in the south-east.

Juggler

A sub-circuit of Physician, operating from Châlons-sur-Marne, east of Paris. It also had headquarters in the rue Cambon, near the Place de la Concorde. Also known as Robin.

  • Gustave Cohen – wireless operator
  • Sonya Olschanezky — courier
  • Jacques Weil – second in command
  • Jean Worms (aka Jean de Verieux) — organiser

Labourer
  • Elisee Allard (aka Charles Montaigne)
  • Pierre Geelen (also known by the surnames Garde and Grandjean)
  • Marcel Leccia (aka Georges Louis) — organiser
  • Odette Wilen

Marksman
  • Elizabeth Devereux-Rochester — courier
  • Richard Harry Heslop — organiser
  • Owen Johnson – wireless operator
  • Gordon Nornable – wireless operator
  • Geoffrey Parker – medic
  • Jean Pierre Rosenthal – organiser
  • Marcel Veilleux – wireless operator

Minister

Monk

Also known as 'Monkeypuzzle' Circuit.

Musician

A network in eastern Picardy.

Pedlar

Pimento

Permit

Physician

Also known as Prosper. See Francis Suttill - organiser

Prosper

An unofficial name for Physician, named for its organiser's codename. See Francis Suttill

Agents continued to be sent to the Prosper network for some time after it had been controlled by Germans.[10]

Prunus

A network in the area of Toulouse. Penetrated and dismantled in April 1943.

Robin

An unofficial name for Juggler.

Salesman
  • Edgar Fraser – Dakota expert
  • Jean Claude Guiet – wireless operator
  • Claude Malraux
  • Isidore Newman – wireless operator
  • Violette Szabo — courier
  • Philippe Liewer (aka Charles Staunton) — organiser
  • Bob Maloubier – weapons instructor

Scholar
  • Raymond Aubin – organiser
  • Yvonne Baseden — wireless operator
  • Rene Bichelot – assistant
  • Louis Antoine Nonni
  • Marie Joseph de Saint-Genies – organiser

Scientist

July 1942 - August 1944. A network in the area of Bordeaux.

Silversmith

Spindle

Previously known as Urchin, a network based in Cannes, then moved to Saint-Jorioz.

Spiritualist
  • Henri Diacono – wireless operator
  • René Dumont-Guillemet – organiser

Spruce

Also known as 'Plane' circuit.

  • Robert Boiteaux – organiser
  • Henri Paul Le Chêne – organiser
  • Georges Duboudin – organiser
  • Marie-Thérèse Le Chêne – courier
  • Pierre Louis Le Chêne – radio operator
  • John Dolan
  • John Hamilton
  • Madeleine Lavigne – courier and wireless operator
  • Robert Sheppard – saboteur
  • Edward Zeff – wireless operator

Stationer

A network with activities in the south and center of France, from Châteauroux to the foothills of the Pyrenees.

Stockbroker
  • Eric Cauchi – instructor
  • Joseph Maetz
  • Harry Rée — organiser
  • Jean Alexander Simon
  • Paul Ullman – wireless operator

Tinker

Urchin

Later known as Spindle, based in Cannes

  • Francis Basin (Olive) — organiser
  • Isodore Newman (Julien) — wireless operator


Ventriloquist

Wheelwright

A network in the area of Toulouse. Operated from November 1942 to September 1944.

Wizard

Wrestler

A network in the Valençay-Issoudun-Châteauroux triangle.

Map of networks as of June 1943

The map below shows the major SOE F Section networks which existed in France in June 1943, based on the map published in Rita Kramer's book "Flames in the Field" (Michael Joseph Ltd, 1995).

Note: The map does not show the correct location of the original Autogiro network, which operated in the Paris area and did not exist after the spring of 1942. However the network was later revived by Francis Suttill, organiser of Prosper.

See also

References
  1. Escott, Beryl E. (2010) The Heroines of SOE, Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press, pp. 9, 12, 26-27
  2. Glass, Charles (2018), They Fought Alone, New York: Penguin Press, p. xiv
  3. Foot, M. R. D. (1966), S.O.E. in France, London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, pp. 145-146
  4. "The Female Spies of the SOE," , accessed 8 Jan 2020
  5. "The Section F Monument," , accessed 8 Jan 2020
  6. Marshall, Bruce (2001). The White Rabbit. Cassell. p. 101. ISBN 030435697-2.
  7. Foot, M.R.D. (1966), SOE in France, London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, pp. 161-164
  8. Cookridge, E.H. (1967), Set Europe Ablaze, New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, pp. 67-68
  9. Escott, pp. 207-210
  10. "The British Prosper Spy Network: Destroyed to Protect D-Day?".
  11. Foot, M. R. D. (1966), SOE in France, London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, p. 374.
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