Description
Object description
British officer served as wireless operator with F Section, Special Operations Executive in France, 7/1942-10/1942; inmate in Castres Prison, Castres and Fresnes Prison, Paris, France, 10/1942-9/1943; inmate in Mauthausen Concentration Camp, Austria, Natweiler-Struthof Concentration Camp, France and Dachau Concentration Camp, Germany, 10/1943-4/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in GB and France, 1918-1939: family background in Devonshire; education in France and GB; service with Royal Artillery in GB, 1939-1941; reaction to outbreak of Second World War, 9/1939. Recollections of period with Special Operations Executive in GB, 1941-1942: background to recruitment to Special Operations Executive; recruitment interview at War Office with Val Gielgud, 10/1941; opinion of training at STS 5 Wanborough Manor and Scotland, 1942; second thoughts about recruitment to Special Operations Executive; training as wireless operator; opinion of unarmed combat training recieved from ex-Shanghai Municipal Police officer; impressions of Vera Atkins and Maurice Buckmaster; briefings at Orchard Court, London; concealment of wireless set in paints box; cover story as artist; French cover name; background to parent's move to GB; story of being mistaken post-war for former member of German Schutzstaffel (SS); standard of French language; abortive flight to France, 30/6/1942. Recollections of operations as wireless operator with Special Operations Executive in France, 7/1942-10/1942: success of second flight.
REEL 2 Continues: parachute drop into France, 1/7/1942; losing money to local resistance; landing with outdated ration cards; train journey to Limoges; fears over conspicuous English shoes; reaction to conditions in France; failure to make his contact in Limoges; sleeping rough in forest; deteriorating health; successful contact; exchanging expired ration cards; awaiting delivery of radio equipment by courier; doing unnecessary shopping and going to cinema to maintain cover, 7/1942; adjusting to conditions of privation; height; contact with contact named 'Joseph'; move to Vienne area; transmission work from Vienne; move to another chateau base; damage to wireless set from French electricity current; safest places to transmit from; atmosphere in Lyon, 1942.
REEL 3 Continues: concerns about security lapses with local French Resistance; support from American woman; problems with local French Resistance movement including behaviour of local contact 'Joseph', opinion of Peter Rochen; story of eventual execution of courier, 'Gautrand'; meeting 'Gautrand's' mistress, his replacement; character of new courier; circumstances of capture with Blanche Charlet, 24/10/1942. Aspects of period as inmate in Castres Prison, Castres and Fresnes Prison, Paris, France, 10/1942-9/1943: nature of interrogations, question of contact with Klaus Barbie.
REEL 4 Continues: fate of Blanche Charlet and chateau owner Louis Jourdan; movements between various prisons, late 1942; story of finding his Gestapo interrogator after war; period in Fresnes Prison, 1943; cover story of being fashion artist; solitary confinement; awareness of executions. Aspects of period of as inmate in Mauthausen Concentration Camp, Austria, Natweiler-Struthof Concentration Camp, France and Dachau Concentration Camp, Germany, 10/1943-4/1945: removal from Fresnes Prison, Paris, France, 9/1943; story of death of Ian Harper's wife; move to Mauthausen Concentration Camp, Austria, 10/1943; quarry killings of Jews in camp; story of Schutzstaffel (SS) guard's reaction to presence of two Englishmen in camp, allocation to kitchen work; work as portrait artist, protected status in camp; departure and return to camp, expection of being executed; meeting Bob Sheppard; learning of D-Day within hours of landings, 6/6/1944.
REEL 5 Continues: classification with comrades as 'NN' ('Nacht und Nebel'); move to Natweiler-Struthof Concentration Camp, France, summer 1944; view of four Special Operations Executive female operatives going to deaths at crematorium in camp, 6/7/1944; story of one of victims coming to life in crematorium and dilemma as to whether to confirm worst fears of Diana Rowden's mother; 'Nacht und Nebel' classification; move to Dachau Concentration Camp, Germany; question of comparative treatment of British prisoners; story of act of retaliation by SS against 'Pat O'Leary'; question of organisation of camp in final period; aspects of liberation from Dachau Concentration Camp, Germany, 29/4/1945.
