Aircraft: Lysander

Lysanders of 161 Special Operations Squadron turn onto their final course to a clandestine landing field somewhere in central occupied France during a full moon period in 1943. Based at Tempsford, Bedfordshire and often operating from Tangmere to shorten the flight, the pilots flew a dead reckoning course to their first turning point, usually on the River Loire, using rudimentary navigating equipment. The moonlit town of Blois is easily distinguishable by its chateau, churches and bridge with the Forest of Chambord beyond. The agents in the rear cockpit prepare themselves by torchlight for the forthcoming landing.

Overall size of prints 28” x 20”

Edition size:
250 signed by 4 Lysander pilots - £90inc vat (£76.60+vat)

50 Artist Proofs signed by the pilots and SOE Secret Agents and other 161 Sqn. members -£150inc vat (£127.66+vat)

25 Commemorative remarqued prints signed by the pilots, Secret Agents and other 161 Sqn. members plus a further 8 S.O.E Secret Agents and French Resistance -a total of 17 signatures - £450 inc vat (£382.98+vat)

The signatures

SOE LYSANDER PILOTS
These pilots have signed all the prints.

Flight Lieutenant PETER ARKELL, OBE, USAF Medal of Distinction
Flew Mustangs and Spitfires with 26 Squadron on intruder and low level photographic sorties over France. In 1944 joined 161 Squadron at Tempsford, then accompanied the Lysanders to Burma where he flew 35 successful and dangerous missions supplying Force 136 behind the Japanese lines.
Flight Lieutenant MURRAY ANDERSON, DFC*, US Air medal
Operated Spitfires with No 1 PRU, then moved to No 4 PRU in Algiers and then to 542 PR Squadron at Benson. In 1943/4 flew 9 operations in Lysanders over occupied France, 6 being double pick-ups, mostly with Leslie Whittaker who moved to Tempsford with him. In June 1944 he then flew Mustangs with 2nd TAF.
Flight Lieutenant R G (BOB) LARGE, DFC, Legion d'honneur
In 1941 served with 616 Squadron as part of the Tangmere Wing with Douglas Bader on Fighter and Bomber sweeps over Northern France. Shot down over the sea 10 miles from his present home. Later joined the Lysander Flight of 161 Squadron where he flew many clandestine operations involving SOE agents.
Air Chief Marshal Sir LEWIS HODGES, KCB, CBE, DSO, DFC
Flew Hampdens with 76 and 49 Squadrons, crash landed in occupied France in September 1940, evaded capture and returned via Spain and Nancy Wake's escape route. In 1942 flew with, and later commanded, 161 Squadron flying Lysanders, Halifaxes and Hudsons on SOE operations to France.

The following people have signed only the Artist Proofs and Commemorative
Remarqued prints.
SECRET AGENTS
Major E H VAN MAURIK trained SOE agents in sabotage, use of weapons and survival. Accompanied agents to Tangmere for their flights by Lysander to and from occupied France. In January 1944 parachuted in to the Maquis de l'Ain to verify their readiness for combat when the invasion of Europe took place. Smuggled himself into Switzerland to send his report back to SOE in London. "The longest telegram ever".
NANCY WAKE, GM, Legion d'honneur, Croix De Guerre, French Resistance Medal, US Medal of Freedom. The most decorated servicewoman of WW2, Nancy(Codename- Helene) organised an escape route over the Pyrenees before she was forced to use it herself. Following training with SOE, she returned to France to organise her own Resistance Group in the Auvergne. Involved in many dangerous subversive missions, she won the everlasting respect of 3500 members of her Maquis.

Captain George Millar, D.S.O., M.C. was parachuted secretly into France as an SOE agent on 1 June 1944. He was dropped north of Dijon to organise and train local Resistance groups to harass the enemy in support of the forthcoming D-Day landings in Normandy.
His incredible book, "Maquis", tells of their many daring exploits which included the destruction of the giant railway turn-tables on the important rail junction at Besancon.
He vividly describes his day to day survival and the disruptive operations carried out on the German supply lines. He also depicts with understanding the characters of the ordinary men and women of the French Resistance who selflessly served with him to play their heroic part in the final liberation of France. "Emile" and his Maquis are still remembered in the quiet villages of the Ognon Valley.

MAIL PICK UP OPERATOR
Flying Officer J A (TOMMY) THOMAS Legion d'honneur
Trained in 1941/2 as a winch operator on Fairy Battles and Lysanders, target towing for Spitfire OUT. In 1942 Tommy remustered as Air Gunner and in 1943 he joined 161Special Duties Squadron at Tempsford on Halifax's B flight, He later detached to A flight on Hudsons and Lysanders for mail pick-up duties. His training and quick thinking saved him and Bob Large when on one memorable flight Tommy reacted instantly to a tow wire fouling the elevators of their Lysander. Between July 43 and July 45 he completed 33 Ops. out of Tempsford and Tangmere.
GROUND CREW
DONALD DUNSTAN
Trained as Flight Mechanic working on Fairy Battles then transferred to 103 Squadron, Bomber Command on Wellingtons. After a Fitter 2E course he joined 161 Squadron at Tempsford with their Lysanders. During the "Moon Period" often working at Tangmere. He serviced the aircraft of Wing Commanders Pickard and Hodges.

The following 8 signatures appear only on the Commemorative Remarques

Lise de Baissac MBE (mil), Legion d’Honneur, Croix de Guerre. With Andree Borell, Lise was one of the first two women SOE agents to be parachuted into France near Blois at Mer-sur-Loire in September 1942. She then tirelessly worked alone to form a reseau based on he flat in Poitiers, which was adjacent to the Gestapo HQ. Her lonely and arduous job was to organise landing grounds for agents and set them on their way. During 1943 she was involved in organising a number of Lysander operations, which brought in thirteen agents before the end of May and for a period she worked with Henri Dericourt. She returned to England by Lysander in August 1943 and later broke her leg when practising a parachute drop with Violette Szabo and Yvonne Baseden. She was taken by Lysander to France in April 1944 to continue her vital work. Lise eventually joined her brother, Claude, in his Scientist reseau training and arming a large number of small resistance groups in preparation for action after D-Day. Both were known to the Gestapo by reputation and had to work and travel with extreme care.

Yvonne Baseden, MBE (mil), Legion d’Honneur (avec palme), Croix de Guerre. Codenamed “Odette” when in the field, twenty one year old Yvonne trained with Violette Szabo and Didi Nearne. After a previously aborted flight to her region she was eventually dropped on 18 March 1944 in southwest France, near Auch as a wireless operator with “Lucien” and then had to find her own way across France via Marseilles to her reseau (Scholar), north of Dijon, a dangerous four-day journey. After receiving a huge arms drop for the Maquis of the Jura from 36 B-17s which took two days to complete, she and seven of her comrades gathered at a cheese store outside Dole for a celebratory lunch. Unfortunately the group was betrayed and the leader “Lucien” died and Yvonne was captured in the subsequent raid on the store. She was immediately sent to Ravensbruck Concentration Camp and was one of the only three women SOE agents to survive that terrible ordeal suffered by a total of 15 women agents.

Francis Cammearts, DSO, Legion d’Honneur, Croix de Guerre, US Medal of Freedom. Francis was one of the outstanding figures of the French Resistance. In March 1943 he was taken near to Compiegne in a Lysander flown by Hugh Verity to take over from Peter Churchill. Through hard endeavour and tight security (he never stayed more than four nights in one place) by late summer 1944 he had formed the largest and most effective resistance group based in SE France containing about 10,000 men. In July 1944 he was joined by SOE courier Christine Granville, with whom he escaped from the slaughter of the Maquis army on the Vercors and who later saved his life by engineering his escape from Digne prison. After the Allied landings in southern France the resistance groups, which Cammaerts had built up, held open the whole of the route from Cannes to Grenoble for the advancing armies. An advance expected to take ten weeks took ten days. Francis insists that the real heroes of the Resistance were the people who fed and sheltered the SOE agents, putting their families at terrible risk. He had a bearing and accent, which were noticeably English, and he was widely and affectionately known as “le grand diable anglais”.

Georges Molle. Legion d’Honneur (avec deux palmes et etoile), Croix de Guerre, Medaille de la Resistance Francaise, Medaille de Combattants Volontaires, King’s Medal for Courage. Georges worked as George Millar’s aide in the Doubs. His local knowledge and influence were invaluable in orgainising the local Maquis group and carrying out their exploits. Together they organised and trained groups, which damaged rail communications on an important route from Germany after D-Day. Because of his exploits and reputation he and George Millar were continuously hunted by the Gestapo. At one time the two hid in the local chateau and made their escape using the village sewer. Most of his activities were centred on his house in the small village of Vieilley, in which he still lives, and the other little villages of the Ognon valley.

Andre Gillet. President of the Association Nationale des Anciens Combattants de la Resistance (ANACR) section of Provins. Monsieur Gillet escaped from forced labour (STO) in Germany, returned home and joined the Guerin-Buckmaster Resistance Group in his home town, Donnemarie-Dontilly. In July 1944 his group led by Capitaine Pierre Mulsant organised the landing bringing Marie-Madeleine Fourcade to commence he work in the area. “When Marie-Madeleine Fourcade’s plane landed, I was on guard duty with my comrade Henri Hochand. We were on top of the hill of the Ralloy watching the road leading to Bray-sur-Seine. The aircraft landed near Monsieur Jonchery’s farm (nowadays known as Bourbitou) near Donnemarie-en-Montois. After hearing the signal agreed, we met all together on the farm where we had a friendship party.” As the Allies approached after the invasion the men were rounded up and imprisoned in the school because the town was a centre of resistance. Andre then had to ask his mother (who was unaware of his resistance activities) to return to their house, find his arms, grenades, ammunition and other weapons and dispose of them down the “cabinet sous terre”! He later retrieved a rifle which he had taken from the back seat of a German army vehicle in 1940 and which he used throughout the war.

Raymond Cassas. Founder of the Museum of the Resistance at Blois and co-author of “The History of Resistance in Loir-et-Cher”, of which he was an active member.

Michael Duru. President of the Museum Trust and former member of the Loir-et-Cher Resistance Group. Organised the field for the treble Lysander pick-up, which involved Bob Large.

Colonel Pierre Thomas. Vice President of the Museum Trust. Army officer who became a member of the Loir-et-Cher Resistance Group and then continued his career after the war.

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