ABSTRACT
SOE’s W/T contact with SEA URCHIN ceased abruptly on 15 March and reports trickled in from Deuxième Bureau sources that Scamaroni and Hellier were under arrest, which turned out to be true. Their undoing patently stemmed from the very prompt arrest of Adler and Serra, the SOE Italian Section agents landed in Sardinia in February, and their willingness to cooperate with the OVRA, Italian counterpart of the Gestapo. Serra had known Hellier in Algiers when they were waiting to be sent into the field by MASSINGHAM. The OVRA brought him over to Corsica, where he identified Hellier, doubtless without difficulty as he had taken to drinking heavily in the bars of Ajaccio. Hellier in turn betrayed his chief.1
