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In 1966, it was disclosed by the British authorities that the numerous derailments in that area of northern France were the work of two SOE resistance networks: FARMER operating under its British-born leader Michael Trotobas, codenamed "Michel", and MUSICIAN led by Gustave Biéler, codenamed "Guy". Both had been dropped in France in November 1942, Michel settling in Lille and Guy further south at Saint-Quentin. As their area of operations straddled the important supply routes to the coast of northwestern France, the intended invasion area, railways were to be their special targets. FARMER achieved its first successful derailment in February 1943 when forty railway trucks were destroyed on the Lens-Béthune line which was closed for two days. By mid-summer the network was causing up to twenty derailments a week while the MUSICIAN group were cutting the Lille-Saint-Quentin line about once a fortnight, one of Guy's favourite forms of sabotage being the supply of abrasive grease to his railwaymen friends. More than a thorn in the side of the Germans, Michael Trotobas was killed during a dawn raid on his lodging on November 28 - the street in Lille now being renamed "Rue du Capitaine Michel". Although more arrests followed, FARMER managed to remain intact. In mid-January 1944 Gustave Biéler was arrested (he was later executed at Flossenbürg) and the MUSICIAN network shattered. FARMER was able to carry on with the sabotage operations right up to D-Day. |
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