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Andre de Wyssogota-Zakrzewski
This page first posted 30 Mar 2025
This article was prompted by an enquiry from Franck Signorile in Paris, who was researching T/Sgt Rodolphe Richer, and wanted to try and identify the mysterious “Georges” who supplied Richer with papers, and took him by train from Paris to Lourdes.
T/Sgt Rodolphe Henry Richer (#255) who was born in Canada but living in Charlotte, Vermont, was the 28-year-old radio operator of 96BG/390BS B-17 42-3437 Excalibur Revenge (Richardson), which was on a mission to the Hispano-Suiza works near Paris (at Bois-Colombes) on the afternoon of 15 September 1943. They were over the target when they were hit by flak, the aircraft set on fire and abandoned.
Richer describes how they had just opened the bomb bay doors when they were hit by a burst of flak. The number one engine was hit and Richer thought a fuel line had punctured as enormous flames shot out. Shortly after that, 1/Lt James V Richardson gave the order to bail out and turned on the alarm bell. Richie blew up his radio and put the radio papers in his mouth (they were printed on rice paper), grabbed his parachute and headed for the bomb-bay. He reports the wing breaking off at the number one engine. He pulled the emergency door and jumped out shortly before the aircraft exploded - Richer was the only survivor.
Richer delayed his jump, opening his parachute (still too soon) at about 16,000 feet, and as he drifted down, could see he was about to land in a river. He managed to “spill his chute” as instructed, crossed a railway yard and station and landed in some nearby woods, near Acheres. His parachute was caught in the trees but a group of men rushed over to him, and he was able to borrow a knife to cut himself free. The men advised Richer (who spoke French) to “disappear in a hurry” and so he ran and hid in some tall grass.
Richer stayed in the grass for several hours while German troops searched the area, finally getting up at midnight and making his way cautiously through the wood to a road and railway line. He followed the road until daylight, and then returned to the woods, following a path that led him northwards. At about nine o'clock, he heard the sound of wood being chopped, and after hearing two men speaking in French, approached and told them who he was. Richer was wearing coveralls and GI shoes, having buried his flying gear earlier, and the fact that he spoke French (his father was from Quebec) raised some suspicion but he showed them his GI trousers and undershirt, and then his dog-tag (the other one was already hidden in his shoe) to reassure them. The two men were Marcel Barbant and Raymond Parent, both from Acheres, and Richer was taken to the home of one of them and given a meal, Richer commenting that he was reluctant to take their food as they seemed quite poor but they insisted on sharing what little they had, and from this point, Richer's journey was arranged.
At the house, Richer was given coffee and bread, and the younger of the two men brought him trousers, sweater, a coloured waistcoat and a pair of shoes. Richer changed into the civilian working clothes and his issue clothing was burned. The older man told Richer to wait while he tried to find someone who could help him.
The man who was sheltering Richer confided in some friends, one of whom had a daughter who worked at the Paris Chamber of Commerce, where she had a colleague she thought might have some resistance contacts. The colleague was 19-year-old Janine Klein, whose 21-year-old brother Pierre, was a draftsman in a factory on the outskirts of Paris, and a member of a resistance organisation. Pierre contacted two of his friends, R Polyautre and J Rousseil. Polyautre, who lived in Chatenay-Malabry (Hauts-de-Sein), informed a colleague from his organisation, Dr Rendu, about the airman, and she said she would contact Mr Georges.
Note that although evaders (and many helpers) generally knew Andre de Wyssogota as “Georges”, I've not found any clues as to why he used that name.
Pierre and Janine Klein went to Acheres to meet Richer, bringing civilian clothes they thought more suitable for travel to Paris than the woodcutters had given him. They travelled with Richer by train back to the Gare Saint-Lazare, and after a visit to a photographers to get a photo that could be used for a new identity card, took him to their home at 8 rue de Reims, where they lived with their uncle and aunt, Mr and Mme Farges.
After eleven days with the Kleins, Georges, who Richer learned was originally from Poland, arrived at the house with papers for Richer in the name of Henri Richée. Pierre, Janine and their friend Rouseil went with Georges when he took Richer to the Gare d'Austerlitz and caught the eight o'clock evening train to Lourdes.
Richer and Georges arrived in Lourdes at nine o'clock the following morning. They went to a large building, along with two Poles and two Dutchmen who had been on the train with them, and stayed at a hotel for two and a half days, during which time they visited a shrine (presumably the Sanctuaire Notre-Dame de Lourdes). The group then left for Bagneres-de-Bigorre with a blonde woman, and at Bagneres, Richer found he was in a party of eleven, with him being the only Allied serviceman. They were met on the road by a guide who led them to some woods where they waited until eight o'clock that evening when the two guides who were to take them across the mountains arrived. Richer understood they were to treat this like a military formation, and they were soon joined by others, making the party twenty-one. They walked for three days and two nights of hard going, with several people needing assistance at some point, including Richer (who was suffering from a childhood injury to his leg) but they all got through, crossing the frontier on 15 October 1943 and walking down to be arrested by a Spanish border patrol and taken to Bielsa.
Rodolphe Richer left Gibraltar on 3 December 1943 by air to the UK.
André de Wyssogota-Zakrzewski was born in Poland on 14 May 1905 but left his home country after the defence of Warsaw (which ended on 28 September 1939) and travelled through Hungary (where the French Consulate General in Prague issued him with false papers), Yugoslavia and Italy until arriving in France on 31 December 1939. On 12 May 1940, he joined the Polish Army in France but following the German invasion, made his way to Bordeaux hoping to leave by sea. He arrived too late, and so continued south to Bayonne (where he first met Mme Jacqueline Cintrat) (born in July 1895, Mme Cintrat lived in Pau, and is described by F/O Greenaway (1870) as a small, dark woman), and then east to Saint-Jean-Pied–de-Port (where he met Mme Marie Gil at the Hotel de la Paix) and from there via Tarbes to Toulouse, and at the beginning of July 1940, to Marseille.
He says that he left Toulouse with a mission order from the Polish Consulate to help Poles leave France but when one of his contacts was arrested, he went to the Head of the Polish Bureau who told him if he wanted to stay in France, he would have to change his identity. Wyssogota was sent to Lyon, along with two Polish officers as witnesses, to be demobilised and issued with an identity card under a false name. Unfortunately once back in Marseille, he was recognised under his real name, and arrested.
Wyssogota says he was able to prove his innocence of the charges against him but wasn't released from prison in Montpellier until March 1942. Three days after his return to Marseille, he was arrested again and held in various camps until escaping in October 1942 and moving to Paris.
It seems that one of the first people he met in Paris was Mme Simone Verdain (born 10 June 1904, of 9 rue Pasteur), who he says claimed to know a lot about various escape lines but on further inspection, Wyssogota decided these so-called lines were very badly organised, and believed that he could do better. He says that a man named Jean Troye gave him the first American that he passed on, although I've yet to confirm that, and that the first convoy, in January 1943, left via Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, where he already knew Marie Gil at the Hotel de la Paix - presumably to Luzaide-Valcarlos in Spain, where a man from the Red Cross had promised to collect any men sent there, and drive them to Madrid.
Wyssogota was arrested in Saint-Jean-de-Pied-Port on 7 March 1943 and held at Bordeaux but on the night of 28-29 April, escaped from the train taking him from Compeigne to Germany. Wyssogota says they were about 20 kms inside Germany when he, Jean Brunet (who he first met on the journey from Bordeaux to Compeigne, says they escaped near Faulquemont, Lorraine) and Pierre Chapelle jumped from the train, and over the next few days made their way back across the border to France, and returned to Paris.
Once back in the capital, Wyssogota got in touch with Mme Helene Julien (of 10 rue Alasseur, Paris XVI), who in turn was in contact with Comtesse Jeanne de Bertier, although Wyssogota later worked only with Mme Julien, to whom he says he handed over his first American.
Mme Vve Helene Madeleine Julien (née Hesse 29 May 1884) had close links with Gilbert Thibault of reseau Alsace after they were introduced by Mr Sarasin at Amiens where her parents lived, who in turn had links to Evelyn Vassius (see below).
The Comtesse Jeanne de Bertier (née Marie Anne Françoise Jeanne de Villoutreys de Brignac 11 February 1897) was the wife of Arnaud de Bertier de Sauvigny, and lived at 5 Avenue Bosquet, Paris VII.
It was through Mme Julien that Wyssogota met Mme Evelyn Vassius (née de Graff 22 January 1897), crediting her with taking several “convoys” via Pau (where she lived in a hotel) to Mauleon-Licarre. He also names various other people as contacts or guides but few with sufficient detail for me to identify their contributions to this story.
The Wyssogota file includes a short list of evaders: William C Wetzel, Ralph D McKee, Lawrence H Templeton, Roscoe F Greene, Bertram R Theiss, Lester H Aufmuth, Hugh F Snyder, William L Utley, Michael F Darcy, Legros, Thumaks, Jean B Pitner and Arno E Plischki - together with their home addresses (with the exceptions of Legros and Thumaks), claimed as helped by him. In most cases, those names lead us to others although “Legros” and “Thumaks” are so far unidentified, and the inclusion of Pitner and Pliscke is an error.
On either 5 or 6 August 1943, William Wetzel, Ralph McKee, Lawrence Templeton and Roscoe Greene left Paris by train to Montauban.
1/Lt William Clokey Wetzel (#88) from Denison, Texas was the 27-year-old pilot, and 1/Lt Ralph Dale McKee (#89) from Southard, Oklahoma, the 21-year-old navigator of 305BG/366BS B-17 42-5053 Bloody Tangier Show. On 4 July 1943, they were on a mission to Nantes, and had just dropped their bombs when they were attacked by fighters. The radio room took multiple hits, and with the interphone shot out, and the bomb bay and wings on fire, the order was given to bail out.
Wetzel says he delayed opening his parachute until about 10,000 feet, and then landed in a ploughed field about ten miles north (sic) of Nantes. He was about to hide his chute when two French boys arrived to take him to a farmhouse near Saint-Philbert-de Grand-Lieu (about 20 kms SW of Nantes). Wetzel was hidden in a barn, under a pile of straw where he remained that night. The following morning, one of the boys took Wetzel to hide for the day in a bramble patch, Wetzel returning to the barn that night. Next day, Wetzel went back to the field but that afternoon, a doctor arrived and took some pieces of shrapnel from his right cheek. Wetzel was given civilian clothes and his journey was arranged while he was at the farm.
On 7 July, three Frenchmen, Jean Ligonday, “Jock” and one other, took Wetzel by car to Clisson, and the home of a French General named Audebierre (who used the code name Alexander), who supplied Wetzel with an identity card.
On 11 July, Wetzel says that Jock and his wife, Jean Ligonday and Eugene, took him by car to Jean Ligonday's house in Basse Indre (just west of Nantes, on the northern bank of the Loire), where Wetzel was joined by his navigator Ralph McKee.
McKee landed in a wheat field, his only injury being a shell fragment in the palm of his left hand. He was still lying on the ground when two French boys arrived on bicycles and helped unbuckle his parachute harness. One of the boys hid his chute and flying gear while the other took McKee by bicycle to a farm house about 4 kms away. He was given food and civilian clothing and then hidden in a hayloft. Next day, a Frenchman who spoke a little English came to see him, examined his aids box and took one of McKee's escape photographs – McKee never saw him again.
On 6 July, one of McKee's helpers hid him in a cart and took him to a field where he spent the night. Next day, two Frenchmen moved him to a farm house, where he spent the night in a barn before being taken to another farm where he was hidden in a chicken house. On 10 July, two Frenchmen arrived on bicycles to take McKee to join his pilot, William Wetzel.
On 22 July, Wetzel and McKee were taken by truck into Nantes where they stayed in the apartment of a couple they name as Mr and Mrs Maurice at 16 rue Harouys. A week later, on 29 July, they were moved to “a house in the poorer district of town” where they were sheltered with Mme Suzanne Clement of 66 rue de la Montaigne. On 2 August, a woman they refer to as “Lena”, and a man that I think was Mme Clement's brother, took them to Paris, and the apartment of Dr Andre Lwoff. Dr Lwoff (born May 1902), was a multi-award winning microbiologist and Head of Department at the Pasteur Institute , and he and his wife Marguerite lived at 69 avenue de Suffren, Paris VII.
Two days later, they were interrogated by Colonel and Jean Brunet, Lena, Helene Rochefort (aka Marthe), and another doctor (Joseph Gorjux). They were asked what their CO gave them just before they started on a raid, their names, ranks and serial numbers, their station in England, target, the time of departure, and their home addresses.
On 6 August, Wetzel and McKee say they left Paris for the Spanish border with 2/Lt Greene, S/Sgt Templeton, two Poles, Jean Brunet, another Frenchman and a guide.
S/Sgt Lawrence Henry Templeton (#86) from Wausau, Wisconsin, was the 27-year-old tail-gunner of 94BG/331BS B-17 42-3331 Salty's Naturals (Purdy) which was on the way to Le Bourget on the afternoon of 14 July 1943. Their fighter escort had just turned back when Templeton heard on the intercom that they were being attacked by enemy fighters. When the aircraft went in a spin and began losing altitude rapidly, Templeton crawled to his escape hatch and bailed out. He pulled his rip-cord immediately and heard the bomber crash before his parachute had even steadied.
Templeton was uninjured when he landed about fifty yards from his burning aircraft, and gathering up his parachute, ran to some nearby woods. He hid his chute and flying gear before settling down in the undergrowth, where he stayed that night and the following day. That evening (15 July) Templeton made his way south-east until he came to a farmhouse where he asked a young man for a drink. He identified himself as American and was given some wine before the young man took him to a road and pointed out the way he should go. Templeton walked all that night until finding an isolated house he thought it safe to approach. He was invited to join the family (a man, wife and four children) for breakfast and then told to rest for the day while the man went to work. When the man returned that evening, he told Templeton that he would help him.
Templeton stayed with the family for three nights, being visited there by the local maire, who brought a lady who could speak English. She told him to wait until someone came to collect him. On Sunday 18 July, two men arrived and then two more, and Templeton was taken by bicycle to a house about 25 kms away (no details given), where Templeton spent the night. Next morning, Templeton cycled to the railway station at Saint-Pierre-la-Garenne, where he joined 2/Lt Roscoe Greene.
2/Lt Roscoe Francis Greene (#87) from Portland, Maine was the 25-year-old bombardier of 94BG/333BS B-17 42-3190 (Harrison) which was on an early morning mission to Le Bourget on 14 July 1943. Their fighter escort had just turned back when they were attacked by enemy fighters. With the bomber out of control and losing altitude rapidly, Greene went to the cockpit, where the engineer (T/Sgt James Curtis) was trying to put out a fire, and pilot Captain Kee Harrison (#91) ordered him to bail out.
Greene lost his low-cut shoes when his parachute opened but landed uninjured (apart from possibly two cracked ribs) close to a macadam road on the outskirts of the village of Hondouville (Eure). Six Frenchmen 100 yards away watched as he gathered up his parachute before recognising him as an Allied parachutist, and coming over. They shook his hand and told him to leave the chute and run away - “allez, allez vite”. Greene ran half mile to hide in clump of brambles, and a little while later, a French lady came looking for him, bringing food and civilian clothes. Greene set off walking but a Frenchman came after him and walked with him about 5 miles to see an English lady. She was Mrs Jean Roger, and she took Greene back to her house by the river, the Moulin du Valtier in Hondouville. Mrs Roger then telephoned her husband in Paris, telling him their daughter was ill in order to get him to come home.
Mr Roger arrived next morning, and then went to Gaillon, where he contacted someone in an organisation. The following night, a young man took Greene by car to Gaillon, where the first person he met is only identified as Andre B. Andre asked Greene to write to Albert and Son in either Trenton NJ or Newark to say that he had seen him - he was apparently their Paris representative. Greene stayed that night with the young man who had brought him, and next day, was taken to Saint-Pierre-la-Garenne, where he was sheltered for three days with a Tank Corps army lieutenant only identified as Pierre G, at his home on the river. Greene also reports a visit by a French lady called Denise, who was apparently a countess who lived in a chateau. On 19 July, Greene met S/Sgt Lawrence Templeton at Saint-Pierre-la-Garenne railway station.
A young Frenchman took Templeton and McKee to Paris where they were sheltered overnight by Mme Vve Therese Marie Fabre (born Feb 1892 (to French parents) in Dolores, Argentina), in her hôtel de l'Ouest at 28 boulevard du Fort de Vaux, Paris XVII. They were interviewed there by a man from another organisation before Helene Rochefort (aka Marthe) of 91 rue Lemercier, Paris XVII took them to stay with Dr Joseph Gorjux, his wife Yvonne and their 27-year-old daughter Pierette. Greene says they lived on rue de Laos but actually the family lived just off the rue du Laos at 2 Square Theodore Judin.
Templeton and Greene stayed with the Gorjux family for two weeks apart from three days spent with Pierre Dupire and his family at 2 rue Saint-Louis-en-l'Ile, Ile Saint-Louis - this is the address of the famous Hotel Lambert. They also met Andre de Wyssogota, the man they believed was head of the organisation, and known to them as “the Commandant”. Greene reports that the day before they left, they saw Wetzel and McKee at the Gorjux apartment, and that Yvonne Gorjux went to see Mme de Larminat (who he says was the wife of a French General).
Templeton and Greene say they left Paris on 5 August when Mme de Larminat took them to the railway station. Greene says they were met by a French gendarme, and taken to the platform by police officers, where they joined William Wetzel and Ralph McKee on the train. The Commandant (Templeton describes him as aged about 40, tall, slender, moustache, no English, ruddy complexion) and his young assistant Jean Brunet were with them, along with two “Polish boys”.
They took an overnight train to Montauban, where they went to a hotel for a few hours before taking another train, probably to Toulouse. From there they went by bus, changing once and then walking into Mont-de-Marsan. The Commandant left them there, and they were collected by truck and taken to a hotel at Peyrehorade (probably the Hotel de le Roserie - Louis Lesgourgues). That night (7 Aug) Jean Brunet and a French boy (possibly Gratien Anchordoquy of Saint-Etienne-de-Baigorry) took them into the mountains, where they rested at a farmhouse for two days. Greene reports that 2 Frenchmen and a wife guided them across the Pyrenees, and Wetzel says they linked up with 2 Frenchmen, 1 French woman, 7 French boys and 2 German deserters on the first day of walking. They crossed into Spain in the early hours of 10 August 1943, and carried on walking until they were arrested near Elizondo (Navarra).
Lawrence Templeton (#86) left Gibraltar by overnight air to Prestwick, arriving on 7 September 1943. Roscoe Greene (#87), William Wetzel (#88) and Ralph Mckee (#89) arrived at Prestwick the following day.
On 28 September 1943, Michael Darcy left Paris by train for Lourdes and the Pyrenees with Denis Cowell and Royston Falcus.
S/Sgt Michael F Darcy (#167) from New York was the 26-year-old left waist-gunner of 100BG/351BS B-17 42-30035 Torchy (Winkleman) which was on the way to Romilly-sur-Seine on 3 September 1943 when it was hit by flak and abandoned to crash near Saultz-les-Chartreux (Essonne).
Darcy landed near Ballancourt where he was met by a group of Frenchmen who took him to a deserted house where a man called Georges interrogated him. Later a French boy took Darcy to meet Rene who ran a cafe where Darcy stayed overnight and next morning, a woman brought his bombardier 2/Lt Howard Harris (#258) to join him. They were visited by the comte and comtesse de Sugny and went to their chateau at d'Huison-Longueville the following day. At the chateau, a wealthy farmer and ex-cross country running champion, brought them running outfits and ran with them to another chateau at La Ferte-Alais which was used for the children of theatrical families. The superintendant, Andre Raquin (a shot-put and hammer thrower) and his wife Madeleine put Darcy and Harris into a room in the chateau, and that night they were joined by their right waist-gunner S/Sgt Alfred Zeoli (#259) . Darcy was told that their top-turret gunner T/Sgt Thomas E Combs (#303) had been helped but had left suddenly and their hosts were concerned that he might have been captured (he was not). Next day, the three Americans were driven by car to the railway station and taken by train to Paris with Andre's brother, Madeleine and the wealthy farmer as their individual guides. They were taken to the city home of Andre and Madeleine at 114 Boulevard Brune where they were visited by a Jewish woman (who lived at 24 rue Copernic) who told Darcy that she had a friend in an organisation. The following day (9 September) another woman collected Harris and Zeoli (and took them to Andre Lefevre at Juvisy), and that afternoon Darcy was interrogated by a Jewish man who claimed to be with British Intelligence.
The Jewish man took Darcy to visit a French detective called Marius (who provided ID cards) and Camille Lacroix (a short stocky man with black hair and moustache, who walked with a stoop and wore a golden 13 insignia on his waist-coat). Camille Lacroix took Darcy to his house at 3 Boulevard Edgar Quinet, Paris XIV where he stayed for a week and met Ronnie (a railway worker who spoke English) and Robert (about 32 years old, 5 ft 6 inches tall, thin, consumptive - a former POW who worked in the Bar Chalot at 6 rue du Texel (Erick d'Ornhjelm - query). Marius, Ronnie and Robert took Darcy to a cafe where he met the manager Charlot (42 years old and a well-known accordionist) and his wife Olga (40 years old, dyed blonde hair, pianist and singer) who sheltered Darcy for the next twelve days. He was visited by Constant, Alesia (a former music-hall dancer who had been a prisoner of the Germans but was now a prostitute), Charlot's mother, Bubble and a violinist called Tito. Finally a young, stocky man from another cafe near to 6 rue du Texel came and made arrangements for Darcy.
On 28 September, “Georges” (scar under left eye, slender, small moustache, nervous) along with Camille and Robert, took Darcy to the railway station where they joined two British evaders, Sgts Denis Cowell and Royston Falcus, and two Frenchmen.
Sgt Denis W G Cowell (1553) from Newton Abbot in Devon, and Sgt Royston Falcus (1554) from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, both 20 years old, were the second pilot and navigator of 78 Sqn Halifax JD108 (Toon) which was returning from Aachen in the early hours of 14 July 1943 when they were attacked by a night-fighter. The aircraft was abandoned to crash near Froidchapelle (Hainault) in Belgium and both men landed near Rance.
Cowell and Falcus were helped by the Felix network that arranged their crossing from Belgium into France on 7 August, where they were passed to Fernand Vanaerde from Tourcoing. They were sheltered for ten days in Wattrelos with Georges Parant at 39 rue Alfred Delecourt before being moved back to Tourcoing to stay with Robert Deguisne at 11 rue de la Croix Rouge until 26 August, then with gendarme Gaston Vorreux at 123 rue Lamartine. They fail to identify their helpers in Paris - being taken by an unnamed woman to Paris on 14 September and staying overnight in her apartment. Next day, they were taken to another house where they met “Mr Georges” (who said they would leave for Spain next day) and then to an ex-girls dormitory next to the Paris Execution Prison. They somehow missed a rendezvous at the Gare d'Austerlitz with Mr Georges and were returned to the dormitory until going to his headquarters on 27 September, where they were issued with deaf and dumb papers before being taken with some French boys to Toulouse and Lourdes next day.
Georges accompanied the three airmen (Darcy, Cowell and Falcus) to Lourdes where they stayed at the Hotel Regent (with hotelier Henri Borde) and joined two more Britishers (sic), two Dutchmen and five Frenchmen. Two days later they went on to Bagneres-de-Bigorre and then, following a warning that the Germans were on their way to Bagneres, Georges took them all to a barn in the mountains for the night of 2-3 October. Next day they began their walk across the Pyrenees, with French mountain guides, crossing into Spain on 8 October where their guides left them. The airmen were soon arrested by Spanish soldiers and taken next day to Bielsa. The British Military Attache visited them the following day before they were transferred to Barbesto and later to Alhama de Aragon. On 27 October, they were taken to Madrid and the following day, to Gibraltar.
Michael Darcy left Gibraltar by air, arriving at RAF Portreath in Cornwall on 29 October 1943. Denis Cowell and Royston Falcus left Gibraltar by air, arriving in the UK on 4 November 1943.
On 21 October 1943, Bertram Theiss, Lester Aufmuth and Hugh Snyder left Paris for Toulouse and Lourdes with George Thomas and Ernest Boucher.
2/Lt Bertram Robert Theiss (#218) from Auburn, New York, was the 25-year-old bombardier of 92BG/407BS B-17 42-29725 Hi-Lo Jack (Bruce), which on the morning of 3 September 1943, was on an operation to Romilly-sur-Seine. They were within sight of Paris when they were attacked by enemy fighters, and with the aircraft being “shot to pieces”, pilot 2/Lt Ralph Bruce (EX-224) gave the bail-out order.
Theiss landed just outside the village of Saint-Mesmes (Seine-et-Marne) where he found about 20 French and Poles waiting to kiss him and shake his hand. Theiss rolled up his parachute, gave his audience all his flying gear and then ran to some woods about 200 yards away. That afternoon, a Polish boy brought him some food, and promised to bring civilian clothes later. When the boy returned, he had a Dutchman who could speak English with him. He was Corns Van Nes (the fifty year old owner of a flax mill), and he took Theiss back to his house in Saint-Mesmes, where Theiss joined his co-pilot, 2/Lt Sebron McQueen (#249), who Van Nes had picked up earlier.
On 24 September, Camille Nicolas (born 11 September 1895) arrived by car to take Theiss and McQueen back to his house at 19 rue de Meaux, Livry-Gargan (about 15 kms from Saint-Mesmes), where they joined their top-turret gunner, T/Sgt Hedley Cassidy (#250).
Theiss says that after two weeks with Nicolas Camille, Van Nes sent a woman to tell them she could take Theiss and McQueen to Spain. Nicholas didn't believe her, and anyway, said she would have to take all three Americans or none at all. Sometime between 7 and 10 October, Nicholas and a man called Marcel took Theiss into Paris to see the woman (a 35-year-old blonde school teacher whose husband was a POW) and another woman (about 40, dark and plump) who spoke some English. Theiss was given a questionnaire to fill out, and a tall thin man with black hair and horn-rimmed glasses (Wyssogota) came in with Sgt Hugh Snyder. Theiss was taken back to Livry-Gargan, and nothing happened - commenting that Nicolas “never had any luck with them anyway”.
On 21 October, Theiss, Nicholas and Ernest Greenway (a 65-year-old Englishman who had been released from an internment camp because he had cancer, and who acted as their translator) went back to Paris and met the tall, thin man again. He told Theiss that Sgt Snyder was leaving that night, and that Theiss could go with him if he was prepared to leave immediately. Nicholas and Ernest returned to Livry-Gargan and the tall thin man took Theiss out into the street where he met F/Sgt Ernest Boucher RAF (1595), 2/Lt Lester Aufmuth and three Frenchmen. They went to the apartment on the rue de Clichy where Mme Evelyn Vassius lived (Theiss thought it belonged to “Mr Georges”, who he refers as the head of Lorraine-Gothic), where they met F/Sgt George Thomas RAF (LIB/1580) and three more Frenchmen. Mr Georges gave them all ID cards before they left Paris that night.
Theiss says that at the Gare d'Austerlitz, two guides posed as plainclothes police officers, “flashing their badges whenever necessary” to get Theiss, Snyder, Boucher , Aufmuth, Thomas (and presumably the six Frenchmen) onto the train to Toulouse, where they were joined by a French doctor and a woman that Theiss calls “Mrs Georges” (assume Evelyn Vassius), describing her as being 40 years old, 5 foot 2 inches tall with red hair.
They were not met at Toulouse as planned but found their guide (aged about 30, a tall, nice looking man) in a cafe opposite the station, and he took them to the home of a Dutch priest who spoke English. They stayed at the house until about 4 o'clock, when they took an overnight train to Lourdes. They spent the following night in a hotel in Lourdes, and on 23 October, visited a shrine (presumably the Sanctuaire Notre-Dame de Lourdes).
Mr Georges joined them at the hotel that night, and on inspecting their clothing, decided that what Theiss was wearing would not be suitable for the tough mountain crossing he had planned. Mrs Georges took the others (including Aufmuth, Snyder, Thomas and Boucher) to Pouzac, and then came back for Theiss. She took him to a tea room where he met the party he was to cross with, Theiss being the only American serviceman. Mrs Georges and a woman with jet-black hair (probably Jacqueline Cintrat) took the group by train to Pau, and then a bus to Oloron-Sainte-Marie and a cafe, where Mrs Georges left them. Her friend then took the group by taxi to an unnamed village 27 kms away (Mauleon-Licarre), where they met Mr Georges, who turned them over to the guide who would take them across the mountains. They reached Spain on 27 October (I believe they used the same route as McQueen and Cassidy (see later), crossing north of the pantano de Irabia to Orbaiceta), where they were arrested and taken to Pamplona.
Bertram Theiss left Gibraltar on 19 November 1943 by overnight air to Bristol.
2/Lt Lester H Aufmuth was the pilot of 384 BG/544BS B-17 42-5720, which was returning from Stuttgart on 6 September 1943, when they began to run out of fuel. Like other aircraft in the same formation, they started throwing excess equipment overboard, and Aufmuth gave his crew the choice of bailing out or remaining with the aircraft. They opted to stay and were in sight of Paris when number three engine stopped, and the aircraft was landed in a hay-field near Pontoise (Ile-de-France).
All ten crew were unhurt, and Aufmuth evaded with co-pilot 2/Lt James McMath (#251) and radio operator S/Sgt Louis Weatherford (#251) until they separated in Paris on about 11 September.
Sgt Hugh F Snyder was the tail-gunner of B-26 41-31684 Double Trouble, which was hit by flak on a mission to Beauvais on 27 September 1943. With the left engine and wing on fire, the three gunners (T/Sgt Fred Murray (#206), S/Sgt Lloyd Frazier (#265) and Snyder) bailed out before pilot 1/Lt Richard Ulvestad returned the aircraft to the UK.
Both Aufuth and Snyder were captured, and neither seem to have been interviewed so I don't have any further details on how either of them came in contact with Wyssogota. We do however have some details of how they came to be captured as they set off in a party that included W/O George Thomas and F/Sgt Ernest Boucher.
W/O George Frederick Thomas (LIB/1580) from Edmonton in North London, was the 34-year-old navigator of 103 Sqn Lancaster ED751 (Cant) which was returning from Mannheim on the night of 5-6 September 1943. They had already experienced trouble with one engine, and shortly after leaving the target area, two more engines failed, and W/O Robert Cant ordered his crew to bale out.
Thomas landed close to the Franco-Luxembourg border, and decided to head (more or less west) for Chalons-sur-Marne (now Chalons-en-Champagne). He got a lift from a bus driver, obtained civilian clothes, and was helped by various farmers along the way until 12 September, when he reached the north-eastern Paris suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois. There he knocked on the door of a house at 148 Boulevard de Strasbourg where Mme Froment took him in, gave him food and replacement clothing, and Thomas stayed the night. Next day, Mme Froment introduced Thomas to a man who took him into Paris where they met a guide (Maurice Fort) who took Thomas to a flat at 87 rue de Rochechouet, Paris IX, where Thomas was sheltered by Mme Marguerite Schmitz (born July 1888) for the next six weeks.
Thomas says that Mme Schmitz was not member of any organisation but tried all the time to find one. He says it was Robert Burba (Mme Schmitz's god-son) who contacted an organisation but she says it was her ex-husband, Marcel Schnerb who contacted a Mr Darde (assume Robert Darde of 50 Avenue Raymond Poincare, Paris XVI) who made contact with the Wyssogota organisation. Either way, on 18 (sic) October, Thomas was taken to an apartment on the rue de Clichy, home of Mme Evelyn Vassius, where he joined two American airmen, 2/Lt Lester Aufmuth and Sgt Hugh Snyder, and four “French partisans”.
They were given papers, and next day taken to the Gare d'Austerltz where they boarded an overnight train for Toulouse. The following afternoon, they were taken by train to Lourdes. They stayed in Lourdes for two days and nights (no details given), and on 23 October, went by train to Bagneres-de-Bigorre. They set off walking straight away, collecting about 25 French Tunisians along the way. Thomas says the extra walkers “hindered our progress a great deal”, and that they spent five days in the mountains, and there was very deep snow. They ran out of food, and their guides left them, saying the frontier was only a short distance away but when Thomas and two Dutchmen from the party went back to try and get some food, they were captured by a German patrol. Thomas doesn't mention the two Americans, only saying that the other Frenchmen were rounded up, and they were all taken to a prison at Tarbes.
F/Sgt Ernest George Boucher (1595) was the 21-year-old pilot of 174 Sqn Typhoon JP547 which was shot down on 5 October 1943. He had been helped by the Fillerin family in Renty (Pas-de-Calais) and Rene Guittard's Bordeaux-Loupiac organisation which brought him to Paris, where he and Sgt William Wood (#252) (see McQueen and Cassidy below) were being sheltered by Commissioner of Oaths Paul Bazille in his office on the sixth floor of 241 rue de Faubourg Saint-Honore. On 21 October, Boucher was taken to the home of Mr Georges (who he says was running the organisation).
Boucher says that Mr Georges gave him an identity card, and while he was (briefly) at the apartment, a party of Frenchmen and Dutchmen collected. They left that evening from the Gare d'Austerlitz, being joined at the station by Sgt Thomas, an RAF navigator, and four (sic) Americans. They arrived at Toulouse on 22 October, going straight on from there to Lourdes, where they spent the night in a small boarding house.
On 24 October, they were taken by train via Tarbes to Pouzac (about 2 kms north of Bagneres-de-Bigorre) from where they walked for two hours to an empty stable. Boucher reports that the party was by then 34, including Thomas and two Americans. They set off walking that night with two French guides, first along the road and then parallel to it, through the night, continuing through the day (25 Oct) and following night until midday on 26 October when they reached a point north of La Munia mountain (Pic de la Munia).
Boucher says that the guides left them at this point after giving directions to one of the Frenchmen, who promptly forgot what he had been told. The majority of the party decided to stay the night in a hut on the frontier but Boucher and three of the Poles decided to carry on. They climbed La Munia and made their way down the valley on the other side. They followed the valley through the ruined village of Parzan, following the rived to Bielsa, where they were arrested by Spanish frontier police wearing green uniforms and side hats with tassels.
Boucher later heard from a Frenchman who arrived in Spain that from his original group, three Frenchmen had tried to catch up with the guides, and later, 12 members, including Thomas and a Polish Jewess, also returned to France, and had been captured by the Germans. He makes no mention of the two Americans.
Ernest Boucher left Gibraltar on 29 November 1943 by overnight air to Whitchurch.
On about 31 October 1943, Sebron McQueen and Hedley Cassidy, left Paris by train for Toulouse and Pau, along with William Wood. William Hobday, Frederick Sutherland and Eric Anderson also left Paris for Toulouse and Pau at about the same time but separately from the Americans. None of these names are on the Wyssogota list of evaders.
2/Lt Sebron Andrew McQueen (#249) from Bessemer, Alabama was the 25-year-old co-pilot of B-17 42-29725 Hi-Lo Jack, and having jumped just before Theiss (see earlier), landed in a field just south of Saint-Mesmes. He says about 20 Frenchmen watched him, and were suspicious of his nationality but when he showed his dog-tags to a boy who could speak some English, the boy told McQueen to follow him. Two men followed, and went with them to a farm house near a granary about two miles away, and while McQueen hid in some bushes, one of the men went into the house. Several minutes later, the man called McQueen over and he met the owner, a Dutchman who spoke English. He told McQueen to hide in the woods until eight that evening, and then come back to the house. That evening, the man told McQueen that his son had gone to Paris and “wired” London. He also said that he couldn't keep McQueen as too many people knew he was there, and so the family who were sheltering Theiss came and collected him .
T/Sgt Hedley Eugene Cassidy (#250) from Kinniconick, Kentucky was 22-year-old the top-turret gunner of B-17 42-29725 Hi-Lo Jack. He jumped after Thiess, McQueen and navigator F/O David Prosser (#269), and says that he saw their parachutes open. He opened his parachute at about 17,000 feet and was met on the ground by “about 75 Frenchman”. Two teenage boys took Cassidy to hide in a hay stack, and then came back at noon with civilian clothes. They then took Cassidy to the field where they were working, and Cassidy spent the afternoon digging potatoes. At five o'clock, Cassidy was taken by bus to a town where he stayed for the next three days before being moved a couple of miles to Aulnoy-sous-Bois where he was sheltered with Mr et Mme Charles Francois at 38 Avenue Bertholet. Ten days later, Camille Nicolas arrived to take Cassidy back to his house at 19 rue de Meaux, Livry-Gargan.
As already mentioned, on 24 September, Camille Nicolas arrived at Saint-Mesmes by car to take Theiss and McQueen back to his house in Livry-Gargan, where they joined Cassidy.
After leaving Theiss with the tall thin man (Wyssogota) in Paris on 21 October, Camille Nicholas and Ernest Greenway returned to Livry-Gargan and told McQueen and Cassidy that Theiss had gone. At this time, McQueen reports there were also two “hindus” at the house but their names in McQueen's hand-written report are illegible (Theiss names them as Shahmokd and Blaba Den). Six days later Nicholas and the wine merchant (assume Andre Lassialle) drove them (and the two hindus) back into Paris, and a cafe where they met the tall thin man (six feet one inch tall, 155 lbs). Then a man and woman came in, followed by another man and woman, and Cassidy was told to follow one of the women. Nicholas and the wine merchant left them at this point, and McQueen was taken to 47 Marcel-Semblat, 47 Bondy Seine, home of Mme Marie Louise Peineau, the manager of an aluminium foundry. McQueen says that only the assistant manager knew he was there, and that he was given clothes suitable for the mountains. He also makes the point that Mme Peineau was very careful, and that when Organisation members came to visit, he didn't see them.
On 31 October, they received a call for Mme Peineau to take McQueen back to the cafe in Paris. There he rejoined Cassidy, and met Sgt William Wood and three RAF men, Harold Hobday, Frederick Sutherland and Eric Anderson. The six airmen were taken to what McQueen describes at the Organisation's HQ, where they joined the four Frenchmen who would be crossing the mountains with them.
Sgt William Wood (#252) from Santa Rita, New Mexico was a 21-year-old combat cameraman, riding in the nose of 305BG/365BS B-17 42-29530 (Moore) on an operation to “some concrete installations in the forest north of St Omer” (presumably a V-1 launch site) on the afternoon of 27 August 1943 when they were shot down by flak and the aircraft abandoned.
Wood landed close to a canal, about two miles north of Saint-Omer (which is surrounded by marsh and canals). He was trying to hide his parachute but a number of local people made it clear that Germans were fast approaching. A man brought him a boat (like a kayak) and a glass of brandy, and urged Wood to be on his way down the canal (probably the Canal de Neufosse). After some rifle bullets came close, Wood paddled away as fast as he could but once around a corner, abandoned the kayak, jumped into the canal, made his way to the bank and hid behind a tree. Five minutes later, some Frenchmen arrived in a large boat and took Wood to the other side of the canal, where he spent the night in a cow shed. The Frenchmen also brought food and a mix of cognac, milk and coffee, and exchanged all of Wood's clothes for civilian attire.
Next morning, a man and his wife came by boat to take Wood to the outskirts of Saint-Omer but on seeing a gendarme, became too frightened to help him further. Wood then set off walking until “stumbling” into a place “that might have been a brothel”, where numerous women showered him with gifts. Two of the women then took Wood by boat through “a maze of canals” to a pond where he was hidden in a shooting hut, from where his journey was arranged.
It's hard to follow Wood's exact progress from this point but we know that he (like Ernest Boucher) was sheltered by the Fillerin family at Renty from 1 September - he says for a week until taken to Saint-Martin-au-Laert on the outskirts of Saint-Omer for about a month with a schoolmaster. He is also (again like Boucher) recorded as being helped by Rene Guittard's Bordeaux-Loupiac organisation at Auxi-le-Chateau, and there is mention in his report of “Edwin”, an American in the RAF - this was Sgt Harold Edwin Robert Merlin (2432) - until they were driven to Amiens to take a train to Paris. He seems to have spent his first two days in Paris at the Porte de Versailles apartment so often used by Bordeaux-Loupiac (until the death of organiser Jean-Claude Camors on 11 October) before being moved to the Place des Ternes, where he was sheltered by Paul Bazille and his concierge, Mme Louise Screve at 241 rue de Faubourg Saint-Honore, and where Wood stayed on after Boucher left on 21 October.
McQueen says that the head of the Organisation, a man known as George, took the party to the Gare d'Austerlitz where he handed the Americans over to the woman (aged about 40, short, with red hair, wore glasses) (assume Evelyn Vassius) who would be in charge of them as far as Artix. They were taken on an 8 o'clock overnight train to Toulouse, where they changed for Pau. They stayed the night in a “boarding house”, and next morning, took a train to the village of Artix (about 20 kms NW of Pau), where they were joined in a barn by the three RAF men, who had travelled separately.
Wood says that he left Paris on 1 November by overnight train to Toulouse, where he changed for Pau. He stayed overnight in Pau (no details) before taking a train to Artix, then a bus to Mauleon-Licharre, and a hotel-diner (the Cafe des Sports) where he joined McQueen and Cassidy (who don't mention Mauleon but agree walking with Wood, who they knew from the cafe in Paris). Wood's report includes some brief scribbled notes of the crossing but does not name anyone else in the party apart from a single mention of Anderson at Orbaiceta. He says that after separating from McQueen and Cassidy (see below), he caught up with the rest of the party next morning, and was with them when they reached Orbaiceta.
McQueen says they walked 40 kms to Orbaiceta (which is about the distance from Mauleon) and on the way, Wood passed out and had to be helped by the others. A few hours from Orbaiceta they found a barn, and as they (the three Americans) were lagging behind anyway, rested overnight. Next morning, he and Cassidy went looking for the rest of the party, and so separated from Wood. They found an empty house where they lit a fire to dry out their clothes, and rested for the night. Next morning, they followed a river until reaching a house where they got food in exchange for a knife and tobacco holder. Thirty minutes after setting off once more, they were arrested. The police took them to a house by a large dam (the pantano de Irabia) where they spent the night, and next day were taken to Orbaiceta where they rejoined the “other boys”.
Sebron McQueen, Hedley Cassidy and William Wood left Gibraltar on 2 December 1943 by overnight air to Bridgwater (RAF Westonzoyland).
P/O Harold Sydney Hobday (1603) from Croydon in Surrey was the 33-year-old navigator, and F/Sgt Frederick Edwin Sutherland (1604) from Pence River, Alberta, the 20-year-old front gunner of 617 Lancaster JB144 (Knight). They were both part of the crew that made the final breach of the Mohne Dam on 16-17 May 1943, and on the night of 15-16 September 1943, were on a low-level operation to the Dortmund-Ems Canal. The weather was very misty, and as they were circling their target looking for land-marks, they hit some trees, taking out both port engines. Despite getting permission from their leader to jettison the 12,000 lb bomb they were carrying, the aircraft was still very difficult to manoeuvre, and even after throwing out “guns, ammunition and anything else that could be shifted” to further lighten the aircraft, they were only at about 1,400 feet when 22-year-old F/Lt Leslie Gordon Knight RAAF ordered his crew to bale out. All got out safely except Knight, who was killed when his aircraft crashed near Den Ham in Holland. Hobday believed the aircraft would have gone into an immediate nose-dive the moment Knight released the controls, and Chorley (RAF Bomber Command Losses) says that Knight made a forced landing but hit a bank, “whereupon the Lancaster exploded”.
Hobday and Sutherland's combined report does not provide much detail of their journey through France, simply saying:
“On 18 Oct we left [Rotterdam] for Paris, having been provided with papers saying that we were members of the Todt organisation. There were no incidents except at the Belgian-French border, where there was a Gestapo control. Our passes were carefully scrutinised at this junction. We arrived in Paris at 0630 hrs, 19 Oct, and were taken to a room in the top of a block of flats where we met some Dutch students who were organising the escape of Dutchmen to Spain. We stayed in one or two different houses and met Sgt Anderson (1605) on 30 Oct.
On 1 Nov we left Paris by train with visas and identity cards, and arrived at Pau about 1400 hrs on 2 Nov. We left there at 1723 hrs for Artix and arrived there at 1850 hrs. In all there were about eleven of us, travelling in parties of twos and threes. We were then taken by taxi some distance away [to Mauleon], and spent the night at a house.
On 3 Nov about 2020 hrs we set off walking, following a guide, and crossed into Spain on Friday 5 Nov. We then rested at a house on the fork of a river.
On 6 Nov we walked 15 kms to Orbaiceta where we had to give ourselves up to the police.” (SPG 1603/1604)
Hobday says in his post-war account (published in “Lloyd's Log” October 1946), that the party consisted of “three Americans [McQueen, Cassidy & Wood], a Dutchman, three Frenchmen, a Canadian [Sutherland], an Australian [Anderson], myself, our guide and his dog.”
Sgt Eric James Anderson (1605) from Mortlake, New South Wales was the 19-year-old Australian air bomber of 27 OTU Wellington X3966 (Dowling) which was on a Nickel raid (dropping leaflets) to Orleans on the evening of 23 September 1943, and north of Beauvais, when they were hit by flak and the aircraft abandoned.
Anderson landed north of Nivillers (Oise), and burying his flying kit, walked south to Therdonne, then crossed the river and headed SE towards Rochy-Conde. He used the main road to walk to Hermes, passing through the village at about 2130 hrs and then, because it started to rain, sheltered in some woods. He set off again at about 0500 hrs until finding a shack where he could sleep.
On 26 September, Anderson found some help (at the second time of asking) when a man told him to hide until he returned later that day bringing two other men and some food and civilian clothing. One of the men had been a French Marine, and he took Anderson to a railway station just short of Creil, where they took a train to Paris. They reached the capital at 10 o'clock that evening, and went to the Marine's aunt's house, where Anderson stayed for the next four days. On 30 September, Anderson was moved to another place (no details), and on 10 October was taken back out of the city to Chambly (Oise). On 14 October, he was returned to the same people in Paris (no details), and on 17 October, to a cafe.
On 22 October, Anderson was taken to an apartment, and next day to an office where he was looked after by the caretaker, and where he met Sgt Wood (this was Paul Bazille's office at 241 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore, where evaders were looked after by his concierge, Mme Louise Screve). On 25 October, Anderson was taken to a place outside Paris, and on 31 October, a man took him to meet Hobday and Sutherland - and from this point his story is the same as theirs.
Harold Hobday and Frederick Sutherland left Gibraltar on 5 December 1943, arriving at RAF Portreath in Cornwall on 6 December. Eric Anderson also left Gibraltar on 5 December, probably on the same flight although his report only says that he arrived in London on 6 December.
William Utley first met Andre de Wyssogota on 16 November 1943, when he arrived at the cafe in Lys (Pyrenees-Atlantiques) where Utley was being sheltered, and took him to Mauleon, where he was joined by F/O Czeslaw Sniec.
T/Sgt William LeRoy Utley (#326) from Gary, Indiana, was the 22-year-old engineer of B-17 42-30163 (306BG/368BS) (Peterson) which was returning from Stuttgart on 6 September 1943 (6 days before Utley's twenty-third birthday) when it ran out of fuel and was abandoned to crash south of Dieppe.
Utley landed about half a mile from a small village near Beauvais and was helped almost immediately by a man called Pierre Freteaud and an unnamed Belgian who took Utley to an empty house where he spent the night. Next day, Pierre Freteaud took Utley to Paris where he was hidden in Pierre's father's apartment at 5 rue Boacot (query) for four days before his new friend decided to take him further. On 11 September, Pierre Freteaud took Utley by train to Blois where they took an evening bus to Saint-Aignan and crossed the demarcation line and Utley stayed for a month with some of Pierre's family while arrangements were made for his subsequent journey.
On 11 October, Pierre took Utley by overnight train from Chateauroux to Tarbes. Utley, who still had no ID papers, was supposed to be deaf and dumb - and there was a goose on the luggage rack above his head. The goose would honk at odd intervals through the night making everyone jump, and Utley says that not jumping each time the goose honked was one of the hardest things he had to do throughout his evasion.
From Tarbes they went on to Pau and took a local train to Nay before walking several miles to Lys. Utley was sheltered by Cyprienne Sucra and her husband Michel at their cafe in Lys for thirty-seven days while the people there contacted what Utley was first told was an organisation but found later that he was their first evader. Their first guides declined to take Utley but an American woman named Rosemary Maeght (née Wright) and an Englishwoman named Joan Moy-Thomas visited him and said they knew of guides who had taken Americans before. On 16 November, Utley was collected by a car with three Frenchmen (one of whom spoke English) and their leader, a Pole known as Mr Georges.
They drove for about three hours into the mountains and stayed in a cafe at Mauleon-Licharre (the Cafe des Sports at 10 rue Victor Hugo with Dominique and Mlle Germaine Montalibet) where Utley was joined by Spitfire pilot F/O Czeslaw Sniec and others. While a blizzard prevented their immediate crossing, after several days of rain - sometimes lost because their guides had not used this particular route for several years, and also having to spend days sheltering from the foul weather - Utley, Sniec and the rest of the group finally reached Spain on 22 November.
The following day, they were arrested at Orbaiceta by Spanish police and taken to stay overnight in a hotel in Pamplona before going on to Lecumberri (Navarra) for eleven days. For some reason, Utley and Sniec were then sent to the notorious Spanish concentration camp of Miranda de Ebro where they were held for another month before being repatriated.
F/O Czeslaw Sniec (1703) was the pilot of 302 (Polish) Sqn Spitfire AA909, escorting bombers to Lille on the morning of 8 September 1943, when he was shot down by flak and crash-landed near a small village about 7 kms from Armentieres. Sniec was uninjured in the crash, and ran to a nearby wood where he stayed for the rest of the day. That evening, he set off walking south until the early hours when he stopped north-east of La Bassée to sleep in a haystack.
At about noon the following day, he was found by some children who called their father. When Sniec explained that he was a Polish pilot in the RAF, the man brought food and old trousers, and told him he might find more Poles in the district. Sniec soon found two men speaking Polish, and one of them took Sniec back to his house in La Bassée, where he stayed the night (8-10 Sep). Sniec left early the following morning and made his way to an address he had been given in Wingles, from where his journey was arranged.
The address in Wingles was that of a French-born Pole, the Abbe Jean Gocki, and that evening, he took Sniec to stay with a Polish couple in the village, Mr and Mme Laurent Scigacz, who sheltered Sniec for the next two months. He was visited by a Polish priest from Auby, who said he would send Sniec to Paris and Spain, and on 10 November, a Polish girl took Sniec to the priest's house in Auby, where he stayed overnight. Next day, the priest and a Pole named Antoni Frackowiak took Sniec to Paris. The priest left them at a Polish Catholic church while he fetched a Polish girl, Hanna Leskiewicz, who took Sniec back to her home at 32 rue Feutrier, Paris XVIII, where was sheltered with Mr and Mme Rudovic Leskiewicz (presumably her parents).
During the three days he stayed with the Leskiewicz family, Sniec says that met the Polish head of the organisation, a man known as Georges who Sniec had known in Poland before war as Andzeg Zakrzewski.
On the evening of 14 November, Sniec left Paris by train for Toulouse with Georges, Antoni Frackowiak , four other Poles and two Frenchmen that Georges had brought. Next day, they changed trains for Pau, and then taken from there by car to Mauleon, where Sniec met Sgt Utley.
William Utley left Gibraltar on 16 January 1944 by air to Bristol, arriving the same day. Czeslaw Sniec left Gibraltar on 17 January 1944 by air to Whitchurch (Bristol) arriving the same day.
Andre de Wyssogota-Zakrzewski was arrested a final time on 25 November 1943, picked up on a train from Toulouse to Tarbes. He says the Germans knew there was a convoy on the train. The group was three Dutchmen, two Poles and a Frenchman and it was the two Poles who raised suspicion, and Wyssogota was arrested when he tried to intervene.
Wyssogota was taken to the Hotel de Paix in Biarritz, and on 21 December, transferred to Mont-de-Marsan. On 10 January 1944, he was moved to Bayonne, and then Fort Ha at Bordeaux, and then on 20 January, to Compiegne before deportation to Buchenwald. On 13 March, he was taken to Dora (which he describes as a living hell), where he worked in an underground factory until 5 April 1945, where he was moved to Bergen-Belsen. Ten days later the camp was liberated, and on 25 April, Wyssogota left for France, where he says he was welcomed at the Gare de l'Est by the Polish Legation.
 
My grateful thanks to Franck Signorile, Tom Theiss and Edouard Reniere for their invaluable contributions to this article.
I am sure there is more to learn about Andre de Wyssogota- Zakrzewski, so if any readers would care to contribute, please don't hesitate to get in touch.