(The story will also be published on the NFB, with some minor corrections)




On the Nemo side



March 13, in Ajaccio, where the marks of the recent combats and even those of the bombardments of 1941 were always visible, the eight members of the Nemo commando embarked in the afternoon on submarine Henri-Poincar. A DC-3 had brought in the morning, coming from Algiers; Lieutenant Michel Fabre and his men : Staff sergeant Louis Martinez, Sergeants Jacques Dumont and Robert Semnoz, Chief corporal Benoit Tracol, Corporals Franois Sifert, Joseph Bilger and Claude Morond.

Little time after having sailed round the Iles Sanguinaires, the submarine dived at periscopic depth and put course due North. At nightfall, it surfaced to reload the battery and to progress more quickly. During this time, through German jamming, Radio-London and Radio-Algiers broadcasted the personal message " Nemo meets Arronax ".

March 14, at 4 hours in the morning, the commando climbed on two dinghies, for Antibes, and came ashore on the beach of Juan-the-Pins little after 5 a.m.. Lieutenant Fabre, keen on history, could not prevent himself from declaring with emotion : " We return to France, but we will not set out again after hundred days ! " Two local fishermen, who awaited them, made disappear the dinghies, and the commando took the first train for Marseilles, in 3rd class, under the identity of Italian workers. In the train, the controller punched their tickets without suspecting anything. The forgers at Algiers had worked perfectly, as usual... At the exit of the Saint-Charles station, little after 9 hours a.m, the commando, divided into three groups, took the direction of the Vieux-Port, but changed direction towards a dark street, where the eight "workmen" entered a building which had known better days. Half an hour later, eight ecclesiastics wearing cassocks came out, and returned immediately to the station, where they took (in 2nd class, relative ecclesiastical humility obliges) the train for Lyon, absolutely crammed. The express train started in good time, took speed, but had soon to slow down. In the coach, the remarks erupted :

- We are not on the usual track would I say...

- You dont know ? A signal post was sabotaged last night

- Hey, the vicars. On Sundays leaving ?

- And why are you looking by the window at the planes at Istres airfiels ? You do not need anyone to reach the sky, you !

- And then, when do you start to make miracles? Multiply the breads, for example, because the belt will have soon more holes than leather !

After Arles, the train emptied somewhat. And, when the train approached Lyon, the more contained behaviour associated with the capital city of Gaul inhabitants took place. If their disguise had not protected the members of the commando from the curiosity of the other travellers, implicit association between the religion and the moral order preached by the Laval government had avoided the inappropriate curiosity of the representatives of that government, easily recognizable with their uniforms of definitely Germanic inspiration. In Lyon, the good fathers were welcomed by a "bishops delegate", who made them cross without trouble the controls at the exit of the Perrache railway station. But, rather than take the direction of Fourvire as one could have expected it, the group was going behind the station, not far from the Saint-Paul prison, and entered a hotel where the ecclesiastics were not (in theory) at all in their place. The commando remained there until the early hours of the morning, the usual customers of the place not suspecting his presence.



Monday March 15, in the morning, they were four militiamen, arrogant as possible and flanking four handcuffed prisoners, who got into a 1st class coach of the train bound for Bourg, Besancon, Montbeliard and Belfort. The Militiamen opened the door of a compartment with great kicks, and their glance was enough to make leave the travellers who were there. Satisfied, they settled on the four corners of the compartment, always flanking their prisoners. The group alighted at Montbeliard, where it climbed at the back of a truck powered by a gas generator and marked "Doubs Forest Works". The rare passers by supposed that they were four young people, escaped of one of these obligatory labour camps which flowered everywhere and brought back by individuals of which everybody knew that it was better avoid crossing their way. The truck took the road of Delle, to unload the men at the Ferme de la Grosse Taille, close to Joncherey, deep in the forest, where a man dressed like a peasant clarified the situation :

- Hello. My name is Pierre Martin (I had never imagination for false names). I am responsible for your lodging, and also to assist you in your displacements and to provide all what you need, starting with a little more precise knowledge of the local situation than that you can have at 1 500 km from here. First of all, we will move everyday, or rather every night. You were doing well up to now, and you did not draw the attention on you. But if you remain at the same place more than 24 hours, you will be located. You dont have the local accent, you do not know the country, except the two Alsatian guys ; you are there to make your job, not to waste it !

- I can only agree. I am Lieutenant Michel, and here my men : Louis, Jacques, Robert, Benoit, Francois, Joseph and Claude.

- Well, I will start with a little explanation of the general situation. We are at 6 km from the Swiss border, and about the same distance from Alsace. The Swiss border is kept by the Germans, rather badly. By the way, if someone wants to smoke, I offer the tobacco, it precisely comes from Switzerland... But no normal citizen would go to Switzerland, the Swiss would immediately bring him back to the border, preferably opposite a German post. For Alsace, it is almost similar. Unless having an Ausweis, you cannot pass. And to have one of them, one needs a good reason. The best is the trade. Here how that works : in Alsace, the official currency is the Reichsmark. The wages and the prices are in Reichsmark, and all is at least 50 % more expensive than here, their wages being aligned on the German wages, about the double of ours. The trick is then to buy goods here, and to resell them with a good benefit on the other side. But for that, it is necessary to make buddy-buddy with the members of the Party in Alsace, who eat a good part of the benefit, but thanks to which you have all the needed papers. Good, that was only of good profit in 1941, because since the official plundering took all what has some value, the only good remaining for that business being the wood. Another solution : pass where is no road or path, trough the woods. But attention, if you dont speak Alsatian, except in some French-speaking villages annexed by Bismarck in 1871 and annexed again by the little whiskered who decently could no do less than his illustrious predecessor, youre dead meat in no time ! And once in Alsace, you will fall quickly into a trench from the Great War. During four years, French and Germans fought here, with an incredible number of deaths. Of course, that was not Verdun, but nevertheless.

- If I remember well, the first dead of 1914 was killed here ?

- Yes, absolutely, the corporal Peugeot, about ten kilometers from where we are. The advantage of this situation is that the German soldiers do not venture in the woods on Alsatian side; they are afraid of an explosion of their own mines from that period. They remain carefully on the roads. Moreover, they are not numerous since the corporal who commands their army enacted that he could do better than Napoleon against the Russians. Unfortunately, there are even more collaborationists over there to help the police forces, and those are the most to fear.

Your mission, now. The German convoy left Strasbourg this morning. Dont ask me how I know that, you will get no answer. According to my sources, it will leave Alsace only Friday 19, because it cannot advance very fast. This leaves us time to refine the plans. But we will see that tomorrow, you will meet somebody who will undoubtedly be useful for you.

(According to Michel Fabre - Liberators before the D-day - Paris, 1953)



March 16 before dawn, the commando was awaked. Pierre Martin leaded the men, afoot, to the Ferme de la Petite Taille, some kilometres away. Michel Fabre, if he was pleased with the precautions taken by their host, could nevertheless not prevent himself from thinking that it took his men and himself for amateurs. The opposite would have to be proven to him.

In the morning of the 16th, a man in his sixties came at the Ferme de la Petite Taille.. Pierre Martin welcomed it with an unquestionable respect and presented it at the members of the commando :

- I introduce Mr Jules to you [ actually, Mr. Jouffroy, Civil engineer in retirement ]. Mr Jules made the Great War as Captain of the Engineers and swore to wear again his Legion of Honour only when the Germans are pushed on their side of the Rhine, preferably while taking along the henchmen of Laval, because that will save us the ropes to hang them. Mr Jules knows well the Canal du Rhne au Rhin, since it was charged to finish his enlarging in the 1920 years. I am right, Mr Jules ?

- Enlarging is a quite great word, my friend. It was simply a question of putting the locks at the Freycinet standard. And I was only of charge of one very small sector.

- You are too modest, Mr Jules !

- Young people, if I understood well, you intend to block a German convoy in the Canal. And how do you hope doing that ? asked Mr Jules with the air of a teacher questioning a fairly gifted pupil.

Fabre explained then the project elaborated in Algiers. "Mr Jules" shook the head, by moments approving, by moments dubitative :

- In theory, your plan is good. Blowing the locks at the two ends of the highest section so that it empties and cut off the water supply, thats the guarantee to prevent any traffic during a good month. But you will have large difficulties if you apply it directly. I pass on the fact that all your intervention will be done in Alsace, Mr Martin will undertake this detail. The first problem that you will encounter, is that one of the locks of the highest section is in fact the last one of the staircase of Valdieu, and this lock is only 50 meters away from both Nationale 19 highway and the railroad bridge, and that at this place the Germans installed a large Feldgendarmerie checkpoint. Another problem, the cutting of the water supply. You think of cutting the derivation of the Largue river, which is called here the Rigole, at both ends. The idea is good, but the outlet of the Rigole is very close to the lock of the Feldgendarmen. Another solution must be found, more especially as, if the next weeks are rainy, Rigole or not Rigole, there will be enough water for the filling.

- And what do you suggest ?
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- First, to empty the highest section of the Canal, it is not necessary to blow it open at the two ends. One is enough... Then, suppose that the Germans have all the needed stuff to fix a lock. Effective as they are, in two hours the outflow will be clogged, and in a less than a few days the traffic restarts. But if you blow four or five successive locks, while starting with the furthest away from the highest section, they will go in hurry to repair the canal at this furthest location. Whereas they believe being drawn from business, you blast the lock at the top as well as the intermediaries, and, as a bonus; you flood and with a little chance you destroy the repairs which they have just made thanks to the water who will flow.

- And if they have the needed material to repair several locks ?

- Chance for that seems for me very remote.... And, in such case, the urgency will be the stopping of the water flow with cofferdams, not the replacement of the doors. And the only ready cofferdams are in Strasbourg, Mulhouse and Montbeliard, one at each location. They can of course build cofferdams from scratch at the precise flooding points, but time will be too short for that, and the raw materials must be available.

- And for the water supply ?

- You may blow the Rigole if you want, but first of all, destroy the valves of the ponds that are used as water tanks at Montreux. That should be more than enough.

- Mr Jules, to be honest, you spent a lot of time in studying how to destroy the Canal ?

- Yes, young man. But I never believed that the job would be done by French soldiers, rather by the Boches when withdrawing.

- A problem remains, Mr Jules. We are too few to do all the demolitions you recommended.

- No trouble, young man. Mr Martin has rather many friends, who will be able to carry the explosives, and to wait where it will be necessary. Then, you are not required to be nearby to look at the fireworks; youre no kids anymore. You have detonators which enable you to act up to 24 hours in advance. And in your place, I would prefer being as far away as possible when at the time of the explosions.


But the plan of Mr. Jouffroy was also not being applicable just as it was. Indeed, at the evening, the bad news fell : the Germans were settling over the entire length of the Canal in French territory, between Bretagne and Montbeliard, and the locks of the plan of Mr. Jouffroy, except for the first three, were now under watch.

During the night from 16th to 17th, the commando moved to the Ferme des Bans, which was located less than one kilometr from the boundary of Alsace. This place could appear very exposed, but, as explained Pierre Martin, if the Germans are concentrating their troops on the Canal, they could no longer watch the remainder. At about midday, the definitive operations plan was settled : the night from Thursday 18th to Friday 19th would be devoted to the positioning of the explosives along the Rigole, at his start (the derivation of the Largue river), and at his end, as near as possible of its outlet in the Canal. All that had to blow the following night, from Friday to Saturday, at the same time as the locks of the highest section, and, if possible, the following ones, as well as the valves of the ponds feeding the Canal. During the afternoon, Michel Fabre and Pierre Martin were dealing with the numerous details of the operation, the withdrawal into Switzerland being not the least, when they were interrupted by Pierre Bilger :

-        Sir, Franois and I have a suggestion to submit. We are only two steps away from Alsace, and less than 5 kilometers from Valdieu. Its a wonderful opportunity to make a reconnaissance of the site.
-        Good thinking ! I was about to ask for volunteers.
-        Well, you have already two at hand ! If we know where entering in Alsace and returning, there will be no problem on other side of the border. It is on our soil, after all !

After nightfall, four men left the Farm of the Bans : three "Nemo", Louis Martinez, the locks specialist (it was employed at the Canal du Midi before the war), Pierre Bilger and Franois Sifert, accompanied by an individual looking like a poacher, who would make them enter in Alsace and then wait their return, to bring their back at the Ferme de la Petite Taille, where the group would spend the following day.

Entering in Alsace was not difficult, the few barbed wires which marked the limit in the forest having obviously already been crossed many and many times. The three men circumvented first of all the village of Romagny, first under the cover of the wood of Raichene, then under those of Buchwald, then switched due North until reaching the Rigole. They had then only to follow the little watercourse until reaching the vicinity of Valdieu, locating several places where it would be possible to cut it effectively the following night. The last 500 meters had to be crossed without cover, through meadows, before finding the shelter of the vegetation which grew along the Canal. All was deserted, the silence of the night only being disturbed by the passage of freight trains on the line connecting Belfort to Mulhouse. The two Alsatian took advantage of the passage of a train to advance at the lock of Valdieu, but they could not go further : two Feldgendarmen were standing guard at the Nationale 19 highway. On their return path, they noted that, unexpected, the small building sheltering the valves of the Rigole was not guarded. The trio then walked down the Canal, passed in front of the first lock, then the second, well dissimulated behind a curtain of trees. Louis Martinez wanted to continue a little, and soon the third lock was in reach. But it remained inaccessible, because, 100 meters downstream, the noise of a quartering troop could be heard. It was time to turn back, then locate the valves of the ponds and, eventually, under covert of the woods, find the guide which would bring the small group back to the Ferme de la Petite Taille.


Thursday 18th was not uneventful. First, about midday, Pierre Martin came to inform the Nemo group that the Kriegsmarine convoy was stopped not far after Mulhouse, a technical incident hindering his progression, but repairs were under way. Pierre Martin thought that the consecutive delay will not allow the German boats to reach Valdieu for the evening of the 19th, and therefore no Kriegsmarine sailors would be around the target, and that was a good new. But, at the end of the afternoon, he returned : I fear that we rejoiced us too early, this midday. German soldiers are now settling on the Alsatian side of Valdieu, at the locks staircase. If they made junction with their colleagues, its screwed up ! The only good news that I can bring to you is that the Germans have no more spare parts to repair the locks. They needed them today. The will undoubtedly spend the night to find new ones. Good luck for them !.

Obviously, Pierre Martin knew more than what he wanted to say...

At nightfall, Lieutenant Fabre gathered his men for a last briefing :

- We will split in two groups. The first, which will be leaded by Chief Martinez, with Semnoz, Sifert and Morond, will set explosives along the Rigole at the locations recognized yesterdays night. They will be guided until the limit of Alsace by the same man as yesterday. Each man will carry 20 kg of explosives; detonators have to be set with a delay of 24 hours. Not too heavy since the distance is relatively short and the ways easy, isnt it, Sifert ?

- Absolutely, Sir. Ten kilometers approximately till the locks, on paths and forest roads, muddy, but less than usually at this time of the year.

- the second group will handle the derivation of the Rigole, in Friesen, in Bilgers country, for not saying backyard. Same load. There, the way will be longer. We will be accompanied all the way along by this boy, the son of the guide of the first group.

- Yes, Sir Lieutenant. My father knows the woods a lot better than me, but he cannot currently enter in Alsace.

- I do not want to know the reason of that, even if I have my idea... Return hour between 4 and 6 hours AM, at the Ferme des Bans, where we were yesterday. I remind to you that the encounters must be avoided at any cost. If, despite, you tumble on somebody, only the Alsatian ones have to speak. But that will undoubtedly mean the anticipated end of our mission. And of course, no brawl with the Germans, even if that itches you !

All was said. The two groups left in the night at a few minutes interval.


(To be continued)