FRENCH PATROLS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 October 1941, Page 5

FRENCH PATROLS

MYSTERY MAN AS LEADER STORIES OF REMARKABLE EXPLOITS. NAZIS OFFER BIG REWARD FOR CAPTURE. (Bv Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) LONDON, October 5. A mysterious figure variously called “The Spider” and “The Secretary leads the French revolt. His identity, says the “Sunday Express,” is completely secret. A big reward has been offered for his capture. The French ascribe to him most of the disappearances of German officers and reprisals, like tarring and feathering, against Frenchmen who are over-friendly to Germans. The Spider earned his name by climbing a telegraph pole in the Rue Daubigny, cutting the wires, • and swinging on them to the second story of a house, in which he caught and strangled a German colonel. The Spider has gathered a band of patriots who have foresworn homes and families to liberate France.

They raided a military post at Chantilly racecourse by creeping through the woods at night, knifiing sentries, and creeping on to the camp, where they knifed sleeping Germans and stole arms and ammunition. The Mayor of Taupugnac in unoccupied France handed over a prisoner to the Germans, who took him to Paris and shot him. The Spider’s band kidnapped the mayor, who, a few days later, was found trussed up, dazed and inarticulate at the , entrance of the headquarters' of the German military police in Paris. •