cottage, right on the railway line, was admirably situated for watching the troop trains as they passed by, night and day; and here, the dream of the Allied secret services was at last realised. Aided by his wife, and his two little sisters, aged fourteen and thirteen years, Dominique mounted a train-watching post on the Hirson–Mézières line.
Everyone in this humble household did their share of watching. By day it was the two small girls, who, through a narrow slit in the heavily curtained windows, scrutinised the trains as they went by; at night it was Dominique and his wife. The composition of the trains was jotted down in terms of comestibles: beans for soldiers, chicory for horses, coffee for guns, and so on. The reports, in readiness for the courier, were hidden in the hollow handle of a kitchen broom, which was left innocently in its place in the corner. On 23 September, the Fourmies post, No. 201 in the service, started working, and from then on until the Armistice, not a single troop train was missed on this the most important railway artery behind the German front.
Pierre continued the difficult task of recruiting agents. The danger he ran can only be estimated by one who has been in the service. Even after narrowing down his list to the chosenfew whom he considered capable and trustworthy, there always remained the risk of refusal, and the fear, not so much of betrayal, but of gossip reaching the ears of one of the many German stoolpigeons to be found in every village.
At Glageon, mid-way between Trélon and Fourmies, Pierre recruited his next agent, Crésillon, an employee at a sawmill forcibly kept in operation by the Germans. Adjoining the sawmill was a German engineer park, where ladders to place over barbed-wire entanglements, trench floor-boards, mines to be used against tanks, and all kinds of trench material were manufactured. At this park there was a continual coming and going of detachments, sent by their divisions to fetch supplies; and here it was that Crésillon kept watch. To his competent eye, the noting of regimental numbers, and the gleaning of military information became a routine performance; he was one of the principal members of the Hirson Platoon, who, later on in February 1918, sent us that sure indication that it was from the sector opposite this area that the Germans were to launch their great March offensive.
In addition to this valuable work, Crésillon also undertook the duties of ‘letter box’, and courier. The reports from Fourmies, Avesnes, and other areas were deposited at his house, and from here, regularly twice a week, he carried them half-way to Trélon to hand them over to Pierre. From Pierre, as we have already seen, Moreau carried them over the frontier to Gobeaux in Macon. Fearing that his constant meetings with Pierre, which generally took place during the luncheon hour, would attract attention, he eventually handed over his courier duties to his wife. In her profession as midwife, she had an excuse to travel. The Germansnever suspected, as she hurried out on her frequent calls, that the delivery of deadly spy reports, cunningly wrapped around the whale-bones of her corset, was her special vocation.
In the face of danger, illness, rain, and snow, the service went on night and day without a break. It was the couriers who had the most dangerous and the most arduous work. None showed a finer devotion to the patriotic cause they served than Eglantine Lefèvre. On the many occasions the Kaiser took up his quarters at the Château de Merode, near Trélon, and all the roads were ferociously guarded, and not even Crésillon’s wife could circulate, it was Eglantine Lefèvre who carried the reports through at night by way of the fields and the woods. Her name is written down in the annals of the Hirson Platoon as having sacrificed her life in the execution of her duties. Stricken at the time of the Spanish influenza epidemic, she insisted on carrying the reports through to
Everyone in this humble household did their share of watching. By day it was the two small girls, who, through a narrow slit in the heavily curtained windows, scrutinised the trains as they went by; at night it was Dominique and his wife. The composition of the trains was jotted down in terms of comestibles: beans for soldiers, chicory for horses, coffee for guns, and so on. The reports, in readiness for the courier, were hidden in the hollow handle of a kitchen broom, which was left innocently in its place in the corner. On 23 September, the Fourmies post, No. 201 in the service, started working, and from then on until the Armistice, not a single troop train was missed on this the most important railway artery behind the German front.
Pierre continued the difficult task of recruiting agents. The danger he ran can only be estimated by one who has been in the service. Even after narrowing down his list to the chosenfew whom he considered capable and trustworthy, there always remained the risk of refusal, and the fear, not so much of betrayal, but of gossip reaching the ears of one of the many German stoolpigeons to be found in every village.
At Glageon, mid-way between Trélon and Fourmies, Pierre recruited his next agent, Crésillon, an employee at a sawmill forcibly kept in operation by the Germans. Adjoining the sawmill was a German engineer park, where ladders to place over barbed-wire entanglements, trench floor-boards, mines to be used against tanks, and all kinds of trench material were manufactured. At this park there was a continual coming and going of detachments, sent by their divisions to fetch supplies; and here it was that Crésillon kept watch. To his competent eye, the noting of regimental numbers, and the gleaning of military information became a routine performance; he was one of the principal members of the Hirson Platoon, who, later on in February 1918, sent us that sure indication that it was from the sector opposite this area that the Germans were to launch their great March offensive.
In addition to this valuable work, Crésillon also undertook the duties of ‘letter box’, and courier. The reports from Fourmies, Avesnes, and other areas were deposited at his house, and from here, regularly twice a week, he carried them half-way to Trélon to hand them over to Pierre. From Pierre, as we have already seen, Moreau carried them over the frontier to Gobeaux in Macon. Fearing that his constant meetings with Pierre, which generally took place during the luncheon hour, would attract attention, he eventually handed over his courier duties to his wife. In her profession as midwife, she had an excuse to travel. The Germansnever suspected, as she hurried out on her frequent calls, that the delivery of deadly spy reports, cunningly wrapped around the whale-bones of her corset, was her special vocation.
In the face of danger, illness, rain, and snow, the service went on night and day without a break. It was the couriers who had the most dangerous and the most arduous work. None showed a finer devotion to the patriotic cause they served than Eglantine Lefèvre. On the many occasions the Kaiser took up his quarters at the Château de Merode, near Trélon, and all the roads were ferociously guarded, and not even Crésillon’s wife could circulate, it was Eglantine Lefèvre who carried the reports through at night by way of the fields and the woods. Her name is written down in the annals of the Hirson Platoon as having sacrificed her life in the execution of her duties. Stricken at the time of the Spanish influenza epidemic, she insisted on carrying the reports through to
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