SOUTH CHINA SUNDAY POST-HERALD, MAY 19, 1957.
Beginning the war story that can only now be told...of a blonde, a Corsican, and a Q-ship
HMS FIDELITY WAS A LADY
PERE WAS Skipper
No more famous street
City of Westminster
PICCADILLY
W.1.
No finer cigarette
D'LEARY WEE bis No. 1
Pat O'Leary was the war-tima alias of Dr. Albert Quiriaco, a Belgian Army offer, From being second in command of H.M.B. Fidality he became Britain's most suocochiul agant in Franse and directed "Pat" the famous escupm rouku by which 800 men escaped. Then he wEB CAD" tured and thrown into Dachau. But no one living knows more than he of the fabulous Q-ship (shown in the background above when she was in Gibraltar in 1989). He alone was the confident of the blonde Franch apy who was "First Omaer Barclay." And only to O'Leary did the Fidality's Corsičan captain raven? hla own Sacrel Barvice past.
by Lt. Cmdr. PAT O'LEARY, G.C. D.S.O., as told to Stanley Bonnett
HE was sunbathing. Tilted back in a cane armchair, her long,
slim legs stretching up to a rail of the bridge.
sophisticated.
Blonde and
That was how I first saw Madeleine Bayard, the enchanting French Secret Service agent who was to fight and die in a British warship as "First Officer Barclay, W.R.N.S."
For a girl to serve afloat under the White Ensign was history
in itself. But the history of Madeleine's ship is an epic of war.
sears from a torturer's it was my der of
cigarette on his body.
I know beenuse ship too.
H.M.S. Fidelity, the must- whisperest-of €2-ship. whose exklence has never really been emilied by the Admiralty wall
10.
Filet
lived 10 months. From the time Peri, the ion- irbin Corslean, natched the from Petuln's Free and made her a part of the Royal Navy, to the December day the
died, to the requiem of guns. rler U-boat attack uff the Azores.
No one will ever know
tha Fidelity arblevel,
A trail
By this 1 en Say at
The job the Paris Intelligence chiefs recalled them for gave birth to Fidelity and earned the ship her name as well.
Le Rhon She was called en, a town-at-hcel French merchanlıman of 2,456 torr,
rasing out of Marseilles,
new
descent, Peri proved the power of "Plastic" and his calculated daring by blowing the tanker out of the sea and the war.
Meanwhile, a far bigger erup- tion was bursting on France.
The German offensive had through Belgium, the swept British Army had retreated 10 Dunkirk, and, to the horror Per the patriot, France
capitulating.
Not Perl
Now, at the thine Britain was heerly nallon with the serrel of Pla-lle," a brillidly
like he explissive which looked
piastiene and was the perfect his duty. weapon for saboteurs.
htt
the
start: from her Brst mystery
The decoy
to
entru t
ful.
and dock sheds bare of of quay was everything which might be use
Machine-guns, rifles, ammu- ten, coffee, sugar, nition, food. the trucks, a car, 20,000 patra of shoes, 50,000 shirts, bleycles, spirits, 10,000 bottles at good French wine.
In Paris he calmly reviewed
Gave his word
He had given his word to his British Intelligence counter- parts that he would return the balance of the precious "Plas- tie" and never allow the Ger- mrs to get its formula.
To help the planned blockade of German shipping the British were perpared selected Fiench agents with the mission alone there began th
formula and much of the pr Tail
which over cleve
COD
cious stockpile of ""Plastic." Allied Filots Dz4 roldiers
Madeleine,
Was as an explosives 4 from Miller's Prope
the consort, the expert and hor Neither Madeleine with
thrice-murried; 30-year-old Peri, dancing
blush-ed feel ord
were chosen. fugee nails ne tient, de Vaisr eau Claude ri, the
Cart
UP
MADELEINE WAS
First Officer
abandoning him,
thone announcing that the ship was now definitely in the Royal Navy, with every member of her company.
Perl offered me a passage qulek enough.
That came sileky July night he showed me just how hard and personally he could fight. What was more, every officer An officer challenged Peri's was to have un RN, commis- authority and followed his clon.
cers by smashing the jagged edge of ü wineglass into his
face.
There was no second blow, Peri hammered him to the dock and roared:
"Put this man in Irons!”
Fateful trip
With every
member of Lo Rhone's crew asembled. Per demonstratively degraded and dismissed the officer by tearing off his epaulettes and cap.
Then, with the man, his ankle broken, writhing at his feet, be stared fixedly at each of us in turn und usid quietly:
"You see what has happened to this man? Is there anyone
A promise
Thus it was I became Lleut- Commander. Pat O'Leary, R.N.; Peri Comniander Jack Linglais, 1.N. and Madeleine, the only woman to БЕГУС in a warship in war. First Barclay, W.R.N.S
Britis
Oficer
the fidelity of Madeleine and That was Britain's reward for
agents which kept the formula her Corsican--fidelity na occret of "Plastic" from the Germans. the ship the two of them
It was a promise, too, that named Fidelity should go
fighting.
On
Which she did. With Ave-Inch torpedo tubes, two pean planes, enough ack-ack
ela who wants to be a traltor uns,
It was a long, uncertain trip, ment to protect herself and
1:at first fateful run across the Bay of Bircay.
everyone reoar her, nud every-
None of us knew want would thing hidden behind hinged happen when Lo Rhone renched ports and canvas shrouds in the
best Q-ship tradition. Britain.
One desire
Peri himself knew only one thing with all his determina- lion to fight back Immediately, and with all a professional Nor was Madeleine forgotten
agent's contempt for politicians, in the he wanted nothing to do. with de Gaulie's Free French Forces.
Slept on it
dunly Yast real. Her cable under the bridge, and just Elo wardroom from TOSS Peri's, had bathroom added. There the washed and dried his clothes ang her own.
I would glimpse ber como-
and times, in that feminine-fussed
"This ship soil under the flag of the British Navy nights with her?" he insisted.
I wondered. But I knew
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cabin, sowing bulions on Peri's watforms, pressing her impec-sparkling whiteness. Only
Whether it belonged to Le Rhone or not, it sailed.
To fight again, that's why" nothing of the "Plastle" hidden cably tailored W.R.N.S. sult. he stormed
questioning aboard, Di Potanist officers.
"Frenchmen must redeem the thame of France. We'll do it
make this shitp. Now
for Gibraltar."
But mare. This man, who at diplomacy's chest had taught Going to shoot,
the In patriot oxiraordinary.
And
Al Barry Docks Dritish Intel- genes afficers were waiting. They hurried up the gangway, pumped Peri's hand, and asked
anxiously:
"And the Explosive?" Peri el Madeleine answer. "it's in a safe place," laughed.
sho
"You kept it in your cabin?" "Undey my bunk!" "That's right," cut in Peri. "Madeleine's been sleeping
on
No matter what the lawful That was where I met Le. Government of France might Rhone.
Madeleine, her War was declared. Peri picked decree, he would go on fighting sunbathing blonde. wel-
And Perl, chertral Corsets the lovel so his target. She was a fully kulen Germans until he died,
the Secret Service man with Get to Britain. That was the the
and balding crew out paolonotriy, could have used Cermin oil tanker balfled the sea blockade ir that
when the Deuxion by
the way. The British would not lieutenant's uniform who gave
surrender.
orders to the ship's elderly Bureau recalled them to Paris neutral harbour of La Palmas
French just before the wan
Intelligence allocated How? "We'll go in Le Rhone," master. Both were professional agents, one as his decoy.
he told Madeleine.
I was then Albert Guarisse, it." Posing a
AI bard-drinking hack frem Indo-
Marsellles Peri fook full m They
The dishevelled Belgian Army
offiear gulped, " offelel accompanied advantage of the fact that China prepared for anything company
Le officer, trying desperately to get esential we take it to London Hazards wore icir businers. by his good-time_girl_frlead, Rhone's captain knew him as a out of the colller in which I had immediately."
Hazards
"Certainly," said Pori, "but which ri called in Le Rhune to Las special agent who already had fled from France and into any of the kinet
power to commandeer the ship ship bound for Britain hat ma hed Pari's jaw with a mes
and frst I have need of you, bullet, fhiever: turn maris
and curtly order her to sea. more fighting.
Within hair an hour he With 60 per cent, of the crew back in the wardroom
came
And there, in a „nsafional
on the cles of lds het, a shud- Commander Crabb-style night
***
Before leaving he swept the
If you have 3 minutes to while away in a traffic jam, read this & ponder.
of
was Le
WILL 1957 CARS LOOK GOOD
EVERY
25 YEARS FROM NOW?
London. from све place Lo another week-end the economically and quickly, I only so many other people had Englishman, deserting not had the same idea. his castle, for his four-
Bul among the thousands seater, proves to the satis there will be a few who will faction of everyone except enjoy the drive for its own sake the Minister of Transport the people who own old make and that our hopelessly inadequate.
beautiful mode of aerial trans- The models at this exhibillon tinctive monsters like Bentley, port conceived,
are so attractive that you will Flat, Darracq. Mercedes, Ala. In the
steal meantime it is the want to
them. They Romeo, which raced 30 years motor-cor which sets the pace range from the petrol-driven ugo, in vintage-minded circles, and
Butler tricycle vi 1884. re- The great green Bentleys, during the week I looked in at sembling a modern tractor with with their barrel chests and an exhibition called The Age wheels that suggest the fragile huge shoulders, need only homs of the Motor-Car which the grace of a parasol made in to look like Andalusian bulls Koyal Automobile Club has Japan, to a selection of cars of on the rampage,
carly 1900's which show These cars were built before organised in connection with its the diamond Jublice.
how quickly and skilfully the age of the shop steward and them can be a pleasurable AL
coachbuilders this comprehensive col-
them..mass-production. selves to horselessness, of Icction
paintings, modela,
of early drawings, and relics
doys one, Is struck motoring not cly by the beauty of the cars they were making at the
road system is eers of honourable
have discovered that driving
sensation in its own right,
To my mind the most inter- development
As the hot le saloons bulg- Ing with pitnic baskets, hidren, esting motoring
and acrimony choke the roads, since the war has had nothing most of the drivers will accept to do with power steering, or their cns for what they are... suspension or higher compres efficient devices fur getting sion ratios, whatever they may
This feature.
be.
It has been the awakening of Average reading time for Interest in the vintage car.
because it It is interesting means that tho motoris! has existed long enough to have developed a sense of the past.
*Toolio
thly muglost spoil three times a day after mésia."
it is also interesting because It reaffirms the old principle that not until creative work has been about for some time is it truly appreciated.
With music and "päinting this has long been the case,
Now it is becoming true of the creative products of the Machine Age.
As one who has not the alightest desire to travel faster
---Majdalany:
looks at motoring's good old days
beginning of the century but by their performance,
If you have the idea that the automobile became trustworthy only the week before last, this exhibition will shock you.
Did you know, for instance, that in 1907 a Rela-Royce
adapted
It is curious that no major artist seems ever to have been stirred into noticing the com- ing of the motor-car,
*
But the lato F. Crosby,
Craftsmen put them together piece by piece with affection in their hearts as well as skill in their honds.
even
An exhibition like this is a reminder that she craftsman- stip
in hard metals Gordon- creates its own beauty because work has the it cannot help itself. whose yivid immediacy of the un- I wonder whether the family trator, does manage to capture beautiful 25 years from now.
magazina ilus- saloon of to-day will sophisticated
seem
o feel and excitement of Iivonder.. those early days.
Especially in his racing plc- tures, which have a splendid, uninhibited zest,
made on observed run of The cartoons of Torence 14,371 miles without the engine Cuneo also catch the humanity being stopped once?
and humour of motoring before
It was then taken to pieces, it became merely a means of with the instruction that any moving about. part showing signs of wear was to be replaced,
netary
than sound I hope that aviation The cost of the replacements will soon enter the deld of that proved to be Dostalgio, and that it will be was 12 25, 78. represented there by what is In the same year Mr S. F. pictorially its loveliest form, the Edge, driving his Napler round
the Brooklands
track single I am ult for a ballooning handed for 24 hours, covered since the balloon 1,591 miles in that time at an revival, without any
doubt the most average 05 m.p.b.
balloon.
Cars, like women, are rol improved in shape merely by being fattened and stretched, which is what streamlining hos cone for the racing car.
The modern Grand Prix cars, also represented at the exhibi- tion, alt - look alike....iong," low, fat, purposeful smuanges.
Compare them with the die-
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But usually Madeleine was reading Books on wireles, ex-
plosives, notes from her English sabotage course.
one
For themselves apart, Made- leine and Pori had only desire: war against the truc enemies of France.
Fidelity was
their
weapon.
war
And Fidelity fought until
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killed her.
NEXT SUNDAY The U-boat warning. and then silence.
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