HS9/16 AireyTerence Sidney - Sir Lt Colonel HS9/982 ManfordFrancis Stanley Major 109154 HS9/1110 NormanGilbert Maurice Major HS9/1267 RobertsSydney George, MM Cpl HS9/1593 WilkinsonGeorge Cuthbert, MC Major 149065
5443791 CPL SIDNEY GEORGE ROBERTS, Initials:S G Nationality:United Kingdom Rank:Corporal Regiment/Service;-Durham Light Infantry Secondary Regiment:Special Operations Executive Secondary Unit Text:attd. Force 133, Age:29 Date of Death:22/12/1943 Awards:M M Additional information:Son of John Richard and Fanny Amelia Roberts; husband of Edna Roberts, of Stoke, Devon. Casualty Type:Commonwealth War Dead Cemetery:TIRANA PARK MEMORIAL CEMETERY http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=39270&d=1288023520
156759 MAJOR GILBERT MAURICE NORMAN, Nationality:United Kingdom Regiment/Service;-Durham Light Infantry Secondary Regiment:Special Operations Executive Secondary Unit Text:attd. Age:29 Date of Death:06/09/1944 Service No:Awards:Mentioned in Despatches Additional information:Son of Maurice Henry and Lily Norman, of Paris, France. Casualty Type:Commonwealth War Dead Grave/Memorial Reference:Panel 14. Column 1.Memorial:BROOKWOOD MEMORIAL http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=39271&d=1288024669 Gilbert Maurice Norman was born 1914 in Saint-Cloud, Hauts-de-Seine to an English father and a French mother and was educated in France and England in England he attended Mill Hill School. He joined the army,2nd November 1940 receiving a commission as 2Lt in the Durham Light Infantry in 1941 as a Lieutenant he served as British Liason Officer to the Middle Eastern Hq of General Sikorskis Polish Army.He was subsequently recruited into the Special Operations Executive (SOE) by Major Lewis Gielgud(Brother of the Actor)entering his special employment on March 15th 1942. In November 1942,after helping with training and selection he was sent into France to join the Prosper network,along with Lt Roger Landres (codemames 1Stanislas and later Aristide`) On June 23, 1943 he was arrested by the Gestapo, together with Francis Suttill and Andrée Borrel. Norman was taken to the Paris headquarters of the Sicherheitsdienst at 84 Avenue Foch and tortured for several days. The Germans used Norman's captured wireless set to transmit their own false messages to SOE Headquarters in Baker Street. Norman attempted to warn London that he was in captivity by not giving the Germans the second part of his security check, which they did not know about, but was frustrated when London sent a curt reply telling him to correct the omission.Another agent Noor Inayat Khan had already radioed London to inform them of their capture but this too went unheded The Germans were able to use both Norman and his captured wireless to transmit false information. After brutal interrogation and torture, Norman was moved to Mauthausen concentration camp, where he was executed on September 6, 1944.He was actually promoted to Major on the 21st August 1943 still officially on the strength of 6th Durham Light Infantry. Major Gilbert Norman is honored on the Brookwood Memorial in Surrey, England and as also on the "Roll of Honor" on the Valençay SOE Memorial in the town of Valençay, in the Indre departément of France
There is a memorial plaque on the back wall of the execution block at Mauthasen to the 40 or so SOE agents murdered at Mauthausen Concentration Camp.The majority were from the Dutch SOE Section and include Gilbert Norman, among,I think,6 members of the Britist SOE..All Dutch victims were the result of the German penitration of the SOE Dutch Section through the counter espionage operation,known as the England Spiel/North Pole managed by Abwehr Colonel Hermann Giskes and SS Sturbannfuhrer Joseph Schreieder.Slack wireless security by SOE led to the total collapse of the Dutch SOE Section but that is another account of SOE history. This group were savagely treated in the Mauthasen quarry by SS guards and were made to mount the staircase of death with heavy loads until they were exhausted before being dispatched by the pistol shot to the nape of the neck.The favourite method of execution at Mauthasen being by concealed pistol through a hole in the wall at a point where the prisoner was made to stand. Gilbert Norman was Francis Suttill's (Prosper) second in command and when the Prosper network was penitrated by the SD and rolled up.Suttill, when he was captured and after some 64 hours under interrogation,some say brutal and knowing that there had been many arrests among the network, accepted an offer by his SD captors that they would honour the status of the captured members of the Prosper network as POWs if the arm dumps in the Sologne were disclosed to them.This was done but the SD did not keep their side of the bargain,resulting in the ultimate deaths in German custody of nearly all the Prosper network. So how and why were the Germans able to penitrate and roll up a SOE Network such as Prosper?.The answer is still not complelely clear but there is strong evidence that the network was deliberately sacrificed in order to plant false intelligence in German hands in conjunction for plans for a return to Europe by the Allies.The finger of suspicion has for some time been pointed at Sir Claude Dansey of MI5, who, was thought to have dealings with Henri Dericourt (Gilbert),an Air Movements Officer of the SOE,a character suspected of being a German agent working in a British organisation,namely,the SOE.Additionally there was confusion in France between Gilbert,the first name of Norman and Gilbert, the SOE code name for Dericourt. Emotional feeling about this case persisted long after the war and there have been many publications on the matter. Gibert Norman's father,many years ago was very critical of the military authorities regarding the circumstances of his son's death and expressed this in a memorial notice in the Daily Telegraph.
Jedburgh et al, There is no denying the Heroism and professionalism displayed by the SOE personnel. But the above posts clearly show lapses in security poceedures that were not acted upon. A great pity that these great men and women had to suffer and endure such terrible treatment when captured. Regards Tom
109054 MAJOR FRANCIS STANLEY MANFORD, Nationality:United Kingdom Rank:Major Regiment/Service;-Durham Light Infantry Date of Death:30/11/1944 Service No:109054 Casualty Type:Commonwealth War Dead Grave/Memorial Reference:9. B. 10. Cemetery:MADRAS WAR CEMETERY, CHENNAI 2Lt FRANCIS STANLEY MANFORD 27th November 1939...DURHAM LIGHT INFANTRY SUPPLEMENT TO THE LONDON GAZETTE, 22 DECEMBER, 1939
Jedburgh et al, There is no denying the Heroism and professionalism displayed by the SOE personnel. But the above posts clearly show lapses in security poceedures that were not acted upon. A great pity that these great men and women had to suffer and endure such terrible treatment when captured. Regards Tom The usual policy when SOE agents were captured,probably an unwritten rule, was to hold out for at least 48 hours so that other people in the network would make appropriate arrangements to evade and cover their tracks.Worked in the majority of cases but whereas in the Prosper network case there was wholesale penitration and simultaneous arrests were enacted,it was difficult for people in the organisation to survive.Francis Suttill (Prosper) never ever told anyone in the organisation where he would be staying overnight,yet on the night he was taken,he had never stayed at the "safe house" before.Dirty work afoot I'm afraid.
