Début with Free France Following his experience in the
Norwegian campaign of 1940, Duclos' unit returned to
Brittany but was surrounded by
Nazi forces at
Plénée-Jugon on 17 June. With some colleagues he escaped via
Jersey on a fishing boat, reaching England on 21 June, just as
France signed the
armistice with the Nazis. On 1 July, he joined de Gaulle's Free French in London as a deputy to
André Dewavrin. Duclos suggested Paris station names as codenames; he chose
Saint Jacques for himself, Dewavrin became
colonel Passy,
Gilbert Renault became
Rémy,
Pierre Fourcaud (Dewavrin's other deputy) became
Barbès and Duclos' friend
Alexandre Beresnikoff became
Corvisart, amongst others.
Implementation of the network Duclos and Beresnikoff landed off a dinghy released from a
Royal Navy launch at
Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer, Calvados, on the evening of 4 August, with plans to assess the possibility of
Adolf Hitler invading England. They sank their dinghy and went along the coast carrying a basket of carrier pigeons, securing themselves in a crevice under a Nazi guard post. They entered Saint-Aubin and went on their separate missions. Duclos reconnoitred by bicycle. He collected information on Nazi positions between
Honfleur and
Isigny. Without permission, he recruited a local civil engineer, Félix Bruneau, to operate an "action sector" to create a climate of insecurity amongst the
Wehrmacht. He went to Paris, where he created the
Saint-Jacques network at his own premises at the
Place Vendôme. In mid-August, he asked disaffected commandant
Jean Vérines, a veteran of
World War I, to be his lieutenant; Vérines' son, Guy, also joined the
Saint-Jacques network. Between them, they recruited large numbers from
La Garde (republican guards),
gendarmes and
sapeurs-pompiers (army fire crews) across northern France. Duclos also laid plans for the
Paris Job network and then helped Renault to found the
Confrérie Notre-Dame network. His report to Dewavrin of the Vichy organisation was not as favourable as that of Fourcaud, despite the useful connexions he'd made; he did not regard Vichy staff as combative enough. Nonetheless, Dewavrin was happy that three networks had been installed. He instructed Duclos to develop the network in the region between Paris,
Caen and
Dunkirk to gain as much information as possible about the
Armistice Commission headquartered in
Wiesbaden. In February 1941, he was dropped from a bomber over the
Dordogne but broke one leg and sprained the other landing in woods. He made it to a farm but the doctor called by the farmer reported him to the police. He was arrested and taken to hospital in
Périgueux. Within a month he was released, with the help of Fourcaud contacting old colleagues in Vichy. He made it to the
Zone occupée, aided by a contact of Renault, and in Paris by April, he set up a radio link to London. On 8 August, the
Gestapo set a trap at the home of
Saint-Jacques operative Marcel Halbout in Rouen, which led to the unravelling of the network through August and September. Renault evaded the trap. Duclos had only just returned from installing an antenna at
Le Havre, became suspicious around Halbout's home and ended up running into woods towards the
Zone libre under fire from the Germans. Halbout was transported out of France. Duclos' sister, Anne-Marie Lefèvre, was arrested with her husband, eight-year-old daughter and sixteen-year-old son and sentenced to death in April 1942. Derry and Deguy were also arrested and sentenced to death; Deguy was shot at the
Forteresse du Mont-Valérien in July 1942. Derry was taken to
Köln where he was decapitated with an axe in 1943. Halbout spent four years in German custody, eventually to be repatriated from
Buchenwald concentration camp. Similarly, Lefèvre was liberated by the
Allies in 1945. Vérines, who had become military commander of
Les Invalides continued until 10 October 1941 before he was arrested. He was taken to Germany in December, sentenced to death in August 1943 and shot on 2O October. Although the
Saint-Jacques network was finished, Duclos returned to England and continued to have a significant role gathering information and sabotaging infrastructure in northern France in preparation for the
Allied landings. ==References==