France in June 1940 was utter chaos.
Europe was stunned and reeling from the ferocity of the German advance which had bulldozed its way west to the English Channel. Soon, the Germans would be in Paris.
By early June, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was pinned down on the beaches of Dunkirk in northern France.
The Miracle of Dunkirk has been well-documented.
Between the 26th May and 4th June 1940, two weeks after Winston Churchill became Prime Minister, 338,000 Allied soldiers were evacuated by a fleet of over 800 vessels, including hundreds of what would become known as the Little Ships of Dunkirk: a hastily-assembled flotilla of fishing boats, pleasure craft and lifeboats, answering a desperate call from Churchill.
The chaos of Dunkirk
Following Dunkirk, the 52nd Division of the HLI (Highland Light Infantry) arrived in Normandy. They were tasked with reinforcing the ailing French army and holding a new defensive line aimed at slowing the German advance. However, the speed of the enemy made the plan impossible. On the brink of collapse, the French were compelled to seek an armistice.
The majority of the 52nd were evacuated from Cherbourg. But not everyone.
A few, unable to reach the evacuation point, escaped and headed south. Many of these escapees were Scottish soldiers.
Captain Ian Garrow was one of them.
An officer in the 1st Glasgow Highlanders, Garrow, and his comrades, hoped to reach the northern Normandy coast and the Channel Islands. However, he later recounted meeting a Frenchman who told him the French had capitulated and the Channel Islands were now occupied. He decided to take a chance and head south.
In Garrow’s own words, contained in a report compiled by MI9, (the branch of the Intelligence Services setup to help Allied personnel escape), he takes us step by step through his journey. It is a remarkable account.
The MI9 statement given by Ian Garrow following his repatriation, confirming his journey south
An odyssey of over 600 miles followed. Early on, Garrow tells us:
“My own party consisted of nine… We walked south all day, and that night we slept in a wood. Next morning, we found that we had slept within a few yards of a German tank crew.”
Ian Grant Garrow was born in 1908 in South Africa to Scottish parents. His father was a doctor and his mother a nurse. Returning home, Ian was educated at Glasgow University.
In the few accounts of his life, Ian is described as a quietly-determined man, handsome and tall, with dark hair. He spoke poor French, with a very Scottish accent; also, he looked every inch a British officer – traits that would have made him a conspicuous figure. His long and eventful journey south would eventually mean more than just personal escape. It would lead to courage and self-sacrifice, ultimately saving hundreds of lives.
Ian Grant Garrow
Photo courtesy of Christopher Long, www.christopherlong.co.uk
Following the armistice with Germany, France was split in two. The Occupied Zone was in the north and around the Atlantic ports, the south and east were in the Free Zone – run by the puppet Vichy government. The zones were divided by a ligne de démarcation. Initially, Vichy France wasn’t too troubled by the presence of Allied servicemen, and if men like Garrow could get across the demarcation line, they might reach Spain, then home.
Captain Garrow and his men made good progress:
“My French at this time was very bad, but at Vouvray I persuaded a farmer to arrange to ferry us across the River Loire.”
Crossing the demarcation line into Vichy, they decided to hand themselves in. They were interned in the town of Bélâbre.
In his notes Garrow explains that being interned was a far from miserable experience and they were well-treated – lodging with local families and well-fed. However, in late July, Garrow and his party decided to escape:
“A Frenchman drew me a small map showing the route to the Spanish Frontier… rolled up on a camera spool.”
The group were then arrested in the Lot département. Finally, four months after leaving Normandy, they were interned in Marseille, initially in the Fort Saint-Jean.
Many Allied personnel, including a large number of Scots, had made it to this southern port city. The French authorities struggled to cope and were, helpfully, very bribe-able. Escape plans were coming together.
Enjoying apparent free rein in the city, Garrow was able to meet like-minded British officers and start to think about possible routes out of France to help stranded soldiers. He also met, among others, the legendary Donald Caskie.
The Reverend Donald Caskie had been the Minister of the Scots Kirk in Paris. His anti-Nazi sentiments were expressed in bold sermons that drew unwelcome attention from the Gestapo. He fled south and took over the Seamen’s Mission in Marseille which would become one of the biggest safe houses in wartime France, although not the best-kept secret, according to MI5. The Rev Caskie would become known for his courageous exploits saving Allied lives as the famed Tartan Pimpernel. He was betrayed and horrifically tortured, but survived imprisonment to return to his pulpit at the Scots Kirk after the Liberation of Paris.
Garrow also began to meet sympathetic Marseillais and Marseillaises who put themselves at great personal risk to help. Not only to help save lives, but to allow soldiers to rejoin the fight for an Allied foothold in the Nazis’ Fortress Europe.
Ian worked with the fearless resistance member Nancy Fiocca (Nancy Wake – aka the White Mouse) and was assisted greatly by Dr George Rodocanachi and his wife Fanny, who sheltered and helped countless Allied servicemen as well as saving thousands of Jewish lives. Dr George himself would later be betrayed, tortured and sent to Buchenwald concentration camp – where he died in 1944.
Dr George Rodocanachi
Photo courtesy of www.christopherlong.co.uk
Under the noses of the authorities, Garrow found willing French ‘helpers’ (as they became known) providing safe houses, forged papers and planning routes to Spain via the Pyrenees. This network, which would become known as the Pat Line, was founded primarily by Captain Garrow, helped by others and considered by many to be the most successful escape network in France.
Garrow’s escape line (in blue) running from Lille to Gibraltar
In 1941, Hitler issued a secret decree called Nacht und Nebel – Night and Fog – to suppress resistance across their Third Reich. Suspected resistance fighters could be “disappeared” – usually being tortured and sent to the camps, leaving no trace. The Nazis hoped this would terrify locals and discourage resistance.
The Vichy French were not running a tight enough ship for their German masters. Garrow and his comrades had been loosely tolerated. The French were under increasing pressure to take them seriously. The escape line was growing and Garrow was under scrutiny. He went into hiding, sheltered by Dr and Mrs Rodocanachi.
As time went on, Ian Garrow met Dr Albert-Marie Guérisse, a bold and daring Belgian intelligence officer who adopted the alias Pat O’Leary. He would be key to the effective, smooth running of the line. Numbers of Allied servicemen were now crossing the Spanish border, including downed Allied aircrew – a phrase at the time being that airmen were “raining from the skies of Europe.”
In October 1941, Garrow was arrested. Dr Guérisse took over – a more than competent leader of what was now known officially as the Pat O’Leary Line.
With the help of Guérisse and Nancy Fiocca, in December 1942 Garrow was sprung from prison. However, his arrest had shown cracks appearing in this tight network.
In 1942, Germany took control of the Vichy ‘Free’ Zone. Surveillance was ramped up, the Gestapo hunting down the leaders of the line, infiltrating and identifying the helpers. No mercy was shown.
Just as dangerous as the Gestapo and their Nacht und Nebel, however, were people a little closer to home. Two infiltrators brought death and destruction to Pat and its sister line, Comet, resulting in the arrest of hundreds of Resistance workers and their helpers.
One British, one French.
Harold Cole and Roger Le Neveu.
Harold Cole was a British army deserter, a thief and a blagger. Known as Paul, he worked for Garrow’s line from its inception and was a trusted part of the network – acting as a courier and guide for escapers and evaders for some time.
Suspecting Cole of stealing escape line money to fund a life of fancy restaurants and glamourous, if naive, women, O’Leary confronted him. Preparing to execute Cole, the British double agent managed to escape. He was later arrested and without hesitation betrayed practically the entire network. The former British army deserter’s sole motivation was personal gain – simple greed.
Harold Cole (source Wiki)
Roger Le Neveu had also been a very effective member of the line, and was similarly trusted. However, unlike Cole, it is believed he turned traitor only following capture by the Gestapo, probably after coercion. Either way, he successfully infiltrated the organisation, gained the trust of the leaders and gave up crucial information. Escapers, safehouse hosts, leaders, couriers and guides were arrested and deported. Many did not return home.
1943 became a disastrous year for the Pat Line.
The situation had become so perilous that Captain Garrow was forced to flee and helped to escape to Gibraltar and England in the February. His part in the successful escape line he founded, and so bravely ran, was over.
In spite of Cole, Le Neveu and Nacht und Nebel, the line limped on.
Roger Le Neveu (source: Wiki)
Inevitably, the valiant Dr Guérisse was arrested in Toulouse in a trap organised by Le Neveu himself.
The Belgian was tortured yet survived several concentration camps, later being awarded the George Cross. He died in 1989.
Without him at the helm, the line suffered further infiltration and unravelled. The remaining leaders and helpers were scattered to the winds. One historian summed it up, saying:
“Cole wrecked the Pat Line. Le Neveu finished it off.”
Roger Le Neveu would be caught and summarily executed by the Resistance in 1944.
Cole would be hunted down and shot by police in Paris in 1946. He was widely considered to be the worst British traitor of the Second World War.
Unlike the brave Dr Rodocanachi, Guérisse somehow survived the war. Over one hundred of the Pat Line’s French helpers did not.
Thanks to Ian Garrow and his brave, unflinching comrades, over 600 Allied soldiers and airmen escaped France and lived to carry on the fight.
After his repatriation, Captain Garrow rejoined the war effort from London, later serving in the Territorial Army until 1958. He was awarded the DSO (Distinguished Service Order).
From his DSO citation:
“Though he had many opportunities for escape, he voluntarily undertook to remain in hiding in Marseilles and to assist in organising the escape and repatriation of others.”
Perhaps due to his quiet and self-effacing personality and reticence to talk about himself, Ian Garrow has become somewhat forgotten by history.
The quiet Scotsman struggled to come to terms with his wartime trauma, like so many ex-servicemen then and now, and, unfortunately, would know more than his share of loss and sadness.
Captain Garrow died 50 years ago, aged 67.
He is buried, along with his family, in St Michael’s Church in Dallas, Aberdeenshire.
Captain Ian Grant Garrow
1908-1976
Leave a Reply