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" Premier Maitre Andre Desgranges (1296) of the Fighting Free French Navy was wounded and captured near Port-en-Bessin in Normandy on 13 September 1942. After interrogation by the Gestapo in Rouen, he was taken to Wilhelmshaven on about 20 October. He was held in an old school building that was converted for use as a prison and kept in chains until the middle of November. Desgranges escaped from his second-floor room the night of 19/20 November and, walking at night and resting through the day, reached Holland on 27 November. He continued on to Belgium where he caught a train across the French border, getting off near St Quentin. At St Quentin Desgranges was given enough money to buy a train ticket to Paris where he went to the home of a relative. He stayed in Paris until 7 March when he took a train for Bayonne. He left the train at Cambo-les-Bains where he stayed overnight in a hotel and met two more Frenchmen anxious to leave the country. They managed to find a Spanish guide who they paid to take them over the border. They crossed from Itxassou into Spain on 9 March 1943 and walked to Arizeun where they were arrested. On 30 May, Desgranges was sent to Miranda where he stayed until 8 June when he was repatriated to Setubal in Portugal. From Portugal, Desgranges went by sea to Casablanca then Mediouna before flying to Algiers and on 4 July, via Fez to Gibraltar.
Andre Desgranges (one of the original SOE commandos of Maid Honor Force) was one of the few survivors from the disasterous SSRF Operation Aquatint, an eleven-man raid aimed at the Normandy coast with a view to capture prisoners, gather intelligence and to generally raise hell among the occupying Germans. They disembarked from MTB 344 (Bourne) but weather conditions resulted in them landing at the wrong place and they soon ran into overwhelming opposition. See "Small Scale Raiding Force" by Brian Lett for more details - along with evidence that Degranges was aided on his journey to Spain by the Germans who tried to recruit him as a double-agent..."
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"... Le 1er juin, c'est un câble de Bernard Gouy ("Mediane"), adjoint au chef de la mission Jedburgh Benjoin, qui demande "la reconnaissance comme combattant de tout homme porteur d'un brassard rouge avec V blanc et croix de Lorraine bleue". Cette demande est faîte en urgence car le réduit du Mont-Mouchet subit à ce moment une attaque d'un bataillon de l'Ost Legion. Le lendemain, André Desgranges ("Maréchal"), officier d'opérations du DMR de la région C, demande si Londres prévoie des brassards ou uniformes..."
museedelaresistanceenligne.org Laurent Laloup le jeudi 10 septembre 2020 Contribution au livre ouvert de André Jules Marcel Henri Desgranges | |
