Occupied France – Alan Malcher

Denis Rake the gay extrovert who served with SOE (Special Operations Executive)

For many years little was known about Denis Rake because he protected his privacy by making up wild and often humorous stories about his life but after examining new research for my forthcoming book ‘SOE in Occupied France’ more can be told about his wartime service and the following is intended as a brief introduction to a little-known agent who served with distinction but due to his life style he seldom received the public recognition he deserved.

It has been claimed after the war Rake was employed as the second butler at the London residence of actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr when a letter arrived addressed to Major Denis Rake MC. It was also said Fairbanks was surprised that his small, openly gay and very camp butler had been a major who was awarded the Military Cross, and after Fairbanks handed him the letter Rake said, “Oh dear. I was hoping you would never hear about all this nonsense.”

During the 1940s being openly gay and having what was described as ‘female mannerisms’ brought scorn and prejudice from some male agents but Rake was hugely respected and trusted by Virginia Hall and Nancy Wake who became legends in the French Section of SOE and much continues to be written about them. In fact, when Nancy Wake was concerned about her husband who was still in France Rake was her private confidant who supported her when she was upset.

Nancy Wake was known for her straight talking and honest views and when asked about Denis Rake she said “He was queer, and I loved him…” and the expression ‘queer’ should not be taken as an insult, and after listening to former agents who knew Rake I am firmly convinced many of the negative comments about him were due to the homophobia he experienced during the 1940s which was also a time when his life-style was illegal in the United Kingdom.

The American Virginia Hall, SOE’s first resident agent in France.

I describe Rake as a most unlikely agent because during his training he refused to go over the assault course, refused to handle firearms and explosives because he did not like the loud ‘noise’ and constantly argued that a wireless operator would not need to use firearms and would not be involved in sabotage. A student refusing to undertake this training would normally be rejected but not only did Rake display a high degree of competence as a wireless operator he was also correct: although wireless operators were advised to carry a firearm for their personal protection it was not compulsory and their job was not to engage enemy forces or be involved in acts of sabotage; instead they had to remain in hiding whilst maintaining wireless contact with London. It has also been falsely claimed Rake refused to undertake parachute training.

Harry Ree who was an agent and circuit leader was sitting with Colonel Maurice Buckmaster, the commanding officer of the section, and other officers when Rake was being discussed and humorously remembered, when Rake attended the parachute school he was petrified and screamed to the dispatcher “dear boy, my dear boy I don’t think I can do this without a little push… Three times he went up and three times he was chucked or booted out the aircraft.”

Ree also recalled an officer saying to Buckmaster, “this Rake is an odd character sir. I just don’t understand him. He doesn’t like women. I mean, he really doesn’t like women. He prefers men” and Buckmaster replied “but he’s a fine wireless operator”.

It is also interesting to note a commanding officer from one of the training schools wrote in Rake’s personal file, “Rake told me he is not afraid of death and I believe him”

After HQ received a request for a wireless operator be sent to southern France Buckmaster decided to send Rake by sea because there was no guarantee he would leave the aircraft and after arriving in France several agents who were openly hostile towards Rake and questioned his suitability as an agent were silenced after Rake quickly showed he was brave and resourceful.

During their tradecraft training at Beaulieu, which was sometimes unofficially called finishing school, students were taught to lie and bluff their way out of difficult situations and this included projecting appropriate body language with the correct nuance in their voice to support the lie. They were also told to use phrases and sentences which might resonate with their interrogator and shortly after arriving in France Rake was forced to use these skills.

In early 1942 Rake arrived in Gibraltar and was transported by Felucca to a remote stretch of coast in southern France and after distancing himself from the beech he found somewhere to hide until daybreak. The next morning he walked to the nearest town carrying two suitcases, one containing clothing and over 2 million francs in banknotes to finance local resistance and the other containing his wireless set, and by the time he arrived the town was busy with people going to work but before he could lose himself in the crowd he was stopped by a Milice officer who demanded to know what was in his suitcases.

Rake was aware if the officer saw his wireless that would be the end: he would be handed to the Gestapo and after being tortured he would be executed but he remained calm whilst deliberately looking dejected as he slowly lowered his cases to the pavement whilst politely saying ‘Ok sir. You’ve got me sir.” After a short pause Rake then confessed to stealing antiques from a rich family and attempted to morally justify his crime by saying, “unlike us they are not suffering the hardships of the war” and then passionately explained that whilst people like us are suffering this family was having an easy life. Rake then offered the Milice officer a handful of banknotes as a bribe to let him go and the officer pocketed the money and walked away.

During his first mission Rake was arrested and incarcerated twice and both times was lucky to be released but whilst in prison was fearful that the Milice would discover his documents were forgeries and would find himself being handed to the Gestapo, and unlike two other agents who were also released and immediately joined an escape route into neutral Spain, Rake decided to remain in France to continue his mission. After coming to the attention of the authorities it was not long before he was high on their wanted list and the only person he knew and trusted was the American agent Virginia Hall and Rake turned to her for help.

One of Hall’s many contacts was the madam of a local brothel who agreed to hide Rake in her loft and for the next few months Rake was protected by local prostitutes until Hall could arrange his escape to Spain.

After returning to England Denis Rake became a conducting officer at Beaulieu and during the build-up to D-day he volunteered to return to France as a wireless operator and worked with his great friend Nancy Wake.

Apart from working as a butler little is known about his life after the war, but it is thought he had no friends and lived alone in a small caravan somewhere in rural Kent where he died in 1976 at the age of 75.

The “Wild Irish girl who went around France with a wireless tucked in her bag” (SOE in France)

Claudia Pulver was a Viennese jew who escaped to England and was working as a seamstress in London when she was recruited by SOE to work at their continental clothing section based in Titchfield Street London which was responsible for producing continental style clothing and issuing agents with authentic looking clothing and accessories.

Pulver also measured and fitted out agents at their nearby secret showroom in Margaret Street and although she did not know their names after the war she got to know their true identities. Pulver recalled a French countess who crossed the channel in a rowing boat and would be returning to France as an agent and explained:

” She was an elegant lady and we had to make her elegant clothes… There was {also} a Jewish girl who was supposed to be dropped in the south of France in some chateau occupied partly by German officers. Because she was supposed to be a relation we had to make her riding clothes, but she did not make it for long. She managed to get a few Germans before they killed her. We could never understand how they could be so brave as they were. They were incredibly contained and distant. Somehow you felt there was something very special about them.

Clothes were designed to support their cover story including the social status the agent needed to project and people like wireless operators were dressed quite ordinary and we had to be careful to be in character.

We had an Irish girl who was quite wild and went around France with a wireless tucked in her bag. She was dressed quite ordinary. When the German’s stopped her and asked her what she had in her bag she said, ‘it’s a wireless, or course, but she got away with it. She survived the war but others didn’t…”

Although Ireland was neutral many Irish citizens enlisted and the Irish girl which Claudia Pulver described as quite wild was 23-year-old Maureen ‘Paddy’ O’Sullivan who preferred to be called Paddy because of her Irish heritage.

Paddy was born in Dublin on 3 January 1918 and was raised at a convent in Dublin and at the age of 7 was sent to live with her aunt in Belgium where she attended another convent school and from the scant information available it appears she never experienced a stable family life.

When war was declared Paddy was training to be a nurse at Highgate Hospital but decided to enlist into the WAAF’s and on 7 July 1941 her language skills came to the attention of SOE and she was recruited as a potential agent.

During phase one of her training and selection at Wanborough Manor near Guildford she displayed the required skills to become as a field wireless operator and after being warned the life expectancy of a wireless operator was judged to be around six weeks, Paddy volunteered and attended the wireless and security school and after completing the course she successfully passed the difficult ‘trade craft’ course at Beaulieu before being taught to parachute.

Although it is widely believed Paddy O’Sullivan completed two missions to France due to lack of official documents this cannot be confirmed.

On the night of 23/24 March 1944, which was possibly the start of her second mission, Paddy O’Sullivan boarded a converted bomber of 138 Special Duties Squadron at RAF Tempsford in Buckinghamshire to parachute onto a remote field near Limoges in south-west central France but after reaching the DZ (drop zone) the entire area was covered in fog, the ground could not be seen from the air and the pilot suggested the mission be aborted and they return to Tempsford but Paddy insisted on being dropped. After exiting the aircraft at 600 feet during her descent she could not see the ground or the tree as she crashed through its branches before making a heavy landing. After the war she made the casual remark of being saved from serious injury by the 2 million francs in bank notes strapped to her back.

With forged papers identifying her as Micheline Simonet, a nurse from Paris Paddy became the wireless operator for a clandestine circuit called Fisherman and for several months she was constantly on the move and working from different safe houses to keep one step ahead of the German Intelligence wireless detection finders whilst maintaining contact with London and organising weapons, sabotage stores and other agents to be dropped by parachute.

It has been said O’Sullivan continued this dangerous work until France was liberated but a short note in her personal file which simply says, “Simonet, overrun now Madam Alvey” supports the belief her cover had been blown, the Gestapo and Abwehr knew her identity and Paddy had changed her cover name to Madam Alvey to evade capture.

It is also believed Paddy only disposed of her wireless and went on the run after informing London of her situation and arrangements had been made for a Lysander from 161 Special Duties Squadron to extract her from isolated farmland.

After the war Paddy O’Sullivan was awarded the French Croix de Guerre and the British MBE and she summarised her war service as being “terribly frightening at times but there was a wonderful spirit of sharing danger with men of the highest order of courage which made it a privilege to work with them.”

Giliana Balamaceda the First Female SOE agent sent to France

Giliana Balamaceda was born in Chile in 1910 and worked as an actress in Paris where she met and married Englishman Victor Garson, who later established the VIC escape line from France to Spain. At the time Victor Garson was a dealer in fine rugs and carpets and just prior to German troops entering France the couple escaped to England and both were eventually recruited by the Special Operations Executive (SOE).

In May 1941 Garson (nee Balamaceda) landed on a remote stretch of southern France at night by Felucca ( traditional wooden sailing boat used in the eastern Mediterranean) and spent the next three months recruiting patriotic Frenchmen and women willing to accept the dangerous task of working on the future VIC escape line. She also recruited elderly couples willing to use spare rooms in their home to accommodate escapers until they could be moved further down the line.

Garson also collected ration cards, identity papers, packets of popular brands of cigarettes, tobacco and other items to be forged in England and issued to agents going to France. After completing her mission she made her way back to England via Spain and Gibraltar.

Although Giliana Balamaceda is one of the least know SOE agents she was the first female agent to work in France and the VIC escape line would not have been possible without her major contribution to its formation and the samples she brought back from France allowed agents to carry authentic looking documents and props to support the cover identities.

France under occupation: film footage taken at great risk by Gaston Madru.

Rare news footage of Nazi occupied France captured surreptitiously by a brave French cameraman, Gaston Madru, from 1942 to 1944. It gives a snapshot of everything from swastikas flying from French buildings to the German retreat from France in 1944. If caught Madru would have been executed.