
The escape story of S/Sgt. Arthur S. Meyerowitz:
The S/Sgt. Arthur S. Meyerowitz parachuted from 18,000 feet and found himself stuck in a tree, far from his comrades, south of Lesparre-Médoc, and injured his back while trying to free himself. Undeterred, he retrieved his parachute from the branches and concealed it under the foliage. Fearing a nearby bicycle patrol, he fled through the woods towards a small village. During the day, Arthur listened carefully to the lumberjacks at work, hidden in nearby bushes. He spotted a truck transporting workers under German supervision that night and decided to approach a house he had spotted in the distance. Upon reaching a farm, Arthur remained hidden until dawn, then cautiously emerged, chilled to the bone, and limped towards the isolated dwelling. Despite his lack of knowledge of French, Arthur courageously asked the inhabitants for help. Fortunately, the French family had ties to a local resistance group. He was moved between several safe houses to avoid being spotted.
After staying four days at Jean Barbé’s farm, Arthur was picked up by Charlotte Michel, who spoke a little English and whose husband was Martial Michel, a journalist, printer and publisher who ran Le Réveil médocain and L’Action médocaine in Lesparre-Médoc, two newspapers associated with Georges Mandel’s electoral constituency. They lived in a house located at 16 rue du Palais de Justice, a few meters from the Lesparre-Médoc Kommandantur. Charlotte Michel also reported having seen 2nd Lt. William H. Thomas parachute down in the center of the village. Arthur was then handed over to pharmacist Gisèle Chauvin and Dr. Pierre Chauvin in Lesparre-Médoc and was housed at their family home, where he obtained false identity documents identifying him as deaf and mute, thus avoiding having to exchange words in French during checks. Arthur subsequently travelled by bus to Bordeaux with Pierre Dupin (Gisèle Chauvin’s cousin), accompanied by Charlotte Michel and her 16-year-old daughter Christiane. Arthur would remain in Bordeaux for 3 or 4 days. Pierre Dupin, who was part of the Brutus-Boyer escape network, kept his identification tags to prepare for the next stage of his escape. This escape network was a group specializing in helping Allied pilots and aircrews fleeing France for neutral Spain.
After a few days of rest, Arthur was transferred to the commune of Moissac (Tarn-et-Garonne) together with Charlotte Michel and her daughter Christiane. During a German roadblock, he was checked by enemy soldiers but was not troubled thanks to his false papers. During his clandestine existence, he assumed various identities, including that of Georges Lambert from Algiers, a crucial choice since this made identity verification difficult for the German authorities. In Moissac, Arthur stayed at the farm of Jean Garric's family, where he would remain for about ten days and actively participate in the agricultural work.
He was subsequently taken by a man to the village of Beaumont-de-Lomagne (Tarn-et-Garonne) and stayed for two and a half weeks with Mimi Dumas, a member of the Morhange network. There he met a certain Dr Rey and a certain Madame Rigal. While there, Marcel Taillandier, head of the Morhange network, visited him and arranged for his departure to the city of Toulouse. During the three and a half months he spent in Toulouse, at 96 Boulevard Deltour, he stayed with Emile Thoulouse's family. This person had a paint shop near a police station. Emile Thoulouse and his wife were P1 agents of the Morhange network. Arthur was subsequently joined by Flight Lieutenant Richard Frank Wharton Cleaver, a British Royal Air Force pilot, who had also managed to escape capture.
With the help of Marcel Taillandier, Arthur and Richard set off towards Perpignan with their guide André Fontes. From there, they were to undertake a perilous crossing of the icy Pyrenees. Hampered by German troops in the region, they had to hide during the day and travel only at night. They eventually crossed the Pyrenees and remained hidden until the arrival of a guide sent by Taillandier. This was crucial, as neutral Spain was not safe, with German agents often bribing Spanish officials to identify Allied airmen as criminals on the run.
Arthur arrived at the British consulate in Barcelona on June 1, then travelled with Richard and three Belgians through Madrid and Seville before boarding a fishing boat bound for Gibraltar. They arrived there on June 16, 1944 and, after completing the necessary examinations and administrative formalities, Arthur and Richard flew to London. Arthur was repatriated to the United States from Prestwick, Scotland, on July 7, 1944. He spent a year in various military hospitals because of a severe back injury sustained during this terrible ordeal and received the Purple Heart for his injury.

Historique des French Helpers qui ont aidé le S/Sgt Arthur S. Meyerowitz :
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La famille Barbé :
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La famille Michel : Martial Michel est né le 12 août 1920 à Saint-Junien (Haute-Vienne). Il se maria avec Marie Madeleine Charlotte Gerbaud née le 6 septembre 1902 à Macau (Gironde). Martial et Charlotte se marient le 8 septembre 1924 à Macau. De leur union naîtra Christiane Michel, le 1 juin 1925, à Lesparre-Médoc (Gironde). En 1923, le Château Desmirail est vendu aux enchères à Martial Michel, alors industriel textile. Celui-ci prit dans la crise économique des années 1930 vend le vignoble de la propriété parcelles par parcelles. En août 1938, il vend l'essentiel du vignoble du château Desmirail aux propriétaires du château Palmer. Martial devient alors journaliste, imprimeur et éditeur. Martial Michel décède le 20 janvier 1984 à Mérignac (Gironde), Charlotte Michel décède le 11 janvier 1993 à Le Bouscat (Gironde) et Christiane Michel décède le 24 mars 2019 à Alhama de Granada (Espagne).
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La famille Chauvin :
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La famille Dupin : Pierre Gabriel Dupin né le 21 février 1905 à Lormont (Gironde). Il se maria le 11 juin 1940 avec Andrée Fernande Dubourdieu à Talence (Gironde). Pierre Dupin et sa femme Andrée entrent dans la résistance en servant dans le réseau d'évasion Brutus-Boyer. Pierre Dupin est finalement arrêté et déporté. Après un court séjour au camp de Compiègne, il sera transféré dans les camps de concentration de Neuengamme puis de Sachsenhausen. Il décède le 23 septembre 1986 à Bordeaux.
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La famille Garric : Il s'agit peut-être de la famille de Jean Garric né en 1893 et de sa femme Marie Louise née en 1898 qui avaient quatre enfants (Jacqueline née en 1921, Marcelle née en 1923, Jacques né en 1925 et Robert né en 1932).
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Mimi Dumas :
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Emile Thoulouse :
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André Fontes : Il est né le 21 août 1912 à Toulouse (Haute-Garonne).







