SOE F

France Antelme

Born on the 12 of March 1900 in Port Louis (Maurice) as the son of Louis Gaston Antelme and Mauricia Rathier Du Vergé.

 

The first story we will be looking at is that of France Antelme,  a Franco-Mauritian who was living in South Africa at outbreak of war. He was recruited by the British, for his perfect french, to join the secret network of special forces known as the SOE. His first deployment was in Madagascar, where he served as a spy for the British, and relayed information about troop movement. He played a key role in providing intelligence for the battle of Madagascar.

 

He was then deployed on his second mission. France. His main deployement came as a liason between the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, and former french prime ministers. 

The mission went well, with the destruction of many train tracks, but when his fellow SOE member was arrested by the Vichy government, he went on the run. He managed to evade the Gestapo for a month, and got out on the 20 of July. He had failed his intended mission of meeting with the prime ministers, but he had learned valuable information. In this span he also recruited and very well connected international lawyer, Maitre Savy. Savy later provided intelligence that led to the destruction of around 2,000 V2 rockets.

 

While he was in France, another member of the SOE F, Noor Inayat Khan, landed and was captured upon landing. The capturing of her codes and wireless set allowed the Germans to send false messages to London. Despite the suspicion that PHONO had fallen into Nazi control, Antelme volunteered to be dropped to a PHONO reception team. He and his team of 2 parachuted right into the hands of the waiting gestapo. They were three of the best members the SOE F had. Antelme was brutally tortured by the Gestapo but still did not give up any information. He was executed with the other male member of his three man team at Gross-Rosen concentration camp. The female member of their team was executed at Dachau.