Hemingway-Douglass Reanne - The Shelburne Escape Line: Secret Rescues of Allied Aviators by the French Underground, the British Royal Navy and London’s MI-9

Radio Londres
BBC shortwave French language service
1900 hours, January 28, 1944:

Bonjour tout le monde la maison dAlphonse

(Good evening to everyone at the House of Alphonse.)

For two French-Canadian agents working with the French Resistance in Brittany, this apparently innocuous greeting was very welcome. It meant that MI-9 had given the go-ahead for the first of their long-planned pickup operations. A Royal Navy Motor Gun Boat was steaming at full speed towards the Breton coast for a clandestine rendezvous later that night. Downed Allied aviators, hidden in local safe houses, would be led under cover of darkness, to a secluded beach. The airmen didnt know it yet, but if all went wellif they got past the German patrols on the cliffs above, if no-one alerted the Gestapothey would be back in England by the time the sun came up

First published in 2014 by Cave Art Press, Anacortes,
WA 98221, Washington, United States

Reprinted in this format in 2015 by
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Copyright Ranne Hemingway-Douglass 2014, 2015

ISBN: 978 1 47383 778 2
EPUB ISBN: 978 1 47386 107 7
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To the memory of Elwood (Woody) Blondfield

And to all those French people who risked their lives in support of the Allied cause.

CONTENTS

LIST OF MAPS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book, which has been an ongoing and important project for the past seven years, would have become a lifetime hobby had it not been for the encouragement and the help of many friends and family. In particular, I must give my husband, Don Douglass, credit for his constant goading over the years, for his help in interviewing, and for his contributions to this book.

Merci beaucoup to all of my French friends in Brittany and Savoie, many of whom feature in this book. Thank you, also, to Pierre Montaz, who led me along the tortuous route taken by Resistance members who hid Ken Sorgenfrei and his crew from the Germans.

Thanks are due also to those who helped with my initial research: Geoff Warren of Comox B.C., who set me on the path to Canadian resources, Nancy Costello Scovill for providing me with photographs from her fathers albums; and Beverly Patton Wand, who shared her fathers personal papers and photos and provided me with a copy of Joseph (Job) Mainguys handwritten account of the Rseau Shelburne.

I am grateful to the archivists, staff and volunteers at the many museums Don and I visited: in Canada, the Comox Air Force Museum; in France, the Memorial de Caen, the Muse de la Resistance et de la Deportation in Picardie, the Muse de Dunkerque and the Muse de la Resistance Nationale in Champigny, in Britain, the Imperial War Museums in Duxford and London (special thanks to Stephen Walton and Ian Proctor, respectively).

To those friends and family whoas the manuscript finally began to see lightwaded through first, second and then third versions of the manuscript, making cogent comments or correcting technical terms, I give a rousing thanks: Terry Browne, Bill Carlisle; Sean Collins, Bruce Evertz; Dian Fitzgerald; Sally Foster; Jean Gillingwators, Paul Giles; Mel Kowal; John Leone; Roderick Nash; Jill Princehouse; Sarah Stoner; Sarah van Praag; Earl Valentine; Katherine Wells, and Kathryn Wilkens. I am indebted to my brother, Thomas L. Hemingway, Brigadier General, USAF (Ret) for his part in researching MI-9 and the early Resistance Lines, and to Major General John Altenburg US Army (Ret); Lt. Colonel John La Raia, USAF (Ret); and Brigadier General John Hurley, USAF (Ret) for their invaluable help in correcting military details, and for their other contributions to this book; and to Bebe Blondfield for answering last minute questions before we went to press, despite the sad passing of her beloved Woody.

And to the team, without whom this book would ever have seen the light, I can never say enough to thank you for bailing me out: my editor, Arlene Cook; Rae Kozloff, my research partner and proofer; Ken Morrison for his graphics and Tony and Karla Locke for their layout skills. Un grand merci Tous. (A huge thank you to All.)

P A R T I

THE SHELBURNE ESCAPE LINE

Note: Escape Lines referred to in this book.

PROLOGUE

Name? Rank? Serial number? Questions flew rapidly and repeatedly at 23-year-old United States Army Air Force (USAAF) Pilot First Lieutenant Richard Smith. Describe your squadrons insignia. What base did you come from in England? You told the driver who brought you here that your home is Minnesota. Whats the name of your town? How far is it from Minneapolis? Whats the name of the river in your town? What elementary school did you go to?

Smith sat on a wooden stool in a small, darkened room on the second story of a Paris bistro. His interrogator paced back and forth, frowning at him. All Smith wanted to do was lie down and sleep. He had been in hiding for two weeks and he was tired, nervous and uncomfortable. The man questioning him spoke English without any trace of a French accent. He was short, with a black mustache and straight, slicked back hair. He had introduced himself as Captain Hamilton but he looked like pictures Smith had seen of Hitler. Who was he really, Smith wondered?

Smiths B-17 had been hit by anti-aircraft artillery in a bombing raid over Ludwigshafen, western Germany, in late December 1943. Smith managed to pilot the damaged plane across the border into northeastern France before giving the call to his crew: Bail out! Bail out! He lost sight of his men during the descent, but landed safely with three others in afield. French farmers hid them from the Germans for over a week and eventually turned them over to an Undergroundagent. This man drove the four men to Paris and dropped them off at the house of an English-speaking woman, where a second agent Captain Hamilton was waiting to interrogate them.

Now, as Smith gave his answers to the mans relentless questions, he wondered whether he had really been delivered into the hands of the French Underground or if this was some kind of Gestapo plot Hamilton knew where he lived in the States. He knew that a river ran through his town. Where did he get his information, and what the hell did it matter where Smith went to school?