Franck Bauer, voice of French wartime resistance dies

French radio broadcaster Franck Bauer, who transmitted coded messages to the resistance networks in France for the BBC French Service during World War 2, has died aged 99

Days after Frances’s defeat, Bauer crossed France on a bicycle to reach Bordeaux before boarding a Polish ship bound for England.

Soon after arriving he enlisted with the Free French and was sent to France to carry out a number of clandestine operations.

Invited to join Radio Londres in 1941, Bauer broadcast coded messages to the resistance during the war.

"John has a long moustache"

Confusing and heavily jammed messages*, such as “The elephant broke a tusk”, “Clementine can pick her teeth now” or “Aunt Amélie wears shorts to ride her bike”, were intended to give instructions to the resistance. Many others were broadcast simply to confuse Nazi and Vichy counterintelligence.

Radio Londres, like other language services broadcast from the BBC to Europe, played an important role during the war, keeping populations in occupied and Axis countries informed, and counteracting Nazi and collaborationist propaganda. People knew they were hearing the truth on the BBC.

Giving hope by telling the truth

On 1 February 1942 Voice of America (VOA) went on air for the first time, telling listeners: “The news may be good or bad, we shall tell you the truth”. VOA and BBC broadcasts helped keep the peoples of Europe informed, give them hope and highlighted the power of radio and of unvarnished truth at times of conflict.

Franck Bauer was one of those outstanding individuals who played a part in this very significant undertaking.

* Audio clips of coded messages, courtesy of “Les dossiers de doctsf”