Allied troops wade ashore during the D Day landings on June 6
CHAPTE UNDER COVER AND UNDER FIRE It was the spring of 1944 and the German army controlled France The Allied forces were planning what would become the D Day invasion of Normandy France for June of that year One of the keys to their success would be accurate intelligence about the Germans The Allies wanted to know about the Germans weapons their troop positions and anything else that would help prepare for a successful invasion René Joyeuse who was born in Switzerland worked as a spy for the Allies That spring the Office of Strategic Services OSS a US intelligence organization secretly sent Joyeuse to France He parachuted into France and lived in an abandoned farmhouse where he could begin to observe and report back to the Allies on German activities With the help of the French Resistance a group
of civilians who secretly gathered intelligence about the Germans and sabotaged their activities whenever possible Joyeuse obtained information about a German oil refinery and an underground factory that was producing V 1 flying bombs As a result of Joyeuse's information both of these facilities were bombed before D Day making it more difficult for the Germans to provide fuel and weapons t their troops D DAY D Day originally code named Operation Overlord was the largest amphibious military operation in history It was a risky operation carefully planned over many months by the Allied commanders Taking place on June 6 1944 it involved hundreds of thousands of Allied troops invading Normandy France either by landing on the beaches or by parachuting in from the air D Day resulted in the loss of thousands of Allied and German troops but it turned the tide of the war and helped the Allies defeat the Axis powers SURROUNDED However as Joyeuse was transmitting t locations of these German facilities to the Allies via radio he was cut off A powerful flashlight beam swept suddenly through the room The Gestapo the German secret police had found Joyeuse and surrounded he farmhouse Joyeuse told the Resistance fighters with him they all needed to get out quickly He had just picked up his gun from the table when four German hand grenades came through the window The blast threw him to the ground Joyeuse described his experience We dashed into the alley and reached a small service staircase in the back of the house We succeeded in leaving the house at the moment that the Germans entered through the garden
LI Members of the French Resistance wave as Allied troops enter the village of Cuillebeuf France in 1944 Joyeuse ran for a wall that separated the farm from a neighboring park but he was unable to climb it He told the Resistance fighters to escape on their own and he never saw them again Joyeuse continued fleeing as the Germans guided by the light of flaming torches shot at him with machine guns and rifles He
