Geoffrey Hallowes

 
 
  It is uncertain whether it was owing to his being surplus to requirements in Yugoslavia or his ability to speak French that resulted in his move to Peterborough, where the "Jedburgh" SOE teams were training.

Each team comprised one British or American officer, a French officer and a radio operator. In all, 94 such teams were dropped by parachute into France in the days and weeks after D-Day. With few exceptions, their role was to try to guide the sabotage carried out by the various factions of the French Resistance, along lines helpful to Allied plans

The Jedburgh led by Hallowes, codenamed "Jeremy", comprised himself, Lieutenant Henri-Charles Giese and their radio operator, Sergeant Roger Leney. Fifteen such teams were sent by sea to Algiers and flown from there to parts of southern France beyond the range of aircraft from Britain. Team Jeremy was dropped on the night of August 24, 1944. It was met on the dropping zone by the remarkable Virginia Hall, nicknamed "La dame qui boite" (the limping lady).  

Hall was a highly respected SOE operator. An American citizen who had lost the lower part of her left leg in a shooting accident, she had entered the Vichy-controlled zone of France by boat in 1941 and established the SOE network in the Haute-Loire. Leaving Leney with her to establish a radio link with London,

    Hallowes and Giese set out for Le Puy, the local headquarters of the Gaullist Forces Françaises de l'Intérieur (FFI). He called for an arms drop for this group, estimated to be some 1,500-strong. But when the drop took place there were weapons for only 100 men, giving Hallowes some difficulties on their distribution.

With the FFI concentrating their efforts on liberating towns and villages already vacated by the Germans, Hallowes turned his attention to delaying the escape of German units across the Rhône that were trying to head eastwards for home. In this he was partially successful, persuading the Haute-Loire FFI commander to move those of his men who were armed, by this time the majority, northwards to Vichy.

On return to England in late September 1944, Hallowes was sent to join SOE's Special Planning Unit 22, examining the feasibility of infiltrating German-speaking Poles and selected former German prisoners of war into German-held territory and Germany itself. He was responsible for the German ex-prisoners part of the operation, working from liberated Brussels and later from Hamburg

From Various sources in the press and records in The National Archives in Kew London.

  
 
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