La guerre secrète des agents parachutistes belges, 1940-1945

Conference-debate (in French) with guests
Marie Marchand, Jean-Claude Maréchal, and Peter Verstraeten
A discussion chaired by Fabrice Maerten

Could it be that one of the most daring chapters of World War II remains, for the most part, unknown?
For its first Public History Meeting of the year, the CegeSoma and the non-profit organisation Friends of the CegeSoma are pleased to invite you to the presentation of the book: La guerre secrète des agents parachutistes belges, 1940-1945 by Marie Marchand, Jean-Claude Maréchal and Peter Verstraeten.

Commissioned by the British, Belgian, and American secret services operating from London, 333 Belgian agents (or people working for the Belgian services) were parachuted into or infiltrated across the continent from June 1940 to May 1945  (and, in the case of a few missions, even later). Their objectives were to gather intelligence; circulate propaganda; carry out acts of sabotage; liaise between local resistance organisations and the Allies; facilitate the escape of airmen and resistance fighters to the United Kingdom; and provide financial and material support to resistance organisations and those fleeing forced labour in Germany. Their actions informed Allied strategy and contributed significantly to the liberation of Europe.

The fruit of in-depth research conducted in Belgian, British, American and German archives, this book is based, in particular, on the analysis of hundreds of personnel files held at the British National Archives (Kew, London), the Belgian National Archives, and the Belgian Military Archives in Evere, as well as. the mention the rich collections of the SOE and the Belgian State Security Service held at the CegeSoma. Once collected and organised, data from these files can be used to reconstruct each agent's background and profession, their escape from Belgium, their connection to the services, their training in Great Britain, their mission(s) and their subsequent fate.

The book is divided into two main sections. The first covers the context and structures, namely the British and Belgian services and how they worked together; agent training; risks from German law enforcement; the role of escape networks; special ops; and even services set up after the Liberation. Part two discusses the missions carried out in a chronological order, placing them in the broader context of the war, major international events, and the actions of the Belgian government in exile in London.

We invite you to discover this exceptional work on Wednesday, 25 March 2026 at the CegeSoma during an interview led by Fabrice Maerten. He will discuss with the authors the behind-the-scenes aspects of their investigation, the itineraries of the agents, and the historic issues revealed by this extraordinary work. Both an homage to these Belgian resistance fighters and an essential reference work, La guerre secrète des agents parachutistes belges sheds new light on the resistance in Belgium and the secret war waged from London.

Marie Marchand is a retired internal medicine physician. In 2015, she joined the Fraternelle des Agents Parachutistes, of which her father, Georges Marchand (1911–1990), was a member.
Since 2017, she has been working with Jean-Claude Maréchal and Peter Verstraeten researching the history of these special agents.

Jean-Claude Maréchal is the godson of Charles Hoyez, who parachuted from London in March 1944 to join the leader of the Secret Army, but who disappeared in Germany a year later. After studying Germanic philology at the University of Liège, he worked as a teacher, then as a translator for the European Communities, and finally as an attaché in economic affairs.
He is the author of the biography Charles Hoyez: Un Agent parachutiste dans l’Histoire (EME 2016).

An industrial engineer, Peter Verstraeten has been interested in the history of parachute agents and escape networks for the past twenty years.
He has contributed to a dozen publications on the subject. He is a member of the board of directors of the Fraternelle des Agents parachutistes.

Fabrice Maerten is a doctor of history from UCLouvain who devotes most of his research to the history of the Resistance in Belgium during World War II.
In charge of guiding the public through the CegeSoma collections, he coordinates the online platform ‘Resistance in Belgium’ and is the author of Papy était-il un héros ? Sur les traces des hommes et des femmes dans la Résistance pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale (2020).