Jean Savy (4 December 1906 – 17 June 1993) was a French citizen and a

commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries this naval rank is termed frigate captain. ...

in the

French army The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (french: Armée de Terre, ), is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces. It is responsible to the Government of France, along with the other components of the Armed For ...

Early life

Jean Millet was born in

Sarcelles Sarcelles () is a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Sarcelles is a sub-prefecture of the Val-d'Oise department and the seat of the arrondissement of Sarcelles. In the south of the commun ...

, Seine-et-Oise, France on 4 December 1906. He attended l'Ecole des Science Politique in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and read Law. After completing his studies, he practiced Law.

Special Operations Executive

Millet was interviewed by Colonel Buckmaster and was recruited by the

Special Operations Executive The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its pu ...

. Jean Millet was given his pseudonym Jean Savy.

The Wizard Network

The main brief by the SOE was to form an organisation for the furnishing of safe houses for the reception of teams of

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

officers after

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...

. Savy worked undercover as a

solicitor A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...

and rented an office from a Monsieur Gieules (aka "Marcellin"). The

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

was aware of this. One night in a brave act of courage, Gieules raced from his office to the Métro station where Jean Savy was about to descend and informed him that the Gestapo was waiting for him. On the 19/20 July 1943 Savy and Antelme, both now hunted, were expatriated from France by

Lysander Lysander (; grc-gre, Λύσανδρος ; died 395 BC) was a Spartan military and political leader. He destroyed the Athenian fleet at the Battle of Aegospotami in 405 BC, forcing Athens to capitulate and bringing the Peloponnesian War to an en ...

operation near Tour (

Tours Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 ...

?). Meanwhile, Monsieur Gieules had been arrested and deported to

Mittelbau-Dora Mittelbau-Dora (also Dora-Mittelbau and Nordhausen-Dora) was a Nazi concentration camp located near Nordhausen in Thuringia, Germany. It was established in late summer 1943 as a subcamp of Buchenwald concentration camp, supplying slave labour ...

, a concentration camp.

Operation Mitchel

After the arrests of

Madeleine Damerment Madeleine Zoe Damerment (11 November 1917 – 13 September 1944) was a French spy in World War II who served in the French Resistance and Britain's Special Operations Executive. Damerment was to be a courier for SOE's Bricklayer circuit in Fran ...

France Antelme Major Joseph Antoine France Antelme OBE (12 March 1900 – 1944), no. 239255, was one of 14 Franco-Mauritians who served in the Special Operations Executive (SOE), a World War II British secret service that sent espionage agents, saboteurs and gue ...

and Lionel Lee in February 1944, Jean Savy volunteered to return to France. On 2 March 1944 he arrived near

Châteauroux Châteauroux (; ; oc, Chasteurós) is the capital city of the French department of Indre, central France and the second-largest town in the province of Berry, after Bourges. Its residents are called ''Castelroussins'' () in French. Climate Ch ...

and was received by 'Greyhound'. Savy was accompanied by

Jacqueline Nearne Jacqueline Nearne MBE (born 27 May 1916, Brighton, England, died 15 August 1982 in London, England), code named Jacqueline and Josette, was an agent for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) in Nazi-occupied France during World War II. ...

's sister

Eileen Nearne Eileen Mary "Didi" Nearne MBE, Croix de Guerre (15 March 1921Obituary in ''The Times'' 15 September 2010 – 2 September 2010 (date body found)) was a member of the UK's Special Operations Executive (SOE) in France during World War II. The pu ...

(ROSE) as his wireless operator. Savy was on a particularly dangerous mission. He was to form a large and widespread organisation, the establishment and arrangement for the reception and utilisation of uniformed teams to be sent into France by parachute on and after D-Day. Jean Savy was a prominent figure in French legal circles and very well known, in addition he suffered from a badly disfigured arm, which rendered him conspicuous. In spite of this and with the knowledge that he was posted as wanted by the Gestapo, he displayed a complete disregard of personal danger and traveled extensively in order to visit a large number of contacts and leaders - themselves marked men - in order to make sure of the sound foundation of his plans. Antelme's arrest disrupted his plans for pursuing supply and financial contacts; seeking to make himself useful, he stumbled accidentally on a piece of intelligence so important that he left Paris, Miss Nearne and a second operator Jean Gernard Maury (Arnaud) and returned to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. (The two operators attached themselves to 'Spiritualist'). Savy's information was about a large secret ammunition dump in stone quarries at Saint Leu d'Esserent. He had discovered precise details of its site and, more important of its content: 2000

V1 rocket The V-1 flying bomb (german: Vergeltungswaffe 1 "Vengeance Weapon 1") was an early cruise missile. Its official Reich Aviation Ministry () designation was Fi 103. It was also known to the Allies as the buzz bomb or doodlebug and in Germany ...

s, ready to fire.

Awards

Savy was appointed as a member of

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

and awarded the

Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon B ...

, the

Croix de Guerre The ''Croix de Guerre'' (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first awa ...

, and the

Médaille de la Résistance The Resistance Medal (french: Médaille de la Résistance) was a decoration bestowed by the French Committee of National Liberation, based in the United Kingdom, during World War II. It was established by a decree of General Charles de Gaulle on 9 ...

by the French government.

Sources

SOE French Section
* http://perso.orange.fr/redtarget * ''They Landed by Moonlight'' by

Hugh Verity Hugh Verity, (6 April 1918 – 14 November 2001) was a Royal Air Force fighter pilot and later a "special duties" squadron pilot working with the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II. He landed many times at clandestine airfiel ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Savy, Jean 1906 births 1993 deaths French Army officers Place of death missing French Resistance members Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France) Recipients of the Legion of Honour Recipients of the Resistance Medal French Special Operations Executive personnel