Peter Pertschuk

Last updated • 1 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

Peter Pertschuk (12 July 1923 – 9 October 1993) was a French Special Operations Executive agent during the Second World War.

Contents

Early life

He was born in Paris on 12 July 1923, the son of Russian Jewish parents Joseph Pertschuk and Ethel Muriel (née Sborowfsky). The family moved to England in 1933 and became naturalised British. He was educated in French at the Lycée Français in Kensington until the family moved back to France in 1939.

World War II

The Pertschuk family fled the German invasion to the unoccupied zone of France to live in Montréjeau in southwestern France. In the summer of 1940 Pertschuk and his older brother, Maurice, left for England where Maurice volunteered for the British Army and was called up by the Royal Sussex Regiment and subsequently joined the Special Operations Executive F section, [1] while Peter joined the Royal Air Force and later also served with the SOE. [1]

Peter served as a radar mechanic in the RAF Voluntary Reserve from December 1941-March 1944, and in April 1944 joined the Special Operations Executive [2] F section, and became a commissioned Pilot Officer in the Special Duties Branch of the RAFVR in July 1944.[ citation needed ]

His brother, Maurice Pertschuk was an SOE agent, organiser of the PRUNUS network in Toulouse until his arrest in April 1943, [3] however Peter Pertschuk was never sent on any SOE operations.[ citation needed ]

Post-war

In 1948 he emigrated to the United States and became a businessman in New York, where he died on 9 October 1993.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its purpose was to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe against the Axis powers, and to aid local resistance movements.

Colonel Maurice James Buckmaster was the leader of the French section of Special Operations Executive and was awarded the Croix de Guerre.

Gustave Biéler DSO MBE CdeG was a Canadian Special Operations Executive agent during World War II.

Fresnes Prison

Fresnes Prison is the second largest prison in France, located in the town of Fresnes, Val-de-Marne South of Paris. It comprises a large men's prison of about 1200 cells, a smaller one for women and a penitentiary hospital.

Georges Bégué English/French espionage agent (1911–1993)

Georges Pierre André Bégué, code named Bombproof, was a French engineer and agent of the United Kingdom's clandestine organization, the Special Operations Executive (SOE). The purpose of SOE in France, occupied by Nazi Germany in World War II, was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance. SOE agents allied themselves with French Resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England.

Eliane Plewman British SOE espionage agent

Éliane Sophie Plewman was a British agent of Special Operations Executive (SOE) and member of the French Resistance working in the "MONK circuit" in occupied France during World War II. She was involved in a number of highly successful sabotage missions but was arrested and tortured by the Gestapo, and later executed by the SS at Dachau Concentration Camp.

Jacqueline Nearne MBE was a secret agent for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) in Nazi-occupied France during World War II.

During the Second World War, Nicolas Redner Bodington OBE served in the F section of the Special Operations Executive. He took part in four missions to France.

Isidore Newman MBE CdeG MdeR was a British secret agent in the French section of the Special Operations Executive during the Second World War.

Harry Peulevé British espionage agent

Harry Peulevé LdH CdeG MdeR DSO MC was a Special Operations Executive agent who undertook two missions in occupied France and escaped from Buchenwald concentration camp.

Jacques Vaillant de Guélis

Major Jacques Theodore Paul Marie Vaillant de Guélis was a Welsh-born French Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent during the Second World War. de Guélis was initially in the British Expeditionary Force in France in 1940 and later joined SOE and parachuted into France to organise resistance networks. He was badly injured in a motor accident in August 1945 and later died of his injuries in hospital. He is buried in his home town of Cardiff.

Marcel Clech French espionage agent

Marcel Clech was a French agent in the French section of the Special Operations Executive during the Second World War. He worked as a wireless operator in two different networks before his arrest, and was executed at Mauthausen Concentration Camp.

Roger Bardet was a member of the French resistance organisation known as CARTE, based in Cannes, organised by André Girard. He was betrayed by a fellow agent and became a double agent.

Ted Coppin MBE CdG was a British agent of the Special Operations Executive during the Second World War.

Maurice Pertschuk MBE, LdH, CdeG was a French Special Operations Executive agent during the Second World War.

Baron Philippe de Gunzbourg LdH CdG MBE (1904–1986) was a French aristocrat who became a Special Operations Executive agent during the Second World War.

Marcus Reginald Bloom was a British Special Operations Executive agent during the Second World War.

Georges Duboudin (1907–1945) was a French Special Operations Executive agent during the Second World War.

Odette Victoria Wilen was a member of the UK's Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II. She served in occupied France under the code name "Sophie".

References