Exploring the possibilities for CARTE–SOE cooperation, SOE summoned Girard or any other officer of CARTE to come to London. Not wanting to go himself, Girard sent Frager and, on 30 June 1942, the Polish trawler
Tarana took on Frager and brought him to Gibraltar, from where he flew to England by plane. In London that July, at
Orchard Court, he met SOE's chiefs (
Maurice Buckmaster,
Nicholas Bodington, and probably
Charles Hambro and
Colin Gubbins). In Girard's name, Frager set out CARTE's needs (means of communication, arms, etc.). Wanting to know more, SOE sent him back to France with Bodington (codename
Jean-Paul or PROFESSOR) to study the possibilities of cooperation, clarify the confused situation in the
Lyon region and organised possible parachute drop-zones (SPRUCE). They were landed at
Cap d'Antibes on the night of 29/30 July 1942 from the boat
Seadog, with agents Harry Despaigne (MAGNOLIA) and
Yvonne Rudellat (SOAPTREE), and on 12 September Bodington returned to England to make a highly favourable report on CARTE. In November 1942, however, major disagreements broke out between Girard and Frager. The Germans having occupied the previously unoccupied zone of France, SOE wanted to review its plans with CARTE and demanded in a message on 12 November (received via
Adolphe Rabinovitch, radio operator of the SPINDLE network) that Girard return to London. Several pick-up attempts that December failed and Frager prepared a report criticising Girard, to be transmitted to London, but Girard found out and also noted the good relations between Frager and
Peter Churchill. In January–February 1943, Girard put off his departure for London indefinitely, before finally being picked up by a Hudson on the night of 21/22 February. Frager and Churchill were picked up by Lysander on the night of 23/24 March (landing at Estrées-Saint-Denis near
Compiègne, piloted by
Hugh Verity, flying in
Francis Cammaerts and
Georges Duboudin) and joined Girard in London. However, Girard refused to meet them and SOE distanced itself from Girard, opposing his return to France and warning Frager that he would have to lead what remained of the CARTE network against
Hugo Bleicher (known as "colonel Henri") . On the night of 14/15 April 1943 Frager was returned to France by Lysander (BRONCHITE drop zone, near
Tours) and welcomed back by
Henri Déricourt (GILBERT). He flew to London again on 20/21 October 1943 (in a Hudson, from the ACHILLE landing strip near
Angers), but his pick-up had been organised by Déricourt, now under surveillance by the
Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the German intelligence agency.. An altercation occurred before this between Frager and Déricourt over breakfast in a café facing Angers' train station. Frager had brought along his substitute and friend,
Roger Bardet (in fact released from prison by Bleicher in exchange for Bardet feeding him information, a promise Bardet seems to have kept), to assist in his departure for London, but Déricourt forbade him from doing so. Frager also believed Déricourt to be a Gestapo agent and Déricourt suspected that Frager thought as much. Hugo Bleicher wrote in his book of his recruitment of Roger Bardet as V-Mann, and how Bardet had got into Frager's good books by revealing to him that Déricourt was a double agent working for Kieffer. There was no sympathy between Bleicher (and the Abwehr) and
Josef Kieffer (of the SD). Hugh Verity gives Bleicher's account thus: Paul (Frager) once more took the plane to London. He hoped to return about 15 days later. His visit was facilitated by Gilbert, who once more enjoyed the British's confidence and had become head of all personnel on the ground for secret flights and landings by SOE's French section. This made it hard for Paul to accept Gilbert as the organisor of his visit. On this occasion there was an argument between them that Roger told me about. Roger had accompanied Paul to the secret landing strip. They had scarcely arrived when Gilbert told Roger to accompany Paul to London, telling him that the order came from F section in London. He opposed this order, and was embarked on the plane by force. Ignorant of all this, Paul also had his suspicions. I suppose Gilbert, who came into [SD leader] Kieffer's office daily and knew the SD officers well, had been informed by them of Roger's true role and he thus wanted to dispose of him by sending him to London with a denunciation on his head. If Gilbert had got there, Paul's position would have been shaken. There was a serious altercation between Paul and Gilbert. Only Paul's determination, threatening to use his pistol, prevented Roger from being kidnapped and transferred to London by force. On 29 February 1944 Frager was returned to France at Beg-an-Fry near Morlaix, under the codename
Jean-Marie. He was sent as head of the DONKEYMAN network, with orders to develop Resistance groups in the
Yonne and on the
Côte d'Azur. His networks developed normally, one under Bardet and the other under Kieffer (Kiki). A group headed by Frager sabotaged the cellophane factory at Mantes, and reports and photographs of its missions were sent to London. Between June and August 1944, Frager's groups were supplied by 25 parachute drops, but Frager was betrayed by Bardet and arrested on 3 August 1944 and handed over to Bleicher on 8 August 1944. Deported to
Buchenwald concentration camp, he was executed on 5 October that year. == Recognition ==