Das Reich by Hastings Max

Author:Hastings, Max [Hastings, Max]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780330529136
Publisher: Macmillan Publishers UK
Published: 2012-03-22T00:00:00+00:00

But Macpherson embodied the exact spirit that SHAEF had intended to send with the Jedburghs. He had no interest in clandestine life – he considered that his business was to make as much open trouble for the Germans as possible. Thus he wore his uniform and kilt wherever he went. When he acquired a Citroën car, he decorated the bonnet with the Union Jack and Tricolour. Thus also, he moved at once to take into action what men he could muster. His attitude exasperated local SOE agents, who had spent months working in great secrecy, and above all with concern for the welfare of the French people among whom they lived. Macpherson troubled himself only about attacking Germans, and wasted no time brooding about possible reprisals. He considered his instructions: ‘The theme of our training had been that we were to use our own judgment to create whatever mayhem could tie down enemy forces, and build up a trained nucleus of résistants for the “phase of Liberation”.’ In the little cluster of huts in the woods in which the maquis lived, he reviewed Cournil’s little group. Between them, they had a few old French army rifles and one light machine gun. But Macpherson and his team had come with superb personal equipment – much of it American and extending to a money-belt laden with gold sovereigns for each man. They had also brought Brens, gammon bombs and explosives. Within a few hours of landing – and chiefly to put some life into the maquisards – Macpherson had mined and blown an unguarded bridge on the Aurillac–Maurs railway line, where it crossed a country road. They were short of food. Macpherson stopped a civilian lorry and hijacked four sacks of sugar. A German ration truck drove down the road shortly afterwards, and they shot it to pieces. In the back, they found two tons of chestnut purée. They carted it back to the camp.

Until the moment of the Liberation, Macpherson waged an ambitious and ruthless campaign against the Germans across the region – attacking trains and convoys, rail links and roads with remorseless energy. He was determined to compel the French to decide which side they were on. One day he drove into Decazeville and invited the mayor to join him for a drink at the cafe in the main square. The trembling Frenchman talked to him for a few minutes before there was a sudden shout that a German convoy was approaching. Macpherson and his maquisards leaped into the car and drove furiously out of the town, pursued by an armoured car. When they reached the bridge over the road, Macpherson leapt out, climbed on to the parapet, and lobbed a gammon bomb neatly on to the German vehicle as it passed underneath, instantly halting and wrecking it.

I felt that I had a clear role of tip-and-run disruption, getting morale right locally. I viewed part of my job as being to move the psychology of the people. The vast bulk of the people were scared stiff to help us.

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