Gilbert Norman
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Gilbert Maurice Norman | |
|---|---|
| Born | 7 April 1915 Saint-Cloud, Paris, France |
| Died | 6 September 1944 (aged 29) KZ Mauthausen, Austria |
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom |
| Service |  British ArmySOE |
| Years of service | 1940–1944 |
| Rank | Major |
| Service number | 156759 |
| Unit | Physician/Prosper circuit |
| Battles / wars | World War II |
| Awards | Mention in Despatches[1] Médaille de la Résistance |
Gilbert Maurice Norman (7 April 1915 – 6 September 1944[2] was a British Army officer who served in the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in France during World War II. SOE was a British organisation formed in 1940 to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in German-occupied Europe and to aid local resistance movements during World War II.
Early life
[edit]Norman was born in 1915, in Saint-Cloud, Hauts-de-Seine, to an English father and a French mother and was educated in France and England. He joined the army, receiving a commission in the Durham Light Infantry in November 1940 and was subsequently recruited into the Special Operations Executive (SOE).[3] Norman was considered an "ideal recruit" for SOE with "great qualities of leadership and physical endurance." He was "handsome, gray-eyed and swarthy, mustacioed and capable." [4]
Prosper
[edit]The Prosper or Physician network was SOE's most important network in France. Based in Paris, Prosper's three core members were Francis Suttill, the organizer or leader, Norman, the radio operator and second in command, and Andrée Borrel, the courier whose French was better than Suttills and Normans. Borrel and Suttill preceded Norman to France.[5][6]
On the night of 31 October/1 November 1942, Norman parachuted into France near Saint-Laurent-Nouan, about 150 km (93 miles) southeast of Paris. Norman carried with him a poison pill to kill French resister Pierre Culioli. SOE agent Raymond Flower had accused Culioli of being a double agent. Neither Norman nor other SOE agents was willing to administer the pill. Culioli subsequently created the small Adolph Network which became a sub-network of Prosper.[7]
Based in Paris, the Prosper network enjoyed success in attracting French resisters to the Nazi occupation over a large area of northern France. Within a few months almost 30 SOE agents and hundreds of French resisters were working under the Prosper umbrella. Numerous CLE Canisters containing weapons and military equipment were dropped by the Royal Air Force to arm the resistance and to prepare for the invasion of France by American and British armies. (The invasion did not occur until June 1944.) However, the network grew too large to be secure; the leaders had too much contact with each other and other members of Prosper; and security was poor. It was a case, said author Vance, of "professional policemen chasing amateur agents." The German SD had been aware of Prosper for several months before they decided to suppress the organization.[8][9]
Capture and captivity
[edit]On 24 June 1943 Norman was arrested by the Gestapo, together with cell leader Francis Suttill and courier Andrée Borrel. Norman was taken to the Paris headquarters of the Sicherheitsdienst at 84 Avenue Foch. The Germans used Norman's captured wireless set to transmit their own false messages to SOE Headquarters in Baker Street. Norman attempted to warn London that he was in captivity by not giving the Germans the second part of his security check, which they did not know about. Omitting the security check from a message was specifically designed to act as a duress code which would warn London that the sender was being coerced. However, Norman was frustrated when London sent a curt reply telling him to correct the omission.
The Germans were thus able to set a trap which resulted in the capture of Jack Agazarian who had been sent with Nicholas Bodington to investigate the fate of the Prosper network. Norman was shipped to Mauthausen concentration camp, where he was executed on 6 September 1944.
Major Gilbert Norman is honoured on the Brookwood Memorial in Surrey, England, and is also on the "Roll of Honour" on the Valençay SOE Memorial in the town of Valençay, in the Indre departément of France.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "No. 37450". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 January 1946. p. 750.
- ^ Suttill, Francis J. (2014). Shadows in the Fog. Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press. p. 142. ISBN 9780750957625. Kindle edition.
- ^ Vance, Jonathan F. (2008). Unlikely Soldiers. Toronto: Harper Collins. p. 170. ISBN 9780002007351.
- ^ Rose, Sarah (2019). D-Day Girls. New York: Broadway Books. p. 82. ISBN 9780451495099.
- ^ Vigurs, Kate (2021). Mission France. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 78. ISBN 9780300208573.
- ^ Vance 2008, p. 144.
- ^ Suttill 2014, p. 38.
- ^ Foot, M. R. D. (2004). SOE in France. London: Frank Cass. pp. 134, 231, 252. ISBN 0714655287. Revised edition.
- ^ Vance 2008, pp. 181–189.
Bibliography
[edit]- Sarah Helm (May 2005). A Life in Secrets: The Story of Vera Atkins and the Lost Agents of SOE. London: Little, Brown. ISBN 0-316-72497-1.
- 1915 births
- 1944 deaths
- Military personnel from Paris
- People from Saint-Cloud
- Durham Light Infantry officers
- British Special Operations Executive personnel
- Executed spies
- People who died in Mauthausen concentration camp
- British Army personnel killed in World War II
- British people executed in Nazi concentration camps
- French people executed in Nazi concentration camps