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Victor Gerson DSO Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur (1896- ?) was a Special Operations Executive agent during the Second World War who organised an escape line in France.

Early years

Haim Victor Gerson was born on 1 August 1896 in Southport, Lancashire, the son of a fabric merchant.

World War I

He joined the British army at the declaration of war and was sent to the Western Front In France and took part in the Battle of the Somme.

After the war, he went to Paris where he was a dealer in fine rugs and carpets. He married and had a son, however in the 1930s his wife died and his son was killed in a traffic accident. He then married Giliana Balmaceda, a Chilean-born actress.

World War II

On 18 June 1940 at the signing of the armistice, the couple escaped to England. In May 1941 Balmaceda was the first female SOE agent to be sent to occupied France. She went to Vichy and collected a lot of information and administrative documents used in occupied France, such as ration cards, which could be reproduced in London for use by agents on clandestine mission in France.

First mission

On the night of the 6/7 September 1941 he was parachuted from a Whitley bomber, along with five other agents and landed near the Le Cerisier farm of Auguste Chantraine, Mayor of Tendu. He travelled to Lyon and Marseille, where he assessed the possibility of organising subversive networks in cities. In October, he avoided arrest in Marseille as he was wary of the voice that gave him an appointment by phone, did not go there. He quickly left France and returned to London where he reported on his conclusions on the French willingness to resist the German occupation.

Second mission

He was sent back in the field to set up a safe escape route through France into Spain.

In Operation DELAY II Peter Churchill’s mission was to land four SOE agents on the French Riviera by submarine. On 26 February 1942 Churchill flew from Bristol to Gibraltar with two radio operators, Isidore Newman «Julien» for the URCHIN network and Edward Zeff «Matthieu» for the SPRUCE network,, where they were joined by Marcel Clech «Bastien», radio operator for the AUTOGIRO network,, and Victor Gerson «René», an SOE agent on a special mission to organise the VIC Escape Line. They travelled in HM Submarine P 42 “Unbroken” to Antibes where on the night of 21 April 1942 Churchill took Newman and Zeff and their radios to the shore by canoe, and led them to their contact Dr Élie Lévy. Churchill then returned to the submarine and dropped off Clech and Gerson by canoe at Pointe d’Agay near Fréjus

Gerson and Clech went to Lyon where they met Virginia Hall. Gerson gradually built up an escape network to Spain with Lazarus Rachline and Georges Levin, with Thérèse Mitrani in Lyon, René Feraggi in Marseille, and Jacques Mitterrand in Paris. He also installed groups in Perpignan and Montpellier.

He entrusted Rachline to plan for the exfiltration of the eleven agents of the section F from Mauzac, and they escaped successfully on 16 July 1942 and returned in England.

On 19/20 August 1943 Gerson returned by plane to England, and on 14 September returned to France in a Hudson bomber piloted by Henri Déricourt.

Operating rules

Gerson imposed strict rules on his members and despite the circuit being penetrated three times by the Gestapo in June and October 1943 and January 1944, after which some members were arrested, the group was able to continue its activities.

Rules of operation within the VIC escape line:

*Members are known and designated only by pseudonyms.

• The homes of regular members of the network are kept secret.
• New members of the organisation give up all their former clandestine activities.
• Any regular member breaks contact with his family and leaves the house where he lived before entering the network.
• It is forbidden to carry papers or notes that give the names or addresses of contacts.
• The verbal messages between the informant and the organiser through the mail are in hackneyed language, which the couriers cannot understand.
• When a message cannot be in hazy language or the courier cannot remember it, it is written on fine tissue paper, inserted in a cigarette or carried so that it can be easily eaten or thrown away.
• Passwords had to be given, word perfect, otherwise they would not be accepted.
• Members in safe houses are not allowed to go out under any circumstances before it is time to depart.
• Members should never visit a safe home without first checking the security of the house by phone.

Gerson was arrested once while travelling on a train between Paris and Lyons, however his cover story was so convincing he was soon released.

Post war

After the war he returned to Paris and resumed his activity in fine rugs and carpets.

Recognition

Distinctions

• United Kingdom: Distinguished Service Order (DSO), Member of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)
• France: Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur

Monument

• A stone monument at Le Cerisier, Tendu (Indre) commemorates the clandestine parachute landing on 6 September 1941.

Road name

• An avenue in Issy-les-Moulineaux (Hauts-de-Seine) is named after him.

References

1. ^ Spartacus Educational Publishers - Victor Gerson
2. Special Forces Roll of Honour
3. F Section SOE: The Story of the Buckmaster Network. Marcel Ruby, Pen and Sword, 26 Sep 1988
4. ^ Duel of Wits, Peter Churchill, Hodder and Stoughton, 1953
5. Nigel Perrin
6. Hugh Verity, We landed by Moonlight
7. The National Archives, WO 373/93/165: Recommendation for Award for Gerson, Haim Victor

External sources

• MRD Foot, English in the Resistance. British Secret Service of Action (SOE) in France 1940-1944,
• MRD Foot, Six Faces of Courage, Eyre Methuen, 1978
• Sir Brooks Richards, Secret Flotillas. Clandestine links in France and North Africa, 1940-1944.
• Lt. Col. EG Boxshall, Chronology of SOE operations with the resistance in France during World War II, 1960.
• The National Archives HS 9/575/4