It’s a rainy afternoon in Lyon, France. I’m in the Center for the History of the Resistance and Deportation, learning first-hand about French Resistance Activity during World War II. The Resistance started out as a bunch of scattered, independent groups of fighters. But they got organized and became a real pain in the neck for the Nazi’s. They were undermined constantly by fighters for the Resistance such as Nancy Wake.
Nancy Wake: Most Wanted by the Gestapo
Nancy Wake caused so much trouble that the Gestapo made her the #1 person on their most-wanted list. They put a five million franc reward on her head.
What did she do to deserve such an honor? There are many stories of her exploits. She made her way to England to be trained by the SOE, and the chaps there reported that she was a force to be reckoned with – good-looking, smart, and deadly, too.
She ultimately became one of the leaders of a 7,000 person-strong Maquis fighting force in southern France. I guess no one ever collected the Gestapo’s five million francs, (good luck with that, anyway, eh?), because she survived the war and lived a long life.
In the 1990’s, she was asked during an interview about what had happened during a particular Maquis raid. She had been spotted by a German sentry who was just about to blow the whole operation. The interviewer was referring to a well-documented incident where she had killed the guy with her bare hands.
For her response, she didn’t say anything. She just drew her finger slowly across her throat. Honh! How about that? Later she explained, “They had taught me this judo-chop stuff at the SOE, and I practiced away at it. But this was the only time I used it. Whack! It killed him, alright. I was really surprised.”
There’s another story about a time when her group’s headquarters had been found out. The Germans attacked. To keep their communication codes out of enemy hands, they had to destroy them all. The Maquis got out alive, but they needed to replace those codes, and the nearest replacement set was more than 300 miles away.
Gas-powered transport was out of the question, so Nancy hopped on a bicycle and rode off to fetch the replacement codes. She had to cross four Nazi checkpoints en route, but she made it there and back. I guess she really WAS something, eh?
Preparing for D-Day
In other parts of France, the now-organized French Resistance, working with the SOE, started making secret preparations for a really big allied invasion that would become known as D-Day.
Over the course of months before the big day, Allied forces air-dropped tons of weapons, ammunition, explosives, radio gear, and supplies into rural all over northwestern France. Resistance fighters stashed them in farmhouse after farmhouse all over Normandy.
Americans started getting involved around this time, too. Next the Allies air-dropped in ninety-three 3-man teams. Each team consisted of an American, an Englishman, and a Frenchman. Those teams would help coordinate French Resistance activity before and over the course of the upcoming attack.
When the big day arrived and the Good Guys landed on those Normandy beaches, the Nazi’s sent tanks and troops from all over France to thwart the invasion. They had a terrible time getting to the front. For some reason a lot of strategic roads, bridges, and sections of train track were blowing up at the most inopportune times!
Jean Moulin
Now let’s get back to Jean Moulin. He had almost single-handedly brought Resistance fighters together from all over France as an organized group. He logged a lot of miles undercover, using only the code name, “Max.”
Klaus Barbie, the Gestapo, and the Milice were all after him. The net was getting tighter. In June of 1943, the Nazi’s captured another important Resistance leader. The leader’s lack of a designated replacement really caused a lot of problems. Jean Moulin realized that he needed to designate his own replacement who could hold things together in case the Nazi’s caught up with him.
So within a matter of weeks, Moulin set up a secret meeting to take care of it. Four or five key Resistance leaders would be there. Moulin and an associate were to meet at Place Carnot, (not far from our hotel), but the person was thirty minutes late, which was highly irregular. Finally the guy showed up.
The meeting was to take place at a doctor’s house in a suburb of Lyon – a Dr. Dugoujon. They were now 45 minutes late. The date was June 21st, 1943. It would not be a good day.
To be continued…
