Toulouse, France—The article below is authored by Meredith Wheeler, a member of Democrats Abroad France and a member of Democrats Abroad’s Global Veterans and Military Families (VMF) Caucus. The piece discusses the author’s overseas experience of honoring the heroes of America’s lesser-known Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a precursor to today’s Central Intelligence Agency. Like so many others who contributed to an Allied victory in WWII, the OSS were experts in intelligence gathering and collaboration with military units. The author touches on who some of the OSS heroes were, the brave actions they successfully conducted, and why we must never forget them and their sacrifices. Meredith Wheeler is a New York UOCAVA voter, author of outstanding OSS research, and a proud family member to two military veterans.
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The French have a saying: Le devoir de mêmoire--
“The duty to remember.”
Two bloody World Wars took place on French soil, plus the Nazis occupied France for over four years—so there are many trials, wounds, and dead to remember.
In France, homage is duly paid in touching annual ceremonies.
Years ago, French veterans in my départment of the Tarn invited me to carry the American flag in the annual November 11th Armistice Day ceremony. I’m not a veteran, though the daughter of a WW2 veteran and sister of a Vietnam War veteran.
At the time, I was just a rare American citizen conveniently living in the locality. The veterans had read about me in the local paper because of my efforts on behalf of Democrats Abroad and the U.S. Presidential elections underway in the States at the time (Bush vs. Kerry).
The only time I had ever acted as porte drapeau and carried the Stars and Stripes was in Girl Scouts, back in Northfield, Illinois, in the early sixties.
However, I owned a full-sized American flag, a gift from a friend when I moved from New York to London (the start of my European sojourn). It had only been used once—after 9/11—when, in tears, I hung it outside my French home in a gesture of solidarity with my homeland.
An elderly French veteran took that flag and mounted it on a carrying pole, and supplied me with the necessary belt, the requisite white gloves, and even a garrison cap.
Above: Meredith Wheeler holding the U.S. flag. The flag shown above has 48 stars and was carried into France by the OSS team, who parachuted into the Tarn in August 1944.
I was awed on November 11th, when the protocol officer placed the American flag at the front of the parade to the local war memorial in Castres. The respect accorded to the symbol of the United States surprised and touched me.
Since then, I’ve participated in many commemorative ceremonies, including one at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, honoring the OSS contribution to the Liberation of France.
Caption: Arc de Triomphe, Paris, 2019, where the OSS was honored for its contribution to the Liberation of France.
During all such ceremonies, at a certain point, all flags in the honor guard dip to a 45-degree angle, in tribute to the deceased.
This gesture is supercharged with pathos—given the enormous losses France suffered in two World Wars, as well as other conflicts around the world.
While the music at these ceremonies is invariably pre-recorded and usually broadcast on low-quality boomboxes, nonetheless, hearing a tinny version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" on French soil, in these circumstances, is affecting.
This year, France and the rest of Europe have been commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
In my corner of rural southwestern France, there were no great campaigns or huge battles. But back in August 1944, the OSS infiltrated a 15-man team on a secret mission in anticipation of Operation Dragoon--the southern D-Day. Though not widely appreciated or celebrated like the June 6th landings in Normandy, Operation Dragoon was a significant U.S. campaign and a major success.
Over 100,000 American and French troops landed in Provence, having poured onto the beaches near St. Tropez. Southern France was liberated within a month, while the Germans suffered heavy casualties. The American forces were under the command of their outstanding leader, Alexander Patch, who led the effort to drive the Nazis up the Rhone Valley.
Operation Dragoon included the OSS mission in the Tarn, and the key aim was to blow up a strategic rail bridge, preventing Nazi reinforcements from traveling quickly eastward to Provence, to support German troops defending the vital coastline.
Above: Members of the American OSS team code-named PAT at the Liberation Day parade in Castres in August 1944.
The Captain of the OSS team was an explosives expert and well-equipped. With help from the local Resistance fighters, his team accomplished their mission on the very eve of the August 15th landing.
Above: The central arch of the railroad bridge in Pont de Larn was blown up by the OSS team OG PAT on the eve of August 15th, 1944
But two days before, while ambushing a Nazi unit in the hills above Mazamet, two OSS members of the Operational Group code-named “PAT” were shot dead in the firefight.
The victims: Robert Spaur, Technician 5th Grade, 21 years old—the youngest member of the team. Staff Sergeant Bernard Gautier, age 35, was the oldest.
They had parachuted into the region, under cover of darkness, on August 7, 1944, with 13 other men.
During that long, tense flight from their base in Algeria, the OSS men had sung songs to keep their spirits up, according to the unpublished memoir of the second-in-command. They sang Yankee Doodle-- twice. “I’m a Yankee Doodle dandy, Yankee Doodle do or die….”
Five days later, Spaur and Gautier were dead.
French civilians living nearby held a service for them and buried them in a local cemetery.
After the war, their bodies were moved to the American military cemetery at Epinal in northern France. But the French veterans here erected a granite stele honoring those two OSS commandos on the site where they were slain—and at that stele, every year, a solemn ceremony unfolds.
I carried the American flag in those ceremonies for years, but I happily gave up my role to Minnesotan Jon Hedblom, a veteran of the Army Air Corps, who had recently moved here. This past weekend, it was Jon carrying the flag on August 16th, as we marked the 81st anniversary of the OSS mission in the Tarn.
This year, for the first time, at the opening of the ceremony, I asked to read the famous stanza from the poem, For the Fallen, by the British poet Laurence Binyon:
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
We will remember them.
Le devoir de mémoire.
All the men of Operational Group (OG) PAT have passed now.
Some of their family members join us here for the annual remembrance ceremonies.
I was glad they weren’t here this year, as our region has been enduring a terrible heatwave that has scorched much of southern France.
At the end of the afternoon, I sat in my sunbaked car with all the windows wide open, trying to cool it down, before driving home.
Suddenly, while I looked in stunned amazement, a huge, colorful butterfly swooped into the driver-side window and fluttered briefly before me, then moved across the front seat and exited through the open passenger-side window.
I couldn’t help feeling Robert Spaur and Bernard Gautier were passing by, just to say “thank you” for REMEMBERING.
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Meredith Wheeler is a retired journalist and psychotherapist now living in southwestern France with her British husband, Robin Ellis. She was one of the founding members of Democrats Abroad Toulouse and served as its Chair for many years. She also served as Vice Chair of Democrats Abroad France. Meredith was the force behind the Obama Bridge Project in 2008, when American Obama supporters gathered on famous and scenic bridges around the world to show the worldwide enthusiasm for his campaign, documenting them in photos. “Yes, We Span” was the memorable tagline. It was covered by The New York Times and The Washington Post.
She was also the Editor-in-Chief of the 50th Anniversary Album, which documented the history of Democrats Abroad.
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U.S. citizens living abroad, both civilian and military, are highly encouraged to check your voter registration status and request your ballot for any upcoming elections in your home voting state that you are eligible to vote in.
The VMF Caucus, proudly comprised of veterans, military family members, DoD civilians, and strong allies of veterans and military family causes, has approximately 1,400 members located in dozens of countries.
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