WORKERS IN PAT LINE
Brief details of some of the individuals involved with Pat Line in France in WWll
This page is not intended to give a history of Pat Line's operations in France during WWII since that appears on other pages (see list). It is merely a list of some of the individuals involved.
Compiled and edited by Sarah Long
Pat Line and Escape & Evasion in France (1940-44)
Secret Papers (London Portrait Magazine, 1984)
See General Charles de Gaulle 1940-44
See Clandestine Warfare 1939-45
See Escapers, Evaders & Helpers TV Proposal
Escape Lines In Europe In WWll – RAFES 1994
We have no way of knowing how many people were workers in the line, in one capacity or another. Certainly scores, and maybe hundreds, from the day that an airman was picked up in a field by a peasant farmer to the day that a guide led him across the Pyrenees or he was evacuated by sea. Sadly, there will be far too many brave people whose stories will never be known to us. They risked death and worse to feed, shelter, escort and protect men desperate to get back to England to rejoin the fight against the Nazi evil. Many provided safe houses, where escapers and evaders could be hidden for anything from a few hours to a several weeks.
The following is a far from complete list, in alphabetical order:
Guy Berthet
Berthet was a police inspector who served a prison sentence for organising resistance amongst fellow police in Paris before joining the line as a courier. He was eventually arrested, tortured and killed by the Gestapo.
Francis Blanchain
Blanchain, known as Achille, lived at a safe house in Toulouse, Madame Mongelard's Hotel de Paris (see below), and helped organise the escape of Whitney Straight from a prison hospital. Helen Long, in Safe Houses Are Dangerous, describes him as Pat's best guide. He was caught by the police when on a reconaissance mission in Limoges but managed to escape, and in early 1943 went down his own line to safety. He later married Paula Spriewald (see below) in London.
Abbé P. Carpentier
Abbé Carpentier was a priest in Abbeville, northern France, who specialised in providing fake identity documents for escapers and evaders until his arrest on 8 December 1941. In a letter he smuggled out of Loos prison in March 1942, Carpentier described in detail his betrayal by Cole. He was beheaded at Dortmund.
Donald Caskie
Caskie was a Scottish Presbyterian minister who fled Paris in June 1940. On his arrival in Marseilles he became a founder member of the line and set up the Seamen's Mission at 46 Rue du Forbin. Ostensibly for civilians and seamen only, Caskie was able to hide large numbers of escapers and evaders between July 1940 and the Mission's forced closure in early 1942. In addition, he gave regular church services to Allied servicemen held in St Hippolyte du Fort, taking the opportunity to smuggle in escape equipment. Caskie was arrested in April 1942 and sentenced to death, but he survived to end the war as an official Chaplain to the Allied Forces. In 1957 he published his memoirs,The Tartan Pimpernel. He died in Edinburgh in 1983, aged 81.
Madame Catala
Madame Catala ran the last safe house before escapers/evaders crossed the Pyrenees into Spain. She was initially responsible for organising and paying the guides (mostly Spanish revolutionaries and smugglers). Her husband was a scientist working in London during the war.
Cheramy family
English-born Patricia Cheramy and her husband lived in Montaubon, near Toulouse. They were arrested when Tom Groome (see below) was caught making a wireless transmission to London from their house. They were told their baby would be killed unless they talked, but in fact Patricia was eventually reunited with the child after the war. She survived Ravensbruck but physical abuse and torture left her severely disabled.
Monsieur and Madame Chouquette
Madame Chouquette ran the Hotel du Tennis near Canet-Plage beach, Perpignan. This was an important safe house as several mass evacuations were made from the beach during 1942, thus avoiding the need for exhausted escapers/evaders to make the arduous trip across the Pyrenees.
Harold 'Paul' Cole
From early 1941, Cole escorted escapers and evaders from Lille to Marseilles. Suspicions grew, though, that he was at best stealing funds intended for helpers, and at worst a traitor, and he was confronted in the Rodocanachi's flat in early November 1941 by O'Leary and others. He managed to escape and did indeed betray an unknown number of the line's helpers. He was shot dead by Paris police in January 1946, aged 39.
Madeline Dammerment
Madeline worked in northern France for the line from its earliest days, along with her boyfriend Roland Lepers (see below).
Donald Darling
Codenamed 'Sunday', he worked for MI9. In July 1940 he was sent to Lisbon to create underground links with France, and was transferred to Gibraltar in early 1942, where he debriefed escapers and evaders and provided practical help to the line. His books, Secret Sunday and Sunday at Large, were published in 1975 and 1977 (the year of his death).
Fabien de Cortes
Helen Long, in Safe Houses Are Dangerous, describes him as one of Pat's most trusted lieutenants. He was betrayed by Roger le Neveu and arrested along with Pat O'Leary, but managed to escape by leaping from a moving train. When he finally reached Switzerland, he was able to warn London of O'Leary's arrest and le Neveu's treachery.
Jean de la Olla
Louis Nouveau (see below) dedicated his memoirs, Des Capitaines Par Milliers, to Jean de la Olla, "le meilleur de nous tous pour qu'il oublie" (the best of us, so he may forget). He was responsible for finding safe houses in the Paris and Lille areas and administered funds to workers in these areas. In March 1943 he was arrested, betrayed by Roger le Neveu (see below).
Nadia de Pastré
Nadia, daughter of the Comte and Comtesse de Pastré, lived with them at the Chateau de Montredon, near Marseilles. Without her parents' knowledge, she and the family nanny ran a safe house. See also Jean Fourcade's memoirs, on this site.
Madame Deram
Madame Deram ran a safe house in Lille. She was betrayed by Cole (see above), for whom she provided lodgings.
Françoise Dissard
Françoise was already in her late fifties and in poor health in 1940. She lived near the Gestapo headquarters in Toulouse, at 12, Rue Paul Mariel. When the Nouveaus (see below) were forced to flee Marseilles in summer 1942, Renée went to live with Francoise. Already the chief organiser in Toulouse, Françoise took over the line when most of its chief personnel were arrested in 1943.
Bruce Dowding
Known as André or Mason, Dowding was an Australian who joined the line at the end of 1940. He was responsible for escorting escapers and evaders towards the Spanish border by train from Marseilles, via Toulouse and Perpignan. After the confrontation with Cole (see above) in November 1941 Dowding went to the north of France to warn helpers of Cole's possible treachery. While he was in Abbeville with the Abbé Carpentier (see above) they were caught by the Gestapo. Although able to escape initially, Dowding was captured when he attempted to warn others, and was beheaded at Dortmund in June 1943. See Peter Dowding's account on this site.
Monsieur and Madame Dupré
Monsieur Dupré had a family business in Lille, where he acted as the line's 'banker' in the north. His artificial leg disbarred him from military service. He was at the Rodocanachi flat at the time of the confrontation with Cole (see above) in November 1941. Betrayed by Cole, he was tortured and executed.
Monsieur and Madame Durand
Eugène Durand owned the Chope du Pont Neuf, a large brasserie close to the main fruit and vegetable markets in Paris. With his wife, who acted as cook and cashier, he provided escapers and evaders with food and a place to rest. In October 1941, Roland Lepers (see below) alerted members of the line to the fact that money intended to reimburse the couple was going astray, stolen by Cole (see above).
Duriez family
The Duriez family ran a safe house in Antibes.
Fari
A member of the French police, unwittingly introduced to the line by Gaston Nègre (see below). Fari betrayed many of the line's personnel.
Fillerin family
Norbert Fillerin, with his wife Marguerite, their daughters Genevieve and Monique and their son Gabriel, ran a safe house near St Omer. Helen Long, in Safe Houses Are Dangerous, says of him "... a stalwart and active member of the line, who lived at Renty. Beekeeper, philosopher, reader of Plato, the son of a wholesale butcher, Norbert always wore workman's overalls, had perfect manners and a calm smile that radiated confidence, and he delighted in finding 'little girls fallen from the sky', or hidden in the neighbourhood." Norbert was arrested in Paris in March 1943 at the same time as Jean de la Olla (see above), betrayed by Roger le Neveu (see below). He was sent to Fresnes, Buchenwald and Flossenberg before being liberated in May 1945. Marguerite was arrested in January 1944 and sentenced to death, but survived to be freed in 1945. Genevieve, Monique and Gabriel continued to work for the line in their parents' absence. After the war, Norbert Fillerin wrote a collection of poems on the subject of the line and its personnel, copies of which are in the author's possession.
Henri and Nancy Fiocca (née Nancy Wake)
Nancy Wake was a New Zealand jounalist who married the wealthy French businessman Henri Fiocca in November 1939. He escorted escapers and evaders along the line, as well as providing financial support, until he was denounced, arrested and tortured before being executed on 16 October 1943. Nancy, described by Louis Nouveau (see below) as "an extraordinary person", hid escapers and evaders and hosted meetings of the line in her flat near the Palais de Longchamp in Marseilles. When she eventually reached England in April 1943, it was to train with SOE (Special Operations Executive) before being parachuted back into France. She became known as the Terror of the Germans in the Auvergne. After the war, Nancy remarried, becoming Nancy Forward, and moved to Australia. Her story is told in Russell Braddon's book, Nancy Wake.
Jean Fourcade
For a significant part of 1941, Jean carried messages to Paris for the line, took care of Elisabeth Haden-Guest's four-year old son Anthony and at times hid escapers and evaders. His recollections of the period are published on this site.
Ian Garrow
Garrow became a founder member of the line when he reached Marseilles after the Allied evacuations of Dunkirk (June 1940). He stayed with the Rodocanachis for several months until his arrest in October 1941. After his escape, organised by Pat O'Leary, he travelled back to London via Pat Line. After the war, he worked for a period in Berlin before returning to his native Scotland, where he died in 1976. For fuller details of Garrow's war experiences, see the pages on this site concerning the history of Pat Line and Garrow's involvement. While he was working for the line, MI9 kept in touch with Garrow's parents in a series of cryptic and fascinating letters, reproduced in thumbnail form on this site.
Tom Groome
Tom Groome was an Australian with a French mother. Aged 20, he was sent from London to join the line as a wireless operator in October 1942. In January 1943 he was caught while transmitting from the Cheramys house near Toulouse (see above) but managed to warn London of his arrest. Although he leapt from an open window, allowing his assistant, Edith Reddé (see below) to escape, Tom was recaptured.
Elisabeth Haden-Guest
With her small son, Anthony, she was a conspicuous figure in wartime Marseilles, and a founder member of Pat Line. Her memoirs, Dream Weaver, published in the 1980s under her later name Elisabeth Furse, differ in important aspects from the recollections of others and what is now recognised as established fact. See on this site, for example, the recollections of Jean Fourcade. She died in London in 2002.
Tom and Sue Kenney
Tom Kenney, also known as Lt. Johnson, was a Canadian who was a member of the line in Marseilles from its earliest days. In July 1941 he married Sue Martinez. On his escape to England, Tom joined the RAF. After the war the couple settled in Paris, where Tom died in 1971, aged 60.
James Langley
James 'Jimmy' Langley lost an arm as a result of action in 1940, and returned to England in March 1941. He was then posted to MI9 to work with Donald Darling (see above). His books, Fight Another Day and MI9 Escape and Evasion 1939-1945 (the latter written with MRD Foot) were published in 1974 and 1979. He died in 1983.
Pierrot Lanvers
Lanvers, known as Petit Pierrot of Nimes, was an agent for the line who was arrested with Léone Savinos (see below) in Paris in April 1942. Savinos was able to persuade the Gestapo that he was prepared to work for them, and both men were released and able to escape to England on an organised submarine evacuation in September 1942.
Roland Lepers
Lepers was a young Belgian student who, with his girlfriend Madeline Dammerment (see above), escorted escapers and evaders from the far north from the line's earliest days.
Dr Levy
Dr Levy, of Juan-les-Pins, near Toulouse, provided a safe house on at least one occasion, when he hid Whitney Straight the night after Straight's escape from a prison hospital.
Robert Leycuras
Known as Albert, he was a police inspector who served a prison sentence for organising resistance amongst fellow police in Paris before joining the line as a courier.
Thérèse Martin
Thérèse Martin, whose real name was Olga Baudot de Rouville, ran a safe house in Marseilles. Louis Nouveau, in Des Capitaines Par Milliers, says " Jean de la Olla had sent us from the north a woman who was completely 'blown' near Lille... Pat rented a small flat near Jarret for her and, especially after we left Marseille, she hid several pilots in this flat. She was very dedicated but had an extraordinarily difficult character: for example, she forbade the pilots to smoke in case the smell gave them away during her absence."
Martin family
The Martin family provided a safe house near Endoume, Marseilles. Among others, they hid William Sparks, who in his book, Last of the Cockleshell Heroes, remembers his stay as follows: "[February 1943] Our escorts led us to a high block of flats, where we caught the lift. We arrived at the top floor, and approached a door. One of the men knocked and the door was opened by a slim, dark woman... two little daughters, one aged about eleven and the other seven. Her husband worked at the docks... Monsieur and Madame Martin were lovely people, doing all they could to make us comfortable... It became quite crowded in the flat, but there were plenty of beds or mattresses for us all to sleep on, and no-one went hungry. Sometimes friends arrived with a whole sheep, which they dumped in the bath and cut up."
Madame Mongelard
Madame Mongelard owned the Hotel de Paris, Toulouse, which was used as the line's base for departures across the Pyrenees.
Airey Neave
In April 1942 Airey Neave stayed in the Noveau's safe house (see below) in Marseilles after his escape from Colditz. On his return to England he began work for MI9 with Donald Darling and James Langley (see entries). His codename was 'Saturday'. His books, They Have Their Exits and Saturday at MI9, were published in 1953 and 1969. Neave became a British MP and was murdered by IRA terrorists in 1979.
Gaston Negré
Vincent Brome, in The Way Back, writes of him "Whether it involved spiriting away secret documents from a gendarmerie, forging passes, smuggling prisoners into his house, or providing food for half a battalion of escaped British soldiers, he always did what he undertook to do." He ran a wholesale grocery business in Nimes and his fourteen-room apartment hid large numbers of escapers and evaders. He was arrested in 1942 with Jean Nitelet (see below) while clearing up after an airdrop of supplies. Françoise Dissard (see above) arranged his rescue from Castres, when a co-operative jailor encouraged his colleagues to toast a fictional birthday with wine containing a sleeping draught provided by Dr Rodocanachi (see below). Disguised as a convalescent, he travelled north to spend the remainder of the war in hiding.
Roger le Neveu
A blond Frenchman in his mid twenties known as le Legionnaire. Roger was a traitor who in 1943 was responsible for the arrests of many members of the line, including Pat O'Leary, Jean de la Olla and Louis Nouveau (see below). He later attempted to infiltrate the the Shelburne Line. After the war he was dealt with by the Maquis.
Jean Nitelet
Known as One-eyed Jean or Jean le Nerveux (restless John), Jean was a Belgian Spitfire pilot shot down near St Omer and picked up by Norbert Fillerin (see above). When he eventually reached Marseilles, he was hidden in the Nouveau apartment (see below). There he was treated by Dr Rodocanachi (see below) for the injury that caused him to lose his right eye. Later, he was able to escape to England, where he trained as a wireless operator. In early 1942, he returned to Marseilles to work for the line. A few months later, he was arrested with Gaston Negré (see above) while clearing up after an airdrop of supplies.
Louis and Renée Nouveau
Louis Nouveau was a wealthy Marseilles banker, in his mid forties at the start of the war. He and his wife Renée were close friends of the Rodocanachis. They ran one of the line's two main safe houses in Marseilles at their apartment, 28a Quai de Rive Neuve as well as providing important financial help for the line. Unusually, Louis kept a list of most of the escapers, evaders and others who hid in his apartment in 1941 and 1942, written on slips hidden in the spines of a copy of Voltaire. He was betrayed by Roger le Neveu in January 1943 and sent to Buchenwald. Renée escaped to England in April 1943 with Nancy Fiocca (see above). In 1958 Louis published his memoirs of the period, Des Capitaines Par Milliers. These memoirs were dedicated to Bruce Dowding, Jean de la Olla and the Rodocanachis (see entries). In 1985, his widow, Renée was living in Aix-en-Provence, France.
Pat O'Leary
Also known as Adolphe or Joseph, Pat O'Leary was a Belgian doctor whose real name was Albert-Marie Guérisse. The line is named after him because he was its leader from the time of Garrow's arrest in October 1941 until he himself was betrayed by Roger le Neveu and arrested in Toulouse in March 1943. Tortured and sentenced to death, he was liberated from Dachau in April 1945. After the war, he eventually became head of the Belgian army's medical services, retiring in 1970. He died in Belgium in 1989 aged 77. For fuller details of his war experiences, see the pages on this site concerning the history of Pat Line and Fanny Rodocanachi's personal account (see below).
André Postel-Vinay
Postel-Vinay was introduced to the line by Georges Zarifi (see below). By chance, he was in the Rodocanachi flat in November 1941 at the time of the confrontation with Cole (see above). The following month, he was betrayed by Cole and arrested. To avoid the risk of talking under torture, he tried to commit suicide by throwing himself from a high window. Severely injured, he spent months in hospital before managing to escape from an asylum in mid-1942. Postel-Vinay made his way down the line and travelled to England on an organised submarine evacuation from Canet-Plage beach. There, he joined de Gaulle and remained in government until his retirement in 1976. His memoirs of the war years, Un Fou S'Evade, were published in 1997. In 2003, he was living in Paris.
Mario Prassinos
A Greek living in Marseilles, Prassinos was involved in the line from the earliest days. Later, he travelled to England to train with SOE. On his return to France, he was arrested and deported to a concentration camp. He is presumed to have died there shortly before the end of the war.
Raffarin
Raffarin carried messages from Marseilles to Paris. It seems he may have worked as a train driver or conductor. He was arrested in late 1943 and sent to Buchenwald. There he met up again with Louis Nouveau (see above). Transferred to another camp, all trace of him is now lost.
Edith Reddé
Edith was a young French woman who was working as a runner for Tom Groome (see above) when they were arrested near Toulouse during a wireless transmission in January 1943. She was able to escape and made her way down the line, spending time in the Martins house (see above). William Sparks, in The Last of the Cockleshell Heroes, remembers her as trying to find her way back to London to train with SOE.
Dr George and Fanny Rodocanachi
Dr George Rodocanachi and his wife Fanny were founder members of the line. They ran one of its two main safe houses in Marseilles at their apartment, 21 Rue Roux de Brignoles. Their elderly maid Séraphine was an invaluable ally in this. The couple also provided important financial help for the line. The flat was also the headquarters of the line from early 1941 until George's arrest 26 February 1943. George died in Buchenwald 10 February 1944 aged 67, a few weeks after his arrival. Fanny moved to London after the war to live near her brother [the site author's grandfather], and in 1959 died of the cancer which had afflicted her throughout the war. See Fanny's personal account on this site. Her niece, Helen Long [the site author's mother], published Safe Houses Are Dangerous in 1985, an overall account of the line.
Léoni Savinos
A Greek living in Marseilles, Savinos was involved in the line from the earliest days. Fluent in French, Greek and German, he was also able to act as go-between for the Germans as they attempted to win over General Plastiras, a Greek statesman living on the Riviera. He even succeeded in getting an official Gestapo pass, which meant he could travel freely between Paris and Marseilles. In April 1942 he was arrested in Paris along with Pierrot Lanvers (see above). Savinos was able to persuade the Gestapo that he was prepared to work for them. Both men were released and able to escape to England on an organised submarine evacuation from Canet-Plage beach autumn 1942. With them went his German-born wife, Emy Savinos, a well-known anti-Nazi.
Paula Spriewald
Paula was the daughter of a Socialist member of the Reichstag. Her family fled to Paris from Hitler's Germany. In Marseilles, she lived with the Savinoses (see above) and worked for the line as Pat O'Leary's secretary. She left for England on an organised submarine evacuation from Canet-Plage beach in September 1942. After the war, Paula married Francis Blanchain (see above).
Eva and Susie Trenchard
These two elderly Scottish sisters had run a small teashop in Monte Carlo for many years before the war. It became a safe house and rendezvous for escapers and evaders.
Paul Ullmann
Paul was a Jewish tailor in Toulouse. He and his wife ran a safe house as well as hiding his sister, on the run from Paris. The Ullmanns made the fake guard's uniform used in Ian Garrow's (see above) escape from prison in December 1942. In March 1943 he was betrayed by Roger le Neveu (see above) and arrested at the same time as Pat O'Leary (see above).
Vidal
Head of the Spanish guides, based in Toulouse. These men, mostly republicans from the civil war, escorted escapers and evaders across the Pyrenees. Vidal was betrayed, tortured and executed.
Jacques Wattlebled
A courier for the line, based in Toulouse.
Georges Zarifi
Georges Zarifi [the site author's cousin and godfather] was the nephew of Fanny Rodocanachi (see above). He acted as a courier and agent for the line. Georges himself travelled down the line in April 1943 in the last party out of Marseilles. When he reached London he enrolled in de Gaulle's Free French.
Pat Line and Escape & Evasion in France (1940-44)
Secret Papers (London Portrait Magazine, 1984)
See General Charles de Gaulle 1940-44
See Clandestine Warfare 1939-45
See Escapers, Evaders & Helpers TV Proposal