In 1943 the main intelligence networks had important losses due to the blows given by Gestapo and Abwehr. Because of possible infiltrations and treasons, the staff officers of the General Eisenhower (SHAEF) asked General de Gaulle to put at his disposal a hundred of highly selected French soldiers. Only them would be able to hide and to melt within the population and therefore to be able to inform the Allies in real time about the enemy troop movements just behind the battle zones. The Sussex Plan was born and largely contributed to the success of the Overlord operation, the Allies troop unloading in Normandy.

    Dedicated to military intelligence missions, the Sussex teams were composed of two French officers (1 observer and 1 radio operator). Parachuted in civil clothes, each team had to melt in the anonymity and to look for any type of military information on the movements of the German Army (or its retreat) and the strategic points (weapons storage, fuel, bridges used by German, etc). From February to September 1944, 2 Sussex Pathfinder teams and 52 Sussex teams were dropped into France.

    Among them, two women, Jeannette Guyot and Evelyne Clopet. The Sussex teams lost 10 agents killed in action among them Evelyne Clopet and Jacques Voyet, made Companion de la Liberation (Posthumous).

    Written by Dominique Soulier, son of Georges Soulier who was dropped with the Sussex mission “VIS”, this book based on 3 real mission testimonies, dimensions 23,5 X 27,5 cm and 175 pages, presents more than 300 photographs of people, of new objects and documents relating to the Sussex Plan which magnificently illustrate these precursors of the special services.