Operation Cerberrus

[Boandlgramer]

hello,
i hope someone can help me.
here we go :
when the german ships scharnhorst, gneisenau and some more left the port of brest did the french resistance know about ?
did they report it to a british secret service ?
or was in this stage of the war no connection between these ?

i am working on an project about operation cerberus , so any help is welcome.

thank you.

[Graham Boak]

Yes, there would have been connections between the French Resistance and British Intelligence, and the British were certainly very interested in the German battlecruisers. Beyond that I've seen no comment, perhaps the official history of SOE has something to say?

However, bearing in mind that the dockyard was a very secure place, and the ships left at night, would the Resistance have been in a position to know immediately what had happened? Once they had found out, could they have passed a message back to London at short notice? I rather suspect that is would have been one of those pieces of intelligence that arrive too late to be much use.

[Laurent Rizzotti]

There was a French Navy officer, lieutenant de vaisseau Philippon, that was at the time responsible of the naval base gardens (no joke!) and was a member of the French network "Confrérie Notre-Dame" and was spying the German ships in the port.

In French versions of the story this man was responsible for many loss or damage to German ships (for example informing the Brits of the sortie of July 1941 where Scharnhorst was damaged off La Pallice, he sent a radio message on the 19th saying she was ready to sail, he is also said to have contibuted to the destruction of the Bismarck) but in RAF accounts and books most intelligence seems to be gathered by air recon.

Also Philippon's radio, Bernard Anquetil, was arrested on 31/7/41 by the Germans and executed on 24/10/41.

So maybe the French Resistance was able to provide the Brits with intelligence, but probably too late to be of any value in a onde-day affair like the Cerberus case, and probably was no more able to do it in 1942.

[Laurent Rizzotti]

A bit too late, I have found a page giving details of Cerberus and where the name of Philippon is given:

http://www.scharnhorst-class.dk/scha...ncerberus.html

The loss given by this page are not complete for any side.

[Boandlgramer]

many many thanks.
what a fantastic forum .
best regards hans.