Albert Guérisse
Encyclopedia
Major-General Comte
Albert-Marie Edmond Guérisse, GC
, KBE
, DSO
(5 April 1911 – 26 March 1989) was a Belgian Resistance
member who organized escape routes for downed Allied
pilots during World War II
under the alias of Patrick Albert "Pat" O'Leary, the name of a Canadian friend. His escape line was dubbed the Pat Line.
, and qualified in medicine at the Université Libre de Bruxelles
before joining the Belgian Army. At the outbreak of War, Guérisse was serving as a Medecin-Capitaine, a Captain in the Medical Branch, as the medical officer of the Guides, a Belgian cavalry
regiment. After Belgium was forced to surrender, he escaped to Britain through Dunkirk. He then joined the French-crewed ship, Le Rhin, which had been accepted for special operations and renamed HMS Fidelity. His British commission was therefore a naval commission in the RNVR, the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve.
Guérisse was serving mainly as a conducting officer, escorting agents ashore in small boats through the surf, whilst the large vessel lay some distance offshore. This was skilled work, exposed to physical dangers from the sea-conditions and operational dangers from the Vichy security services. On 25 April 1941, during a mission to place SOE
agents in Collioure
, on Roussillon
coast in southern France, Guérisse was in the skiff on its way back to the ship when it turned over and he had to swim ashore. To the Vichy French
coast guards, Guérisse claimed he was a Canadian airman named Pat O'Leary. The 'Canadian' identity attempted to explain his not-quite British accent in English, and his not-quite French accent in French, without compromising his relatives in occupied Belgium.
He was taken to St. Hippolyte du Fort near Nîmes
, where he met 'fellow British' officers, including SOE
operative Ian Garrow
who got him released and took him to Marseille
. In this roundabout way, Guérisse was inducted into the clandestine work on escape-lines. Both for security in Vichy France and for consistency in his story, Guérisse decided to continue with the O'Leary alias while he remained ashore in France. At this point he might still have assumed that his work in France was a temporary measure and that he would, in his turn, make his way to Gibraltar and resume his original naval service. Events were to dictate otherwise.
Initially one of Garrow's assistants, along with others such as Nancy Wake
, but when the Vichy France authorities captured Garrow in October 1941, Guérisse took over as chief of the escape network. He smuggled a German uniform to Garrow in his cell in Mauzac
concentration camp which helped Garrow's escape on 6 December 1941. At this point the British decided it was time for Garrow to return to London, so Guérisse continued in command and expanded the reach of the escape line's operations. The line carried over 600 escapees to Spain and back to Britain.
In January 1943, the escape line was infiltrated and betrayed by French turncoat Roger le Neveu, who was an associate of Harold Cole
and Guérisse was arrested in Toulouse
in March. He managed to get one of the younger members, Fabien de Cortes, to flee the train when they were transported to prison to warn the British. After his arrest the line was, in turn, taken over by Marie Dissard
. Guérisse told nothing to the Gestapo
interrogators when he was tortured and then was sent to a series of concentration camps.
In the summer of 1944, he was at the Natzweiler-Struthof
concentration camp in Alsace
with another SOE
agent Brian Stonehouse
. At the camp he witnessed the arrival of four other female SOE agents, Andrée Borrel
, Vera Leigh
, Diana Rowden
, and Sonya Olschanezky
, who were all executed and disposed of in the crematorium in an attempt to make them disappear without a trace, under the programme of night and fog
. After the war, Guérisse and Stonehouse were able to testify at the Nazi war crimes trials as to the women's fate.
Finally, Guérisse was taken to the Dachau concentration camp, tortured again and then sentenced to death. However, when SS guards surrendered before the Allied advance, "O'Leary" took command and refused to leave before Allies agreed to take care of the inmates. On April 30, 1945 he was chosen as the first president of the International Prisoners' Committee that administered the camp after liberation. From its founding in 1956 until his death he served many terms as president of the Comité International de Dachau, and regularly gave the keynote speech at the May memorial ceremonies.
After the War, Guérisse resumed his real name and rejoined the Belgian Army. He served with the Belgian forces in Korea during the Korean War
where he was wounded trying to rescue a wounded soldier. He became the head of the medical service of the Belgian army and retired in 1970, in the rank of major general.
In his personal life, he married Sylvia Cooper-Smith in 1947 and they had a son. Sylvia predeceased him.
General Guérisse received 35 decorations, from a variety of nations. In 1946, the British recognised his war service with the award of the George Cross
. This was the highest possible award of the British Commonwealth nations for actions not in combat and only the Victoria Cross (the equivalent award for bravery in actual combat) takes precedence. In the UK it is the convention for the post-nominal letters for both these awards to be amended to the surname even for general usage, i.e. to refer to: 'Guérisse, GC'. Recognising his military service as a whole, the British later also conferred on Albert-Marie Guérisse, GC, an honorary knighthood (KBE
).
Similarly, the King of Belgium recognised the lifetime service of General Guérisse with the grant of a peerage in 1986, in the rank of Count (comte).
General Count Albert-Marie Guérisse, GC, died in Waterloo, Belgium
on 26 March 1989, aged 77.
Comte
Comte is a title of Catalan, Occitan and French nobility. In the English language, the title is equivalent to count, a rank in several European nobilities. The corresponding rank in England is earl...
Albert-Marie Edmond Guérisse, GC
George Cross
The George Cross is the highest civil decoration of the United Kingdom, and also holds, or has held, that status in many of the other countries of the Commonwealth of Nations...
, KBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
, DSO
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
(5 April 1911 – 26 March 1989) was a Belgian Resistance
Belgian resistance
Belgian resistance during World War II to the occupation of Belgium by Nazi Germany took different forms. "The Belgian Resistance" was the common name for the Netwerk van de weerstand - Réseau de Résistance or Resistance Network , a group of partisans fighting the Nazis...
member who organized escape routes for downed Allied
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
pilots during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
under the alias of Patrick Albert "Pat" O'Leary, the name of a Canadian friend. His escape line was dubbed the Pat Line.
Biography
He was born in BrusselsBrussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, and qualified in medicine at the Université Libre de Bruxelles
Université Libre de Bruxelles
The Université libre de Bruxelles is a French-speaking university in Brussels, Belgium. It has 21,000 students, 29% of whom come from abroad, and an equally cosmopolitan staff.-Name:...
before joining the Belgian Army. At the outbreak of War, Guérisse was serving as a Medecin-Capitaine, a Captain in the Medical Branch, as the medical officer of the Guides, a Belgian cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
regiment. After Belgium was forced to surrender, he escaped to Britain through Dunkirk. He then joined the French-crewed ship, Le Rhin, which had been accepted for special operations and renamed HMS Fidelity. His British commission was therefore a naval commission in the RNVR, the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve.
Guérisse was serving mainly as a conducting officer, escorting agents ashore in small boats through the surf, whilst the large vessel lay some distance offshore. This was skilled work, exposed to physical dangers from the sea-conditions and operational dangers from the Vichy security services. On 25 April 1941, during a mission to place SOE
Special Operations Executive
The Special Operations Executive was a World War II organisation of the United Kingdom. It was officially formed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton on 22 July 1940, to conduct guerrilla warfare against the Axis powers and to instruct and aid local...
agents in Collioure
Collioure
Collioure is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France.It lies on the Mediterranean and was a part of the ancient Roussillon province....
, on Roussillon
Roussillon
Roussillon is one of the historical counties of the former Principality of Catalonia, corresponding roughly to the present-day southern French département of Pyrénées-Orientales...
coast in southern France, Guérisse was in the skiff on its way back to the ship when it turned over and he had to swim ashore. To the Vichy French
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
coast guards, Guérisse claimed he was a Canadian airman named Pat O'Leary. The 'Canadian' identity attempted to explain his not-quite British accent in English, and his not-quite French accent in French, without compromising his relatives in occupied Belgium.
He was taken to St. Hippolyte du Fort near Nîmes
Nîmes
Nîmes is the capital of the Gard department in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in southern France. Nîmes has a rich history, dating back to the Roman Empire, and is a popular tourist destination.-History:...
, where he met 'fellow British' officers, including SOE
Special Operations Executive
The Special Operations Executive was a World War II organisation of the United Kingdom. It was officially formed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton on 22 July 1940, to conduct guerrilla warfare against the Axis powers and to instruct and aid local...
operative Ian Garrow
Ian Garrow
Captain Ian Garrow was a Scottish army officer with the Highland Light Infantry. Following the surrender of the Highland 51st Division at Saint-Valéry-en-Caux on the Normandy coast on 12 June 1940, Garrow evaded to Vichy France where he was interned....
who got him released and took him to Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
. In this roundabout way, Guérisse was inducted into the clandestine work on escape-lines. Both for security in Vichy France and for consistency in his story, Guérisse decided to continue with the O'Leary alias while he remained ashore in France. At this point he might still have assumed that his work in France was a temporary measure and that he would, in his turn, make his way to Gibraltar and resume his original naval service. Events were to dictate otherwise.
Initially one of Garrow's assistants, along with others such as Nancy Wake
Nancy Wake
Nancy Grace Augusta Wake, AC, GM , served as a British agent during the later part of World War II. She became a leading figure in the maquis groups of the French Resistance and was one of the Allies' most decorated servicewomen of the war.-Early life:Born in Roseneath, Wellington, New Zealand in...
, but when the Vichy France authorities captured Garrow in October 1941, Guérisse took over as chief of the escape network. He smuggled a German uniform to Garrow in his cell in Mauzac
Mauzac, Haute-Garonne
Mauzac is a commune in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern France.-Population:-References:*...
concentration camp which helped Garrow's escape on 6 December 1941. At this point the British decided it was time for Garrow to return to London, so Guérisse continued in command and expanded the reach of the escape line's operations. The line carried over 600 escapees to Spain and back to Britain.
In January 1943, the escape line was infiltrated and betrayed by French turncoat Roger le Neveu, who was an associate of Harold Cole
Harold Cole
Harold 'Paul' Cole , was a British soldier in World War II who became infamous as a traitor. He caused more damage and human suffering than any other British Traitor of World War II. He had been killed before he was ever able to face trial for Treason.Harold Cole enlisted in the British Army on 4...
and Guérisse was arrested in Toulouse
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
in March. He managed to get one of the younger members, Fabien de Cortes, to flee the train when they were transported to prison to warn the British. After his arrest the line was, in turn, taken over by Marie Dissard
Marie Dissard
Marie Dissard, GM, was a member of French Resistance during the German occupation of France in World War II who took over the escape network of Ian Garrow and Albert Guérisse and arranged for over 250 Allied airmen to return to Britain....
. Guérisse told nothing to the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
interrogators when he was tortured and then was sent to a series of concentration camps.
In the summer of 1944, he was at the Natzweiler-Struthof
Natzweiler-Struthof
Natzweiler-Struthof was a German concentration camp located in the Vosges Mountains close to the Alsatian village of Natzwiller in France, and the town of Schirmeck, about 50 km south west from the city of Strasbourg....
concentration camp in Alsace
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
with another SOE
Special Operations Executive
The Special Operations Executive was a World War II organisation of the United Kingdom. It was officially formed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton on 22 July 1940, to conduct guerrilla warfare against the Axis powers and to instruct and aid local...
agent Brian Stonehouse
Brian Stonehouse
Brian Julian Stonehouse MBE was a British painter and Special Operations Executive agent during World War II.He was born in Torquay, England. When his family moved to France, he went to school in Wimereux, Pas-de-Calais...
. At the camp he witnessed the arrival of four other female SOE agents, Andrée Borrel
Andrée Borrel
Andrée Raymonde Borrel was a French heroine of World War II.-Early life:Andrée Borrel was born into a working-class family in Louveciennes, Yvelines in the suburbs of Paris, growing up an active girl who liked hiking and most other outdoor activities...
, Vera Leigh
Vera Leigh
Vera Leigh was a British spy during World War II who assisted the French Resistance. In 1944 she was captured by the Germans and executed.-Early life:...
, Diana Rowden
Diana Rowden
Diana Hope Rowden MBE was a Special Operations Executive member who was executed in a Nazi concentration camp.-Early life:...
, and Sonya Olschanezky
Sonya Olschanezky
Sonya Olschanezky was a member of the French Resistance during World War II. The daughter of a Russian Jew, Eli Olschanezky, a chemical engineer who worked as a sales representative for a manufacturer of ladies' stockings, she was seven years old when the family moved to Paris, France and her...
, who were all executed and disposed of in the crematorium in an attempt to make them disappear without a trace, under the programme of night and fog
Nacht und Nebel
Nacht und Nebel was a directive of Adolf Hitler on 7 December 1941 signed and implemented by Armed Forces High Command Chief Wilhelm Keitel, resulting in the kidnapping and forced disappearance of many political activists and resistance 'helpers' throughout Nazi Germany's occupied...
. After the war, Guérisse and Stonehouse were able to testify at the Nazi war crimes trials as to the women's fate.
Finally, Guérisse was taken to the Dachau concentration camp, tortured again and then sentenced to death. However, when SS guards surrendered before the Allied advance, "O'Leary" took command and refused to leave before Allies agreed to take care of the inmates. On April 30, 1945 he was chosen as the first president of the International Prisoners' Committee that administered the camp after liberation. From its founding in 1956 until his death he served many terms as president of the Comité International de Dachau, and regularly gave the keynote speech at the May memorial ceremonies.
After the War, Guérisse resumed his real name and rejoined the Belgian Army. He served with the Belgian forces in Korea during the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
where he was wounded trying to rescue a wounded soldier. He became the head of the medical service of the Belgian army and retired in 1970, in the rank of major general.
In his personal life, he married Sylvia Cooper-Smith in 1947 and they had a son. Sylvia predeceased him.
General Guérisse received 35 decorations, from a variety of nations. In 1946, the British recognised his war service with the award of the George Cross
George Cross
The George Cross is the highest civil decoration of the United Kingdom, and also holds, or has held, that status in many of the other countries of the Commonwealth of Nations...
. This was the highest possible award of the British Commonwealth nations for actions not in combat and only the Victoria Cross (the equivalent award for bravery in actual combat) takes precedence. In the UK it is the convention for the post-nominal letters for both these awards to be amended to the surname even for general usage, i.e. to refer to: 'Guérisse, GC'. Recognising his military service as a whole, the British later also conferred on Albert-Marie Guérisse, GC, an honorary knighthood (KBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
).
Similarly, the King of Belgium recognised the lifetime service of General Guérisse with the grant of a peerage in 1986, in the rank of Count (comte).
General Count Albert-Marie Guérisse, GC, died in Waterloo, Belgium
Waterloo, Belgium
Waterloo is a Walloon municipality located in the province of Walloon Brabant, Belgium. On December 31, 2009, Waterloo had a total population of 29,573. The total area is 21.03 km² which gives a population density of 1,407 inhabitants per km²...
on 26 March 1989, aged 77.
External links
- http://www.rafinfo.org.uk/rafescape/guerisse.htm
- http://www.culture24.org.uk/history+%26+heritage/war+%26+conflict/world+war+two/art47303
- http://www.gc-database.co.uk/recipients/O'LearyPA.htm
- http://www.scrapbookpages.com/Natzweiler/History/AlbertGuerisse.html