France Antelme Major Joseph Antoine France Antelme OBE ( born 12 March 1900 – died 1944 ) was one of 14 Franco - Mauritians who served in the Special Operations Executive ( SOE ) , a World War II British secret service that sent spies , saboteurs and guerrilla fighters into enemy - occupied territory . After spying in Vichy - held Madagascar ahead of the allied landings there in May 1942 , Antelme joined the SOE F ( France ) section in England . He undertook two missions in occupied France . On this third mission , on 29 February 1944 , he parachuted into a Gestapo reception committee and was captured . He was murdered , with 18 other captured SOE officers , at the Gross - Rosen concentration camp in Lower Silesia in July or August 1944 . Todd mission . Antelme was recruited by the SOE in November 1941 in Durban , South Africa where he was serving with the South African artillery . He formed part of the Todd mission , led by Lt . Col . J . E . S . Todd , whose task it was to gather intelligence on Madagascar and to try to win political leaders to the allied cause ahead of the British landing at Diego Suarez , Operation Ironclad , on 5 May 1942 . Antelme was landed by boat near Majunga ( Mahajanga ) , Madagascar on February 8 , 1942 and brought back political and military intelligence from the island , where he had many contacts . After serving at the Todd mission ' s operational headquarters in Dar es Salaam , Antelme was sent to England where he joined the SOE F section on 1 July 1942 . He underwent training at Beaulieu and at Arisaig , Scotland . Missions to France . On his first mission to France , from November 1942 to March 1943 , Antelme established contacts with political circles and leading French civil servants with a view to supplying the allied expeditionary forces with food and currency . He was back in France in May that year , carrying messages from the British prime minister , Winston Churchill to former French prime ministers Édouard Herriot and Paul Reynaud , inviting them to come to England . The mission started well with the demolition of the locomotive turntables at Le Mans . But when his fellow SOE officer and associate , Francis Suttill , was arrested on 23 June and his PROSPER circuit destroyed , Antelme was on the run . He managed to evade the Gestapo for a month , getting out by Lysander aircraft on 20 July . He had failed to meet Herriot and Reynaud , but he learned that they were willing , though unable , to act . They were too well guarded for their extraction to be feasible . He nevertheless took back with him a valuable recruit — the well connected international lawyer , Maître W . J . Savy . ( Savy later returned to France and provided the intelligence that led to the destruction by the Allies of 2 , 000 V1 rockets . ) While Antelme was in France , Noor Inayat Khan landed on 17 June 1943 as wireless operator to the PHONO circuit that he had set up . Antelme put Emile Garry in charge as sub - organiser for Francis Suttill ' s PROSPER circuit . Shortly after she arrived , PROSPER was betrayed and the Germans seized Suttill and his friends . Inayat Khan evaded capture , sending more than 20 messages on the run until she was betrayed by Garry ' s sister four months later and arrested in her apartment . Garry was captured shortly afterwards . Betrayal , capture and death . The seizure of Inayat Khan ' s wireless set and code - books enabled the Germans to play back false messages to London . Despite the growing certainty that the PHONO circuit was in German hands , Major Antelme volunteered to be dropped to a PHONO reception committee . He , his radio - operator , Captain Lionel Lee , and courier Madeleine Damerment — three of the SOE ' s best agents — took off from RAF Tempsford airfield in Bedfordshire late on 28 February 1944 . Early the following morning , they parachuted into a field near the village of Saintville , some 50 km east of Chartres . The Gestapo was waiting for them . Reportedly in a towering rage , Antelme was taken to Gestapo headquarters at 84 Avenue Foch in Paris and reportedly would not talk even under torture . Antelme was one of 18 SOE agents who were parachuted directly into enemy hands . Eleven of them , including Antelme , were dropped in February and March 1944 — despite strong evidence that the Germans had gained control of the SOE circuits with whom the drops were arranged . Three weeks earlier another SOE team , consisting of Capt . J . P . H . Ledoux , Capt . F . A . Deniset , Lt . R . E . J . Alexandre , a Canadian arms instructor for Garry ' s circuit , and the Canadian radio operator , Lt . R . B . Byerly , had also been dropped to a German controlled PHONO reception . Shortly afterwards transmissions were received from Bylery ' s set , but they failed to contain the special messages that confirmed their authenticity . The men of both teams died at Gross - Rosen concentration camp . Madeleine Damerment was shot at the Dachau concentration camp on 13 September 1944 with fellow SOE agents Inayat Khan , Yolande Beekman and Eliane Plewman . Early life . France Antelme was born on 12 March 1900 in Curepipe , Mauritius , to an influential family of planters and politicians . After attending the Royal College , Curepipe , he embarked on a career as broker and trader , travelling extensively between Mauritius , Réunion , Madagascar and South Africa . In 1932 , he settled in Durban as Madagascar ' s trade representative in South Africa . The following year he married Doris O ' Toole . He is survived by his two sons , Michel and Gaston who currently reside in South Africa . Memorials and decorations . France Antelme is commemorated on the roll of honour of the Valençay SOE Memorial in France , on the Brookwood Memorial in Surrey , England , on the Cenotaph in Durban , South Africa and on a memorial at Gross - Rosen to the SOE officers who died there . His decorations include a military OBE , the " Croix de guerre avec Palme " and the " chevalier de la Légion d ' honneur " .