Andrée's War (22 page)

Alain was given a suitcase full of dollars by his OSS colleagues, which he carefully counted before leaving the hanger. He was also given a number of twenty-franc Louis d'or coins,
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which he placed carefully in a purse in his pocket. In a smartly tailored Parisian-labelled suit belonging to his close friend Yves de Kermoal, he climbed up the steps into the waiting aircraft.
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As Casey wished him luck, Alain felt confident that he could find his way to the château. It had been a year since he had left France, and he was excited to go back. As the engines of the ‘flying fortress' started up, he fastened his safety belt; the plane made its way down the runway and within minutes they were airborne.

It was nearly midnight when they approached the drop-off point. The pilot wanted to get out of the area as quickly as possible, conscious that the aircraft noise had to be kept to a minimum to avoid detection. Alain checked his parachute, threw out the case (which was attached to another parachute) and jumped out into occupied France. A few minutes later he was on firm land. Instinctively he knelt and kissed the ground beneath him. He was home. He couldn't waste time though; he had to get moving. He cut down his parachute, which was glowing cream in the dark. He started searching for his case and found several notes lying on the ground; its lock must have snapped and opened on landing. Alain was in a daze. Despite his training and his usual confidence, he was frightened. It was almost 2 a.m. and very cold, and he wasn't sure where he was – it was hard to get his bearings in the dark. If he didn't recover all the missing dollars, he would risk leaving
a trail of evidence behind.
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Fortunately, after a brief search, he was able to track down the broken suitcase and its scattered contents.

Taking stock of his surroundings, he decided that he must be some distance from the main town, Salies-de-Béarn, as he couldn't see any glow of town lights in the distance. It was therefore unlikely that the Germans had heard the plane but he could not be sure. He could, however, make out a small glimmer of light not too far away, which he thought might be a small farm; with no other choice, he made for it, hoping the owners would help him out. When he reached the house,
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he knocked at the door and saw a man looking out of the window. Alain explained he was lost, that he needed help and that he was a friend of Madame Labbé, the nearby château's owner. The farmer, whose name Alain later discovered was Monsieur Laulhé, had heard the aircraft and assumed Alain was a member of the French Resistance who had been parachuted into the area. Bravely he opened the door and welcomed him into his home.

‘You are only a kilometre away from the château and there are unlikely to be any Germans about, it is far too late. They are all stationed in and around Salies-de-Béarn, but it is possible they will have heard the plane. If so, we can be sure they will be out at dawn with the dogs. I will take you now to a safe hiding-place. You must stay there and at dawn I will go to the château and tell them where you are hiding.'
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No names were exchanged at that time – it was too dangerous. Together the farmer and Alain walked to a small field covered in bushes, where they hid the parachute and Alain settled down for the night. Despite the cold, damp air, Alain quickly fell asleep and did not wake up until well past dawn when he heard something moving nearby. He picked up his gun, ready to act, when he realised it was Marie Flandé, the château's housekeeper. She in turn was overwhelmed to see him. ‘Mon dieu, it is Monsieur Alain!
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How on earth did you get here? Where have you been? What are you doing wearing
such a smart suit? We had no idea it was you hiding here.' She promised to return at nightfall to take him to the château, and to send her husband to collect the parachute separately.

While Alain waited in the forest, he started thinking about how to get the OSS money back to Paris. He couldn't risk the possibility of capture and the dollars being confiscated – the money was essential to their operation. It would be safer for a woman to travel with the money; Andrée was the perfect candidate for the job.

Eventually Marie returned to collect him; as they walked the few kilometres back to the château, he saw the building's lights in the distance and his confidence returned. He would be safe here.

Marie went ahead, leaving Alain to walk alone up the small drive to the manor house. He stopped outside the chapel and prayed that God would protect him, the Labbés and the Basque people who had helped him over the last twenty-four hours. On his arrival, Monsieur Flandé left to pick up the parachute. Alain asked him to destroy it immediately in case the château was searched.
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Alain was anxious to see Madame Labbé. He had wrestled with the question of how to tell her that her son Paul, his close friend, had been killed in Morocco. But the look on her face as she greeted him said it all; she knew already and she held him tightly without speaking, before abruptly changing her manner. Things were likely to turn dangerous in the morning as the Germans would surely come to ask questions about the plane. Alain was to stay in the attic until arrangements had been made to get him back to Paris.

Marie took Alain up into one of the main bedrooms. Behind a cupboard, a door led to a smaller room, which had once been used for ladies' maids or mistresses. Alain was allowed a warm bath and a new set of clothes before he went into the smaller room. Inside, a panelled door in the wall pushed open to let him climb a cobweb-ridden staircase up to a dark attic room that
no one had used for years. It was to be his home for the next week while plans were made to get him back to Paris.

Andrée was due to travel to Orthez shortly, bringing the latest batch of intelligence from Orion's agents. Emile Flandé, the local town hall secretary, would arrange its transfer to Hendaye by Jean Elisalt and then on to Bilbao by Henri Etchepare – both reliable and patriotic locals. If Andrée missed her train connection she would bring the ‘post' directly to Orion, although it was, everyone knew, safer for it to be left in Orthez.

Meanwhile there was the question of how to get Alain to Paris. In Algiers, OSS had supplied him with a new identity and matching ID card, but when Émile showed it to a local police officer, who was a member of the Resistance, the officer laughed and told him that the card had been so badly forged that it would barely get Alain beyond Salies-de-Béarn. A new ID card was made up. Alain adopted the identity of Adolphe Lambezat, the son of a local peasant, on the understanding that once in Paris he would destroy the card immediately and adopt a new name: Alain de Courcy de Brayance. He didn't want to risk being connected to his family in case anything should happen to them if he were to be picked up. Gandy refers to Alain staying with friends on his return to Paris, as part of his plan to protect his family and ensure his own safety.

New card in hand, Alain prepared to leave Orion. He was taken in the château's horse and cart to Salies-de-Béarn, where he caught the bus to Pau, then boarded a train for Toulouse and ultimately on to Bordeaux. There were lots of German soldiers milling around that morning but he stayed calm. His new ID card was credible and, as he later told me, his OSS training and the money he had gave him confidence that he could defend himself if needed.

Alain and Madame Labbé had discussed how best to transport their new funds back to the capital and had decided the safest plan was for Alain to meet Andrée in Bordeaux, where he could pass on to her some of the money. They did not want to risk either Alain or Andrée carrying the full amount at any one time. If either of them were to be stopped, they could lose everything. It would mean further trips and subsequently more danger, but Alain was confident his sister would not flinch at the task she was to be asked to take on.

 

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Louis d'or coins were minted around 1793, when Louis XVI of France was still alive. As such they went on to be collectors' items. The French often referred to twenty-franc gold coins as Louis d'or, although technically they were not the same coins. Millions of twenty-franc gold coins were put into circulation between 1871 and 1940 and it is believed it was some of these that the OSS gave Alain to enable him to pay for intelligence, to bribe collaborators and for his expenses, rather than original Louis d'or coins as described by Andrée. Years later, in the 1970s, Yvonne Griotteray still kept a substantial part of her wealth in gold coins in her flat in Paris.

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The suit was Yves de Kermoal's idea; his reasoning was that if Alain should be picked up by the Wehrmacht wearing an expensive Parisian suit, no one would think he had come from North Africa.

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In 2010, when I visited the Château d'Orion, the current Madame Labbé told me all about the suitcase lock snapping and Alain having to collect up the notes, which were scattered all over the ground.

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The name of the house was Tambouri d'Andrein.

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‘Moun Diou! Moussu Alain!' – in her native Basque.

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Forty-five years later, at a memorial reunion held at the château, Alain was shocked but amused to be formally presented with the parachute as a gift. Marie Flandé told him she had not obeyed his instructions because she wanted to keep it as a souvenir.

A
s the clock chimed six, Andrée left her office. She had had a difficult and tiring day and was eager to leave work on time. Pedalling home along the banks of the Seine, she passed the Louvre and thought how much she wanted to go in and enjoy some of the greatest paintings in the world. Sadly she was only too aware that its treasures, including ‘La Joconde' (the Mona Lisa), had been packed up at the beginning of the war and sent out of Paris.
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Andrée carried on cycling and arrived home a little while later, storing her bicycle in the courtyard near the concierge's office. She stopped to collect the post and recognised, to her surprise, a note addressed to her in handwriting she recognised. She hurried upstairs; it was safer to open it in the privacy of her home. In coded language, the letter asked her to come as soon as possible to the rue de Bourgogne.

Changing into a casual pair of trousers and a sweater, she told her mother that she had to go out immediately to meet friends who lived on the Left Bank. Yvonne had wanted a family dinner that evening and sensed that something was going on for Andrée to be rushing out so quickly. She was therefore not pleased but, before she could object, Andrée was out of the flat, making her way across the river and towards François de Rochefort's flat.

Running up the stairs two at a time she was surprised to find the door to the flat slightly ajar. As she walked in, she found François de Rochefort sitting comfortably in an armchair and enjoying a bottle of 1926 Bordeaux.
Andrée knew how angry her mother would be if she was not back in time for dinner and demanded to know what was so important that he had summoned her so openly. She was given a small envelope containing some money, indicating that she was to go a hotel in Bordeaux where she would receive instructions from someone who would know how to find her. After checking the money, Andrée left, telling him she would let him know the following day whether she could get permission to travel and, if so, when. A few days later, documents in hand, she was ready to go. She packed lightly, assuming she would be picking up reports to be brought back to the rue de Bourgogne.

With ad hoc Nazi searches on travelling civilians increasing daily, Edmond and Yvonne were not happy as they watched their daughter prepare for her trip to Bordeaux. Alain had been gone for almost a year without direct contact or confirmation of his safety, and they didn't know the full reasons for Andrée's trip. Edmond insisted on accompanying her to the station, early in the morning. As usual it was over an hour late in leaving and full of soldiers, but Andrée felt relatively safe, knowing she wasn't carrying anything incriminating at this point. She never knew much about her trips to ensure that if she was picked up, she would not be able to disclose much sensitive information.

Once the train arrived at Bordeaux, Andrée moved with the other passengers down the platform, doing her utmost to blend in and avoid drawing attention to herself. She had spent some time examining a map of the town before leaving Paris, so that she would know where she was going once she left the station. She took a bus to the hotel, where a room had been booked in her name. The concierge greeted her formally, and after speaking to the reception clerk she was promptly shown to her room. Safely settled, she changed into a simple dress before returning downstairs to the main salon, where she ordered a glass of wine. For over an hour she waited, wondering who was going to meet her. The clock on the mantelpiece chimed every fifteen minutes. She knew she needed to look at ease and relaxed and had brought a Maigret story with her so that she could read while she waited, hopefully allowing her contact to find her without drawing attention to herself. Suddenly – unbelievably – she thought she heard the sound of
her brother's voice. She almost jumped up in shock, but managed to keep her composure. She sat for a few moments observing her surroundings, then got up and walked to the main desk of the hotel. There stood Alain, checking in at reception. She felt a rush of emotion; here was her brother whom she had not seen since February 1943. Neither she nor her parents had had any news about him in over a year, yet now he was here, safe and well and almost at touching distance.

She managed to stay in control of her emotions. Alain turned as she approached; formally and without a trace of emotion, he shook her by the hand and told her quietly that they should meet in his room as soon as she was ready. Using the name he was travelling under, Adolphe Lambezat, he was confident no one would identify them as brother and sister. Once they met in the safety of his room they hugged each other tightly and began to catch up on all that had happened over the last year.