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(Dedee) who had likeLouisa Deloge had also been nursing injured British soldiers became themeans of escape for the trapped soldiers. It is interesting that shealso worked in the advertising department of the SOFINA company, BaronDonny was a director of the company so probably they knew each other andthat's the link to the soldiers from Parike and Dedee the inspiration of the Comete Escape Line.
In June 1941Dedee and Arnold Deppe who had also assisted in the hiding of thesoldiers, worked out a route through Bayonne where Deppe had once lived.The first intention was to help Belgians wishing to reach Britain butit soon became obvious that the British soldiers could also escape thisway.
A contact of Deppe in the Societe Generale Bank. Monsieurgave him the address of a aBelgian from the Brussels suburb of Etterbeek who had been living withher family in the town of Anglet after fleeing the advancing Germanarmy. Appert knew that Madame Degreef would be willing to help as shehad already offered her services in any capacity.
Deppe took the first reconnaissance trip down the escape line in June1941, he was assisted in the crossing by boat the Zone Interdite at thevillage of Hamelet on the River Somme by Nenette a country woman.Travelling on by train through Paris and Bayonne Arnold Depee arrivedat Anglet where Madame DeGreef introduced him to Elisade a Basque whoin turn introduced him to the chief of the mountain guides. Arnoldreturned to Brussels knowing he had the contacts to make the escapeline work.
In July 1941 Dedee joined Arnold in taking a party of 10 Belgians anEnglishwoman "Miss Richards" or Mlle. Dupuich and another person downthe line to Spain. Once they reached Hamelin and the River Somme Theyused a Basque guide called Tomas ENA to take them over the mountains.Once they arrived in Spain though the Belgians were all arrested by theSpanish police and three of the Belgian officers were taken back acrossthe border and given to the Germans. Dedee thought that in future shewould take her charges straight to the British consul at Bilbao.
AUGUST 1941
Returning again to Brussels Arnold and Dedee assembled a party of eightBelgians and a Scottish soldier, an escaper from the prisoners taken atSt Valery a large fair-haired man from Albyn place, Aberdeen calledPrivate James Cromar known as "Jim" . Two more Scottish soldiers weredue to join the party but they were arrested. Corporal Enoch BETTLEYand Private Samuel SLAVIN were recaptured on the 14 August at the houseof Madam Augusta MARIOUX and her daughter in Rue Rogier, Scharbeek andtaken to St.Gilles prison. They were kept there for sixteen days,interrogated and beaten daily. They were then sent to POW Camp inGermany. The D'Looge family back in Parike were surprised to receive aletter from them in the camp some time later.
The party left for the South. Arnold took six Belgians and travelled onthe train through Lille. Dedee the other two Belgians (called MERCKIERS and Jean STERCKMANS) and Jim Cromartravelled through Valenciennes and there met up with a French soldier, Charles MORELLEwho had escaped from Germany and had been hiding in Brussels, and his sister Elvire.Charlie and Elvire agreed to help in the escape line. Arnold failed toarrive at their rendezvous at Hamelet on the Somme so Dedee continuedthrough Bayonne, Anglet and St John de Luz. Crossing the Pyrenees onthe 17th August 1941 she took Cromar straight to the British Consul atBilbao and spoke to the Vice-Consul Arthur Dean. Dedee then waitedthree weeks in Bilbao while arrangements were made to reimburse herexpenses by the consul.
Dedee then returned to Brussels anxious to find out what had happenedto Arnold Deppe. The news was bad, Arnold Deppe had been arrested withhis group of escapers as they left Brussels on the train south. One ofthe Belgian officers handed back to the Germans in July had talked. TheGerman also had a description of Dedee from this man, unable to stay inBelgium as the Germans were looking for her, Dedee went to Paris.
'sbook "Little Cyclone" describes the crossing of the Franco-Belgianborder.
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"At the end of September 1941,Tante Go (Elvire de Greef) arrived in Brussels from Anglet to collectthe two men of the Highland Division, Bobby and Allan, from Paul. Herreturn journey with the Scotsmen to the Belgian frontier wasuneventful, but at Quievrain station there was a disturbing incident.The two young Scotsmen had been told to represent themselves asFlemish. They had informed Tante Go that there was nothing in theirpockets of interest to the Customs. But on arrival at Quievrain, thepresence of a German Feldgendarme made the French officials more alertthan usual. To the horror of Tante Go, her companions were taken to anoffice and searched. Allan had a large quantity of cigarettes.Both were told to wait while the douanier disappeared, leaving them inthe office under the stolid gaze of the Feldgendarme. When his back wasturned, Bobby began to stuff the cigarettes, taken from Allan, into hisown pockets. The German, suddenly observing this, appeared highlyamused and began to laugh. To Bobby's intense surprise he was allowedto leave with some of the cigarettes.Allan waited dumbly in the office until the casual Feldgendarmedisappeared. Through the open door, he saw Tante Go wave in thedistance. He ran for all he was worth to join her. Then the three ofthem walked hastily away.Suddenly there was a shout behind them. The customs man who hadsearched Allan was riding towards them on a bicycle, grinning broadly.He stopped and handed over to Allan the remainder of the cigarettes".
In truth the customs man kept a proportion of the cigarettes forhimself of course. One of the soldiers also made the mistake at theborder crossing of giving his British army identity papers as well ashis forged documents to the passport official. Luckily the Frenchofficial handed them back without comment.
At Valenciennes the two men were met by Andree De Jongh (Dedee), thefamous founder of the Comete escape line. They left the Zone Interditeby crossing the Somme river near Villiers in a small boat and thentravelled on through Amiens, Paris and Bayonne. They stayed at the"Villa Voisin" the de Greef family house at Anglet.
From Bayonne Cowan and Coville went by bus to St Jean de Luz. Theycrossed the Pyrenees on foot, most probably guided by the BasqueFlorentino Goikoetxea and/or "B" Johnson, arriving in San Sebastian onthe 16th October 1941.
The two Scotsmen Cowan and Conville were the second and third Britishsoldiers to escape along what has become known as the Comete Line. Bythe end of the war more than 800 Allied servicemen had successfullyreached Spain helped by the line.
NOVEMBER 1941
Next down the line were the Polish RAF airmen Sgt. Stefan Tomicki andSgt. Michal Kowalski and the Canadian RAF Sgt John Ives.
Welshman Alfred JONES was arrested while playing cards on the28th October.
Jack Newton had been separated from Langlois and Copley since the 8thof September. He had been taken by car to a Madame DEPORQUE's
house in Brussels and after that to Waterloo outside Brussels to theEVERARD's house where he stayed for 6 or 7 weeks until the end ofOctober. While he was there he met Australian Sergeant Hilary BIRK RAAFand Canadian Sergeant Albert DAY RCAF. At the end of October Jack wasmoved to nurse Mlle BECQET's house at Ixelles in Brussels. Then in lateNovember it was arranged that he live in a house in the Schaerbeekdistrict of Brussels where Birk and Day were already staying.
DECEMBER 1941
On the 6th of December 1941 Jack Newton and Hilary BIRK met up withPilot Officer Howard CARROLL (pictured left) and a Belgian GerardWAUQUEZ at the Brussels railway station for the journey south. Wauquezthe nephew of the head of the Belgian government in exile in London wasSOE agent "Brichamart". Gerard WAUQUEZ was on his way to London withplans to set up a fully organised escape organisation based in Brusselsthat would take escaping British servicemen to Spain and Gibraltar. Thegroup was taken to Valenciennes by Elvire Morelle sister of CharlesMorelle. Jack had replaced Albert Day in the group as Albert hadpneumonia. Surprisingly the officer and men divide still existed on thejouney south so there was little communication between Carroll andNewton. They met Dedee De Jongh at the Franco-Belgian border and sheescorted them all the way to Spain.
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