HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The Special Air Service (SAS) carried out a number of operations behind the lines in order to delay German reinforcements to the Normandy beachheads.

B Squadron, 1 SAS was assigned Operation Bulbasket, its objective to block the Paris-Bordeux railway near Poitiers in east-central France and hamper German reinforcements moving toward the Normandy beachheads, especially 2nd Panzer Division.

They parachuted into Indre over several days from D-Day and the following weeks. They set up camp at a number of places to prevent discovery by the Germans but an informer told the Germans about the one they established in Forêt de Verrière.

On 3 July 1944 the reserve battalion of 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division attacked the camp at dawn and captured 34 SAS troops, seven Maquis plus an American airman who had been shot down and attached himself to the SAS squadron.

Technically, they were Prisoners of War (POW). But their fate was sealed. The rules of being a POW were not respected due to the Commando Order Adolf Hitler had issued on 18 October 1942. Any Allied Commando or member of the special forces encountered in Europe or Africa were to be executed immediately, even if they were in uniform or had surrendered.

He was amongst a group of 31 of those captured who were executed in Bois de Guron, within the Forêt de Saint-Sauvent, south-west of Poitiers and buried in a shallow grave which they had dug. The three other men, who had been injured and were in hospital, were killed by lethal injection the following day.