During the last world war, David Birkin, the father of Jane Birkin, who was a gunboat lieutenant, managed to exfiltrate from France to England 135 Canadian, American and English airmen who had fallen in occupied territory.
To achieve this extraordinary feat, David Birkin came close to death a hundred times.
The incredible operation took place within the framework of the Shelburne network, an underground network created by two Quebecers: Lucien Dumais and Raymond Labrosse.
In her foreword, which she was kind enough to write for my book on the Shelburne network, Jane Birkin expressed the wish to see the exploits of her father and his assistant, Guy Hamilton – who became a James Bond director after the war – to be the subject of a feature film.
“The French resistance fighters kept the airmen in their attics. They hid them for days, months, fed them, dressed them, occupied them without arousing the suspicions of the neighbors while waiting for my father to arrive. »
“For years and years, I hoped that this extraordinary adventure would end up being the subject of a film, but, to my great regret, my dream never came true,” Jane told me. last time I saw her in Paris.
The Shelburne Network
The Archipelago
272 pages