THE GERMANS SENT A FRENCH PILOT TO STEAL A BRITISH AIRCRAFT - BUT MI5 HAD OTHER PLANS.

In May 1943, a young French pilot named Roger Grosjean was offered a rather unusual assignment by German intelligence. He was to make his way to Britain, join the Free French Air Force and send information about Allied aircraft and military activities back to Germany. Eventually, he was expected to steal a British aircraft fitted with modern navigational equipment and fly it into German-controlled territory.

Grosjean was only 22, but his flying career had already been badly disrupted by the war. He had joined the French Air Force in 1939, only to suffer injuries in two separate flying accidents. When the remaining French forces were demobilised in November 1942, he began studying law in Paris. What he really wanted, however, was to return to flying and take part in the fight against Germany.

When the German offer came along, Grosjean accepted it. Evidence suggests that he may have seen the assignment as a way of reaching Britain, rather than genuinely intending to help the Germans. With assistance from German intelligence, he travelled through Spain and Portugal before arriving in Bristol on the 2nd of July 1943.

On the 24th of July, while being processed at the London Reception Centre, Grosjean admitted that he had been recruited by the Germans. British intelligence questioned him about his contacts and mission before offering him the opportunity to work for MI5 instead. He agreed and was given the codename FIDO.

Grosjean joined the Free French Air Force and began sending secret messages to his German contacts under British supervision. The intention was to persuade the Germans that he was carrying out his assignment, while allowing MI5 to pass misleading information and possibly uncover other agents. Unfortunately, establishing reliable communication with his German handlers proved difficult.

There was another problem. Grosjean wanted to fly, but MI5 remained worried that he might attempt to steal an aircraft. In January 1944, he was finally allowed to undertake refresher flying training at RAF Caistor in Lincolnshire, although he remained under close scrutiny.

By May 1944, British intelligence was still uncertain how far it could trust him. With the Allied invasion of France approaching, MI5 wanted him kept away from sensitive operations. Grosjean was subsequently posted to North Africa, where he became a flying instructor.

After the war, he left the Air Force and eventually became a respected archaeologist in Corsica. He died in 1975, without ever telling his children about his wartime work for British intelligence.

It was only many years later that his son, François, began uncovering the story through wartime documents, diaries and his father's papers. The young pilot who had travelled to Britain on a German intelligence mission had spent part of the war secretly working for the British instead.

Image info:

G. Woodbine, RAF official photographer / Imperial War Museums, CH 7471. Public domain.