- Comet line
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The Comet line (Le Réseau Comète) was a World War II resistance group in Belgium/France which helped Allied soldiers and airmen return to Britain. The line started in Brussels, where the men were fed, clothed and given false identity papers before being hidden in attics and cellars of houses. A network of people guided them south through occupied France into neutral Spain and home via British-controlled Gibraltar.
Contents
Routes
A typical route was from Brussels or Lille to Paris and then via Tours, Bordeaux, Bayonne, over the Pyrenees to San Sebastián in Spain. From there evaders travelled to Bilbao, Madrid and Gibraltar. There were three other main routes. The Pat line (after founder Pat O'Leary) ran from Paris to Toulouse via Limoges and then over the Pyrenees via Esterri d'Aneu to Barcelona. Another Pat line ran from Paris to Dijon, Lyons, Avignon to Marseille, then Nîmes, Perpignan and Barcelona. From Barcelona evaders were transported to Gibraltar. Another route from Paris (the Shelburne line) ran to Rennes and then St Brieuc in Brittany, where men were shipped to Dartmouth.
Creation and exploits
The Comet line was created by a young Belgian woman who joined the Belgian Resistance. Andrée de Jongh (nickname "Dédée") was 20 in 1940 and lived in Brussels. She was the younger daughter of Frédéric de Jongh, a headmaster, and Alice Decarpentrie. Edith Cavell, a British nurse shot in the Tir National in Schaerbeek in 1915 for assisting troops to escape from occupied Belgium to the neutral Netherlands, had been a heroine of Dédée's in her youth.
In August 1941, Andrée de Jongh appeared in the British consulate in Bilbao with a British soldier, James Cromar from Aberdeen, and two Belgian volunteers, Merchiers and Sterckmans, having travelled by train through Paris to Bayonne and then on foot over the Pyrenees. She requested support for her escape network (later named Comet line) from the British military intelligence, granted by MI9, (British Military Intelligence Section 9), under the control of an ex-infantry major, Norman Crockatt and lieutenant James Langley, who had been repatriated after losing his left arm in the rear guard defence of Dunkerque in 1940.
With MI9 she helped 400 Allied soldiers escape from Belgium through occupied France to the British consulate in Madrid and on to Gibraltar. Neave described her as "one of our greatest agents."[1] Later Neave organised gunboats from Dartmouth, Devon, to cross the Channel and run agents and supplies to the French resistance in Brittany and to return escaped POWs and evaders to Britain.
Comet Line members and the families took great risks, De Jongh escorting 118 airmen over the Pyrenees herself.
After November 1942 escape lines became more dangerous when southern France was occupied by the Germans and the whole of France was under Nazi rule. Many members of the Comet line were betrayed, hundreds were arrested by the Geheime Feldpolizei and the Abwehr and after weeks of interrogation and torture at places such as Fresnes Prison in Paris were executed or labelled Nacht und Nebel (NN) prisoners. NN prisoners were deported to German prisons and many later to concentration camps such as Ravensbrück concentration camp for women, Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp, Buchenwald concentration camp, Flossenbürg concentration camp,[2]
Prisoners sent to these camps included Andrée de Jongh, Elsie Maréchal (Belgian Resistance), Nadine Dumon (Belgian Resistance), Mary Lindell (Comtesse de Milleville) and Virginia d'Albert-Lake (American).
The authors of the official history of MI9 cite 2,373 British and Commonwealth servicemen and 2,700 Americans taken to Britain during World War II. The RAF Escaping Society estimated there were 14,000 helpers officially in 1945.[3] The Comet line inspired the 1970s BBC television series, Secret Army (1977–79).
Notable members of the Line
- Andrée de Jongh, (aka Dédée) Line creator and chief. Arrested 15 January 1943. Survived several Nazi concentration camps. Awarded the George Medal
- Frédéric de Jongh, (aka Paul). Dédée's father. Arrested 7 June 1943. Executed 28 March 1944.
- Baron Jean Greindl, (aka Nemo). Head of line in Brussels. Arrested 6 February 1943. Killed 7 September 1943.
- Elvire de Greef, (aka Tante Go). Organiser in South France. Escaped arrest and survived. Awarded the George Medal
- Jean-François Nothomb, (aka Franco). Succeeded Dedee in France. Arrested 18 January 1944. Survived several Nazi concentration camps. Awarded the Distinguished Service Order.
- Comte Jacques Legrelle (aka Jerome), organised and operated line in the Paris area, linked theBelgium part of line to South of France. Was captured, tortured, sent to concentration camps and survived. Awarded the George Medal.
- Comte Antoine d’Ursel (aka Jacques Cartier). Succeeded Nemo in Brussels. Died crossing Franco-Spanish border 24 December 1943.
- Micheline Dumon (aka Michou), Operated line in 1944. Escaped arrest and awarded the George Medal.
Further reading
The story of the Comet Line is fully told in the book The Little Cyclone written by Airey Neave who whilst working for MI9 was responsible for overseeing this line and to aid it wherever possible.
Other accounts appear in the books Saturday at MI9 also by Airey Neave, Home Run by John Nichol & Tony Rennel, and MI9 - Escape & Evasion by James Langley & M. R. D. Foot.
Return Journey by Major ASB Arkwright includes a first hand account of three British Officers who were brought to freedom by the line after escaping from a POW camp.
"Riding the Comet" is a stage drama by Mark Violi. The play focuses on a rural French family helping two American GIs return safely to London days after the D-Day invasion. This play premieres at Actors' NET of Bucks County (PA) in September 2011.[4]
See also
- Andrée de Jongh
- French Resistance
- Belgian Resistance
- Shelburne Escape and Evasion Line (Operation Bonaparte)
- Phil Lamason
- Roy Allen
- Jacques Desoubrie
- KLB Club
References
- ^ Home Run - Escape from Nazi Europe 2007. John Nichol and Tony Rennell. (Penguin Books)]
- ^ (English) Marc Terrance (1999). Concentration Camps: Guide to World War II Sites. Universal Publishers. ISBN 1-58112-839-8. http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&vid=ISBN1581128398&id=TNt9IVBVeNQC&pg=PA142&lpg=PA142&dq=Mauthausen&vq=Mauthausen&sig=LICy2j9fVQHMJS7anXJDGm7tTDs.
- ^ Home Run - Escape from Nazi Europe - 2007 p470 - John Nichol and Tony Rennell - (Penguin books)
- ^ Violi, Mark. "Riding the Comet". http://markvioli.com/writing_comet.shtml.
External links
Categories:- French Resistance
- Belgian Resistance
- National liberation movements
- Special Operations Executive
- World War II resistance movements
- Women in World War II
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