Nigel Perrin - Spirit of Resistance: The Life of SOE Agent Harry Peulevé DSO MC

First published in Great Britain in 2008 by
PEN & SWORD MILITARY
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Copyright Nigel Perrin, 2008

ISBN 978-1-84415-855-3

The right of Nigel Perrin to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Even in that galaxy of heroes and heroines, muddlers and villains that made up the Special Operations Executive, Harry Peulev stood out, for courage and tenacity. Not many men, having broken a leg on a parachute jump into occupied territory, came out a cripple over the Pyrenees and promptly asked to go back again. No one else managed an escape from Buchenwald, ending up a few months later in the American lines with two SS prisoners in tow.

There have been a lot of weak books about the exploits, and the failures, of SOE. It is a relief to read a different one. Nigel Perrin has been through all the papers that have now turned up at Kew, as well as getting hold of various surviving members of Harry's family and reading the books that are worth pursuing on the subject, while keeping clear of the junk that still abounds. He dispels a good many myths and displays the truth about a genuine hero; for whom, after what he had been through in war, peacetime life turned tame.

Neither in Great Britain nor in France, from both of which his ancestors came, both of which he served in war, nor in Denmark where he has left a family, nor anywhere where free men and women gather, should Harry Peulev be forgotten. His life, described below, provides a splendid example of what a single soul can do, if he has stout friends to help him and a sound cause for which to fight.

M.R.D. Foot

My interest in Harry Peulev grew from curiosity about a block of flats on Portman Square in central London, just behind Selfridges at the southern end of Baker Street, which I regularly walked past on my way home. Although I already had a vague idea of this building's connection with wartime secret agents, it was only when I eventually embarked on some background research that I began to discover what role Orchard Court had really played. From makeshift offices in one of its second-floor apartments, a shadowy government organization called the Special Operations Executive had selected, trained and despatched more than 400 men and women to organize resistance in occupied France. They came from all walks of life, civilian and military, volunteering to parachute behind enemy lines and build underground networks capable of sabotaging Germany's war effort from within. All were told of the great risks involved and the terrible consequences they faced if captured, yet few refused the challenge. Many of them were destined never to see Orchard Court again.

The heroic actions of these undercover agents quickly caught the public imagination after the war, sparking off a number of films, biographies and fictional spin-offs, though as I continued my research I became more intrigued by those whose stories had not been so widely recognized. Amongst them was one that particularly attracted my attention: an ex-BBC cameraman who had undertaken two missions, during which he overcame crippling injuries to arm and train thousands of guerrilla fighters; later captured, he endured appalling torture, deportation, evaded execution by a hair's breadth in Buchenwald concentration camp and eventually reached the American lines after spending six months masquerading as a French prisoner. Ranked by his commanding officer as one of the best half-dozen of his agents, I was surprised that his extraordinary career hadn't been represented more fully.

Initially I wondered if there could be a good reason for his relative obscurity and had reservations about how much material might still be available, but after contacting Peulev's family in Denmark and gaining access to his unfinished memoirs, it was obvious that much of his story had been left untold. I also discovered that many who knew him were disappointed that no biography had been written following his death in 1963. To a great extent this became the reason for writing a book, to do my best to preserve the memory of an uncommonly determined and greatly admired man.

In putting this project together I must firstly acknowledge the great debt I owe to the Peulev family, who supported me from the beginning: Madeleine and Marie-Louise Peulev were of inestimable help in providing family documents and answering countless questions; Jo Woollacott gave me access to many other papers and photographs; and Margaret and Anna Byskov offered translations and made it possible for me to research the locations of Harry's exploits in the Corrze, Dordogne and Cote d'Azur. I am deeply grateful to all of them for their generosity, hospitality and trust. I must also mention Tony Rushton, who was always willing to offer his assistance and was killed in a car accident just a few months before the book's completion.

Trying to find interview sources more than forty years after Harry's death was inevitably a difficult business, and many of those who appear in the story were too ill to help or have died since. However, I was privileged to be able to talk with several ex-agents, most notably Stphane Hessel, Peter Lake, Cyril Watney and Jean Melon. I also received reminiscences and help from a number of surviving members of the French Resistance, and particularly have to thank Charles Thouloumond of the Corrze ANACR, Alfred Pisi of the Cannes ANACR, Roger Ranoux, Raymond Lacombe, Andr Odru and Ren Coustellier.

A number of archives and museums provided essential information, and I am grateful for the assistance of Dr Roderick Bailey, Ann Brooks and the staff of the Imperial War Museum; Howard Davies and the staff of the National Archives, Kew; Samuel Gibiat and the Archives Dpartementales de Corrze, Tulle; Dr Rmi Fourche and the Muse Henri Queuille, Neuvic, Corrze; Patricia Reymond and the Muse Edmond-Michelet, Brive-la-Gaillarde; the Archives Municipales, Brive-la-Gaillarde; the BBC Archives; Westminster City Archives; Jean-Louis Panicacci and the Muse de la Rsistance Azurenne, Nice; Marie Gatard and the Amicale Anciens des Services Spciaux de la Dfense Nationale, Paris; Brian Baxter at the REME museum at Arborfield, Berkshire; Yvonne Taverny and the Grande Chancellerie de la Lgion d'Honneur, Paris; the Bundesarchiv, Berlin; the Archivo Histrico Comarcal del Alto Ampurdn, Figueres; the Ministerio del Interior, Spain; and Sabine Stein and Sandra Starke of the Buchenwald Archives, Weimar.

For details on radar I have to thank one of Harry's former radio pupils, Eric Atkinson, as well as Alan Brock; Louis Meulstee supplied technical information on wireless sets. Rhiannon Looseley generously gave her time to help me with translation and research, as did Jasper Snyder and Sin Miles. Judith Hiller supplied excerpts from her husband's diary and offered additional useful information. Francis Suttill helped me with details on his father and the events surrounding the Prosper collapse. Julie Dubec and her family were able to provide me with eyewitness accounts and very kindly invited me to visit their house where Harry operated. For research on Schnebeck I have to thank Leo Finegold, and especially Thoralf Winkler and Maurice Falissard for providing invaluable sources. Bruno Kartheuser gifted me one of his excellent works on Walter Schmald, while Guy Penaud offered his considerable knowledge of resistance in south-western France. I am also deeply grateful to M.R.D. Foot for his help in answering my questions, offering many useful revisions and writing the foreword. Of course, any errors in the text are mine, not his.