Operation Jedburgh: D-Day and America's First Shadow War, by Colin Beavan

Operation Jedburgh: D-Day and America's First Shadow War

Operation Jedburgh grew out of my curiosity about my grandfather’s secret career, first in the OSS and then in the CIA. Sadly, my grandfather would never tell me anything about his work before he died. “Forget all the James Bond stuff,” he used to say. Luckily for me, however, he and my grandmother left enough curled-up papers and photos in their basement to whet my appetite for Operation Jedburgh. And that’s where my research began.

Before long, I found myself immersed shoulder deep in literally tens of thousands of pages of primary documents at the United States’ National Archives and the British Public Records Office. But what I think brings the Jedburgh story alive are the personal accounts of perhaps a hundred people of my grandfather’s generation who have talked to me about CIA and OSS over the years. Most importantly, of course, I owe thanks to the octogenarian former members of Operation Jedburgh along with one or two OSS London branch headquarters staff who so generously gave of their time.

I started by talking to Joe De Francesco of Operation Jedburgh’s Team Jim, who sadly has passed away. He acted as my Jedburgh-research traffic cop. Because of the top secret nature of Operation Jedburgh, it was some thirty years before the Jeds had their first reunion. Some time after that, Joe became a kind of alumni organizer of the Jeds in the United States, and he gave me dozens of addresses and phone numbers of Jeds and their widows. He also put me in touch with Ron Brierley and Albert de Schonen, both of Team Daniel, who had kept tabs on all the British and French Jeds over the years.

Bob Kehoe, the Team Frederick radio operator, was the first of my week-long interview victims. I arrived in Boulder, Colorado, on a Monday, but it was not until around Thursday that he first asked when I might be going home. At that stage I knew barely a thing about Jedburgh, and Bob patiently explained even its most basic aspects to me. He also very kindly spent hours helping me to understand the mind-set of young men in the 1940s and what could possibly persuade them to volunteer first for the army and second for even more hazardous duty behind enemy lines.

Retired Major General Jack Singlaub of Team James was the first of the Jedburgh team leaders I met with. Like Kehoe, he patiently brought me up to speed from the officers’ perspective, during both many days in his study and many phone calls over the three and a half years I have been at work on this book. His long experience in the military and in special operations also provided me with important insight. On a personal level, Jack taught me that holding vastly different political views need not stand in the way of developing a deep affection for someone. His wife, Joan, by the way, is one of the world’s best cooks. Jack’s James teammate Jacques de Penguilly kindly put me up in his home in Brittany and provided me with valuable French perspective.

Sir Thomas Macpherson of Team Quinine, in spite of the fact that he splits his time between homes in London and Scotland and travels extensively in connection with his still very active business interests, also spent days with me. By nature, I think, a rather private man, he happily endured some intensely personal questions about his childhood and family life. He also provided me with some of the most swashbuckling anecdotes in this book.

Jean Sassi of Team Chloroform, who retired from a career in the French army to his home in Tavergny, north of Paris, regaled me and my translator over the course of six days. He waved his arms in the air, jumped up from his chair to enact the shooting of Germans, laughed, shouted, and brought his Jedburgh story to life in a way that inspired me throughout the writing of
this book.

Bernard Knox of Team Giles enthusiastically narrated both hilarious and tragic stories of his time in Brittany. When I couldn’t visit, Bernard eked out his stories over a series of hour-long phone calls. His wife, Betty, very patiently put up with my visits and phone calls, though Bernard’s attention was sometimes more urgently required elsewhere.

This list of Jedburghs who began by agreeing to speak with me for an hour or two and then found themselves press-ganged into feeding me and spending days with me goes on: Lou Lajeunesse of Team Norman, one of the most sensitive of the men connected with Jedburgh I met, recalled war experiences he found painful to remember and talk about. Michel de Bourbon and Arthur Brown, Macpherson’s Quinine teammates, spent days with me, too.

Arthur very kindly allowed me to read and quote from his unpublished memoir of the war, and spoke to me very frankly about life at that time. Michel, at his Florida home, helped me to understand both the French perspective on Operation Jedbugh and the complex range of emotions and factors that motivated the various factions in France during the occupation. He also gave me a ride in his antique Rolls-Royce—and then made me push it when it broke down!

Dick Franklin of Team Alexander and Bill Thompson of Team Novocaine also welcomed me into their homes for days on end. Like Arthur Brown, Dick very kindly let me read his touching unpublished manuscript. Bill showed me round his town of Leavenworth, Kansas, and included me in his regular dinner and lunch engagements with his friends. Bill also had a personal album of some of the best candid pictures of the Jeds I’ve seen and gave me permission to reproduce a few in this book.

During the days on end I spent tapping away on my laptop while these Jeds so kindly searched their memories for stories, I developed strong feelings of affection for these men. I would like to say here that it is my most fervent hope that nothing I have written in this book offends them, for I truly like and respect all of them.

Other Jeds and family members of deceased Jeds to whom I own my gratitude but who were subjected to my questions for only hours instead of days include Ted Baumgold, Jacob Berlin, John Cox, Elmer Esch, Camille Lelong, Bob Lucas, Henry McIntosh, Roger Pierre, Jack Poché, Dick Rubenstein, Donald Spears, Mason Starring, David Stern, Gordon Tack, Ray Trumps, Patricia Alsop, Elizabeth Winthrop, Daphne Friele, Violette Desmarais, Louise Queinnec, Kay Strong, and Christopher Wise.

I also owe particular thanks to the late Paul van der Stricht, former chief of Western European Operations of OSS Special Operations in London, who had outlasted all other London branch senior staff. He entertained me regularly in his Greenwich, Connecticut, home and provided me with invaluable insights not only into the relationships between the American, British, and French shadow chiefs but also into the means by which behind-the-lines operations were linked to the needs of the main military commanders fighting in northern France.

Many other Jeds and family members of deceased Jeds kindly took the time to write sometimes very lengthy letters to me: Ron Brierley, Audrey Brown, Lura May Dillow, Anne Ellis, Donald Gibbs, Maurice Geminel, Roger Leney, Nancy Manierre, E. Mautaint, Maurice Pirat, John Sharp, John Smallwood, Sylvia Thomson, Amanda Todd, A. A. E. Trofimov, René de la Tousche, and Robert Toussaint.