extension to their organisation – the development of a group of agents in the Valenciennes section of occupied France. Here an old Allied service had functioned in the earlier stages of the war, in 1915, but had lost contact with Holland. It was now resuscitated, and was able to send us train-watching and promeneur reports of the greatest value during the last stages of the war.
The final development in the Dame Blanche service was an attempt at establishing telephone connection with us in Holland.But for the Armistice, this would have been achieved; it would have been a crowning triumph added to the already brilliant successes of this magnificent organisation. One of the chiefs, a professor of physics at one of the Belgian universities, knew, from his familiarity with electricity, that if the earth is used as a return circuit in a field telephone installation, messages could be intercepted by another similar installation, with its connecting wire running parallel to that of the first. He had also discovered that in the Maastricht sector of the Belgian–Dutch border there was a spot on the river separating the two countries where, because of the water, there was very little surveillance; 100 yards of wire could have been run underground between two cottages on the Belgian side; and on the Dutch side opposite there was a big estate owned by a man who was very pro-Belgian, and who was willing to allow the second line and set of apparatus to be installed there, with prying eyes kept away from it.
I knew the installation would work, for we had intercepted German messages in this way at the Front, when the distance between our trenches and those of the Germans was much greater than the distance between the proposed two wires. Furthermore, our lines would be parallel, an ideal arrangement for interception. No time was lost in developing this scheme, and telephone apparatus had already been dispatched to us from London, when the Armistice brought an end to hostilities.
No account I can give can render adequate justice to the splendid achievements of La Dame Blanche . They were undoubtedly the finest espionage organisation created in the occupied territory. The information they sent us was of priceless value to the Allies; again and again telegrams of congratulation from GHQbore this out. Prior to the big German offensive, which broke in March 1918, their train-watching posts, over fifty in number, gave all the troop movements through all the junctions in Belgium, and through many in occupied France. Their promeneurs , especially those of Fabry in the Avesnes area, signalled the massing of troops in their neighbourhood – proof positive, to my mind at least, as I identified division after division, detraining there, and marching there from other sectors, that it was from this sector that the big German offensive was to be launched.
La Dame Blanche owed its success, first of all, to the genius of its two leaders, a professor and an engineer; secondly, to the discipline which it was able to secure through its militarisation; and finally to the splendid calibre and intelligence of its agents drawn from the Belgian intelligentsia. After the Armistice, the two chiefs, Dewé and Chauvin, were decorated with the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire), military division, and the remaining 1,000-odd agents received lesser awards from the British government.
I cannot close this chapter without some reference to Dieudonne Lambrecht, hero and martyr, whose organisation in the early months of the war was the nucleus around which grew La Dame Blanche , or the ‘White Lady’.
On a hill-side which dominates the city of Liège, lies the suburb of Thier-à-Liège. Here in one of those small brick houses with low, violet-tinted, slate roof, and diminutive garden, so typical of the area, Dieudonne Lambrecht was born on 4 May 1882 and grew to manhood.
For a few years he worked in one of the Belgian administrations, but his ardent
The final development in the Dame Blanche service was an attempt at establishing telephone connection with us in Holland.But for the Armistice, this would have been achieved; it would have been a crowning triumph added to the already brilliant successes of this magnificent organisation. One of the chiefs, a professor of physics at one of the Belgian universities, knew, from his familiarity with electricity, that if the earth is used as a return circuit in a field telephone installation, messages could be intercepted by another similar installation, with its connecting wire running parallel to that of the first. He had also discovered that in the Maastricht sector of the Belgian–Dutch border there was a spot on the river separating the two countries where, because of the water, there was very little surveillance; 100 yards of wire could have been run underground between two cottages on the Belgian side; and on the Dutch side opposite there was a big estate owned by a man who was very pro-Belgian, and who was willing to allow the second line and set of apparatus to be installed there, with prying eyes kept away from it.
I knew the installation would work, for we had intercepted German messages in this way at the Front, when the distance between our trenches and those of the Germans was much greater than the distance between the proposed two wires. Furthermore, our lines would be parallel, an ideal arrangement for interception. No time was lost in developing this scheme, and telephone apparatus had already been dispatched to us from London, when the Armistice brought an end to hostilities.
No account I can give can render adequate justice to the splendid achievements of La Dame Blanche . They were undoubtedly the finest espionage organisation created in the occupied territory. The information they sent us was of priceless value to the Allies; again and again telegrams of congratulation from GHQbore this out. Prior to the big German offensive, which broke in March 1918, their train-watching posts, over fifty in number, gave all the troop movements through all the junctions in Belgium, and through many in occupied France. Their promeneurs , especially those of Fabry in the Avesnes area, signalled the massing of troops in their neighbourhood – proof positive, to my mind at least, as I identified division after division, detraining there, and marching there from other sectors, that it was from this sector that the big German offensive was to be launched.
La Dame Blanche owed its success, first of all, to the genius of its two leaders, a professor and an engineer; secondly, to the discipline which it was able to secure through its militarisation; and finally to the splendid calibre and intelligence of its agents drawn from the Belgian intelligentsia. After the Armistice, the two chiefs, Dewé and Chauvin, were decorated with the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire), military division, and the remaining 1,000-odd agents received lesser awards from the British government.
I cannot close this chapter without some reference to Dieudonne Lambrecht, hero and martyr, whose organisation in the early months of the war was the nucleus around which grew La Dame Blanche , or the ‘White Lady’.
On a hill-side which dominates the city of Liège, lies the suburb of Thier-à-Liège. Here in one of those small brick houses with low, violet-tinted, slate roof, and diminutive garden, so typical of the area, Dieudonne Lambrecht was born on 4 May 1882 and grew to manhood.
For a few years he worked in one of the Belgian administrations, but his ardent
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