THE BUTTERWORTH PROJECT
Clandestine Landing Grounds (LGs) and parachute Drop Zones (DZs)
in France
A mapping and information resource – Google Earth is needed for access.
This resource is the product of many years of research and touring in France by Trevor Butterworth, one of the earliest subscribed Friends of The Secret WW2 Learning Network.
After his National Service in the Royal Corps of Signals, Trevor enjoyed a long career in banking, during which he was closely involved in the move from traditional manual systems to computerised operations, including work on early banking programs. He later witnessed his bank’s transition into National Provincial and its subsequent merger with Westminster to form NatWest. In the years that followed, he managed the department responsible for staff salary payments across the organisation.
Trevor’s work concerning the Special Operations Executive has been sourced from UK National Archives data, mainly provided by Steven Kippax who regularly forwarded digitised copies of relevant files and information on another of Trevor’s specialist areas – Claude and Lise de Baissac.
You will need to have the Google Earth app installed. If you do not already have it, free downloading can be accessed here.
The categories available are:
– SOE F Section agents dropped by parachute.
– Agents landed by Lysander and Hudson aircraft on clandestine Landing Grounds in France controlled by Henri Déricourt (the controversial Air Landings Officer of F Section).
– Agents landed in France on clandestine Landing Grounds in France not controlled by Henri Déricourt.
– Agents landed by Lysander only on clandestine Landing Grounds in France controlled by Henri Déricourt.
– Further notes to Lysander landings controlled by Henri Déricourt.
By clicking on the headings/locations, you will then access extensive notes.
The link: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1Obl2dGFQhz6vW5sEvbr7xGfLAlLq0og&usp=sharing
NB in WW2, there were LGs (Landing Grounds), rather than Landing Zones (LZs). Today the term is TLZ – Tactical Landing Zone
PS Trevor was also the originator of the project to install a SECRET WW2 blue plaque on the former home in Chichester, West Sussex, of Lt-Colonel André Hue DSO, Légion d’honneur, Croix de Guerre. The project took several years to come to fruition, but Trevor unveiled the plaque in July 2023. The location of the plaque can be found here.
The project to create this web page, with its access to Trevor’s mapping and information, had stagnated until Graham Kemp, a Supporter of SECRET WW2, stepped forward to volunteer.
After visiting Trevor, Graham was able to overcome the technological stumbling block and pushed the project over the line.
Graham has retired from the ungentlemanly warfare of corporate life, where he spent over four decades as a Sales Leader for several of the world’s largest technology companies. Fascinated by ordinary people who did extraordinary things during the Second World War, he now devotes much of his time to learning about a hidden world in which individuals chose to risk their lives behind enemy lines — engaging in subversion, sabotage, espionage, and guerrilla warfare.
Although not a research scholar or academic historian, Graham brings curiosity, empathy, and enthusiasm to his work. He does, however, hold a PHD — a Petrol Head Disorder — and can often be found on road trips in his classic Morgan car or on his Triumph motorcycle, visiting the places where significant events took place. By standing where history happened, he seeks to sense the atmosphere, see what others once saw, and better understand the stories that deserve to be remembered.