Churchill's White Rabbit by Sophie Jackson

There was no knowing what they were after, or, more precisely, whom It might have been a routine spot check near a Métro station, or they may have been rounding up Jews or even looking for suspected resistance members. Forest hesitated, his instinct being to turn on his heel and flee, but his common sense overruled him – that would make him an obvious target for the police.
    Instead he approached as calmly as he could. The police were working in pairs: a German and a French collaborator. Bitterly, Forest pulled out his forged identity cards and handed them over, trying not to glare at his countryman so ably helping the enemy. The checking of his papers seemed to take forever, and Forest knew now that he was entirely at the mercy of the skill of the SOE forgers. One slip – an incorrect stamp, an out-of-date signature – could lead him straight to the Gestapo. Trembling inside, he didn’t realise that even those with genuine papers felt the same way when faced with the German spot checks. After what seemed like an eternity the German policeman handed back his papers and waved him on. Forest walked through the line resisting the temptation to run as fast as he could and feeling a surge of elation that his SOE papers had proved their worth.
    His delight quickly died when he saw that he was approaching a second police line. It was obvious now that this was not a routine spot check. The Gestapo were after someone and the fact that a Black Maria 5 was parked nearby and three or four men were being pushed into it only confirmed his fears. Despite this he kept his cool and passed through the second line as easily as the first. He left as rapidly as he dared trying not to think of the poor souls being forced into the car and into the eager hands of the Gestapo.
----
    Notes
    1 .  General William Lendrum ‘Billy’ Mitchell (1879–1936) was considered a founding father of the US Air Force and was the only individual to have a type of American military aircraft named after them: the B-25 Mitchell.
    2 .  As quoted in Seaman, Op cit .
    3 .  French militia created by the Vichy government to hunt down the French resistance, often more feared than the Gestapo due to their more intimate knowledge of the country and its people.
    4 .  Marshal, Op cit .
    5 .  A slang term for a police car or van, usually painted a distinctive black. It was the standard euphemism for Gestapo vehicles during the Second World War.

– 7 –
    Good Agents Always Arrive Punctually
    THIN, TALL BROSSOLETTE STOOD at the Port Maillot with Passy as the clock struck eleven and Forest arrived with precision timing. Neither man noticed that Forest seemed a little flustered by his run-ins with the police; both had their minds on other matters.
    With little talk Brossolette escorted his two comrades to the apartment of his cousin Hélène Peyronnet 1 at 102 avenue des Ternes. Hélène was already an active member within the resistance and quickly organised separate safe houses for Passy and Forest. Passy’s flat was on the ground floor of a complex at Neuilly near the busy rue Demours and with a courtyard leading to another building, therefore offering good escape routes should the worst happen. Hélène had arranged for Forest to stay in a luxury apartment owned by the French film star Jeanne Helbling, which also overlooked a courtyard and offered easy escape, despite being on the first floor. Brossolette was to remain in the rue de la Faisanderie. After assigning these quarters the group also organised several secondary locations that they could retreat to if their cover was blown.
    Finally they could begin the daunting task of assessing the resistance effort in France and what the British could do to unite it and assist it. Passy set to work on collating intelligence from various sources, while Forest and Brossolette started sending out feelers to existing agents in France, especially those involved in organising weapons stores and parachute landings. Some