Welcome back sidevalve! What an amazing picture you post of the terrain that George and his comrades traversed, quite Turneresque! He seems to have had a facility for saying and doing the right thing and at the right time, thus making the difference between success and failure. If he hadn't used his wits and stuck instead to the German deserters story, our Anglophile Gendarme would no doubt have taken great pleasure in doing "his duty" and handing them over to the authorities for their inevitable fate. The Lord helps those who help themselves, and George was definitely in that favoured grouping.
Incidentally, his original home at 36 Park Grove is still there on Google Maps in Street Scene. Quite a few others aren't though, either having been replaced by later buildings or by open spaces. Evidence of Luftwaffe redevelopment no doubt, for which George and his colleagues were bent on returning the favours.