The Klan Network (1942–1944) was a

French Resistance The French Resistance ( ) was a collection of groups that fought the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Nazi occupation and the Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#France, collaborationist Vic ...

network specializing in intelligence gathering. It was established in 1942 by Colonel

François de La Rocque François () is a French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis. People with the given name * François Amoudruz (1926–2020), French resistance fighter * François-Marie Arouet (better known as Voltaire; ...

within the framework of the Parti social français (PSF).

History

The Klan Network was founded in 1942 by Colonel

and the leadership of the Parti social français (PSF), which had been transformed after 1940 into a social welfare organization under the name Progrès social français. Klan was considered a sub-network of the Réseau Alibi, led by Georges Charaudeau. It provided intelligence, via Alibi, to the

Secret Intelligence Service The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 (MI numbers, Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of Human i ...

(SIS) in Britain, which commended the network twice for its efforts. The network was disrupted following the arrest of the PSF leadership and the

deportation Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people by a state from its sovereign territory. The actual definition changes depending on the place and context, and it also changes over time. A person who has been deported or is under sen ...

of Colonel

in 1943. His arrest by the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

in March 1943 "did not halt social activities or the collection of military intelligence. In the occupied zone, Professor Pierre Lépine, who had connections with American intelligence networks, succeeded Noël Ottavi in managing the Progrès social français until the Liberation. He notably developed an independent intervention plan for the PSF during the operations of August 1944. However, individual choices ultimately dictated participation".

Actions of the Klan Network

Professor Pierre Lépine, one of the PSF leaders in the northern zone and a key figure in the Klan Network, described several of its actions: * "In 1942–1943, I received intelligence reports from all the ADP (NB: Auxiliaires de la défense passive, a civic action branch of the PSF) every Tuesday. These reports were microfilmed in my laboratory at the Pasteur Institute on Wednesday and sent out on Thursday. It is likely that the documents left France through Spain. This was at least the route used to transmit photographs of the fortifications of the

Atlantic Wall The Atlantic Wall () was an extensive system of coastal defence and fortification, coastal defences and fortifications built by Nazi Germany between 1942 and 1944 along the coast of continental Europe and Scandinavia as a defense (military), d ...

across the entire Seine basin". * "Guérillot, EVP (NB: PSF member) of the 11th arrondissement, with the support of the PSF in Mantes, provided Georges Riché with a sample of a detergent used in producing an oxygen derivative manufactured in a German factory in Mantes (linked to their atomic research at the time). This sample was immediately forwarded to the Allies. After the war, I received thanks from an American general at the Pentagon, who personally commended me for the quality of the information gathered during the occupation". * In Lyon, Professor Hermann from the Faculty of Medicine coordinated intelligence sources.

References

Sources

* * * {{Portal bar, France French Resistance networks and movements