1957-05-19 — Page 17

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-

(COPYRIGHT)

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

(COPYRIGHT)

killed her.

NEXT SUNDAY The U-boat warning. and then silence.

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