Radio London
As early as 1940, the BBC (Radio London) transmitted a daily series of coded messages to allow the Allies based in England to communicate with the Resistance in France, to ask them to plot various sabotages and, most importantly, to prepare for the upcoming landing in Normandy. A few days before D-Day, the commanding officers of the Resistance heard hundreds of messages, but only a few of them were really significant. When said twice, the first line of the poem by Verlaine, Chanson d'Automne, "Les sanglots longs des violons de l'automne" meant that the "day" was imminent, and when the second line "blesse mon coeur d'une langueur monotone" was also repeated, the Resistance knew that the invasion would take place within the next 48 hours. Messages such as: "Il fait chaud à Suez" (It's hot in Suez), "Les dés sont sur le tapis" (The dice are on the mat), "Le chapeau de Napoléon est dans l'arène" (Napoleon's hat is in the arena), "John aime Marie" (John loves Marie), "La Guerre de Troie n'aura pas lieu" (The Trojan War will not take place) or "La Flèche ne passera pas" (the Arrow will not get through), all told the members of the Resistance it was time to go about their respective missions, which included destroying water towers or entire communication networks, or dynamiting selected roadways.
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During the Allied invasion of Normandy, the Maquis (French resistance fighters) and other groups played some role in delaying the German mobilization. The French Resistance (FFI "Force Francaises de l'Interieur" or "French Interior Forces") blew up railroad tracks and repeatedly attacked German Army equipment and garrison trains on their way to the Atlantic coast. Thanks to coded messages transmitted over the BBC radio, each Maquis group was alerted of the impending D-Day by listening for seemingly meaningless messages such as "the crow will sing three times in the morning" or any other pre-arranged messages read in a continuous flow over the British airwaves.
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...For months preceding the Allied attack on Normandy, the high command of the French Underground had been receiving scores of coded messages over the BBC radio network, knowing that only two of these would be the signal that would launch the greatest military assault in history.
The majority of them, of course, meant nothing, planned that way to keep the German army guessing as to the precise date and time the invasion might come.
"Napoleon’s hat is in the ring," "John loves Mary," "The arrow will not pass," "The Trojan War will not be held," "John has a long mustache," were just a few of the hundreds of cryptic sayings the British had broadcast at random and that had been listened to by thousands on short-wave radio sets.
Then at 6:30 p.m. on the eve of attack, the two messages the French had been waiting for were transmitted : "It is hot in Suez," followed by "The dice are on the table." The D-Day everyone remembers today was about to begin...
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Lest We Forget, They Were War's Victims; On the Eve of D-Day
Published: May 29, 1994
To the Editor:
One of the more mysterious and romantic aspects of World War II were the nighttime transmissions by the BBC in London to French Resistance forces on the Continent, cryptic messages informing the partisans of German troop movements or where downed Allied aviators were.
Perhaps the most dramatic message came on June 5, 1944. Repeated over and over by Pierre Holmes (as your Dec. 18, 1993, obituary reports) was a line from a Paul Verlaine poem: "Long violin sobs rock my heart in monotonous languish"
It was the signal that the D-Day invasion was about to occur. The great English-speaking armies -- American, British and Canadian -- were going to rise up to cross the Channel and put to an end the unspeakable evil that was the Third Reich. CHRISTOPHER D. BODKIN Councilman Islip, L.I., May 19, 1994
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Pierre Holmes, 81; Broadcast Messages For the Resistance
December 18, 1993, Saturday
(AP); Obituary
Pierre Holmes, whose voice on the BBC in World War II passed coded messages to the Resistance and served as a beacon of hope for the French under Nazi occupation, died on Dec. 7 in the village of L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. He was 81.
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