More on Comète..
Some of the best stories about the Comet Line are those that didn’t make it into the history books.
The German security services were aware that evading Allied airmen were transiting through the Basque country en route to Spain and Gibraltar and so putting a crimp in the operation of the Comet Line quickly became a high priority for them. The security checks at Bayonne railway station became tighter and tighter as the war progressed.
The Comet organisers adopted a number of ruses to counteract this: they first used teenage girls to meet the airmen on the platform as they arrived on the overnight train from Paris to greet them with kisses as though they were returning boyfriends, before breezing through the exit gate.
The next phase in evading detection was known as ‘Operation Water’ (Le water being an old-fashioned French term for the toilet – a contraction of Water Closet). At Bayonne station, there was a toilet on the platform that also had an external door to the street outside. This door was normally kept locked. However, the Comet helpers managed to get hold of a key from sympathetic SNCF workers – thus bypassing the leather-coated security men waiting at the main exit.
Once outside, they would be led in Indian file across the bridge over the Adour to a restaurant - chez Gachy - opposite an old fort in the centre of Bayonne that was used by the Germans as a barracks. Madame Elvire De Greef, aka ‘Tante Go’, the brilliant Comet organiser of the network in the South West, always took each new group of ‘children’ or “parcels’ (as the evaders were known) to this restaurant to give them a good meal before setting out on the Pyrenees crossing.
Rather than serving the evaders in a side room on their own (which could have attracted unwelcome attention) Mr Gachy seated them in the main area of the restaurant in the midst of the many German military diners from the barracks opposite – the thinking being that no German would ever imagine that the young men sharing his table could possibly be Allied airmen. If Mr Gachy spotted a German trying to engage the evaders in conversation, he'd tell him that he was wasting his time as they only spoke Basque.
So far so good. Mme De Greef always treated her evaders to a steak lunch on arrival to boost their morale before they set off for the mountains. At this point, it should be remembered that, unlike in France, people in the UK (and maybe elsewhere) were not accustomed to eating steak that was served rare. Apparently one day, an evader cut into his steak and, on seeing the blood that ran out from it, he pushed his plate away. There was a dog in the restaurant and before the evader could be stopped, he held out the steak to be gobbled up by the lucky dog. This was at a time when 80% of French food production was being sent to Germany.
This exchange immediately piqued the interest of a Wehrmacht officer sat nearby and he appeared to ‘Tante Go’ to be taking an excessive interest in her table. Sotto voce, she told her ‘children’ to finish their meal quickly – as in now – and they paid and left before the German officer had time to dwell on his suspicions.
The next phase saw the Comet guides, with their evaders, switching trains at Bordeaux station from the main line to a slower country line that took them to Dax (about 60km from Bayonne). Bicycles were pre-positioned at Dax station with the connivance of the SNCF workers and the evading group would ride from Dax to Bayonne.
What could possibly go wrong? Who would have thought that someone who could fly a B-17 would be unable to ride a bike? Strange but true. “Franco”, the Comet guide, took the embarrassed pilot around to a patch of waste ground near the station for an instant 10 minute course.
The party of six – 2 guides and four evaders – then set off and shortly afterwards they found themselves cycling along a long straight lane towards the distant blue Pyrenees. “Franco” saw 2 German soldiers on bikes in the distance coming towards them. The tyro cyclist found himself drawn irresistibly across the lane into the path of the Germans and they all collided in a tangled heap. Displaying his quick wits, “Franco” pulled out an almost empty bottle of cognac from a pocket and mimed that the evader was drunk – at which the Germans laughed it off and they went on their way.
And then there was the RAF evader who, on being handed his bike at Dax station, blithely rode off on the wrong side of the road.. A moment’s inattention was all it took to attract unwelcome attention from prying eyes.
Below: 'Tante Go' with 'Max' and two evaders; Bayonne station in the 40s; a German guard on the bridge over the Adour from the station to Bayonne; Bar Guernika (the former Chez Gachy), Bayonne; Dax station; René and Faustina Gachy.
Last edited by PPRuNeUser0139; 19th Aug 2017 at 05:47.