Jack Agazarian

Jack Charles Stanmore Agazarian (27 August 1915 – 29 March 1945), code name Marcel, was an agent for the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) organization in France during World War II.

The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in countries occupied by Nazi Germany and other Axis powers.

The Germans had captured the other agent and were trying to lure the deputy leader of SOE's French Section, Nicolas Bodington, to the meeting, but Agazarian attended instead.

He joined the Royal Air Force in 1940 soon after the outbreak of World War II and the SOE's French Section on 30 May 1942 and was trained as a wireless operator.

[1] His younger brother, Noel Agazarian, also joined the Royal Air Force, but as a Spitfire pilot; he went on to be a flying ace in the Battle of Britain before being killed in action on 16 May 1941.

"[7] On 29 December 1942 Agazarian parachuted into France near Étrépagny and made his way to Paris to join the newly created Prosper network headed by Francis Suttill.

Prosper had early and rapid success, setting up or reviving more than 60 resistance networks (or circuits) in northern France and managing and supplying a large number of SOE agents and French operatives.

[9] Competent wireless operators were scarce and Agazarian and Norman were busy transmitting and receiving messages with SOE headquarters in London.

Agazarian accepted the two Dutch men as authentic SOE agents and took on the task of arranging a flight for them to England with Déricourt, the air operations officer.

[13][14] Acting on the information collected by the Dutch infiltrators and other sources, on 23 June the Germans began arresting members of Prosper including Norman, Borrel, and Suttill.

[16] Many decorations have been conferred on less deserving colleagues, and much ink has been expended in efforts to make some of the least worthy of them appear as heroes; while Agazarian's truly heroic conduct has remained, officially, or unofficially, practically unnoticed.

[17] Agazarian returned to France via airplane on the night of 22–23 July 1943 with F Section Deputy Nicolas Bodington in a mission to determine the status of the Prosper network.

Henri Déricourt's role in the destruction of Prosper remains unclear; after the war he was tried as a double agent and admitted contacts with the Germans, but acquitted because of testimony in his favour by his friend Bodington—who has himself been accused of being involved in a mysterious plot by British intelligence to sacrifice SOE agents to distract German attentions from the pending invasions of Italy and Normandy.

[24] He received a posthumous mention in dispatches on 13 June 1946,[25] and was also awarded the Légion d'honneur and Croix de guerre by France.