Mission Colère – Salaud – Filan

MISSION “COLÈRE” — “SALAUD” — “FILAN”

The misadventures and other twists and turns involving three additional teams make up a large part of Colonel Rémy’s book (1):

These three teams were parachuted in the night of 3–4 July 1944 in the Sarthe area — Château-l’Hermitage. They set off as a group of six: Evelyne Clopet, Roger Fosset, André Noël, Aristide Crocq, Marcel Biscano and Laurent Rigot. The drop was eventful, so much so that the ground reception committee switched off the signal lights too early. The aircraft, believing there was an alert, brought Evelyne back without letting her jump. She was parachuted again four days later, alone. She nevertheless managed to rejoin her observer on 14 July.

The German retreat was so rapid that the original orders were changed. They were asked to stay ahead of the enemy’s withdrawal, while avoiding being encircled. Resistance fighters obtained a German van for them. The three teams headed toward Vendôme. On 9 August, German soldiers fleeing the front stopped the vehicle just after it had passed through Lavardin. They hoped they had found a means of transport.

Surprised to see civilians in a Wehrmacht vehicle, the Germans asked to see their papers. Our friends naturally had forged transport orders and forged Ausweise. Unfortunately, none of them spoke German.

The soldiers seemed to suspect the vehicle had been stolen. Perhaps they simply wanted to seize this van, which would have been very useful to them. They roughly ordered the six passengers out and threw the luggage onto the road. A suitcase opened, revealing a transmitter. At once, they began searching. The Germans found weapons. The young people were about to fight, but Evelyne begged them not to do anything. The group was ordered back into the van; a soldier smashed the interior window. Some Germans sat on the hood, others kept the six young people at gunpoint. Noël and Rigot were placed by the doors. The vehicle set off toward Vendôme. Biscano and Crocq managed to tear up the papers they were carrying and throw them out.

On arrival in Vendôme, Rigot managed to jump from the vehicle and escape. At nine in the evening, the five companions who remained were handed over to the Feldgendarmerie. A cleaning woman soon saw Evelyne lying rigid on the ground, unconscious, surrounded by a ring of German gendarmes. She bore marks on her forehead from rifle-butt blows; her thighs had been slashed by the lash of a whip. The interrogation lasted until 1:30 a.m., punctuated by cries of pain, without the torturers managing to extract a single word from those they were tormenting.

The Feldgendarmerie had had enough. They requisitioned an unattended tip cart and took the five young people along the Paris road. Residents of Vendôme heard the poorly greased wheels squeal; they caught a distressed call, in a female voice — then bursts of machine-gun fire. The five martyrs were buried side by side in the small cemetery of Saint-Ouen near Vendôme.

(1) Colonel RÉMY, Les Mains Jointes, Raoul Solar, 1949.