Shadows

By Kev Richardson

An exciting tale of the French Resistance during the German Occupation in World War II. Surprise after surprise greets Adele (or Brown Owl to those in the know) every hour. And is brother Guy, the black sheep renegade, gone over to the enemy?

Shadows describes every attempt at striking back at the hateful Boche. Only the brave dare risk regaining at least some sense of pride. A must read for every soul with a spunky beat in their heart.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wings ePress, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9781613093238

Book preview

One

London’s Croydon Airport, 9:40 a.m., 17 June 1940

He’s speaking French, and I cannot understand a word.

Paul, the flight engineer on duty in the tower, passed the phone over to his boss, Malcolm Harding.

The aircraft hovering overhead carried French Air Force markings.

Malcolm put the phone to his ear, sliding into the chair as Paul slid off.

"Puis-je vous aider? (Can I help you?")

Everyone in the tower radio room had a frown on his forehead and eyes on Malcolm. None, of course, could hear what was being said at the other end.

"Qui? (Who?") asked Malcolm, putting his spare hand over his spare ear.

To all those watching, the wait seemed intolerable.

After a moment, Malcolm turned to face Paul. "It’s a fellow announcing himself as Brigade Général de Gaulle of the French Army. He has a number of French bigwigs with him, escaping from the Germans. They want permission and instructions to land."

Runway four is free, boss, Paul responded. I guess we’re going to get plenty of these during the next several days. How about you tell him he can land if he’s brought some decent wine for us?

Malcolm rolled his eyes, deciding not to offend with such a flippant response. He turned back to the phone. "Sûr. Jouvre la piste quatre pour vous. Approchez-vous du nord. En dehors. (Sure. I will open up runway four for you. Please approach from the north. Out.")

He pressed the disconnect button on the radio phone and dialled up another number.

Malcolm Harding here, Albert. I’ve told that hovering Frenchie to use runway four. He will approach from the north. Get some flagmen out there to wave him in. Ensure the passengers are held at the immigration desk, along with all their baggage, until I get there.

As tower manager, he wanted to check them all out and find out their story.

If they all seem legit, I’ll turn the pilot and aircraft over to Servicing but hold all passengers, and what they considered worth bringing, for Security. They’ll surely want to establish some sort of procedure for this sort of thing.

He crossed to his desk and pocketed a notebook, fountain pen, cigarettes, and lighter. He shrugged shoulders at his staff and took the lift down to the ground floor.

~ * ~

World War II had begun with Adolph Hitler tucking agreements with Russia, Italy, and Japan to form an Axis Bloc into his file and bursting across Germany’s border with Poland. His action astounded not only the Poles but the world by the speed, thoroughness, and ruthlessness of its charge. There had been no need of trenches. In subjugating the Poles, the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe had destroyed all before it. Within a week, the Polish air force was decimated; within a month, the entire western half of Poland, including its capital, Warsaw, was annexed by Germany. Its eastern half was declared part of Russia. The dividing line signed under the German-Soviet Frontier Treaty of September 1939 was the only border line. From that day, Poland ceased to exist, leaving Germany and Russia next-door neighbours.

Meanwhile, France, which since the Great War had spent millions of precious francs building the Maginot Line, a string of forts along its border with Germany guaranteed to keep France safe from further molestation, believed itself forever protected from another German invasion. Every French man and woman was shattered when the Nazis simply bypassed the Maginot Line forts and invaded France from the north through Belgium and France’s Ardennes province.

In France’s panic, a fifty-year-old colonel of the French forces who had been making a name for himself in the mechanised division was given command of the improvised 4e tank division, Cuirassée. During the Great War of 1914 to 1918, he had been wounded on several occasions and was taken prisoner in the Battle of Verdun.

After that war, he took up the advanced study of the armoured division, designing and perfecting new tanks. With two hundred of them under his command, he then rushed to meet the Panzer onslaught. From the village of Montcornet near Sedan, he attacked and had the Panzers in retreat. However, the Germans had air power to back up their mechanised forces, and the colonel had none. What had initially seemed a likely success quickly turned to rout.

For his bravery, however, Colonel Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was quickly promoted to Brigade Général, one pip above colonel. He was to proudly wear that uniform for the duration of the war, although not on the fields of France.

Ten days after the invasion, France was in mayhem.

Everyone was conscious of how effortless it had seemed for German forces to break through every country’s ability to defend itself, particularly in that France’s Maginot Line never fired a shot. Full of confidence, the German army advanced on Paris.

It was abundantly clear that, this time, the Allied countries were not going to halt the invaders. The Somme, the Meuse, and the Marne, those backstop rivers for the Allies in the Great War, had already been bested. The movies being shown were of fretful wives of husbands already dead or captured, but certainly not around to help, trying to pack everything needful into prams with little ones, only to be strafed in the streets, mercilessly murdered by the Luftwaffe. That inhumane element was but part of the all or nothing code of Blitzkrieg.

The frantic government fled from Paris, establishing itself in the west coast city of Bordeaux, but the French military had other plans. Marshall Philippe Pétain, hero of the Great War and commander of the entire French Armed Forces, to save France from the utter devastation of its proud historical monuments and having witnessed the ravaging rape of Poland, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Belgium, did a deal with Germany. If the face of France could maintain its historical beauty, his French forces would simply lay down their arms and submit to German control, calling it a truce. The Germans agreed on the basis that all the north and west coast areas, those that would need to be bested by any Allied invasion as well as the areas Hitler would need when ready to invade England, would be totally controlled by Germany; the inland and Mediterranean shore would be granted a neutrality if people accepted German discipline under Pétain’s direct control.

That control, however, was tightly administered by Germany. It included control of arms, that all French Jews in its area be surrendered, and that the Gestapo have access to records and must be aided in any matters of insurrection, along with a number of minor conditions.

Pétain agreed. The new France would be called Vichy France, and, because Germany included Paris in its northern occupied zone, the Vichy capital would be Pétain’s home city of Vichy.

According to the terms of the Pétain Armistice signed on 22 June 1940, the 1.5 million captured French soldiers who were considered by the agreement prisoners of war were to be held in captivity under German control until the end of the war. Pétain agreed because he assumed that the British would surrender within a few weeks.

Firstly, he overlooked that all those prisoners of war would be despatched to factories in Germany; secondly, he miscalculated the stalwartness of the British, for they rejected all peace offers by the Germans. The French POWs were to remain in Germany for five long years. Many escaped and joined the French underground resistance groups, attacking the Germans whenever their backs were turned.

The German Occupied Zone border line with Vichy France was roughly from France’s eastern border with Switzerland near Lac Léman in a ragged line westward following the River Cher to Tours, then darting almost straight south to the Spanish border in the Navarre district.

The Germans had occupation of the major industrial areas and the entire coastlines of the English Channel and Atlantic Ocean. It needed total control there, so that the German navy could take possession of the Atlantic and preparations could be made for invading Britain.

So the south of France was never invaded. In the Vichy area, apart from industry adjusting to German requirements, life for those accepting German doctrines was not too much of a disadvantage. People were free to retain their jobs and could travel within the Vichy area. Anyone caught disobeying the agreed conditions, however, was liable for despatch to Germany to join prisoners in forced factory or agricultural labour.

On 28 May, General de Gaulle, a gangling hundred and ninety-three centimetres tall, was certainly one to attract attention; he made good use of his commanding pose. From the Ardennes, he had been instructed to try cutting an escape route for the trapped allied armies from Dunkerque to Abbeville on the Somme. Britain’s Winston Churchill had begun a massive undertaking by every small craft that could be called in to help lifting off the stranded wounded and hale personnel, yet it was tediously slow work.

De Gaulle flew over the scene, yet reported that without protection from the air, overland retreat must prove a hopeless task. Germany had, by then, several Belgian airstrips at its disposal, and the remnants of France’s air force had fled to England. The small force of Britain’s meagre stock of fighter planes was busy trying to keep the Luftwaffe from strafing the unarmed bevy of small boats crossing the Channel, packed to the gunnels with fleeing servicemen.

Nevertheless, French Premier Paul Reynard, shamed by Pétain’s capitulation, on 28 May appointed de Gaulle to the office of Undersecretary of State for National Defence and War. It put him in charge of liaising with the British and the establishment of a French government office in London.

As a junior minister of all but Vichy France, de Gaulle tried preventing Pétain from proceeding with his surrender, instead advocating that the government remove itself to Algeria, still an integral part of mother France.

The answer to each was No, that communication would be easier from London.

De Gaulle then outspokenly criticised Pétain, declaring him a traitor to France and that he would give him no support. But he accepted the assignment to London.

He had his own personal axe to grind in serving his country the way he believed all Frenchmen should, rather than bowing in shame to the enemy.

He arrived in England, declaring himself the leader of a new France... the FF for Free France!

After consultation with Winston Churchill, to ensure he had him onside, de Gaulle declared he would make it his business to use every BBC facility allowed him to promote his new nation: the France that would never surrender, the Free France!

He would back it by starting a school for the French or English who volunteered to return to France, their objective to establish a workable underground to...

Put soft putty in every Gestapo window frame in France and bite the hand of every German in Free France by any means possible.

Even from the majority of people in Britain or France who had never heard of Charles de Gaulle, and namely ninety-nine percent of the rest of the world, there rang a bell in British minds that his plans should be given a chance, one of which he determined to keep reminding them.

To physically illustrate the power granted him by France, he had unfolded for Winston Churchill, on meeting him, the contents of one particular piece of the luggage brought with him: a portmanteau containing one hundred thousand gold Francs in secret funds to establish in absentia a Free French Government.

~ * ~

Charles de Gaulle didn’t particularly like Winston Churchill.

Is it because the two are so alike in manner? Englishmen necessarily close to both asked each other.

Arrogantly able at facing the pressures placed on them, yet demanding rather than appealing in their approach? asked some.

Typical army ritual, if you ask me, one would answer.

Yet it leaves no room for argument. One has to admit that, would another.

Malcolm Harding, tower manager at Croydon airport, he who was found able when de Gaulle had insisted on speaking French when seeking to land, later discovered, for he had had considerable contact with the Frenchman since, that de Gaulle indeed spoke reasonable English.

Just one of his ways of simply demanding attention to what he had to say, Malcolm then realised.

Malcolm spoke French because of his wife, a French secretary at her country’s embassy in London. They had met at a Bastille 14 July anniversary party some ten years before the war, when a half dozen invitation cards had been given to senior airport staff as a Thank you for good services rendered token.

Their meeting had proven a love at first sight situation.

But you must be prepared to have a working wife, Adele insisted when marriage was being considered. It is becoming normal in France, she further insisted.

In England, a wife’s first responsibility apart from remaining true to her husband was keeping house for him and bearing his children.

But no longer in France, she explained, except for the poorly educated. As education improves, women are being granted duties in both business and politics.

Two years later she presented him with a daughter they named Sandra. Soon after the birth, Adele hired a nanny to come in daily while she continued as a secretary in the French Embassy. Malcolm got used to having a working wife, for it was obvious to him that she was making a great fist of both working and mothering.

When war broke out, she told him her need to work was doubly important, in that several French girls at the embassy had rushed home to their families and French boyfriends. A few men saw it their duty to rush home and enlist. They returned to France just before the capitulation, so were stranded there.

Until the war is over, anyway, darling, Adele had pleaded to Malcolm, I simply have to give my total time to work, now. It is my patriotic duty.

Malcolm gave her leave to hire a cleaner to also come in. With so many women finding shillings difficult to obtain with husbands abroad in the services, there were plenty looking for part-time work, even if poorly paid.

All around Britain, of course, it quickly became obvious that there was work women could be trained to do in order to release men for war service.

Malcolm could see many friends losing their wives as housekeepers to other families.

All you who have laughed at me for allowing my wife to work, he told them, will now realise how it has felt for me being in that situation. It could be the start of a new trend in social life.

He felt relieved, however, that his job meant pardoned from active-war service and that his domestic lifestyle would not have to be suddenly changed, except for the time demands that wartime imposed on him.

There was also the realisation, of course, that the war meant all employees of airports would live in constant danger from bombing.

The most common targets will be workshops, runways, and towers, he fully realised.

Ritual whenever air-raid sirens sounded was to quickly don heavily padded clothing and a metal helmet. Adele persistently reminded him not to refrain from following that safety rule, no matter how desperate his work situation in the moment might be.

One of Charles de Gaulle’s first actions was to appeal to the French Embassy for a secretary, and of the several volunteers interviewed Adele Harding won the post. She was ecstatic!

Oh, Malcolm, darling, she told him that night over dinner, I consider it such an honour. I am convinced he will be a hard man to satisfy, as he’s extremely demanding and impatient, yet I shall feel so proud being able to help poor France in its struggle.

She explained how he touched on several topics: the founding of a school to train both male and female volunteers who wanted to serve their country behind German backs...

Spying? Malcolm asked. That would be so dangerous! How many French people are there in England? So many rushed home to help when Germany invaded.

"Yes, many did, but there are still many here—young, old and both men and women. Our records stand at near half a million French people live and work in Great Britain. M’sieu de Gaulle anticipates scores of applicants to volunteer for helping France."

To do what?

Advise London what defences against invasion the Germans might be building, advise what preparations the Germans are making for invading England, let the RAF know what French buildings are hiding armaments so they can be especially targeted by bombers, any information at all that can be advised to thwart the Germans. We need such people all over France!

Malcolm could sense in her an even deeper love of her country than had so far been obvious.

All over Europe, every soul is having to reconsider whatever is his position.

The Germans will be able to trace all radio signals being sent out, he told her. How would that be overcome?

This is the sort of thing that will be taught in our school when we have it up and running.

And where do you find these people?

"M’sieu Charles found me. And every French person sympathetic to his aims who has family, parents, aunts and uncles, and friends who we feel after interviews, trustworthy. There are thousands of French people once we are able to get messages to them. M’sieu Charles has all sorts of notes on ways and means of getting our needs known in France. He is contacting the families here of selected ones already rushed home to help France any way they can. We just need to set up a system of exchanging messages... coded messages. He already has people from MI5 helping with these sorts of things. M’sieu Charles is in close contact with Mr. Churchill and gets lots of advice from him."

Two

Within a day of his arrival in Britain, de Gaulle, after consultation with Churchill, sat by a microphone in a BBC studio, reading his address to airwaves known by MI5 to be still operating in France. Despite his name was not widely known in France, nor that few would likely hear his broadcast in any case, it was his hope that those who did would spread the information far and wide.

The historic speech, indeed, helped to start rallying the French people to form resistance movements as the following extract urged...

Is the last word said? Has all hope gone? Is the defeat definitive? No. Believe me, I tell you that nothing is lost for France. This war is not limited to the unfortunate territory of our country. This war is a world war. I invite all French officers and soldiers who are in Britain or who may find themselves there, with their arms or without, to get in touch with me. Whatever happens, the flame of French resistance must not die and will not die.

That was the beginning of the French resistance body named La Resistance that was to quickly gain momentum.

At the time, the United States was not involved in the war, so President Franklin Roosevelt had no choice but to recognize Vichy France as the legitimate government. Britain’s Winston Churchill, however, refused to acknowledge Pétain. Churchill recognized de Gaulle as the leader of the Free French. Churchill had no time for any man who would simply hand his country over to Hitler.

On 4 July, however, a court-martial in Vichy’s Toulouse sentenced de Gaulle in absentia to four years in prison. On 2 August, a second court-martial sentenced him, as a French traitor, to death.

This, however, only made de Gaulle doubly determined to see his Free France replace Pétain’s illegal Vichy France. The twin barred Cross of Lorraine became the Free French emblem, and the British provided facilities for him to have medals and shoulder tabs made for those wishing to join his Britain-based troops.

He was, after all, an army general and appointed leader of a government in exile, and despite frosty personal relations with Britain and especially the United States—all because of his arrogant approach—he emerged as the undisputed leader of the Resistance. At that time, of course, he had no way of knowing that in exactly two years’ time he would be recognised by both those allied countries, once France was liberated from German occupation, as head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic.

During occupation, German soldiers in France were ordered by Hitler to behave like gentlemen. They were instructed to avoid rape and plunder but could take whatever photographs they wished. The Germans were visitors. He directed that soldiers go out of their way to be friendly, to set up food depots and soup kitchens to feed the French people until the economy was returned to normal. He also told the German people that the French would quickly realise that collaboration with the Germans would be to their advantage.

Had they been told it, few Frenchmen would have agreed. All did, however, realise that the German war machine was invincible and that the only sensible course was to simply bear in mind that the French had always held a hatred of Germans yet could not let it show. It was quickly illustrated that, under occupation, life was indeed to prove difficult to bear.

In London, de Gaulle was swamped by volunteers. To train for return to France, making life difficult for Germans, was the most rewarding goal French people could seek in achieving a return to freedom for France.

As early as July 1940, however, Britain was the sole nation still at war with Germany. Stalwarts of all nations Germany had attacked, who had realised early that their country’s future freedom must be yielded, had fled to Britain seeking harbourage. They now wanted to help their countries in any way they could. So the SOE was established... a secret organisation for all nationalities, other than French, to work hand in glove with the de Gaulle factor, in training and operating as insurgents in all occupied European countries.

~ * ~

Adele was not simply caught up with all this; she was right at its forefront. Her new boss had insisted her desk be in his office.

I don’t want to have to shout out for you every time I need your attention, my girl, he had insisted.

From the moment of starting her new job, agog with expectation of loads of excitement, she quickly learned that she was to be included in every secret that crossed de Gaulle’s desk.

"I know everything that happens in establishing and running the Resistance, girl, and I need you to help me get that information out to people. You, too, must know it all. Your job is simply doing as you are told and being quick about it."

If she were to ask for clarification on any point, he would sit, stare at her for ten frightening seconds, and then explode with Part of your job, girl, is working things out such that our goals reach fruition. Think on it, girl! Just think on it! Learn to read my mind!

And, she analysed, it is clear that that is all the help I’m going to get!

She quickly realised that his only level of voice was shouting. She had no qualm about her shorthand because that skill he had recognised when interviewing her, a major reason for him selecting her.

After her first day, she explained it just that way, to Malcolm over dinner.

His first question once hearing her key in the lock, because it was so much later than he had expected her to be arriving home, to already have cooked scrambled eggs for Sandra, was, Where have you been?

The housemaid Emily had prepared a casserole for dinner, reminding him before leaving that it should be taken from the oven at 6:30, which he had done.

Adele arrived, hot and bothered, at 7:15.

I am absolutely exhausted, she declared.

He was on his second glass of sherry and poured one for her.

Ah, she breathed as she took a sip. It was the height of summer, and she wore only a loose vest over her blouse but hadn’t even yet taken it off. Of all things that England has to offer that keep me from missing French food, my love, is this Bristol Cream. It is indeed the most marvellous of sherries.

You’ve told me that before, darling, and I again say that it is quite a compliment from one who comes from a family of vintners.

He looked her up and down. Are you going to change before dinner? Emily said seven o’clock for the casserole, so it will remain hot for some time.

She looked at her wrist watch. No, love. If this is suitable to appear before ‘His Eminence,’ it should be all right to wear it out with you.

I reckoned that with a seven o’clock dinner, darling, we wouldn’t be going to the cinema?

Since the war began, several cinemas in London were showing daily shorts of the latest of the war in Europe before moving onto movies, and she liked to watch those every other night. That way she could keep up with what sort of life her family was having in Saumur-on-Loire. To