Thought your readers may be interested in this abbreviated obituary to a man who helped the Maquis during WW2.
Sir Thomas “Tommy” Macpherson, who has died aged 94, was awarded three Military Crosses, three Croix de Guerre (two Palms and Star), and several Papal and Italian medals during the Second World War and led the Maquis in guerrilla operations.
He was recruited by the SOE, promoted major and put through rigorous training at Milton Hall, near Peterborough, before flying on one of the first Jedburgh missions to be parachuted into France.
In June 1944, in an operation code-named “Quinine”, he, a French officer and a radio operator were dropped into the borders of the Lot and Cantal departments to organise and lead Maquis resistance groups. Macpherson, who was wearing his kilt, was, for a time, mistaken for the wife of the French officer.
Within days of their arrival, the “Jeds” led the Maquis in a guerrilla operation against the Das Reich Panzer division, which was moving northwards into the Corrèze. The party demolished a bridge, which delayed the Germans for several hours, and then defended another for six days against enemy attacks.
They organised a raid by the Maquis on the road and railway from Montauban to Brive and, byJuly 1, had eliminated all rail traffic between Cahors and Souillac. Throughout that month, Macpherson organised ambushes on enemy convoys and, as the Allied armies advanced from the south, he co-ordinated large scale guerrilla operations with success.
NG Val says we owe these soldiers everything, we will remember them.
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