89215 Forest Frederick Edward YEO-THOMAS, GC, MC*, RAFVR & SOE

Express.co.uk - Home of the Daily and Sunday Express | UK News :: WW2 secret agent receives English Heritage plaque

A SECRET agent dubbed “the bravest of the brave” received another accolade yesterday – 46 years after his death.

Forest Frederic Edward Yeo-Thomas – code name The White Rabbit – was the first agent of the Second World War to be awarded the George Cross.

Yesterday he became the first spy to be commemorated with an English Heritage blue plaque on the house where he lived.

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BBC News - Secret agent's life celebrated with blue plaque

Secret agent's life celebrated with blue plaque



Yeo-Thomas was captured and tortured by the Gestapo


The life of one of the first secret agents of World War II to receive the George Cross has been commemorated with an English Heritage blue plaque.

Forest Frederic Edward Yeo-Thomas, code name the White Rabbit, lived in Guildford Street, Camden, London, where the plaque was unveiled.
Yeo-Thomas joined the Special Operations Executive (SOE) but was captured and tortured by the Gestapo.
He escaped from a concentration camp and died in 1964 at the age of 62.
Yeo-Thomas, who was brought up in France, joined the RAF in 1939 - the year he met his second wife Barbara.
The couple lived at Queen Court, the site of the English Heritage blue plaque.



Gestapo torture
After completing more than two years in the RAF, including work as an intelligence officer in Fighter Command, Yeo-Thomas joined the SOE.


The plaque was unveiled in Guildford Street in Camden, London

In 1942 he acted as a liaison officer with representatives of General de Gaulle's Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action.
On a mission in France a year later he helped organise and plan strategy with the French Resistance.
On one occasion he is said to have evaded capture by hiding in a hearse.
In 1944 on his third mission to France he was betrayed and captured.
After torture by the Gestapo he was moved to Buchenwald concentration camp.
He finally escaped captivity and managed to reach US Army forces as the war ended.
For his bravery he was awarded the George Cross, the Military Cross and bar, the Croix de Guerre, the Polish Cross of Merit and was made a commander of the Legion d'Honneur.
After the war he worked in a Paris fashion house, eventually becoming the Federation of British Industries' representative in France, a position he held until his death in 1964.

 

That's great news. More recognition for the brave members of SOE.


Bravest of the Brave: True Story of Wing Commander Tommy Yeo-Thomas - SOE Secret Agent Codename, the White Rabbit: Amazon.co.uk: Mark Seaman: Books

 

Here's his George Cross citation:

This officer was parachuted into France on the 25th February, 1943. He showed much courage and initiative during his mission, particularly when he enabled a French officer who was being followed by a Gestapo agent in Paris to reach safety and resume clandestine work in another area. He also took charge of a U.S. Army Air Corps officer who had been shot down and, speaking no French, was in danger of capture. This officer returned to England on the 15th April, 1943, in the aircraft which picked up Wing Commander lYeo-Thomas.

Wing Commander Yeo-Thomas undertook a second mission on the I7th September, 1943. Soon after his arrival in France many patriots were arrested. Undeterred, he continued his enquiries and obtained information which enabled the desperate situation to be rectified. On six occasions he narrowly escaped arrest. He returned to England on the 15th November, 1943, bringing British intelligence archives which he had secured from a house watched by the Gestapo.

This officer was again parachuted into France in February, 1944. Despite every security precaution he was betrayed to the Gestapo in Paris on the 21st March. While being taken by car to Headquarters he was badly beaten up. He then underwent 4 days continuous interrogation, interspersed with beatings and torture, including immersions, head downwards, in ice-cold water, with legs and arms chained. Interrogations later continued for 2 months and Wing Commander Yeo-Thomas was offered his freedom in return for information concerning the Head of a Resistance Secretariat. Owing to his wrist being cut by chains, he contracted blood-poisoning and nearly lost his left arm. He made two daring but unsuccessful attempts to escape. He was then confined in solitude in Fresnes prison for 4 months, including 3 weeks in a darkened cell with very little food. Throughout these months of almost continuous torture, he steadfastly refused to disclose any information.

On the 17th July, Wing Commander Yeo-Thomas was sent with a party to Compiegne prison, from which he twice attempted to escape. He and 36 others were then transferred to Buchenwald. On the way, they stopped for 3 days at Saarbrucken, where they were beaten and kept in a tiny hut. They arrived at Buchenwald on the 16th August and 16 of them were executed and cremated on the 10th September. Wing Commander Yeo- Thomas had already commenced to organise resistance within the camp and remained undaunted by the prospect of a similar fate. He accepted an opportunity of changing his identity with that of a dead French prisoner, on condition that other officers would also be enabled to do so. In this way, he was instrumental in saving the lives of two officers.

Wing Commander Yeo-Thomas was later transferred to a work kommando for Jews. In attempting to escape he was picked up by a German patrol and, claiming French nationality, was transferred to a camp near Marienburg for French prisoners of war. On the 16th April, 1945, he led a party of 20 in a most gallant attempt to escape in broad daylight. 10 were killed by fire from the guards. Those who reached cover split up into small groups. Wing Commander Yeo-Thomas became separated from his companions after 3 days without food. He continued alone for a week and was recaptured when only 800yards from the American lines. A few days later he escaped with a party of 10 French prisoners of war, whom he led through German patrols to the American lines.

Wing Commander Yeo-Thomas thus turned his final mission into a success by his determined opposition to the enemy, his strenuous efforts to maintain the morale of his fellow-prisoners and his brilliant escape activities. He endured brutal treatment and torture without flinching and showed the most amazing fortitude and devotion to duty throughout his service abroad, during which he was under the constant threat of death.


Taken from:

All the George Crosses of WW2

Post #132

 

Historian reveals the Second World War hero who inspired the creation of James Bond - Telegraph

Historian reveals the Second World War hero who inspired the creation of James Bond
One of Britain’s greatest spies of the Second World War, a secret agent who went by the code name White Rabbit, has been identified as the inspiration behind Ian Fleming’s James Bond.

Yeo-Thomas becomes the latest in a long line of suggested inspirations for the character of Bond Photo: Imperial War Museum
By Jasper Copping7:50AM BST 23 Sep 201246 Comments

He’s the dashing secret agent who surrounded himself with women, ruthlessly despatched his enemies and had a series of swashbuckling adventures.
It is not James Bond but a real Second World War hero who has now been identified as the inspiration behind Ian Fleming’s fictional creation.
A new biography of Wing Commander Forest “Tommy” Yeo-Thomas, one of Britain’s greatest secret agents of the war, claims the writer based the character of 007 on the spy and recreated many of his real life experiences in his novels.
Yeo-Thomas, who was known by the code name White Rabbit, was parachuted into occupied France three times – after one mission reporting back directly to Winston Churchill – before being captured and tortured by the Gestapo.
He was taken to Buchenwald concentration camp but managed to escape and reach the Allied lines.
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His link to Bond is revealed in a document discovered at the National Archives, in west London, by historian Sophie Jackson during her research into a new account of Yeo-Thomas’ exploits, Churchill’s White Rabbit: The True Story of a Real-Life James Bond.
In a dossier of recently declassified documents, she found a memo from May 1945 in which Fleming, who also worked in intelligence during the war, briefs colleagues on the agent and his successful escape from the Nazis.
The two men worked in different units – Yeo-Thomas for the Special Operations Executive and Fleming in the Naval Intelligence Division – and this is the first time a connection has been established between them.
Miss Jackson, a former editor of History Magazine, said that the link – along with remarkable similarities in the characters of Yeo-Thomas and Bond, as well as echoes between the escapades of the real life and fictional spy – supports the idea that Fleming based his character on the agent.
“It shows that Fleming was interested in the case of Yeo-Thomas and had been following it,” she added. “Fleming picked up the story and was interested in it.
"On top of that, there are other significant parallels between Yeo-Thomas and Bond, in their personal life, their relationships with women and attitudes towards women and the way Yeo-Thomas acted as a secret agent. He acts in a way we think of fictional spies acting.
“Some of the sequences that Yeo-Thomas went through are things which are then portrayed in James Bond. And these were experiences that Fleming knew about.”
Yeo-Thomas becomes the latest in a long line of suggested inspirations for the character of Bond, including other intelligence officers of the period: Conrad O’Brien-ffrench, Patrick Dalzel-Job and Bill “Biffy” Dunderdale, Fleming’s brother, Peter, and even the author himself.
In support of her theory, Miss Jackson has detected several parallels between Yeo-Thomas’ war record and sequences in Fleming’s novels.
The most striking is the experience of the agent at the hands of the Gestapo, which was recreated in a scene from the first Bond novel, Casino Royale – as well as the more recent film of the same name – in which the fictional spy is tortured using the same techniques.
On an earlier mission, on a train containing lots of Germans, Yeo-Thomas had found himself having tea with Klaus Barbie, a notorious Nazi known as the “Butcher of Lyon”.
Taking the last seat in the dining car of the Lyon to Paris express, the agent realised he was sitting next to the notorious local chief of the Gestapo.
The Nazis were on the lookout for Yeo-Thomas at the time, but the agent, who was fluent in French, engaged Barbie in conversation and pretended that he was a supporter of the German occupation.
At the end of the meal he was uncertain whether the German had twigged who he was. But he managed to get away safely when the train reached Paris.
The encounter has echoes of a scene from the novel, From Russia, With Love, in which the Bond is on the Orient Express, and has dinner with an enemy agent, who is pretending to be an ally.
On another occasion, Yeo-Thomas adopted the identity of another man to evade detection, a tactic used by Bond in Diamonds Are Forever and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
Indeed, several of the techniques used by Yeo-Thomas to repeatedly escape or evade his enemies – at various times, by hiding in a hearse, jumping from a train, strangling a guard or adopting disguises – echo tactics later used by Bond.
And like the licensed to kill 007, Yeo-Thomas always carried a weapon – even though it was contrary to SOE policy. He was also prepared to use it.
On one occasion, he was unable to shake off an enemy agent pursuing him through the streets of Paris. So he lured him to a bridge and hid in the shadows. When his pursuer arrived, Yeo-Thomas pounced on him and shot him at very close range, before tossing his body in the river.
He could also kill with his bare hands. In 1920, after volunteering to serve with the Polish army against the Soviets, he escaped from a Russian prison by strangling a guard.
Miss Jackson also believes the actual character of Bond was based on traits Fleming must have observed in Yeo-Thomas. The real spy was, like the his fictional counterpart, charming and attractive to women and was also surrounded by them – the main members of his personal cell were all female.
He was dashing, having worked at a French fashion house before the war, and had a tangled love life. He never officially married his partner, Barbara, who he met during the war – although she changed her name to his – because he was unable to obtain a divorce from his estranged wife, Lillian, who was living in occupied France.
After the war, Yeo-Thomas succumbed to recurring nightmares and illness, attributed to his wartime experiences. In this, he appears closer to the “darker” and more “psychologically troubled” Bond of the Fleming novels than the more light hearted depictions of the later films. He died in 1964, at the age of 62.

 

I do love the way newspapers treat history.

First there is the Telegraph's announcement that, at long last, the real James Bond "has been identified" - as though historians everywhere were desperately concerned about this.

Then the "identification" turns out to be a bit of inspired guesswork on the part on the new author plugging her book - because (a) Fleming had heard of Yeo-Turner and (b) some of the things the agent got up to are a bit like James Bond's adventures.

At no point does the Telegraph ask the rather obvious question - why does there have to be a single, definitive, ur-source for Bond anyway?

Isn't it possible that Fleming did what most authors of fiction do, and built up a composite character based partly on memories of folks like Yeo-Thomas (and O’Brien-ffrench and Dalzel-Job and Dunderdale and more besides), and partly on his own imaginative fancies?

I don't blame Miss Jackson for making the link (or allowing her publishers to make it); after all, she's seen how much money Ben Macintyre is making. But really, does the Telegraph, which used to be a quite good newspaper, have to take it at all seriously?

Best, Alan

 

But really, does the Telegraph, which used to be a quite good newspaper, have to take it at all seriously?

Best, Alan
I think the fact that virtually all the senior staff at the Telegraph are ex-Mail tells us all we need to know there, Alan.

The Telegraph has been going steadily downhill since Conrad Black bought it - a decline which has accelerated since the Barclay twins acquired it. It's no longer the great newspaper I grew up with. I could sometimes weep when I see the badly-written and poorly-researched tripe they serve up these days.

Dear old Bill Deedes must be spinning in his grave.

 

I would say it is far fetched,something to continue to build up the myth of James Bond.

Yeo Thomas like a number of SOE operatives who survived,minimised the risk of capture by maintaining a principle of not getting involved with women,not disclosing where they slept at night and above all never using the telephone.More covert to what we see on the screen.

Yeo Thomas escaped from Buchenwald in April 1945 as the SS structures were breaking down.Yet Fleming appears to have been aware of Yeo Thomas's debriefing report and generates a memo from it in May 1945.

I would have thought that after Yeo Thomas's ordeal and debriefing, Fleming in Naval Intelligence would not be among those who had a "right to know" the background of a man who I presume he was not aware of during the war.

I have not looked at what I have on Yeo Thomas but from what I am aware,Yeo Thomas never mentioned any woman in his account of his activities in wartime France,apart from Barbara.

 

The most plausible theory that I've heard about Bond's real identity is that he was the person that Fleming wanted to be.

 

I remember reading that Fleming once said that while Bond was a fantasy figure, he was less fantastic than some real SIS and MI agents. In Fleming's words, "he [Bond]'s not a Sidney Reilly, you know." Considering how bizarre and nearly incredible Reilly's career actually was, I suppose he has as good a claim as anyone to be the "real" Bond. I've always thought that Bond was simply a synthesis of many real men and many stories that Fleming heard, with a good deal of Fleming's technicolor imagination added. Not that any of this matters.

I read one or two of the Bonds a long time ago. They were pretty bad.

 

In 2010, Bond was based on a Dutch SOE agent, Peter Tazelaar..

"Revealed: How James Bond was based on a real life MI6 special agent ... white tuxedo and all (except he was Dutch)"

Read more: James Bond based on real life MI6 agent Pieter Tazelaar | Mail Online
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James Bond based on real life MI6 agent Pieter Tazelaar | Mail Online

 

Of equal acclaim was Denis Rake,a survivor of the Lancastria and a leading figure in the clandestine SOE activities in France.

However, I would think Denis was the wrong type of hero to be selected by Fleming to fit the role of Bond.

 

Seems to be a pointless excerise trying to figure out who Fleming based Bond on, if based on anyone. Unless, of course, you have a book to flog. And as I have a website to promote I'll add this to the mix. At least this one was written by one of Fleming's closest friends and colleagues: http://www.psywar.org/delmer/2030/1001

 

Obituary found in a book

 

Wing Commander Forest Frederic Edward Yeo-Thomas – codename ‘The White Rabbit

Queen Court, 24-28 Queen Square, London

The secret agent, Wing Commander Forest Frederic Edward Yeo-Thomas – codename ‘The White Rabbit’ – undertook three missions into occupied France while his London base was at Queens Court, Bloomsbury. The six-storey block of inter-war flats was commemorated with an English Heritage blue plaque in 2010.

 

The White Rabbit:

 

Squadron Leader Leonard Henry TRENT V.C. D.F.C. & Wing Commander Forest Frederick Edward YEO-THOMAS G.C. investiture at Buckingham Palace

The Sketch 3rd April 1946

S/L TRENT V.C. D.F.C. & W/C. YEO-THOMAS G.C. Investiture 1946

 

I was wondering anyone could help. Every year in our local area we do 'liberation walk' which covers about 6kms during which we tell stories of what happened in the area of Lyons-La-Forêt. Known that Frédéric Forêt Yeo Thomas AKA White Rabbit cale through here in 1943 during opération Pomplemouse I thought I would try and track down any relatives to invite them this évent for next year and to other events that may je of interest to them. Is anyone able to help?

Alex.