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Françoise - André Pollac - and the group that got away
This page first posted 14 Apr 2024 - updated 16 Apr 2024
On the evening of 29 January 1944, three shot-down airmen (one British and two Americans) and an American soldier who had escaped from a POW camp Germany, set off from Vinça with their two Catalan guides to cross the Pyrenees.
F/Sgt Joseph Henry McWilliams (1788), a schoolmaster from Whitehaven in Cumberland, was the 23-year-old mid-upper gunner of 617 Sqn Lancaster ED886, which had taken off from Tempsford on the evening of 10 December 1943, on an SOE arms supply drop to northern France. After crossing the French coast, they were at about 500 feet when they were hit by flak, and with the whole aircraft on fire, pilot W/O G F Bull gave the order to bale out, leaving the aircraft to crash near Terramesnil (Somme).
McWilliams landed in a garden behind a small village somewhere between Boulogne and Saint-Pol-sur-Ternois. After hiding his flying gear and parachute in a hedge, McWilliams set off walking south, entering a large wood about three hours later, and spending the rest of the night walking around in a circle to where he started. There was a blizzard blowing, and in the morning light, after getting directions for Paris from two woodsmen, carried on walking through the day. At about five o'clock, he reached a small farm where people gave him a meal and some civilian clothes.
That night he set off once more, this time heading for Amiens. He was resting in a wood near Poulainville late the following afternoon when he approached a passing farmer named Grenier, who called a man over who spoke some English. McWilliams was taken to the farmer's home and put into a stable, and that evening, taken to a house in the village where he was told someone would contact friends in Paris who could get him away. He was returned to the stable for the night, and next morning, the English-speaking man, Henri Desjardin, the village carpenter, took McWilliams back to his own house in Poulainville, where McWilliams stayed while an organisation was contacted, and his journey arranged.
On 15 December, two men (mid-thirties, of middle-class appearance) came in a car to question McWilliams and establish that he really was an English airman. Apparently satisfied, the men returned next evening to take McWilliams to Lt Pecquet (of rue Deaussaux, Amiens) to be lodged overnight in a hotel in Amiens. They returned the following day with a younger man who said his name was François Duchain. Duchain (McWilliams thought this was probably an assumed name) also questioned McWilliams before taking one of his issue photographs for an identity card.
On the evening of 17 December, François Duchain took McWilliams on the Paris train as far as Precy-sur-Oise, where they went to the country home François' father, who was a doctor (Dr Henri Brami - query). The family were then in Paris, and it was the youngest son, Martin, who came to stay with McWilliams for the next three weeks.
McWilliams was never sure if “François” was actually a member of an organisation but says he went to Switzerland where he notified the “British Consul” that McWilliams was at Precy, and the Consul (probably Vic Farrell) gave him an address in Toulouse. François then went to Toulouse himself to make contact, and on 12 January 1944, took McWilliams to Toulouse, and a house on the outskirts of the city.
At the house, McWilliams received a note in English apologising for keeping him waiting, and saying he would be moved at 1500 hours that day, and an elderly lady arrived to take him to another house not far away. The second house was apparently owned by two “elderly ladies” - Mme Therese (who was half Irish and spoke good English) and Mme Françoise. Also at the house were three Americans, Captain (sic) Raymond Sarant (from Germany), 2/Lt William Foley and his navigator (2/Lt Laurence Grauerholz). Note that Sarant (see below) says he arrived in Toulouse on 19 January, and Foley and Grauerholz on 24 January.
The two ladies contacted a young man named André, who in turn contacted Spanish guides at Perpignan. McWilliams describes André as being about 5 foot 9 inches tall, well-built, clean shaven with dark hair and brown eyes.
The house on the outskirts of the city was probably at 108 Chemin de Nicol (see later) and the second house was certainly the villa Pamplemousse at 27 Chemin Cazals. Mme Thérèse was Mlle Maud Olga Andrée Baudot de Rouville (aka Thérèse Martin) (born 14 December 1891), who worked with the organisation in Lille until Pat O'Leary ordered her to Marseille in 1942, and only moving to Toulouse after O'Leary's arrest in March 1943, where she joined the other “elderly lady”, Marie-Louise Dissard (aka Françoise) (born 6 November 1881).
André was André Bertrand Pollac (born 12 October 1920) aka André Page aka Sherry. He had previously worked with the Bourgogne escape line, and was now helping Françoise Dissard's organisation to take evaders across the frontier to Spain, using routes he had developed himself.
 
Cpl Raymond Sarant (#451) (born 8 Feb 1914) gives his home address as 95 Hillfield Court, Belsize Park, London NW3, and his occupation prior to joining the army as managing director of an import export business. He had been in the New York National Guard in 1933, and joined the US Army in London on 1 May 1942. Sent to North Africa on 27 October 1942, he was serving with the 34th Infantry Division, 168th Infantry Regiment, Anti-Tank Company when he was captured at Faid Pass near Kassarine, Tunisia on 20 February 1943.
Sarant arrived at Stalag VB (Villingen) on 7 April 1943, and after a short-lived escape attempt on 20 May (followed by 14 days in solitary) was transferred to Stalag IIIB at Furstenberg. He made his first escape from Stalag IIIB on 19 September but was caught at Soest on 25 September, and after a week in a compound outside the main Oflag VI-A at Soest, was returned to Furstenberg.
I have opted to use Sarant's own words to describe his escapes, and so the following text has been extracted from his highly detailed report.
"1 June 1943, I was moved with thirty-five NCOs to IIIB, located two miles north-west of Furstenberg. It is bounded on the east by a railway line, scrub pine and no habitation; on the north by scrub pine; on the west by a canal, a very high bank and pine woods; on the south by Furstenberg. At this time there were approximately 2,700 American POWs in the stalag. The camp had no British, about 300 Serbs, maybe 2,500 Russians and perhaps 14,000 Italians. Relations between the nationalities was excellent.
There is no doubt that the best chances for escape from the camp were given to those who go out on work parties .. These parties went to the woods to gather fuel and to the railway yards to unload potatoes, supplies and Red Cross parcels .. Better still were such plans that included getting out with French working parties for they were scarcely guarded at all.
Because I speak French I got good advice from them .. After the wood gathering detail was stopped because of an attempted escape and the ruling that NCOs could not go on work parties, I turned to the French [who were housed in an adjoining compound] for help. They had means of getting anything an escaper needed, and some of them were helpful.
My first escape from IIIB was made [on 19 September] with the help of a Frenchman known to me as Barry .. He made the break with me, acting as trustee of our small walking party when we walked out of the camp. He was responsible for seeing that our maps and compasses were passed out of the camp to the Guben French “Kommando” camp ..
.. At Guben camp we were helped by a Frenchman called Fernand. It was he who took us each night to the marshalling yards until we found a train for the Peitz railway junction where we caught another train to Leipzig. I was separated from Barry at Leipzig and learned later he was caught soon after that."
Sarant and two other Americans (S/Sgt Mace and Cpl Roberts) were caught at Soest rail yards on 25 September after one of them was spotted trying to disguise the broken seal on their railway wagon.
"After my recapture and return to IIIB, I was in solitary until 15 October. When released I made immediate preparations for my successful escape and approached another French friend in the camp. This man - Martin - and a friend of his - Max - were both De Gaullists. They wanted me to meet three young French officer candidates who had been moved to IIIB while I was in solitary. It was Martin's idea that I plan my escape with them. I managed to draw all my Red Cross parcels from the magazine, using a few cigarettes as persuasion to the guard in charge. During one week I traded enough to get the things I needed through Martin and also with his help I accumulated 600 German marks.
.. We got out of the camp in the same fashion as on my first escape. This time the working party trustee was a young Frenchman called Tony (Antoine) and two of the three officers were Jean Beau and Jules Misonneuve.
We walked to Guben .. went to the Guben “Kommando” camp [a former music hall] to await an opportunity for getting a train west. The night following our arrival at the work camp it was raided by the Gestapo and the three French officer candidates were captured. I was half undressed when the raid started and by running down the staircase into the basement and crawling through a ventilation window I got into the woods unseen .. Next day when some of the Frenchmen from the camp came for me my feet were frozen and I had contracted pneumonia. I was taken back into the work camp and lived there until 3 December.
I met in the Guben camp M. Herzan, a Frenchman who was in hiding after escaping from civil prison. We went to the goods yards about 1730 hours, 2 December 1943, and hid there in the coal yard until 2300 hours. We knew from previous experiences that trains on a certain track after 2300 hours were supposed to travel west. A freight train pulled in at midnight and while we were checking the labels, a troop train pulled up beside it. We knew we were being watched by some of the troops so without knowing where the train was going we quickly crawled into the brake box .. Half an hour later the train left the station.
At Peitz junction we looked for a freight car again and found one that having misread the shipping label for Brest, we learned later was for Riesa (about 50 kms north-west of Dresden). On the next day our car (a potato car) arrived at Dresden and the following day at Riesa. We still thought we were going to Brest but when we got out of the car for fifteen minutes in Riesa to see what else we could find we discovered our mistake. There was a train just moving out of the yards in a NW direction and without checking its destination we crawled into the brake box. We considered the brake box safe at night and knew that in the winter there was less surveillance. This train took us into the Wahren station at Leipzig arriving at 2330 hours. We walked into the railway station which was empty. Several passenger trains came in while we were there and we discovered that the local Chemnitz train had large brake boxes on the car next to the engine. The one we got aboard backed into the yards for the night leaving us with no choice but to walk eight kilometres into Leipzig.
Having been to Leipzig before I knew my way around enough to lead us to the main railway station. H. Herzan knew about a French “Kommando” camp that was near this station so we got there without any difficulty. We had to take the chance of being stopped at night .. We reached this camp in the early hours of the morning 5 December 1943, and at 0400 hours the RAF raided Leipzig [actually the night of 3-4 Dec]. It was a heavy raid and Leipzig was still cleaning up when we left a week later. This raid was perfect for us. We could wander around as we pleased without fear of being caught because so many people had been bombed and were without identification of any kind.
Three days after our arrival a Frenchman from the work camp took us to a loading yards to find a train. The yard was completely out of commission but from a French worker we learned that Leutzsch might be operating. We found that some of the populace was being evacuated from this station to Halle but the night we went to this station there were no freight trains. We were sent on to another loading yards in the southwest part of the city.
We went to this station 9 December but that night and the following night there was no freight for France. There were French workers at this station and they lived in barracks near the yards. They took us in and fed us, sharing their canteen tickets.
On Saturday night, 11 December, we were put in a sealed car for Paris. The seal was broken and replaced by the French workers at the station, members of the SNCF. They furnished us with a canteen of water and four kilos of bread. I had very little left of the food I had taken from Stalag IIIB.
We were in the sealed car from Saturday night until Friday morning, 17 December. On Thursday night, desperate for food because we had eaten the last of it on Tuesday, we got out of the car when it made a stop but before we could find anything the train started again and we crawled back in through the ventilation window. We went through Metz and the next morning realized we were in France.
When the train stopped at Pagny-sur-Moselle we got off and were seen by some French workers in the goods yards. We were only 300 yards from the frontier. These workers seemed to know who we were without saying anything. They took us into their canteen for water and bread before taking us to the mayor. We were assured of the mayor's friendliness. The workers gave us 500 francs and the mayor gave us ration cards to last three days.
We explained that we wanted to go to Paris and a train conductor of goods trains took us with him. On the way the train made a stop at Lerouville. We were introduced to a M. Reynard who works at the station. He told us that seven American officers (one a colonel) were living in a farmhouse at Bar-le-Duc. M. Reynard professed to know where and with whom they were staying. M. Reynard offered to get papers for me if I would stay there. My contact with him was through the train conductor who was taking me to Paris.
I decided to go to Paris with M. Herzan .. where I looked for a friend I had known there before the war but couldn't find him. This was 18 December. Then I remembered another friend, and from her I got 5,000 francs. I bought gloves, a shirt and hat. This friend I had found had no contacts with any organisation.
I called on Jacques Couchy, 11 rue Marbeuf, an escaped POW and friend of Herzan's. He had no contacts with the resistance people but said he would find some help if I could wait around. I did stay for several days but eventually went on to Limoges to a reception centre for repatriates and information bureau for relatives of POWs. Herzan had gone ahead of me and I learned that he had been sent on to Rodez to a demobilisation centre. Before we arrived at Limoges the Germans had learned that the French had been falsifying papers in order to demobilise escaped POWs and it was now stopped. A Frenchman at this reception centre sent me to talk to an American pottery official in Limoges but when I told his secretary what I wanted she said the man was ill. I felt that had I made direct contact with him I could have gotten help. I think the American's name was De Havilland. In travelling to Limoges I had ridden third class. I heard that 1st class was checked but 3rd class was too crowded for the control to get in the cars. This was true.
From Limoges I went to Montauban by express, got off at Capdenac (Lot, Midi-Pyrénées), and rode a bus to Rodez. From there I caught a bus to Villefranche-de-Panat (Aveyron). I met no controls. I knew Herzan lived in this town and to find him I asked a child on the streets. Before I got to the Post Office where his wife worked word had reached Herzan that a stranger was in town asking for him and he left before I could see him. Finally I persuaded the wife of my identity and that same night she put me in touch with the local resistance group. I stayed there through Christmas. A man known as Merle was the chief in Villefranche-de-Panat. Guy was a regional chief. Guy took me in his car to Millau and turned me over to Duthiel, chief of the resistance in Millau. I was lodged with M. [Henri] Vayrec, avenue Foch, and received my first identity card here. After I had been here about eight days the Gestapo raided the town on 4 January. The chief and other members of the organisation went into the mountains to hide at Rockfort [assume Roquefort-sur-Soulzon]. The Germans searched there but no-one was caught. Rodez was raided and fifteen Frenchmen of the resistance group were taken with lists of other resistance people in the region.
I was sent alone by bus to find Pierre Bonneville in Mazamet (Tarn). He made contact with the chief of this section. I saw this man but did not learn his name. He could not help because he was having to go into hiding, but he arranged for me to go to Toulouse. I met a Parisian who was running some kind of organisation but after three days of being farmed out with a family, I was driven to Toulouse and turned over to Françoise.”
Sarant spent three days with an unnamed organisation member before being passed to Françoise. He reports that Françoise was in constant contact with the British Consul in Switzerland, who supplied her with money. He says that when he first met her, she took Sarant to stay with Thérèse (at the villa Pamplemousse, where he joined McWilliams), and left that night for Switzerland, taking Sarant's details with her, and saying that she would also be collecting four Americans. She returned three days later, on 22 January.
When asked about the four Americans, and Françoise told Sarant that they (one named Lee) had been caught on a train with her. They had papers but the German control officer spoke French and when he asked a question, they were not able to answer. Françoise was taken in for questioning but released for lack of evidence .
The four Americans were 2/Lt Lee D Crabtree, co-pilot of B-17 42-5890, S/Sgt John W Beacham, ball-turret gunner of B-17 42-30271 Bomb Boogie, 1/Lt Cleve Morin Brown Jnr, pilot of P-47 41-6211 and (I think) T/Sgt Edward M Bell, probably from a B-24 piloted by 1/Lt Joseph R Demers.
Sarant says that Françoise was the head of the organisation while André maintained the organisation contacts and arranged the convoys. Thérèse looked after the evaders, occasionally accompanying them to Perpignan; she sometimes arranged for photos and clothing. Identity and work cards were made by someone he didn't know. Jean Borde (key man at Perpignan) and another Jean (later caught) were guides, with André being the main contact between Jean Borde and Françoise. Food stocks and mountain equipment were kept at Perpignan.
 
2/Lt William Mack Foley (#440) from Knoxville, Tennessee, was the 24-year-old co-pilot, and 2/Lt Lawrence Emil Grauerholz (#439) from Kensington, Kansas, the 27-year-old navigator of 96BG/337BS B-17 42-31164 Lucky Lady (Stakes) which was on an operation to Bordeaux (probably Bordeaux-Mérignac aerodrome - home to the Fw200 Condors of KG 40) on 5 January 1944.
2/Lt Richard A Stakes (#367) says that he was flying an older aircraft, which had already flown 33 missions, and had to use full manifold pressure just to keep up with the formation. They were hit by flak over the target which knocked out their #4 engine, and even after dropping their bombs, were unable to keep up. Then fighters attacked them, damaging the #2 engine. Knowing they could not get back to England, and with the wind coming off the land, Stakes didn't want to give the bail-out order, and with waist-gunner Sgt Charles Robinson being injured, didn't want to ditch in the sea, and so elected to land in the Etang de Lacanau and beach the aircraft. He had the crew assemble in the radio room, and says that only one man was injured in the landing - ball-turret gunner Sgt Paul Farmer was hit by the dinghy radio and somehow sprained his ankle.
All of the ten-man crew cleared the aircraft, and after settling Sgt Robinson down well away from the aircraft, the rest set off, leaving Stakes to set fire to their plane using a flare gun. He then joined his navigator Grauerholz, Sgt Farmer and TTG S/Sgt Herbert G Ruud (#442) as they made their way through the overgrown swampland.
It took them two hours to reach dry land, where they approached some men cutting firs, who immediately warned them about Germans patrols, and led them to some dense woods where they joined their radio operator Sgt Elton R Aldridge (#418) and left waist-gunner Sgt Humbert Rocha (#441). Rocha was Mexican, and spoke fluent Spanish, and having acquired food and clothing for them both, did the same for the rest of the party. They were then joined by their co-pilot William Foley, who was already in civilian clothes (he had approached a farmhouse, been given a meal, clothes and a bag of food and wine before being directed to them), and that night, they were led to a secluded cabin in the woods, where they were joined by their bombardier 2/Lt I O Tennyson.
Next morning, the group split into twos and threes and set off, Stakes soon separating from his two more cautious companions, and carrying on by himself from that point. He headed south, evading without any organised help, and crossed the Pyrenees (in his GI shoes), reaching Spain on 9 January.
Sgts Aldridge, Rocha and Ruud (who travelled together) all make a point of saying that they took their GI shoes from the aircraft. They soon found help at an isolated farmhouse from where contact was made with an organisation in Bordeaux, and their journey arranged. The three airmen were guided by across the mountains from Larrue (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) on 13 January, walking through snow, and reaching Spain (where Sgt Rocha's Spanish was again very useful) on 15 January.
Foley and Grauerholz (who didn't have GI shoes) separated from Stokes as they reached the outskirts of a small town - Stakes wanted to approach a lumber mill for help but they preferred skirting west of the town, intending to try a farmhouse instead. After a close encounter with a group of about a hundred German soldiers (who were singing) they finally identified themselves to man burning pine needles, who promptly went to get his wife to bring bread and wine while the two Americans took over raking and burning pine needles on his behalf.
Before the man returned, another man came up and told them the Germans were searching the neighbourhood. He led them to the railway line and advised them to follow the tracks, which he said were no longer guarded, to the next town. They reached the town at about noon, and Foley approached a woman in her garden who agreed to give them food and drink but said they couldn't stay. She advised them to take a train to the nearest big city (Bordeaux), admitting there were more Germans there but assuring them that all the French would be loyal. In the end, they decided to take the six o'clock evening train, and the woman followed them to the station where she used some of their escape money to buy them tickets.
Arriving at Bordeaux, they saw a woman waiting at the station, and approached her. She was actually waiting for her husband but was sympathetic. However the husband wouldn't let her take the Americans home and instead, sent them to a hotel a couple of blocks up the street. Unfortunately the hotel wanted nothing to do with them, and after failing to find a suitable church, Foley and Grauerholz had a miserable night in an alley by a junk shop.
They spent most of the following day looking in vain for assistance, and finally left the city, heading south-west. On the outskirts they met a man cutting a hedge who told them about an American woman who lived nearby. She was in fact a Frenchwoman who had lived for a few years in London but she spoke better English than they did French, and she gave them coffee and advice on what route to follow.
At their third attempt they got lucky, finding a farmhouse where people were prepared to risk helping them. In fact the family's enthusiasm made the Americans suspicious of their motives. Unfortunately, the family didn't have contacts with any resistance group, and it was a friend of theirs who gave the Americans the name Bourret, a shopkeeper at Montcaret, who might be able to help them.
Early on 8 January, Foley and Grauerholz were taken into Bordeaux by train, and put on another train to Montcaret, and without appreciating at the time just how dangerous it was, began asking for M. Bourret by name. Finally they were approached by another man (a friendly Belgian) who said that he knew someone else, an Englishman named Bridges, who could help them, and the Americans decided to go with him.
That night, Mrs Bridges took Foley and Grauerholz to a vacant house in a hamlet south of Montcaret. While they were there. Mrs Bridges brought a tall, dark, hook-nosed man with sharp features to see them. He asked for their names, ranks and ASN. He also wanted their dog-tags, and they gave him one. The farmer next door fed the Americans and gave them some old shoes. They understood that they would leave in one of the aircraft that dropped supplies to the maquis.
Late on 10 January, two postal workers took Foley and Grauerholz by bicycle to the home of one of them in Velines, and on 12 January, they were taken to the station where they met the hooked-nose man, and he took them to Bergerac, chatting with the gendarmes on the train to keep them too busy to bother the Americans. At Bergerac they were met by “a lieutenant in the maquis” who took them to the home of a relation who worked on the railway.
Next day, the relative's brother drove them in a wine truck to a maquis camp at Clermont-de-Beauregard, where they stayed until 19 January. They report that Georges was in charge of the camp - he was about 20 years old, 6 ft 1 or 2 inches tall and wore horn-rimmed glasses that gave him an innocent stare. He was a widely read university graduate from a cultured family. Pierre was his lieutenant, the oldest at 32 years old, and had been a marine, and another member was called Henri. The maquis were all labour draft (STO) evaders. They had 2 Sten guns and received revolvers while the Americans were there.
On 18 January, the maquis liaison man took their names, ranks, ASN, MIA date and place. The following day he returned with Philippe (Jean Bregi) who arranged to have the Americans taken to Lunas in a baker's truck (assume driven by Louis La Paquellerie of the Moulin de Pomme Bonne, Bergerac). They were sheltered with a Belgian woman refugee, the wife of a Brussels dentist named Emile Schiffelers - she had visited America as a girl and spoke some English, and provided them with “excellent care”. While they were there, Philippe took their pictures and gave them identity cards.
Grauerholz says that Philippe was member of British Intelligence. He was a well to do farmer with a nice house. He had travelled to America, and been to London a lot and spoke English. He could not understand why the Americans did not have the name of someone in the target area to contact for help. He said they were supposed to have it and therefore was suspicious of them. He was a “pick-up man”, usually collecting people in Bergerac and putting evaders into proper channels. He was in regular contact with the British in Switzerland, and his “very blonde” wife was also a hard-working member of the organisation. His son had gone to Algiers two years earlier and he had no further word. He was a gruff, tall, stout man of about 45 years, going bald and wears horn-rimmed glasses.
Jean Henri Bregi (aka Philippe) born 15 December 1898, an engineer and chemist, was a wealthy farmer living at Lunas (Dordogne) with his wife Georgette (they had two grown-up children Michel and Jacqueline). In early 1942, Bregi made contact with the British Military Attaché in Berne, and was employed by the Intelligence Services (MI9). He worked (without pay) for Pat O'Leary from October 1942 until March 1943, not only as a guide for evaders but as O'Leary's link to Vic Farrell in Geneva. He handled the weekly mail, and was also involved with the rescue of Ian Garrow from prison at Mauzac in December 1942. Bregi was arrested in March 1943 for sabotage (he was actually sheltering three aircrew evaders at the time - Peter Kingsford-Smith and Robert Hogg from Halifax W1012, and Dominick Lazzaro from the B-17 42-5058 Hun Hunter) and condemned to six months in prison. He was released in October, at which point he promptly resumed his contact with Farrell in Geneva, and Françoise Dissard in Toulouse.
On 22 January, a chatty philosophy professor took them on foot to Philippe in Bergerac and Philippe took then by “autobus” to Perigueux. They stayed with a gendarme (René Lamy), who was a police inspector for the city. He was a young married man with three children, and the Americans only saw him in civilian clothes. The following night, Lamy took them to the railway yard and put them in a compartment of one of the carriages waiting to be added to the Paris train, and stayed with them until Philippe arrived.
René Lamy (aka Copain) (born 12 September 1912) and his wife Andrée (born 25 October 1911) first contacted Jean Bregi (described as chief assistant to Françoise Dissard) in December 1943, offering their services to help guide and shelter evading Allied airmen. Their home at 85 Boulevard Petit Change became the central sheltering point in Perigueux for evaders, and René soon gave up his job with the police in order to carry out his evasion work.
On 10 May 1944, René Lamy was on his way to collect evaders from Amiens when he was killed in an American air raid on Creil railway station.
Philippe took Foley and Grauerholz to Limoges, where they changed trains for Toulouse, arriving there on 24 January. They were left with Suzanne (assume Mlle Suzanna Lacombe at 108 Chemin de Nicol - daughter of Henri (arrested 22 June 43) and Thérèse, who continued sheltering evaders until the liberation) while Philippe contacted Françoise (Dissard). They were then taken to the villa Pamplemousse where they met Cpl Sarant and Sgt McWilliams. They also met André (Pollac) there, and after Mme Thérèse had taken them to have their photographs taken, he and Françoise gave them new papers. They also received better clothes but not shoes, which they were supposed to get at Perpignan.
On Friday 28 January, André, Françoise and Thérèse took the four evaders to the station, where they were joined by three Frenchmen (an older man, a French communist who had apparently escaped from the Gestapo, and two guides). Leaving André and the two women in Toulouse, the rest of the party went by train to Carcassonne. After waiting three hours at Carcassonne railway station, they took a bus to Quillan, where they spent the night (28-29 Jan) in a hotel opposite the station.
Next morning, the three airmen were taken by taxi to Perpignan, arriving there at about noon, where they were rejoined by Sarant and the French communist, who had travelled separately. The guides began “jabbering” and the airmen realised something had happened. They were told to sit on benches until someone came to collect them, and it was Sarant who came and explained that André's contact in Perpignan, Jean Borde, had told him that André, who had gone ahead, and his lieutenant (Jean Pierson) had been picked up the previous evening having been caught by a Gestapo agent posing as an American airman.
Sarant (the only one of the evaders who spoke French), repeating what he was told by Jean Borde, says that a German agent posing as an American had gone to Perpignan. He claimed to have worked with UFA Films (Universal Film AG) before the war, and had been in Switzerland. Using various identity papers that he produced himself, he said that he had flown from Switzerland to Paris and eventually made contact with a Russian spy, who for 100,000 francs, put him in touch with André, and André had been interrogating the man for two weeks trying to get proof of what he claimed. The man was supposed to be going out on the same convoy as Sarant, and it was part of André's plan that Sarant would question him but then André, Jean Borde and Jean (Pierson) did that the night before Sarant arrived in Perpignan. Jean Borde then left while André and Jean Pierson took the so-called American to a restaurant of his choosing, and while they were eating, they were arrested by the Gestapo.
“I left Toulouse for Perpignan on 28 January with an Anglo-American convoy, furnished by Françoise and a French communist, fleeing the Gestapo. I was arrested in Perpignan the evening of the same day with my adjutant Jean Pierson, sold by a permanent agent of the French Gestapo calling himself Louis Bordes, living at the Grand Hotel in Perpignan ..” (André Pollac)
“Another of André's agents (no name) now took charge of the party. We stayed the afternoon in a hotel and left Perpignan on the night of 28 (sic) Jan with two Catalan guides for Vince (sic). We started walking the same night. For three days we walked by night and slept by day, crossing the Spanish frontier on the third night. On the third day we were joined by a young brother of one of the guides, who wanted to join the French Army in Algiers.
After crossing the frontier we spent the day in a tumble-down barn. The guides left us after being paid by a Spaniard who was at the barn when we arrived. On the night of 1-2 Feb we continued a short way and slept the remainder of the night on a hillside, where we lay low all the next day. At night on 2 Feb we were picked up by car and taken to Barcelona. The rest of my journey was : left Barcelona 8 Feb: Madrid till 13 Feb; Seville till 17 Feb; boarded boat at Huelva 17 Feb and left 19 Feb; arrived Gibraltar on 20 Feb.” (WO208-5583 1788 McWilliams)
“The day after arrival in Perpignan we stayed Jean Borde's all day and left by train that night for Vinça [about 30 kms west of Perpignan]. Following our guides we started across the mountains. We walked three nights, crossed into Spain [1 Feb], met a new guide and walked another day before meeting a car that took us to Barcelona. We spent one night in a boarding house and were taken next day to the British Embassy (sic) where we were interrogated. We were taken to Madrid after that .. “ (MIS-X EE-451 Sarant)
 
Joseph McWilliams (1788) left Gibraltar on 23 Feb 44 by overnight flight to Whitchurch. Lawrence Grauerholz (#439) left Gibraltar on 29 Feb 44 by overnight flight to Newquay. William Foley (#440) was flown from Gibraltar to the UK on 3 March 1944. Raymond Sarant (#451) was flown back to the UK, probably on the same flight as Foley.