The SAS in Occupied France

1 SAS Operations, June to October 1944

Gavin Mortimer

• Publisher: Pen & Sword Military
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781526769633
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World War II
• Index: History

The author of Stirling's Men recounts the WWII exploits of Britain's legendary special forces unit in thefirst volume of this authoritative history. The British Army's Special Air Service was formed during World War II as a commando unit for operations behind enemy lines. Their exploits in France inflicted heavy casualties on the Germans and left a trail of destruction and disorder in their wake. In 1944, they trained the French Maquis into an effective fighting force, delayed German reinforcements at Normandy, and sewed confusion for the German withdrawal. In this volume, historian Gavin Mortimer focuses on 1 SAS, describing operations Titanic, Houndsworth, Bulbasket, Gain, Haggard and Kipling in graphic detail. Using previously unpublished interviews with SAS veterans and members of the Maquis as well as rare photographs, Mortimer allows readers to walk in the footsteps of SAS heroes and see where they lived, fought and died.

Chapter One

Operation Titanic

It was uncertain on 19 May if Operation Titanic would proceed as planned. SAS Brigade Operation Instruction No. 11 stated that: ‘Pending results of representations to 21 Army Group by Corps Commander it must be assumed that SAS troops’ commitments in cover plan as described to you verbally will stand.’

These ‘commitments’ were Titanic 1: three parties of three men from 2SAS to drop in the Yerville area, eastern Normandy, approximately 100 miles (160km) east of the D-Day beaches; and Titanic IV, comprising two parties of three men from 1SAS to parachute into Marigny, about 30 miles (48km) south of Utah beach, the western extremity of the invasion beachhead. Their diversionary mission was to draw to the south of Normandy those German troops stationed close to where the American 101st would land an hour later.

Titanic 1’s parties were to parachute onto their drop zone (DZ) at H-Hour minus four hours and forty minutes, and those of Titanic IV at H-Hour minus five hours. One minute after the men had jumped, several hundred dummy parachutists would be dropped onto a different but nearby DZ.

A separate memo, dated 16 May, described these dummies – dubbed ‘Ruperts’ – as ‘a model man made of sand-bags, approx one-third the size of a normal man. Parachute to same scale.’ Attached to the dummies were simulators fitted with timing delays that were triggered upon leaving the aircraft. Once they hit French soil the simulators would start exploding. ‘They are made to represent rifle and LMG [light machine gun] fire, and have a duration of approx. five minutes,’ the memo explained.

In addition to the dummies, pintail bombs each containing a Very light cartridge would also be dropped to further add to the illusion that a major airborne assault was under way. These bombs would be released at the same time as the ‘Ruperts’, but would hit the ground before the fake paratroopers. The Very lights would detonate, which, the memo stated, served three purposes:

i. attracts enemy’s attention to the area of the dummy drop;

ii. illuminates the dummies in the air; and

iii. makes it appear that there is a reception party on the ground signalling to the dummy-dropping a/c [aircraft].

On 24 May the results of the representations to 21 Army Group by the corps commander were received: Titanic 1 was cancelled but Titanic IV would go ahead as planned. Two other components of Operation Titanic – II and III – involved the dropping of ‘Ruperts’ over Normandy but did not involve any SAS personnel; II was also subsequently cancelled because of ‘the congestion of air space in the area’.

The officers selected to lead Titanic IV were Lieutenants Norman Poole and Frederick Fowles, the latter, nicknamed ‘Chick’, a 24-year-old former member of the Parachute Regiment. Poole’s nickname was ‘Puddle’ and like Fowles he was a recent arrival in the regiment. He was an instructor at the Airborne Depot Battle School when, in February 1944, Paddy Mayne visited on a recruitment drive. Poole volunteered, as did Ian Wellsted and Les Cairns (see Operation Houndsworth) and the three were among the handful selected by Mayne as possessing the right credentials to join the SAS. The three men arrived at 1SAS’s training base in Darvel, Scotland, and were afforded the luxury of choosing if they wished to join A, B, C or D Squadron; all opted for A, commanded by Major Bill Fraser, along with Mayne, the only surviving officer from the original intake recruited by David Stirling in July 1941.

According to Poole’s family, ‘Puddle’ volunteered for Titanic when the operation was definitely given the go-ahead, which presumably was also the case for Fowles and the four troopers who stepped forward: W. Hurst, Robert ‘Chippy’ Saunders, J. Dawson and Anthony Merryweather. Saunders and Dawson were in A Squadron, and had served with the SAS in the Mediterranean, while the others were new to the regiment and were in B Squadron.

There seems to have been some confusion in the final week of May about the exact composition of Titanic IV. At one point it was decided to increase the number of personnel in the party, and on 29 May a memo was sent stating baldly that ‘Titanic IV will NOT rpt NOT take place as planned. Revised plan now under consideration.’ Three days later, on 1 June, the final operation memo was issued and a thick line had been drawn in pencil through the words ‘6–10 all ranks SAS trps’. A handwritten note alongside said: ‘2 parties each of 3 all ranks 1 SAS Regt’. Similarly, someone had taken a pencil to ‘6 Stirling a/c from 3 Gb, Bomber Command, for dummy dropping’ and replaced ‘6’ with 15 aircraft. As for the six soldiers, they would now be dropped by a Halifax bomber and not as originally intended by a Stirling or Albemarle.

The memo also included a paragraph headed ‘Withdrawal’, which stated that after completing their task the two parties will hide up with a view to:

(a) infiltrating back through enemy lines to the assault beachhead forces;

(b) withdrawing to base areas which are being established by SAS tps; and

(c) recovery by sea at a later date.

Ian Wellsted, who, along with Lieutenant Ian Stewart, was the advance party for Operation Houndsworth, recalled that it was 1 June when they and Poole ‘were warned that we would be the first officers of the Squadron to go in . . . from then on, our days were spent in studying maps and aerial photographs, in learning the ways to avoid being tracked by trained police dogs and other methods of eluding the enemy’.

Among the intelligence pored over by Poole and Fowles, a B Squadron officer, was the disposition of German troops near their DZ. No static troops were in the area, except at Périers, which was the headquarters of 243 Infantry Division, tasked with holding the west coast of the Cotentin Peninsula. There were also ‘mobile’ dispositions: 352 Infantry Division, ‘which has a counter-attack role against the western Normandy beaches’ and was in the Amigny area, 11 miles (18km) east of Périers, and 30 Mobile Brigade, spread over an area encompassing the towns of Saint-Lô; and Coutances. The intel-ligence given to Poole and Fowles said that the brigade’s exact composition ‘is uncertain but it consists of mounted and cyclist recce units, one of whose main tasks is the rounding up of paratroopers’.

On 3 June Poole and Fowles were escorted by Captain Mike Sadler, the SAS intelligence officer, to Hassells Hall in Bedfordshire, known as ‘Hush-Hush House’, the last stop for secret agents before their insertion into Occupied Europe. Sadler had joined the SAS from the Long Range Desert Group in the spring of 1942 and was subsequently commissioned in the field by David Stirling. He considered Fowles a ‘nice chap, steady type, even if he hadn’t been with the regiment that long’. He was also impressed by Poole, and recalled that he was a gifted pianist who, during the long, dragging hours at Hassells Hall following the postponement of the invasion by twenty-four hours, played to help soothe frayed nerves. ‘I accompanied a lot of officers on these briefings and it was always an interesting insight into human behaviour, to see how the men reacted on the eve of the operation,’ said Sadler. ‘In the despatching place where they had gathered before the Titanic mission was a piano and Puddle Poole, who was a very good pianist, played the Warsaw Concerto. It had an amazing effect.’

Sadler appreciated the danger inherent in Operation Titanic but said the six men were stoical on the eve of their departure. ‘I don’t recall that it was considered a suicide mission, at least not more than any other SAS missions into France,’ he said. ‘It [planning] was a scattergun approach, one felt with SHAEF, and I wouldn’t say one operation was more suicidal than the other. They were all pretty suicidal to be honest.’ The presence of two attractive female SOE agents, both of whom were also waiting to be parachuted into France, lightened the mood and Poole spent a couple of hours finishing a crossword with Violette Szabo. She was subsequently captured and executed by the Nazis, and her story turned into a best-selling book and film.

A memo from Lieutenant General Frederick Browning, the commanding officer of the Airborne Corps, stated that Paddy Mayne would attend the briefing of the pilot – Flight Lieutenant Robert Johnson of 138 Squadron – at RAF Templesford at 6pm on 5 June. ‘In the briefing it will be laid down that should there be considerable light flak or small arms fire from the exact DZ selected,’ said the memo, ‘the parties would not be dropped on that DZ but would be landed blind within a radius of 3 miles beyond the DZ on the same run. We confirm that 3 containers [will] be carried and landed with the two parties. OC 1SAS Regt will arrange at Templesford the best order these containers are to be dropped with the two parties.’

Inside the containers would be three dummy paratroopers, two pintail lamps and two rifle fire simulators, while a further two hundred dummies would be dropped through the specially adapted bomb chute, as would bundles of small aluminium strips, codenamed ‘Window’, in order to jam enemy radar, jettisoned at a rate of two bundles every twelve seconds.

The containers were long cylindrical drums (in length approximately the size of a pillar box) separated internally into compartments. Inside were arms and ammunition, rations, medical equipment, boots, radios and ‘luxury’ items such as books, cigarettes and rum. Clothing and sleeping bags were more often than not dropped in panniers.

Although the soldiers on Titanic didn’t list their equipment, it’s likely that what they (and all the SAS men) carried was similar to what was taken by the men of B Squadron when they parachuted into France several weeks later on Operation Haggard:

Battle Dress, Boots Rubber Soled, 2 Shirts (optional), 2 sets of Under Wear [sic], Pullover, 2 Spare pair of laces, Beret, Red or Khaki, Ground Sheet or Gas Cape, PT Vest and Shorts (optional), KFS [Knife Fork and Spoon], Housewife [sewing kit], Respirator Haversack for MCR1 [Miniature Communication Radio Receiver], Luminous Ball, Clasp Knife, Map Case if in possession, Jumping and Denim Smock, 3 pairs socks, sleeping bag and cover, Shoes canvas, Washing and Shaving kit, Steel helmet to be disposed of on DZ, Dubbin, Oil Bottle (full), Note book and pencil, First Aid commando pack, US Haversack or Web Haversack, complete with braces, Life Belt, Jumping Kit bag complete, Web Belt Camouflaged, Water Bottle, Prismatic compass, Binoculars, Torch, Watch, Whistle and lanyard, 2 days rations, Tommy Cooker and fuel, Escape Kit complete, Entrenching tool, Carbine .30 and 5 mags, Fighting knife (optional), Colt .45 and Mags.

The luminous balls were designed as a means for the men to identify one another in the dark but they proved in general unpopular and were not particularly effective.

The six men of Titanic took off from Templesford in the evening of 5 June and arrived over the DZ at forty minutes past midnight on 6 June. They were 600 feet over the Normandy countryside travelling at a speed of 140 knots indicated air speed. In his report on the mission, Flight Lieutenant Johnson (who was subsequently awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross) wrote: ‘All passengers jumped with alacrity, and were dropped on north-west corner of marsh north of Le Mesnil-Vigot. Containers were dropped slightly late due to a technical hitch in the lighting which caused them to be dropped about 10 seconds after the last man jumped.’

In fact, the six men came down 2 miles (3km) north-west of the intended DZ and the four troopers could find no trace of their officers. ‘On landing I found myself separated from Lt Fowles and Lt Poole,’ stated Anthony Merryweather, who, along with his comrades, was unable to find any trace of the containers, inside which were some Bren guns, despite an extensive search. ‘At approximately 0300 hours the party laid their Lewis [sic] bombs (20 of them) in an area of 500 square yards and ignited them’, according to Trooper Hurst. ‘By this time it was getting light so refuge was taken in a hedge about half a mile north of the area.’

But fortune did smile on them in the guise of Andre Le Duc, a 33-year-old shopkeeper from the nearby village of Remilly-sur-Lozon. Invalided out of the French army in 1938 because of a serious injury, the father of seven had been involved in a local Resistance network for some time. Despite the best efforts of the four British soldiers to blend into the countryside, they were spotted by at least one local, who passed word to Le Duc. Hurst recalled that he arrived at their hiding place at 20hrs on the evening of 6 June. (This is the account given to RSM Graham Rose by Hurst from his hospital bed in late August; French sources state that the SAS signalled to Le Duc during the day on 6 June.) Le Duc supplied the quartet with food and cider which, said Hurst, made them ‘happy’, and duri...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• How to use this book
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1. Operation Titanic
• 2. Operation Bulbasket
• 3. Operation Houndsworth
• 4. Operation Gain
• 5. Operation Haggard
• 6. Operation Kipling
• 7. Legends of the SAS
• 8. The Bond that Endures
• I. Letter sent by Airborne Corps to soldier’s families
• II: Letter sent by 1SAS to soldier’s families
• III: Letter from Paddy Mayne to Cecil Riding’s wife
• IV: Information sheet on health and hygiene
• Glossary
• Further Reading