ABOARD THE CAPO OLMO

Jacques Voyer is 17 year old, living in Toulon, when the unthinkable happens and France collapses under the assault of Adolf Hitler’s Panzer divisions in June 1940. He then decides to leave for Algiers and manages to embark on the cargo ship “Capo Olmo” in Marseille. The ship, commanded by Captain Humbert Vuillemin, is overloaded with military equipment and freight. It casts off on June 24 in the last convoy to Oran. However, worried that the imminent armistice would immobilize his ship in North Africa and deprive it of any option to continue fighting, Captain Vuillemin orchestrates the escape of the “Capo Olmo”. As soon as the armistice is announced, the cargo ship’s engines seem to suffer a consequent breakdown, forcing the escort of the convoy to abandon the “Capo Olmo”.
As soon as the convoy disappeares on the horizon, Commander Vuillemin has the boilers restarted. The ship adjusts its course and increases its speed to the maximum to reach freedom, and General de Gaulle: on June 27th, it reaches Gibraltar. Incorporated into a British convoy, the freighter arrives in Liverpool on July 16.

FREE FRANCE CHASSEURS

In London, Jacques Voyer and his comrades from “Capo Olmo” join the newly formed Free French Forces. Jacques enlists in the second company of Chasseurs, garrisoned at Delville Camp, then in the villas of Camberley and finally on the hill of Old Dean, where the Royal Engineers build a dreary camp quickly nicknamed “Wuthering Heights”. Jacques Voyer becomes a specialist and then an instructor in radio transmissions. In August 1941, he is recruited by the BCRA, the Central Bureau of Intelligence and Action, and loaned to the British Intelligence Service (MI6) to undertake clandestine missions in France.

WIRELESS TRANSMISSIONS OPERATOR

Jacques is trained by the SI, mainly in London, and by the RAF. He carries out a training course of parachuting at Ringway in September 1941, as well as a training course of one week with the pilots of the 138 Special Duty Squadron at Haymarket. At the latter, Jacques Voyer learns how to search for clandestine landing fields and how to set up a reception committee.

Finally, during the night of November 5 to 6, 1941, he is parachuted into southwestern France under the code name EMERAUDE to join the CARTWRIGHT circuit via their southern zone antenna. But CARTWRIGHT was arrested and ABEL, in charge of the southern antenna, joined forces with another Intelligence Service circuit: MITHRIDATE. Jacques Voyer then joins this network which operates on the whole of the free zone. In Clermont-Ferrand, he obtains “real” false papers under the alias Lucien Boyer. For MITHRIDATE, he travels throughout the southern zone and as far as Corsica, where he tries to set up a new radio link.

MOVING INTO ACTION

In July 1942, Jacques Voyer asks his comrade Joseph Piet, radio of the action and counter-espionage branch of the ALI-TIR network in Saint-Étienne, to bring him into this organization. The MITHRIDATE network is in a bad position following a police raid on several villas in Saint-Raphaël and is withdrawn to Caylus. In August 1942, Gaston Tavian (TIR) comes to get EMERAUDE: Joseph Piet has been arrested, he needs a new radio. EMERAUDE is responsible for the radio transmissions of the network and the training of the locally recruited radio operators. He also participates in organizing some clandestine landings, notably the LOBSTER/CUTTLEFISH mission, for which he is alone on the ground. Wanted by the Gestapo in January 1943, he is finally exfiltrated and returns to England on April 21, 1943. At a time when a radio operator can hope to remain operational for an average of three months before being arrested or killed, EMERAUDE managed to remain active for eighteen months. He received two commendations for this success.

SCOUTISM

In the spring and summer of 1943 he return to his passion for scouting, waiting for a new mission. Attached to the scouting federation headquarters in London, he is in charge of communication with the various road clans that had formed in Great Britain, but also on FNFL ships and in fighting units in Africa. He also participates in several international camps and gatherings and passes his Wood Badge of leader in Auchengillan, Scotland. He also participates in the facilitation of the “Jeunes de France” committee, which deals with the question of post-war youth supervision.

THE SUSSEX PLAN

In October 1943, he is recruited for Operation SUSSEX, the inter-allied intelligence mission in charge of supporting OVERLORD and the Normandy landings. Parachuted in France on strategic targets (railroad junctions, airfields, main roads), the teams are composed of an observer and a radio. Observer of the OSSEX (OSS SUSSEX) VITRAIL network, Jacques Voyer is parachuted with a radio operator, André Guillebaud, on April 10, 1944. Their mission: organize an intelligence network in Chartres. The network of Chartres counts only a few people but it is very effective, covering the station as well as the local aerodromes. A few days before the D-Day landings, its network reports the location of the Panzer Lehr armored division, the flagship of the Wehrmacht. SHAEF will declare that this information alone was worth the price of the SUSSEX plan: bombed during its advance towards the front, the Panzer Lehr will arrive too late to push back the Allies.

On the evening of June 10, Jacques Voyer is again on his motorcycle to observe the enemy troop movements when he is stopped by a patrol of the Feldgendarmerie. He happens to be carrying some terribly compromising documents, which his radio has just given him. Jacques tries to escape, but he is shot in his escape and arrested again. Imprisoned and tortured for more than a week, he does not speak, allowing his network to disappear. Sentenced to death for espionage, he is shot at dawn on June 27th on the Chavannes firing range. He was 21 years old.

• Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur
• Compagnon de la Libération – décret du 20 janvier 1946
• Croix de Guerre 39/45 (3 palmes)
• Médaille de la Résistance avec rosette
• Médaille Commémorative des Services Volontaires dans la France Libre
• Distinguished Service Cross (USA)