Henri Déricourt

Henri Déricourt (2 September 1909 − 21 November 1962), code named Gilbert and Claude, was a French agent in 1943 and 1944 for the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive organization during World War II. The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in countries occupied by the Axis powers, especially those occupied by Nazi Germany. SOE agents allied themselves with resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England.

Déricourt was the organiser (leader) of the Farrier network (or circuit) in France. Déricourt's job with SOE was air movements officer. He found clandestine landing fields for RAF airplanes and organized receptions for the arrival and departure of flights to convey SOE agents back and forth from England to France. Déricourt also acted as a postman, collecting mail and messages from SOE agents for transmittal to SOE headquarters in London with the airplane pilots. He was highly successful at the job and came into contact with many agents of Prosper, the SOE's largest and most important network in France.

In the summer of 1943, the Prosper network was destroyed by the Germans with the arrest of hundreds of Prosper network associates and the execution of many, including Francis Suttill, the leader of the network.Helm, Sarah (2005), ''A Life in Secrets,'' New York: Doubleday, p. 53-54.

Déricourt's service with SOE was controversial and he is widely believed to have been a German agent. He is accused of betraying the Prosper network to the Germans. After the war he was tried but acquitted of being a double agent who worked for the ''Sicherheitsdienst'' (SD), the intelligence arm of the German SS. The theory has also been advanced by some authors that Déricourt was a triple agent working under British instructions and that the betrayal of many SOE agents was an attempt by the British intelligence agency, MI6, to mislead the Germans about the date of the invasion of France by allied forces. M.R.D. Foot, the official historian of the SOE, believed that Dericourt was a German agent but debunked the assertion that Dericourt was a triple agent.

Early life

Henri Alfred Eugène Déricourt was born in Coulonges-Cohan, Aisne, France on 2 September 1909. His father worked for the post office and his mother was a domestic servant. He was trained as a military pilot in 1930, but left military service in 1932 to join an aerial circus. In 1935, he joined Air Bleu as a pilot and flew mail around France from then until the beginning of World War II in 1939. In 1936, he also became involved with French intelligence services and delivered aeroplanes to the Spanish Republican Army in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War.

In Paris in 1937 and 1938, according to author Robert Marshall, Déricourt met and became friends with two people who would become important in his life: a British journalist named Nicolas Bodington, later to become the second ranking officer in the French section of SOE, and a German policeman, Karl Boemelburg, assigned to the German Embassy and later the head of the SD in Paris.

On 13 December 1941 Déricourt married a recently divorced woman, Jean Rose "Jeannot" Gamerre. He "was devoted to Jeannot, but never faithful" staying with Julienne Aisner when he was in Paris. He later recruited Aisner to work for him in SOE. Déricourt had the reputation of being a "witty, self-confident and extremely persuasive charmer, particularly with the ladies." His friend, fellow pilot Hugh Verity, said that Dericourt "was unscrupulous enough and arrogant enough to think that he could outsmart anyone--but that he was by nature a man who would not stab his friends in the back."

World War II and SOE

At the beginning of World War II, Déricourt flew civilian aircraft supplying French soldiers stationed near the border with Germany and later as a test pilot of a new French bomber. With the surrender of France in June 1940, he was involved in black market activities. He renewed his friendship with Boemelburg, now SD chief in Paris. Beginning in July 1941, he was a pilot for an airline in Vichy France, at that time unoccupied by Germany. He also came into contact with American intelligence officials as a source of information.

In August 1942, Déricourt, unhappy in Vichy and leaving his wife behind, was transported by ship to Britain. He was investigated by MI5 (Security Service) which said that it was "unable to guarantee his reliability." Despite those concerns he was subsequently recruited by MI6 (Secret Intelligence Service) before having his name and credentials passed to the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in November 1942. Déricourt's old friend, Nicolas Bodington, now the second in command of SOE's French section, endorsed his employment enthusiastically.Foot, p. 291

Air operations

SOE had difficulties with the Royal Air Force which reluctantly supplied the planes and pilots for SOE's clandestine operations. The RAF complained about the large number of failed missions. Déricourt with his experience as a pilot and his knowledge of France seemed like a godsend. On the night of 22/23 January 1943, Déricourt was parachuted "blind" (without anybody meeting him) into France near Orléans

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