Michael Trotobas
(1914-1943)

Died aged c. 29

Michael Alfred Raymond Trotobas (20 May 1914 – 27 November 1943), code named Sylvestre and known in France as Capitaine Michel, was an agent of the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) organization during World War II in France. The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in countries occupied by the Axis powers, especially Nazi Germany. SOE agents allied themselves with resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England. Trotobas's first mission to France in September 1941 ended with his arrest by Vichy police and imprisonment for several months until he and other SOE agents escaped in July 1942. On his second mission from November 1942 until November 1943, he created, organised, and led the Farmer network (or circuit), sometimes called the Sylvestre-Farmer network, based in Lille. He led many successful sabotage operations before being betrayed by a member of his network and killed in a gun battle with the German military police. Typically, SOE agents worked with local resistance leaders, assisting and influencing them but not directly commanding resistance groups and fighters. However, "Capitaine Michel" was both the creator and the commander of the Farmer network, "an accomplished organiser, an audacious saboteur, and an inspirational leader". He headed a "powerful circuit of more than 800 resisters of the German occupation, with an escape line, an intelligence gathering service, and numerous parachute reception grounds."

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