ABSTRACT
Erwin Deman, whose training at Dartmouth for operations with the 15th MGB Flotilla had so annoyed SOE’s own Naval Section, was held up in England for nearly four months after the failure to land him at Clogourouan on 19 April 1943. This was because the ‘C’-class motor gunboats, which were all that were then available to Slocum, were deemed too slow for operations to Brittany in the short summer nights. He was landed by the future Air Chief Marshal Sir Lewis Hodges in a Hudson aircraft of 161 Special Duties Squadron 16km north-east of Angers on the night of 19/20 August. It was the second time Hodges had used that particular water-meadow and he had to contend with mist and the presence of cattle.1 A potentially even more serious hazard was that Gilbert Déricourt, air-landing operations officer for SOE’s F Section, who had arranged the operation, was in touch with Bomelberg of the Abwehr in Paris. Deman seems to have been suspicious of him as he disappeared into the night as soon as he put foot to ground, thereby greatly upsetting Déricourt!
