Combat· World War II
Mission Union
Two OSS missions into the French Alps, seven months apart, both with Peter Ortiz.
Union I dropped by night on January 6, 1944. Three men: a British officer, a French radio operator, and Captain Ortiz. Its job was to assess the maquis in Savoie, Isère, and Drôme and push them toward organized guerrilla work for the invasion. They jumped in civilian clothes carrying their uniforms, then wore them, the first Allied officers to appear in uniform in France since 1940. The team was withdrawn by Lysander in late May. Union II dropped in daylight on August 1, 1944. A heavily armed OSS Operational Group, uniformed from the start, tasked with arming and training the maquis for the invasion of southern France. The Germans knew Ortiz by name and had a price on his head. He went back anyway. The entries below follow that mission from the drop zone to a prison camp on the north German plain.
Engagements in this conflict (4) Podcast episodes on World War II
Record no. 891