Dropped into Occupied France..An SOE story

Albert George Falla was born in Guernsey (Channel Islands) in June 1918.
When the Germans invaded the Islands in 1940, most young Channelmen were already in England, and fighting the war.
Mr Falla (hitherto refered to as 'My Dad')was no exception.
It wasnt that he disliked the nazis...He hated them! (but he respected the average German soldier)..Although they had occupied his homeland. Something he was determined to make them sorry for!
When he arrived in England and joined up, he found himself in the Royal Engineers, as a Sapper, "Far too bloody dangerous" he told me!
It was'nt long before the War Office approached him to 'work' for them in France.
This was due to his fluent French,and his Royal Engineer (bomb) knowledge.
They told him his services were required for a special organisation that was being formed, to help the resistance movement in occupied Europe.
His first introduction to the world of SOE involved parachute training.
He relished the thrill of Jumping out of Balloon's and Aircraft (in fact, he never landed in a plane until 1951!..he always had to jump out!)
Then came many hours of interrogation, and psychological testing, to make sure he would not crack under interrogation. (obviously, had he been caught, the Gestapo would have had slightly more 'persuasive' methods!)
Weapons and demolition training followed, as well as hand-to-hand combat training. (something that would save his life in a few months time)
Eventually the 'fun' was over, and it was down to business.
His first 'drop' occured on a November night somewhere over france.
A Halifax Bomber with the lower gunner turret removed was the chosen aircraft.
My dad told me that you sat with your legs out through the hole in the slipstream, and when told, eased yourself up on your hands, then dropped through the hole.
I asked him how scared he felt, and he told me
"There was no fear at that time, just excitement and adrenalin...The fear came later, when the Germans were possibly looking for you, and the fear of being rumbled was scarier than dropping out of a plane"

Once he landed, he met up with some resistance fighters, and taken to a safe house.
He had also had some weapons dropped with him (Sten guns, ammunition and grenades)to help supply the freedom fighters.

After several days he was off on his first job, which involved blowing up some railway lines and communications (telegraph poles) etc.
This was probably a reasonably simple first job to see how he got on!...It did'nt end that way!
What their intelligence did not know was a train carrying Panther tanks was en route to the area they planned to blow (a bridge over the river)
Presumably for this reason, some Germans had been posted to guard the bridge from attacks by the resistance.
My dad found himself in the unenviable position of having to creep up behind a sentry,(as did several of his comrades) armed with a Commando knife, and kill him.
He told me.......
"It is an awful experience, to have to kill another man in such a manner, but it was him or us...I dont like to dwell on it, but you cant help it....war is a messy business, and it was quick, so he was lucky i suppose.
If he had caught me and handed me in to the SS...that would not be quick at all"

So, with the sentries despatched, the job of laying the charges began (bearing in mind, they had no idea that a train was coming, loaded with tanks)

"We had a delayed fuse of about 8-10 mins i think, so we lit the bloody thing and legged it!...it was still the early days, and we all got much more sophisticated at this lark as time went on, with detonators and stuff...I ran like the whole German army was after us that night, i was badly shaken up by the sentries, and was begining to think i should have stayed in the R.E!
There was a dull thump, and a flash as it detonated....I used to sit and watch it go off on other missions, but i was too scared on this occasion, so carried on running!"

"We got back to our safe house, and a light headed elation overtook me, but was increased somewhat the next day when we found out that the German train had been nearly at the bridge when the charges went off....He hadnt managed to stop in time, and had crashed.
Only one tank was servicable enough to drive off...the others were wrecked!"

I detected a slightly smug tone to my dad's tone of voice when he recounted this particular part of the story!

I for one dont blame him for that!

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