![]() ![]() The loss of Vivant brought OCM and other networks to the brink of collapse. With the loss of so many resistance leaders, Vivant had come to know far too much about the invasion and how the resistance was expected to support it, which included a plan to reorganise the resistance and to expand it tenfold. Earlier in the war, Vivant had established an information-gathering system in which people gleaned information on the defences of the Channel coast and passed it to village mayors, who delivered it to Vivant for onward transmission to London by wireless. On 14 February 1944, Raymond Vivant, the sous-préfet of Abbeville and the last OCM leader to remain at liberty was arrested. Prisoners of the Gestapo winter offensive of 1943–1944, taken around Amiens were imprisoned at the local prison where, in December 1943, twelve résistants were shot. In late October 1943, the capture of the résistant Roland Farjon, a senior figure in Organisation civile et militaire (OCM), began a period of mass arrests of résistants from OCM, which claimed a membership of 100,000 men and women, including about 12,000 in A region (Amiens), Alliance, Sosies and other groups ready for an expected Allied invasion. Ĭontemporary map showing V-1 launch sites, 1944 The Gestapo and Abwehr were able to expose many French, British and US espionage and sabotage networks in northern and north-west France. Lucien Pieri, a shopkeeper in Amiens, had run a profitable sideline as a Gestapo informer since 1941 and by 1943 had a network of informers which penetrated many of the resistance ( La Résistance) networks in northern France. Oberst Hermann Giskes was head of Abwehr (German military intelligence) in the Low Countries, Belgium and Northern France and controller of the Englandspiel (1942–1944) counter-intelligence operation. The Germans wanted to keep preparations for the Allied invasion and the V-1 flying bomb reprisal offensive as secret as possible. Main articles: French Resistance and Pas de Calaisĭuring 1943 Allied and German interest in the Pas de Calais increased the Allies wanted information about the Atlantic Wall defences against an invasion, to keep as much of the Westheer as possible away from Normandy and operations Bodyline and Crossbow against V-weapons sites appearing in the region. There is debate as to who requested the attack and whether it was necessary.īackground French resistance The raid is notable for the precision and daring of the attack, which was filmed by a camera on one of the Mosquitos. Two Mosquitos and a Typhoon fighter escort were shot down and another Typhoon was lost at sea. Of the 832 prisoners, 102 were killed by the bombing, 74 were wounded and 258 escaped, including 79 Resistance members and political prisoners two-thirds of the escapees were recaptured. Mosquito fighter-bombers breached the walls, prison buildings and destroyed the guards' barracks. The French Resistance was waiting on the outside to rescue prisoners and spirit them away. Allied aircraft bombed Amiens Prison in German-occupied France at very low altitude to blow holes in the prison walls, kill German guards and use shock waves to spring open cell doors. Operation Jericho (Ramrod 564) took place on 18 February 1944 during the Second World War. ![]()
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