British agents of the Gestapo in France during WW2

[Anzac]

I just received the book, Turncoat - am looking forward to reading it!

[slacky]

i have just finnished reading a book about cole called the blue moon by robert ryan a very intresting read

[slacky]

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Books/Fiction- ... 236773.htm

[Anzac]

I've read the blue moon 4 times..lol..a very interesting read, great how he gets information from the PRO and then turns it into a book. I also suggest his book, Early One Morning and The Last Sunrise - very good reads.

[devilish2764]

I would greatly appreciate any help you good people could offer me.

I have just finished reading "Early one morning" by Robert Ryan. A fantastic read and it didn't leave my hands from start to finish!

Now the thing is, this character Sgt Harold Cole got me thinking. My late Grandfather, James Tobin, mentioned a man (very similar to this Cole) to me many years ago. He also mentioned a book titled "In trust and Treason" by Gordon Young. He (my Grandfather) is apparently mentioned in this book, a whole chapter no less! My Grandfather apparently assisted in the French resistance during the 2nd WW. Other than that information I do not have a lot to go on.

If anyone has any further info on Cole or, ideally, my late Grandfather then I would be eternally grateful if you could either PM me or indeed post here for all to read.

I thank you for your time.

[Anzac]

How good is the book! - Robery Ryan is fantastic!
He's also written another book called "The Blue Noon" which i think you will like, especially if you liked "Early One Morning"

The book, "Turncoat" is also a very good read.

[Anzac]

try searching online for that book..i have found a few on ebay - that is always a good look.

[Panzermahn]

Is this pictures of Harold Cole? He may look a bit aged but I think it may be the same person

Adrian Weale found them in the British National Archives





http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... leeve.html

[Cynthia5]

Sorry to be a little off the subject,
but this is the only Forum where I've seen Suzanne Warenghem discussed.

One of the articles posted above mentioned she survived up til
the late 1990s.

I had searched earlier for an obituary about her, but did not find any online.

Does anyone have access to details about where and when she died ?

Seems there would be an article in a major British paper.

In general, the book suggestions above are a big help. Thanks!

[Cynthia5]

About the pictures of Harold Cole right above,
my first reaction is that they're aren't he.

I have just finished Gordon Young's "In Trust and Treason" - which is
why I looked online for more updates since 1959 when he wrote it.

The sole picture in the illustrations for that book looks like a much weaker
personality ; uncertain, and truly creepy.

The man pictured above has a much greater assurance and confidence in himself.
He seems more straightforward, not a crook.

Perhaps I'm wrong, since that researcher must know much more.
Certainly if it IS Harold Cole, he had much perfected his acting role over the years !

[BernardO]

Donald Darling's Secret Sunday refers to Cole.
Might anyone know whether Harold Andrews - British Air Attache in Lisbon 40-44 (given commercial cover by SOE) was involved in the Cole case?

[Researching Bruce Dowding]

Found some more information regarding Cole.
He betrayed my Uncle , a young lad from Melbourne, Kenneth Bruce Dowding who was executed at Dortmund on 30 June 1943----------------------------------------------------------------

For one American, SAARF was a bizarre and nearly ignominious end to an illustrious wartime career. As the leader of the 101st Airborne Division's Pathfinders, Captain Frank Lillyman may have been the first American paratrooper to set foot on French soil during the Allied invasion. And though Lillyman no doubt found himself in more than one precarious situation while serving with the 101st, nothing prepared him for the likes of Harold Cole.

In a war that produced more than its share of villains, Harold Cole was in a class by himself. Cole began his career in treachery in 1927 when he deserted from the West Kent Regiment. He again joined the British Army at the outbreak of the war, and again, after Dunkirk, he deserted, but this time to the Germans. At long last Cole found an organization suited to his sense of ethics: The Gestapo, which had use for someone who could pass so convincingly for a downed British airman or an escaped British soldier.

From about 1940 or 1941 until the end of the war, Cole was instrumental in betraying to the Gestapo a large number of downed RAF airmen, British agents, soldiers, and escapees, and members of various resistance groups. Cole's base of operations was Paris, where he had his own room on the top floor of Gestapo Headquarters at 84 Avenue Foch. Later, he was moved to Berlin where the Gestapo and RSHA kept him busy. Before Berlin fell, Cole managed to make his way to the south of France and the shores of Lake Constance, and there his path crossed that of Captain Lillyman.

Lillyman was operating with a SAARF team in the Lake Constance area when he met Cole, who by then had managed to ingratiate himself with the incredibly naive U.S. Army CIC in the region, who had supplied Cole with an American Army uniform and identity card. As far as Lillyman knew, Cole, like himself, was searching for war criminals.

Cole persuaded Lillyman that a man living in the area, a man who just happened to have a fine Mercedes motor car, was a traitor and should be arrested. Lillyman accompanied Cole to make the arrest, but rather than arrest the 'traitor', Cole shot him dead and drove off in the Mercedes.

The wily Cole immediately reported the incident to the American authorities but altered the story ever so slightly: Lillyman had shot the man and taken the car! Incredibly, Lillyman was arrested and sent to Frankfurt to await court-martial.

Fortunately for Lillyman, the truth of the matter was eventually sorted out and a court-martial was never convened. And not long thereafter, Cole was killed in a shoot-out with the Paris police; no doubt to the disappointment of Lillyman, who must have been sustained through the affair by the hope that someday he might have a minute or two alone with Mr. Cole.

- The Special Allied Airborne Reconnaissance Force (SAARF) - http://www.insigne.org/SAARF-I.htm

Life was constantly hazardous for all SOE agents. While Trotobas was in prison at the end of 1941, Madeleine Damerment met Monsieur Paul, who told her he was a British captain and leader of an escape organisation of British Intelligence. He was in fact, Corporal Harold Cole who worked for the Pat organisation of Dr. Albert Guerisse, but later he became a traitor and betrayed the organisation to the Gestapo. In great danger because of Paul's treachery, Madeleine escaped to England but returned to France in 1944. She was executed with three other women SOE agents at Dachau on 12 September that year.

- The Story Of Michael Trotobas - http://www.storyhouse.org/margie2.html


Six Days in September - http://www.conscript-heroes.com/Art%20Six%20Days.html

Hope this helps, anyone else found anything else?