Arthur Staggs shares the remarkable story of his time working as a wireless operator for the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in enemy-occupied France. Fluent in the local patois of Roubaix, Arthur was parachuted into France in 1942. He recounts the ‘physical challenge’ of the extensive training, and the SOE ‘Farmer’ circuit’s work alongside local resistance movements around Lille to sabotage railways and industrial targets. He tells how his ‘nerve’ got him out of some dangerous situations, including bribing customs inspectors and chatting with a German officer to deflect police attention. In late 1943 his luck ran out, and he was imprisoned and interrogated by the Gestapo. He relays his determination not to talk, and how, upon his release, the local Gestapo chief joked that they had ‘mistakenly’ believed he was an ‘English parachutist’! His language skills had saved him. Keen to resume work, Arthur joined the French Resistance. Known as Capitaine Bébert, he led operations to sabotage V-1 rockets destined for London, and worked on missions that unbeknown to him paved the way for the D-Day landings. Arthur’s story tells of lost friends, and the strain of clandestinity, but ultimately it is one of sheer determination to do whatever he could to disrupt the German war effort, and defend his country.

Eric was conscripted into the army at age 18 and was assigned to the Royal Armoured Corps. He trained on a flail tank, which cleared mines, in readiness for the Normandy invasion. They landed on D-Day with his tank driving through shallow water, clearing mines as it went and supporting Canadian infantry. During the action he realised his shoulder was wet with blood. His commanding officer, above him in the tank, had been wounded. Eric helped him out of the tank and the officer was picked up by the medical corps. The remainder of the crew realised that their rations for five would now go further as there were only four of them! While mine clearing they drove very slowly with a good view of the carnage taking place during which his attitude was one of self-preservation and ‘Thank God it wasn’t me’. Later, in Germany, he was ordered to machine gun farmhouses in case they housed enemy troops when a young mother holding a toddler ran out. She jumped into a trench and the child survived but the mother died after being hit by their gun fire. Eric is still upset by this as it was probably his gunnery and thinks about it now, speculating on how old the woman would be if she had lived. He served the entire campaign in western Europe and was later sent to Palestine during the Zionist insurrection. He considers himself to have had the luck of the proverbial cat with nine lives.