Michelle Dumon
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Micheline Aline Dumon (20 May 1921 – 16 November 2017), (code names Lily and Michou), was a member of the
Belgian Resistance The Belgian Resistance (, ) collectively refers to the resistance movements opposed to the German occupation of Belgium during World War II, German occupation of Belgium during World War II. Within Belgium, resistance was fragmented between many ...
during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
with the
Comet Line The Comet Line (; 1941–1944) was a Resistance organization in occupied Belgium and France in the Second World War. The Comet Line helped Allied soldiers and airmen shot down over occupied Belgium evade capture by Germans and return to Great ...
(Réseau Comète). Her surname often appears misspelled as "Dumont" in historical sources. She was awarded the British
George Medal The George Medal (GM), instituted on 24 September 1940 by King George VI,''British Gallantry Medals'' (Abbott and Tamplin), p. 138 is a decoration of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth, awarded for gallantry, typically ...
and United States
Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, alongside the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by decision of the president of the United States to "any person recommended to the President ...
for helping allied airmen shot down over Belgium and France evade capture and imprisonment by
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
. As a member of the Comet Line, founded by
Andrée de Jongh Countess Andrée Eugénie Adrienne de Jongh (30 November 1916 – 13 October 2007), called Dédée and Postman, was a member of the Belgian Resistance during the Second World War. She organised and led the Comet Line (''Le Réseau Comète'') ...
, she aided in the escape of more than 250 allied airmen. She guided downed airmen from Belgium and France to the border of neutral Spain from where they could be repatriated to Great Britain. Dumon, despite her youth, was one of the Comet Line's most experienced and longest-serving members. In 1944, she unmasked a German infiltrator,
Jacques Desoubrie Jacques Desoubrie (22 October 1922 – 20 December 1949)Review
of Patrice Miannay's ''Dictionnaires ...
, who had been responsible for the arrests of many Comet Line members. She became known to 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 ...
and fled to England, where she remained until the end of the war.


The Comet Line

Dumon was in nursing school in August 1942 when her father Eugene, mother Marie (code name "Francoise"), and younger sister
Andrée Andrée or Andree may refer to: People * Andrée (given name) * Andree (surname) Places * Andree, Minnesota, unincorporated community in Stanchfield Township, Isanti County, Minnesota * 1296 Andrée, asteroid * Andrée Land (Svalbard) * Andrée La ...
(code name "Nadine") were arrested by German security forces and imprisoned. "Nadine" was an important member of the Comet Line, being the principal courier between Brussels and Paris. Her father would die in prison; her mother was released in 1943; and her sister survived the war in
Mauthausen Mauthausen was a German Nazi concentration camp on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen (roughly east of Linz), Upper Austria. It was the main camp of a group with nearly 100 further subcamps located throughout Austria and southern ...
and Ravensbrück concentration camps. "Lily" Dumon took over for her family members in the Comet Line, helping Allied airmen shot down over Belgium elude capture and escape Nazi-occupied Europe to neutral Spain from where they could be evacuated to Great Britain. Initially, she was in charge of
safe house A safe house (also spelled safehouse) is a dwelling place or building whose unassuming appearance makes it an inconspicuous location where one can hide out, take shelter, or conduct clandestine activities. Historical usage It may also refer to ...
s where downed airmen were kept, nursed wounded airmen, helped prepare false identification cards, and connected airmen with escorts who would accompany them from Brussels to Spain, a roundabout distance of via train, bicycle, and foot. After nearly being captured by the Germans, she went underground, living in safe houses and with other members of the Comet Line. She had a false identification card which said she was 16 years old and a student. Being "pert" and "tiny" she appeared that age. According to one airman, she looked to be 12 or 13 years old. She emphasized her youth by dressing like a teenager, young students not being as suspicious to the Germans as older women. She spoke some English which made her suitable for interacting with Allied airman who only rarely spoke French. Unlike most Comet Line escorts who tried to be inconspicuous, Dumon was sometimes dramatic. "Fifty times or more heoutwitted the German agents by suddenly enacting a tender, tearful love scene in a streetcar or on a station platform with some airmen she had only known for an hour or two. Encountering such a scene, the embarrassed German agent would pass on and ask no questions." With the near collapse of the Comet Line in June 1943 due to arrests by the Germans, Dumon assumed more of a leadership position. "She became a sort of odd-job woman: looking for hide-outs, escorting pilots, recruiting new agents, collecting food coupons, restore ngthe escape route after each wave of arrests. She had a thorough knowledge of the whole line. If due to arrests or other circumstances there was a shortage of agents she joined in." In January 1944, with the situation becoming too dangerous for her in Brussels, she moved to Paris, then quickly to
Bayonne Bayonne () is a city in southwestern France near the France–Spain border, Spanish border. It is a communes of France, commune and one of two subprefectures in France, subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques departments of France, departm ...
in southwestern France, where Elvire de Greef was the leader of the Comet Line. She escorted two groups of 10 airmen across the
Pyrenees The Pyrenees are a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. They extend nearly from their union with the Cantabrian Mountains to Cap de Creus on the Mediterranean coast, reaching a maximum elevation of at the peak of Aneto. ...
to Spain. In March 1944, she was one of three Comet Line leaders meeting in Madrid with British authorities to plan for Comet Line action before and during the upcoming invasion of France by Allied forces. She went back to Paris from there and was arrested by the French police and spent two nights in jail, but she was not given to 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 ...
. She turned on her "babyish act" and the police commandant released her because she was so "young."


Rooting out a double agent

Many of the arrests of Comet Line helpers in 1943 and 1944 had been orchestrated by a Belgian man named
Jacques Desoubrie Jacques Desoubrie (22 October 1922 – 20 December 1949)Review
of Patrice Miannay's ''Dictionnaires ...
. Under the name Jean Masson he had become useful to the Comet Line in 1943 but had betrayed its leadership to the Germans, nearly destroying the organization. At a Comet Line meeting in February 1944 in Paris, Dumon met a familiar looking man who said his name was Pierre Boulain. He was wearing a polka dot necktie, and she recalled an admonition of her father, "If you see someone wearing something garish it could be a signal, so pay attention." She didn't follow up on her suspicions immediately, but in March in Paris, during her brief incarceration, she had an opportunity to ask a Comet Line helper in prison the identity of her betrayer. The answer was Pierre Boulain, and she realized that Boulain was the same man who had betrayed the Comet line one year earlier under the name Jean Masson. She passed this information along to Jean de Blommaert and Albert Ancia,
MI9 MI9, the British Directorate of Military Intelligence Section 9, was a secret department of the War Office between 1939 and 1945. During World War II it had two principal tasks: assisting in the escape of Allied prisoners of war (POWs) held b ...
agents in France implementing Operation Marathon. They were incredulous. They had been favorably impressed by Boulain and were planning to give him 500,000 francs to establish a safe-haven camp for airmen in Belgium. They wanted more proof that he was a German agent. When the two MI9 agents met with Boulain/Desoubrie on 7 May, Dumon observed the meeting from a distance and then followed Boulain. He detected her following him and realized that he was under suspicion as a German agent. He moved toward her and she ran, finding her way into a metro station and watching as he searched the station for her. As Boulain knew her identity, she realized the Gestapo would also soon know. She left for southwestern France the next day and Elvire de Greef arranged a quick exit over the border to Spain. From Spain the British flew her to England. In 1945, after the war had ended, an American intelligence officer called Dumon to his office to look at several photographs. Dumon identified the man in the photos as Pierre Boulain/Jean Masson/Jacques Desoubrie. The intelligence officer told her that Desoubrie was working for the Americans at
Nuremberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...
. Desoubrie was subsequently captured and executed in 1949.


Later life

Dumon arrived in England on 22 June 1944. She began training with MI9 for returning to Belgium as an undercover operative, but Belgium was liberated before she was to be parachuted into the country. In England, she met her future husband
Pierre Ugeux Pierre Ugeux ( 1914 – 12 January 2009) was a paratrooper during World War II and worked closely with British Intelligence as a Major in the French section of the Special Operations Executive (SOE). He was assigned to work with the famous Come ...
, a paratrooper and French Major in the
Special Operations Executive Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a British organisation formed in 1940 to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in German-occupied Europe and to aid local Resistance during World War II, resistance movements during World War II. ...
(SOE). Ugeux, as an SOE employee, was familiar with her work in the Resistance. They married in 1945 and after the war moved to France. The couple had four children: Nicole, Brigitte, Guy, and Stefan. He was later highly active in motorsports. Ugeux died in 2009 Dumon died in 2017.


Honors

* Awarded the British
George Medal The George Medal (GM), instituted on 24 September 1940 by King George VI,''British Gallantry Medals'' (Abbott and Tamplin), p. 138 is a decoration of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth, awarded for gallantry, typically ...
on 6 January 1967 * Awarded the U.S.
Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, alongside the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by decision of the president of the United States to "any person recommended to the President ...
with Gold Palm


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dumon, Micheline 1921 births 2017 deaths Recipients of the George Medal Belgian recipients of the George Medal Belgian resistance members Recipients of the Medal of Freedom Female resistance members of World War II Belgian expatriates in England People from Brussels