Raymond Couraud
Encyclopedia
Raymond Couraud is a French
soldier and gangster
, who through his World War II military exploits became a highly decorated member of the French-section of the British Army
's Special Air Service
.
, Charente-Maritime
, France. Little is known of his early life, or education.
under his real name, but with a birth date of 12 January 1916 in Namur
, Belgium. This would have made him 22 and old enough to join, where as he was actually just over 18 and too young.
After training, on the 3rd March, 1940, he was assigned to the 5th Company of the 13th Brigade. With this unit he took part in the Battles of Narvik
, for which he won the Croix de Guerre with palm
, for dislodging two enemy soldiers with a grenade attack:
Returning to France, Courard found a France in turmoil, in July 1940 he joined retreating French Forces in Fuveau
, near Marseille
. After the unit was decimated in action, while trying to reach England, Couraud was captured and imprisoned in August 1940 at Fort Saint Nicolas. Acquitted before a military tribunal in December 1940, he was released by the Vichy government.
Mary Jayne Gold
, who had chosen to relocate from Paris to the new Vichy controlled area, over returning home.
In Marseille, Gold met American art student Miriam Davenport
, and American journalist and intellect Varian Fry
, who had come to France on a personal mission to help members of Europe's intellectual and artistic community escape the Nazi threat. The three became the core of a volunteer group who sheltered artistic refugees, and through Couraud organized their escape through the mountains to Spain, or smuggling them aboard freighters sailing to North Africa, or ports in North or South America.
Through the organisation, Couraud and Gold became lovers. Gold helped subsidize the organisation, which is credited with the rescue of over 2,000 refugees, among whom were: sculptor Jacques Lipchitz
; artist Marc Chagall
; writer Hannah Arendt
; Nobel Prize
winner Otto Meyerhof.
While Gold remained in Marseille until Autumn 1941, in April 1941 Couraud crossed the Pyrenees
with the aim of reporting to the British Consulate in Barcelona
. Arrested at Madrid railway station, he was interned for four months in Miranda
. Meanwhile, due to criminal activity and associated smuggling of people, he was sentenced by a military court in Marseille to 10 years in prison.
. He was immediately assigned to the Action militaire section of the Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action
(English: Central Bureau of Intelligence and Operations; commonly referred as just BCRA), the World War II era forerunner of the SDECE French intelligence service.
Couraud was assigned to Colonel Maurice Buckmaster
's section of the Special Operations Executive
, which covered all of France. After specialist training, in December 1941, Couraud was commissioned as second-Lieutenant Jack William Raymond Lee. Name changes were not uncommon during the war, as various people and particularly criminals tried to hide their past while fighting what they saw as a true fight.
raids on northern French beaches from Normandy
to Loire-Atlantique
.
On the 28th March, Couraud is the only French national to participate in the Lord Mountbatten-led British Commandos
raid on St. Nazaire. Arranged to ensure that the Tirpitz
had no base on the Atlantic Ocean, Couraud escaped, but was wounded in both legs. He recovered in Falmouth Hospital
from April to July 1942.
Couraud returned to operations with SOE in August 1942,with a beach raid near Cannes
. In November 1942, in an operation near Narbonne
, he was forced to neutralise three Vichy policeman. Escaping through the Pyrennes, he made his way to Barcelona, and then onwards to Lisbon
, Portugal for return to England.
. Assigned to Stirling's No.62 Commando, the unit later became 2 SAS, a designated Small Scale Raiding Force
. Based at the regimental HQ in Philippeville, Algeria, over the following 14months the group undertook various raids into occupied Europe and North Africa:
, Stirling took 50 French soldiers out of 2 SAS to form the 2 SAS, French 2nd Squadron under Couraud, under his new title of Captain Lee. The squadron consisted of Couraud as captain and commander, three British lieutenants, two French officers (Lieutenant Robert Sablet Raillard and Aspiring), and French soldiers, with a large proportion of former Legionaries. In May 1943, taking advantage of the Churchill Act of 1940, Couraud took British citizenship.
In September 1943, in Operation Slapstick
the Allied assault on Taranto
, French 2nd Squadron undertook initial reconnaissance. After the landings, they destroyed a large Wermacht convoy in the area of Chieti
, and then harassed German units as they withdrew to Sangro via the advancing front. After further raids and operations on the Italian mainland, in April 1944 the unit withdrew for recuperation in Scotland
.
unit in preparation for D-Day
and the Invasion of Europe, which would target high-ranking Nazi Wermacht staff.
From March 1943, British Intelligence had been trying to find Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
's headquarters in France. Part of the brief looked at creating a timetable for Rommel, to assess how easy it would be to kill him. Much as though he had been against the plan pre-D-Day, with man power losses escalating Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery approved the plan post D-Day, even though they still didn't know where Rommel's base was. In a bizarre coincidence, on 9 June SAS Lieutenant General was heading for a meeting with a French Resistance unit. Resting in a barn, he was approached by a man who lived in La Roche-Guyon
, asking for assurances that as Rommel's headquarters was in the village, that the Royal Air Force
would not bomb them.
On learning of the location of Rommel's HQ, Couraud and his unit were moved to a flat in London, to wait for a storm to pass and be parachuted into Orléans
. Arriving on 18 July, the team radioed in, but found that Rommel had been severely injured the previous day after his staff car had been over turned in an attack by RAF Hawker Typhoon
's, and replaced by Günther von Kluge
.
Couraud and his team orders regarding Rommel were aborted, and they moved toward advancing US Army lines on foot, while ambushing trains and attacking German units along their route. After an attack on the German Command at Mantes, Couraud disguised as a policeman made his way through the judicial police of Pontchartrain
, and joined the American 3rd Army of General George S. Patton
on 12 August.
. Split into two teams starting from Orléans and Rennes
, the teams met up near Langres
, where they built an SAS field operations base.
Returning to England in September 1944, with the liberation of France, Couraud left the British Army in December 1944. He returned to France to became part of the French Army General Staff.
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
soldier and gangster
Gangster
A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Some gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from mob and the suffix -ster....
, who through his World War II military exploits became a highly decorated member of the French-section of the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
's Special Air Service
Special Air Service
Special Air Service or SAS is a corps of the British Army constituted on 31 May 1950. They are part of the United Kingdom Special Forces and have served as a model for the special forces of many other countries all over the world...
.
Biography
Raymond Couraud was born on 12 January 1920 at SurgèresSurgères
Surgères is a commune in the Charente-Maritime department in southwestern France. It is the home of the Surgères 48 Hour Race.-Surrounding communes:...
, Charente-Maritime
Charente-Maritime
Charente-Maritime is a department on the west coast of France named after the Charente River.- History :Previously a part of Saintonge, Charente-Inférieure was one of the 83 original departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790...
, France. Little is known of his early life, or education.
French Foreign Legion
On 19 March 1938, Couraud joined the French Foreign LegionFrench Foreign Legion
The French Foreign Legion is a unique military service wing of the French Army established in 1831. The foreign legion was exclusively created for foreign nationals willing to serve in the French Armed Forces...
under his real name, but with a birth date of 12 January 1916 in Namur
Namur (city)
Namur is a city and municipality in Wallonia, in southern Belgium. It is both the capital of the province of Namur and of Wallonia....
, Belgium. This would have made him 22 and old enough to join, where as he was actually just over 18 and too young.
After training, on the 3rd March, 1940, he was assigned to the 5th Company of the 13th Brigade. With this unit he took part in the Battles of Narvik
Battles of Narvik
The Battles of Narvik were fought from 9 April-8 June 1940 as a naval battle in the Ofotfjord and as a land battle in the mountains surrounding the north Norwegian city of Narvik as part of the Norwegian Campaign of the Second World War....
, for which he won the Croix de Guerre with palm
Croix de guerre
The Croix de guerre is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was awarded during World War I, again in World War II, and in other conflicts...
, for dislodging two enemy soldiers with a grenade attack:
Returning to France, Courard found a France in turmoil, in July 1940 he joined retreating French Forces in Fuveau
Fuveau
Fuveau is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France.-Population:-References:*...
, near 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...
. After the unit was decimated in action, while trying to reach England, Couraud was captured and imprisoned in August 1940 at Fort Saint Nicolas. Acquitted before a military tribunal in December 1940, he was released by the Vichy government.
Marseille and Mary Jayne Gold
On release, Couraud joined the new French economy by becoming a gangster, arranging importation, trading, distribution and export of illegal goods and people. It was through this activity that he was introduced to American socialiteSocialite
A socialite is a person who participates in social activities and spends a significant amount of time entertaining and being entertained at fashionable upper-class events....
Mary Jayne Gold
Mary Jayne Gold
Mary Jayne Gold was an American heiress who played an important role helping European Jews and intellectuals escape Nazi Germany in 1940-1941, during World War II....
, who had chosen to relocate from Paris to the new Vichy controlled area, over returning home.
In Marseille, Gold met American art student Miriam Davenport
Miriam Davenport
Miriam Davenport was an American painter and sculptor who played an important role helping European Jews and intellectuals escape the Holocaust during World War II...
, and American journalist and intellect Varian Fry
Varian Fry
Varian Mackey Fry was an American journalist. Fry ran a rescue network in Vichy France that helped approximately 2,000 to 4,000 anti-Nazi and Jewish refugees to escape Nazi Germany and the Holocaust.-Early life:...
, who had come to France on a personal mission to help members of Europe's intellectual and artistic community escape the Nazi threat. The three became the core of a volunteer group who sheltered artistic refugees, and through Couraud organized their escape through the mountains to Spain, or smuggling them aboard freighters sailing to North Africa, or ports in North or South America.
Through the organisation, Couraud and Gold became lovers. Gold helped subsidize the organisation, which is credited with the rescue of over 2,000 refugees, among whom were: sculptor Jacques Lipchitz
Jacques Lipchitz
Jacques Lipchitz was a Cubist sculptor.Jacques Lipchitz was born Chaim Jacob Lipchitz, son of a building contractor in Druskininkai, Lithuania, then within the Russian Empire...
; artist Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall Art critic Robert Hughes referred to Chagall as "the quintessential Jewish artist of the twentieth century."According to art historian Michael J...
; writer Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt was a German American political theorist. She has often been described as a philosopher, although she refused that label on the grounds that philosophy is concerned with "man in the singular." She described herself instead as a political theorist because her work centers on the fact...
; Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
winner Otto Meyerhof.
While Gold remained in Marseille until Autumn 1941, in April 1941 Couraud crossed the Pyrenees
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...
with the aim of reporting to the British Consulate in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
. Arrested at Madrid railway station, he was interned for four months in Miranda
Miranda
-Places:Australia* Miranda, New South Wales, a community in Sutherland Shire, New South Wales* Miranda railway station, a railway station in Sutherland Shire, New South WalesBrazil* Miranda, Mato Grosso do Sul, a município in the State of Mato Grosso do Sul...
. Meanwhile, due to criminal activity and associated smuggling of people, he was sentenced by a military court in Marseille to 10 years in prison.
SOE: Jack William Raymond Lee
On arrival in England on 12 October 1941, Courard joined the Free French ForcesFree French Forces
The Free French Forces were French partisans in World War II who decided to continue fighting against the forces of the Axis powers after the surrender of France and subsequent German occupation and, in the case of Vichy France, collaboration with the Germans.-Definition:In many sources, Free...
. He was immediately assigned to the Action militaire section of the Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action
Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action
The Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action , commonly referred as the BCRA was the World War II-era forerunner of the SDECE, the French intelligence service...
(English: Central Bureau of Intelligence and Operations; commonly referred as just BCRA), the World War II era forerunner of the SDECE French intelligence service.
Couraud was assigned to Colonel Maurice Buckmaster
Maurice Buckmaster
Colonel Maurice James Buckmaster OBE was the leader of the French section of Special Operations Executive and was awarded the Croix de Guerre. He was a corporate manager with the French branch of the Ford Motor Company, in the postwar years serving in Dagenham...
's section of the Special Operations Executive
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...
, which covered all of France. After specialist training, in December 1941, Couraud was commissioned as second-Lieutenant Jack William Raymond Lee. Name changes were not uncommon during the war, as various people and particularly criminals tried to hide their past while fighting what they saw as a true fight.
St Nazaire Raid
In January to February 1942, Couraud continued his SOE training with a combination of formal courses, including parachuting; to night training on British Southcoast beaches, and reconnaissanceReconnaissance
Reconnaissance is the military term for exploring beyond the area occupied by friendly forces to gain information about enemy forces or features of the environment....
raids on northern French beaches from Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
to Loire-Atlantique
Loire-Atlantique
Loire-Atlantique is a department on the west coast of France named after the Loire River and the Atlantic Ocean.-History:...
.
On the 28th March, Couraud is the only French national to participate in the Lord Mountbatten-led British Commandos
British Commandos
The British Commandos were formed during the Second World War in June 1940, following a request from the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, for a force that could carry out raids against German-occupied Europe...
raid on St. Nazaire. Arranged to ensure that the Tirpitz
German battleship Tirpitz
Tirpitz was the second of two s built for the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. Named after Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, the architect of the Imperial Navy, the ship was laid down at the Kriegsmarinewerft in Wilhelmshaven in November 1936 and launched two and a half years later in April...
had no base on the Atlantic Ocean, Couraud escaped, but was wounded in both legs. He recovered in Falmouth Hospital
Falmouth, Cornwall
Falmouth is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It has a total resident population of 21,635.Falmouth is the terminus of the A39, which begins some 200 miles away in Bath, Somerset....
from April to July 1942.
Couraud returned to operations with SOE in August 1942,with a beach raid near Cannes
Cannes
Cannes is one of the best-known cities of the French Riviera, a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. It is a Commune of France in the Alpes-Maritimes department....
. In November 1942, in an operation near Narbonne
Narbonne
Narbonne is a commune in southern France in the Languedoc-Roussillon region. It lies from Paris in the Aude department, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Once a prosperous port, it is now located about from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea...
, he was forced to neutralise three Vichy policeman. Escaping through the Pyrennes, he made his way to Barcelona, and then onwards to Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
, Portugal for return to England.
2nd SAS Regiment
Returning to France in January 1943, he is spotted on an SOE operation by Colonel Bill Stirling, the elder brother of SAS founder Colonel David StirlingDavid Stirling
Colonel Sir Archibald David Stirling, DSO, DFC, OBE was a Scottish laird, mountaineer, World War II British Army officer, and the founder of the Special Air Service.-Life before the war:...
. Assigned to Stirling's No.62 Commando, the unit later became 2 SAS, a designated Small Scale Raiding Force
Small Scale Raiding Force
No. 62 Commando or the Small Scale Raiding Force was a British Commandos unit of the British Army during the Second World War. The unit was formed around a small group of commandos under the command of the Special Operations Executive...
. Based at the regimental HQ in Philippeville, Algeria, over the following 14months the group undertook various raids into occupied Europe and North Africa:
- Ousseltia front
- Airports in southern TunisiaTunisiaTunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
, with 21 aircraft destroyed on the ground at MetlaouiMétlaouiMétlaoui is a town and commune in the Gafsa Governorate, Tunisia. As of 2004 it had a population of 37,099.- Infrastructure :Métlaoui is important railway station of southern Tunisia. City lies nearby Sousse-Tozeur line. The branch to Redeyef splits nearby. This line is famous because is runs... - Sea born operation on the Galite IslandsGalite IslandsThe Galite Islands are a rocky group of islands of volcanic origin that belong to Bizerte Governorate, northern Tunisia...
- Sea born operation on LampedusaLampedusaLampedusa is the largest island of the Italian Pelagie Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. The comune of Lampedusa e Linosa is part of the Sicilian province of Agrigento which also includes the smaller islands of Linosa and Lampione. It is the southernmost part of Italy. Tunisia, which is about ...
- SubmarineSubmarineA submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
operation on airfields in SardiniaSardiniaSardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...
SAS, French 2nd Squadron
In March 1943, after a meeting General Alphonse JuinAlphonse Juin
- Early years :Juin was born at Bône in French Algeria, and enlisted in the French Army, graduating from the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr in 1912.- Career :...
, Stirling took 50 French soldiers out of 2 SAS to form the 2 SAS, French 2nd Squadron under Couraud, under his new title of Captain Lee. The squadron consisted of Couraud as captain and commander, three British lieutenants, two French officers (Lieutenant Robert Sablet Raillard and Aspiring), and French soldiers, with a large proportion of former Legionaries. In May 1943, taking advantage of the Churchill Act of 1940, Couraud took British citizenship.
In September 1943, in Operation Slapstick
Operation Slapstick
Operation Slapstick was the code name for a British landing from the sea at the Italian port of Taranto during the Second World War. The operation, one of three landings during the Allied invasion of Italy, was undertaken by the British 1st Airborne Division in September 1943.Planned at short...
the Allied assault on Taranto
Taranto
Taranto is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto and is an important commercial port as well as the main Italian naval base....
, French 2nd Squadron undertook initial reconnaissance. After the landings, they destroyed a large Wermacht convoy in the area of Chieti
Chieti
Chieti is a city and comune in Central Italy, 200 km northeast of Rome. It is the capital of the Province of Chieti in the Abruzzo region...
, and then harassed German units as they withdrew to Sangro via the advancing front. After further raids and operations on the Italian mainland, in April 1944 the unit withdrew for recuperation in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
Operation Gaff
After Couraud returned to the UK, he was commanded to set-up a specialist six-man assassinationAssassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
unit in preparation for D-Day
D-Day
D-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...
and the Invasion of Europe, which would target high-ranking Nazi Wermacht staff.
From March 1943, British Intelligence had been trying to find Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
Erwin Rommel
Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel , popularly known as the Desert Fox , was a German Field Marshal of World War II. He won the respect of both his own troops and the enemies he fought....
's headquarters in France. Part of the brief looked at creating a timetable for Rommel, to assess how easy it would be to kill him. Much as though he had been against the plan pre-D-Day, with man power losses escalating Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery approved the plan post D-Day, even though they still didn't know where Rommel's base was. In a bizarre coincidence, on 9 June SAS Lieutenant General was heading for a meeting with a French Resistance unit. Resting in a barn, he was approached by a man who lived in La Roche-Guyon
La Roche-Guyon
La Roche-Guyon is a commune in the Val-d'Oise department in Île-de-France in northern France.The commune grew around the Château de La Roche-Guyon, upon which historically it depended for its existence...
, asking for assurances that as Rommel's headquarters was in the village, that the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
would not bomb them.
On learning of the location of Rommel's HQ, Couraud and his unit were moved to a flat in London, to wait for a storm to pass and be parachuted into Orléans
Orléans
-Prehistory and Roman:Cenabum was a Gallic stronghold, one of the principal towns of the Carnutes tribe where the Druids held their annual assembly. It was conquered and destroyed by Julius Caesar in 52 BC, then rebuilt under the Roman Empire...
. Arriving on 18 July, the team radioed in, but found that Rommel had been severely injured the previous day after his staff car had been over turned in an attack by RAF Hawker Typhoon
Hawker Typhoon
The Hawker Typhoon was a British single-seat fighter-bomber, produced by Hawker Aircraft. While the Typhoon was designed to be a medium-high altitude interceptor, and a direct replacement for the Hawker Hurricane, several design problems were encountered, and the Typhoon never completely satisfied...
's, and replaced by Günther von Kluge
Günther von Kluge
Günther Adolf Ferdinand “Hans” von Kluge was a German military leader. He was born in Posen into a Prussian military family. Kluge rose to the rank of Field Marshal in the Wehrmacht. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords...
.
Couraud and his team orders regarding Rommel were aborted, and they moved toward advancing US Army lines on foot, while ambushing trains and attacking German units along their route. After an attack on the German Command at Mantes, Couraud disguised as a policeman made his way through the judicial police of Pontchartrain
Pontchartrain
-People:*Jérôme Phélypeaux, comte de Pontchartrain, French statesman , the son of*Louis Phélypeaux , comte de Pontchartrain, French statesman-Places:*Fort Detroit , Detroit, Michigan, USA...
, and joined the American 3rd Army of General George S. Patton
George S. Patton
George Smith Patton, Jr. was a United States Army officer best known for his leadership while commanding corps and armies as a general during World War II. He was also well known for his eccentricity and controversial outspokenness.Patton was commissioned in the U.S. Army after his graduation from...
on 12 August.
Post August 1944
After Operation Gaff, Couraud was assigned as second in command of 2 SAS under Roy FarranRoy Farran
Major Roy Alexander Farran DSO, MC & Two Bars was a British-Canadian soldier, politician, farmer, author and journalist...
. Split into two teams starting from Orléans and Rennes
Rennes
Rennes is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France. Rennes is the capital of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department.-History:...
, the teams met up near Langres
Langres
Langres is a commune in north-eastern France. It is a subprefecture of the Haute-Marne département in the Champagne-Ardenne region.-History:As the capital of the Romanized Gallic tribe the Lingones, it was called Andematunnum, then Lingones, and now Langres.The town is built on a limestone...
, where they built an SAS field operations base.
Returning to England in September 1944, with the liberation of France, Couraud left the British Army in December 1944. He returned to France to became part of the French Army General Staff.