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SUSSEX PLAN 1943–1944
As part of the preparations for the landings in France (Operation Overlord), General Eisenhower’s staff came up in March 1943 with a plan known as “Sussex”. Its goal was to deploy, north of the Loire (the future combat zone), two-man teams of officers (one observer and one radio operator), parachuted in civilian clothes and positioned at strategic points behind German lines.
Equipped with clandestine transmitter-receivers and “Klaxon” sets, their mission was to collect and transmit real-time intelligence on enemy forces—its order of battle before, during and after the landings—so as to enable the advance of Allied troops until the complete liberation of France.
These French officers were recruited by the BCRA of Free France (Bureau Central de Renseignement et d’Action) and trained by the British “SIS” (Secret Intelligence Service) and the American “OSS” (Office of Strategic Services).
Missions carried out jointly with the OSS were called “OSSEX”, while those carried out jointly with the SIS were called “BRISSEX”.
In 1944, 56 pairs of French officers (30 OSSEX and 26 BRISSEX) were dropped into occupied France behind German lines as part of this secret Franco–American–British operation.
This was the first large-scale airborne intelligence-gathering operation, and in that sense it foreshadowed many others carried out since by French intelligence services and special forces.
The existence of the Sussex Plan and its agents remained forgotten for a long time and was only rarely mentioned. This website, created in 2005, aims to make these 101 agents—men and women—better known and to pay them a well-deserved tribute.
The Sussex Plan was a broad coalition effort operating mainly in the world of intelligence, espionage and secrecy. A few grey areas remain, mainly concerning missions carried out under British “cover”.
The NARA* archives concerning “OSSEX” missions are available; however the “BRISSEX” files, stored at KEW**, are still closed to consultation: the agents’ reports are currently inaccessible.
We hope this website will bring additional insight to Sussex families—children and grandchildren—as well as to present and future historians and researchers.
The website is organised into several sections:
- A history of the Sussex Plan
- Missions in France
- A table: an attempt to reconstruct agents’ in(ex)filtrations to/from France from 1940 to 1945
- A section about the “Proust” Plan
- Profiles of several agents (biographies), with photographs
- A “museum” area with photos of emblematic objects from the Sussex Plan (personal items, radios, etc.)
- A “documents” section (PDF) and press (PDF)
*NARA: National Archives and Records Administration — Washington, DC
**KEW: The National Archives — Richmond, TW9 4DU
