Mission Summary and Team
Saturday, May 31, 1941
In La Rochelle, Occupied France
Patrice, Didier and Jean arrived at the station separately and purchased tickets on the 6:15 train to Rennes by way of transfers at Poitiers and Le Mans. The platform in La Rochelle was not very crowded. There were a handful of other civilians, and a number of German soldiers returning from leave.
Didier offered a cigarette to one of the soldiers with a friendly greeting. The soldier accepted his and gave him a better quality cigarette in exchange. In the mean time Jean smoked quietly by himself. Patrice observed the crowd looking for anything suspicious.
Their train departed 30 minutes late at 6:44AM. They each sat in separate compartments.
On the Train
The train was crowded, but not full. The compartments sat four adults. Most people had a single piece of luggage stowed in the racks above the seats. An officious conductor came to inspect all tickets. The team members were not pestered, but Didier and Jean both saw other passengers intimidated. One was escorted from Jean’s compartment. After the conductor departed, the three acquired a compartment of their own.
Poitiers
The train arrived at 9:13 PM. Their connection was scheduled to depart at 9:30. The station platform in Poitiers was crowded with civilian travellers, and there are German soldiers patrolling the platform, as well as gendarmes and rather obvious plainclothes officers.
Didier identified several undercover officers among the crowd. Jean also noted one and offered him a cigarette. The officer thanked him in German before catching himself and responding French. When this happened Didier noticed the other agents surprised glances at the other officer for a moment. Patrice was not amused.
The train arrived at 9:25 as expected. Several disembarked and others embarked. As they waited on the line to board, the undercover officers accosted and demanded to see their papers. The officer questioned Jean’s travel permit. He convinced the officer that he and his two colleagues were travelling to the Occupied Zone to reap the benefits of German administration. The officer accepted that story and let them board. The train departed 9:40 on account of the documentation inspections.
On the Train
Shortly after departure, a nervous woman came to their compartment and put her suitcase on the rack. Didier, who was sitting by the door to the passageway, noticed that she had deliberately come to that compartment. She wore a patterned dress and cloche hat and compulsively played with her hair.
A short time later, the conductor came to check their tickets. Didier, Jean and Patrice were not bothered, but the woman’s ticket was suspect. Jean attempted to mediate on her behalf but the conductor was not swayed and took her away. They noticed that the woman had left her suitcase.
Jean then had Didier watch the passageway while he inspected the woman’s suitcase. Didier noted that the conductor was at the far end of the car. After some effort Jean managed to bypass the lock to reveal women’s clothing and such. He did not find anything in the case, but Didier noticed a recently sewn seam in the lid.
Jean used a pocket knife to open the seam and found several stacks of 1000 franc notes within. Patrice identified that the notes as counterfeit. They divided them amongst themselves and concealed the notes in their own luggage. Then Jean closed the case and returned it to the rack.
Tours
The train arrived in Tours at 11:18 AM. No one was allowed to leave or board the train during its 30 minute stopover. The station platform in Tours was crowded with civilian travellers, and there are German soldiers patrolling the platform, as well as gendarmes and rather obvious plainclothes officers.
While waiting, they observed black uniformed German soldiers herding civilian men, women and children into a string of boxcars. They were all civilians and most followed the soldiers instructions without question.
One woman questioned an officer. He backhanded her and she fell to the ground. A soldier then pulled her to her feet and pushed her back into the line walking up a ramp into a boxcar.
Jean noted more undercover officers on the platform, including some watching the train. They waited quietly for the train to depart.
When the soldiers determined that no more would fit in the boxcars, they closed and bolted the doors. After the SS train departed, the team’s train left around 12:10 PM. As the train was departing, Didier and Jean heard a commotion on the platform. A moment later they saw a desperate man jump onto the rear of the train.
On the Train
About fifteen minutes after departure, a man came to their compartment. He introduced himself as Nicolas. He was tall and slender, wearing a dark suit. Jean recognized him as the man who had jumped onto the train in Tours. He had obviously spent the intervening time cleaning himself up in the bathroom at the end of the car.
After he sat in the seat vacated by the woman, Jean noted him glancing at her suitcase. The man said that he was supposed to meet a woman who had a similar suitcase. Jean told him that the woman had been taken away because she had had a bad ticket. The man was alarmed and asked when it had happened. Jean told him that it had occurred before Tours. The man insisted on taking the suitcase and returning it to her. The team did not get in his way.
As he left the compartment with the suitcase, there was shouting in German from the passageway, followed by gunshots. When Jean went to look out, he was ordered to stay in the compartment. Two men in leather overcoats holding pistols walked by. Some time later, another officious conductor came to inspect their tickets. They were not inconvenienced.
Le Mans
The train arrived in Le Mans at 2:43 PM. There was a 30 minute stopover. Again they identified undercover officers on the platform. Patrice made eye contact with one of the officers, who hurriedly summoned some others on the platform just as the train was departing.
On the Train
The conductor came to inspect their tickets. This time he took exception to Didier’s ticket and two Gestapo agents appeared at the compartment doorway. One entered and the other stood just outside in the passage. They showed their warrant discs.
Jean asked if they were there about the man who stole the woman’s suitcase. The agent said “tell me more about these events.”
Jean continued to tell him about the man who came to the compartment and inquired about the suitcase left by the woman who also had had a bad ticket. He presented his theory about counterfeiters out to rob good people of their money and rob the railroad. The agent pressed him as to whether he thought the perpetrators could be providing false travel papers to enemies of the state. Jean convinced him that that would be a horrible thing.
The agent asked Didier for his version of events. He replied that the stranger had intimidated him and the subsequent shooting had left him shaken. He offered the agent a cigarette. The agent noted the gesture but did not accept it.
The Gestapo agent then asked Patrice what she had seen. She replied that she had been asleep and was only awakened by the gunshots. The agent let her be.
The agent then ordered them to report to Gestapo Headquarters when they arrived in Rennes and report what they had seen on the train. He handed Jean a card bearing the name Sturmbannführer Boff. Then he departed.
Didier was unnerved. Jean lit another cigarette. Patrice joined him. A few minutes later, Jean went to the bathroom. On the way, the conductor informed him that the train should arrive in about 30 minutes. He thought about dumping the fake money down the toilet, but thought again and returned to his seat.
The train arrived in Rennes at 7:15 PM. They need to rendezvous with the other team at the market near the Palais Saint-Georges at 8:00.
At the Garage in Rennes
While Raymond and Norris were away, Francis had radioed into N for the regularly scheduled transmission and learned that N had dispatched a team in country to assist them with the Ollivier factory operation. They needed to rendezvous with the new team at the market near the Palais Saint-Georges at 8 PM.
Norris holed up in the office to study The Demon’s Bane, the book they acquired in Châteaugiron.