MISSION VITRAIL
The Vitrail mission also ended dramatically. Dropped by parachute on the night of 10–11 April 1944, Jacques Voyer (observer) and André Guillebaud (radio operator) were assigned the Chartres area as their zone of operations. They also received two additional drops of men and equipment. In terms of results, the mission was a success: a large amount of intelligence of the highest importance—among it messages concerning the movements of the Panzer Lehr Division—was transmitted to London.
While observing troop movements, André Guillebaud noticed “totems” or unknown unit insignia painted on vehicles. He made quick sketches and gave them to Jacques Voyer, hoping Voyer would be able to identify them. On 10 June, as Voyer approached the convoy to learn more, he was stopped by two Feldgendarmes who asked to see his papers. The sketches, which were in his wallet, fell into German hands. Faced with this dilemma, Voyer attempted to escape but, hit by two bullets fired by the policemen, he was imprisoned.
Tortured for more than eight days, he did not speak. Brought before a German military tribunal on 26 June, he was sentenced to death for espionage. He was shot the very next day at the Chavannes firing range, very near Chartres. On 20 January 1946, General de Gaulle would name him Companion of the Liberation posthumously. Many agents involved in this plan were deported, executed, or went missing. Even today, it is very difficult to estimate their number. André Guillebaud, for his part, fortunately escaped the manhunt and was able to undertake a new Sussex mission in northern France.
An elite division: the Panzer Lehr
Published with the kind and friendly permission of Daisy Vincent.
In 1934, Charles de Gaulle published Vers l'armée de métier, a work of military strategy advocating the predominant use of autonomous, mobile armoured divisions, professional soldiers rather than conscripts, and air support...
Four years later, as the Allies prepared to land on the Normandy beaches, armoured warfare was still at the heart of land campaigns, and locating Panzer divisions was one of intelligence priorities...
During May, messages from the Sussex team VITRAIL, based in Chartres, caused a stir at SHAEF headquarters under General Eisenhower: the Panzer Lehr Division, whose whereabouts were unknown, was assembling in the woods around Nogent-le-Rotrou.
Less well known than the Waffen-SS Panzer divisions, the Panzer Lehr Division was the Wehrmacht’s model division and the pride of Generaloberst Heinz Guderian...
But despite several warning signs of an invasion and Bayerlein’s repeated requests..., Panzer Lehr was held in reserve...
Virtually decimated by the bombing of Operation COBRA, it nevertheless put up fierce resistance against Allied forces...
Sources:
NARA RG226 E124 B21; GR226 M1623
KUROWSKI, Franz. Elite Panzer Strike Force. Pen & Sword Books Ltd, 2011.
NAPIER, Stephen. The Armoured Campaign in Normandy. The History Press, 2017.
REMEMBER
COMMEMORATION — 1 MAY 2019
Lèves, Wednesday 1 May 2019: commemoration at the Chavannes firing range in memory of Jacques Voyer and those executed at Chavannes (Eure-et-Loir).
Daisy Vincent, Jacques Voyer’s great-niece, present at the inauguration ceremony of the totem dedicated to her great-uncle, wrote and read the text below:
Chavannes Firing Range, Lèves
1 May 2019
I didn’t want to speak today. Hasn’t everything already been said? And then I thought again of a text by my friend Stéphanie Trouillard, drawn from her book Mon oncle de l’ombre...
When, one day, I decided to look into the story of this unknown, forgotten great-uncle, I didn’t think I would open a bottomless well...
So simply, her words summed up what we had been living through since that day in August 2017 when our grandmother Jeannette passed away...
Jacques Voyer… at that precise moment, I hardly knew him at all...
Late October 1944. Jeannette is 14 when a letter from London arrives at the post office in Tunis...
Seventy-three years later, on the eve of the holidays, we rediscover this dreadful heritage with emotion...
Over the year that follows, the kilometres travelled by train pile up and mountains of books invade our lives...
But we must also reconnect with the dark pages—those days of June 1944 that end in tragedy...
In truth, although she died in 2017, we did not really know our grandmother...
Families like ours exist all across France...