The Giles Project: Unearthing the Hidden Headquarters of the French Resistance

A Battlefield Hidden in Plain Sight

Across the rolling countryside of Normandy, history often reveals itself quietly. Not in grand monuments or preserved battlefields, but in forgotten farmhouses, weathered timbers, and crumbling stone structures that have stood silently for generations. Beneath layers of time, these places still carry the stories of those who risked everything in the fight for freedom.

For the Three Forks® team, one such story led to a remarkable discovery: the hidden wartime headquarters of OSS Jedburgh Team Giles and the French Resistance fighters who helped liberate France during the summer of 1944. What began as historical research became a journey into one of the most dangerous and courageous chapters of World War II.

Project Specifications

Project Name: The Giles Project

Location: Normandy, France

Historical Significance: Headquarters of OSS Jedburgh Team Giles and local French Resistance (Maquis) forces, July 1944Primary Materials Recovered:

• Hand-hewn beam: 12" x 12" x 21'

• Hand-hewn beam: 12" x 12" x 17'

• Potential reclaimed mantel from original headquarters fireplace

• Approximately 8 beams measuring 10" x 10" x 18'

• More than 40 reclaimed planks measuring 6" x 1" x 8'

The Men Behind Team Giles

The story begins with three extraordinary Allied operatives. American Captain Bernard Knox was born in England, studied languages at Cambridge, fought in the Spanish Civil War, fell in love with an American in Paris, emigrated to Connecticut, became a naturalized U.S. citizen, joined the Army after Pearl Harbor, volunteered for the Office of Strategic Services, and was selected to command a Jedburgh Team—all before the age of twenty-nine.

French Captain Paul Grall had already endured years of hardship. Captured while serving in the French Colonial Army in 1940, he spent years as a prisoner of war in Poland before escaping, reaching Morocco, and rejoining Allied forces in North Africa. He too volunteered for the OSS mission.

British Sergeant Gordon Tack served as the team's expert radio operator, maintaining communications with Allied command through the highly specialized encrypted Jed Set radio system. Together, these three men formed OSS Jedburgh Team Giles.

Behind Enemy Lines

On July 8, 1944, Team Giles became the seventh Jedburgh Team deployed into occupied France.

Parachuting from a B-24 Liberator into enemy territory, the team linked up with local French Resistance fighters known as the Maquis. Their mission was simple in concept but extraordinarily dangerous in execution: organize, train, equip, fund, and direct resistance operations against German forces ahead of the advancing Allied armies.

The Maquis welcomed the Allied operatives with overwhelming enthusiasm, quickly moving them to secure locations where operations could begin. Over the following weeks, Team Giles coordinated sabotage missions, trained resistance fighters, managed supply drops, recovered Allied personnel, and directed attacks against German targets. Bridges were destroyed. Enemy movements were disrupted. Communications flowed between occupied France and Allied command. Every success came at enormous risk.

Hunted by the German Army

The danger intensified when a known Gestapo agent was identified during a meeting involving local resistance contacts. Following the encounter, word spread that German forces were actively searching for Team Giles. Reports indicated that local farms associated with the team had been identified and marked by German authorities.

Forced to abandon their position, Team Giles and approximately one hundred Maquis fighters moved by foot for two consecutive nights through the Normandy countryside. Their destination was a remote plateau where a resistance headquarters had been established.

From this isolated position, the team continued its mission—receiving Allied supply drops, training resistance forces, recovering downed airmen, and coordinating attacks against German targets. It was here, hidden among the fields and forests of Normandy, that one of the region's most important resistance outposts operated during the final weeks of occupation.

Following the Footsteps of History

Decades later, the Three Forks® team set out to find it.

Using original OSS message traffic, mission reports, and wartime documentation, the team carefully reconstructed Team Giles' movements across Normandy. The historical trail led through villages, farms, and conversations with local landowners whose families had preserved fragments of the story.

Eventually, directions pointed toward a high plateau once identified in wartime records as both a Maquis headquarters and an Allied supply drop zone. As daylight faded, Chris and Christian arrived at a deteriorating structure with a collapsed roof. The building matched the descriptions contained within the historical reports, but certainty remained elusive.

Standing outside the entrance, considering their next step, they looked above the doorway.

There, weathered by time yet unmistakable, was a commemorative plaque. Translated, it read:

"

Tribute to the Resistance. Here was installed the headquarters of the Normandy Battalion of the French Forces of the Interior in permanent liaison with London and Free France. July 24, 1944."

At that moment, the decades collapsed. The team had found it.

Preserving a Legacy of Resistance

The headquarters may now stand in ruin, but its timbers remain powerful witnesses to history. Within these beams, Allied operatives planned missions. Resistance fighters received orders. Supply drops were coordinated. Intelligence flowed to London. The liberation of France moved one step closer.

From this remarkable site, Three Forks® has the opportunity to preserve and reclaim original structural elements that directly connect to the wartime operations of Team Giles and the French Resistance.

Each beam represents far more than reclaimed wood.

They are artifacts of courage.

They are remnants of sacrifice.

They are tangible pieces of a story that helped shape the outcome of World War II.

The Living Legacy

The mission of Three Forks® has always extended beyond salvaging historic timber. It is about preserving stories.

The Giles Project stands as a testament to the men and women who fought from the shadows, who carried messages through occupied territory, who risked execution if captured, and who believed freedom was worth any sacrifice.

Today, as these historic materials begin a new chapter, their legacy continues. The wood remains. The story endures. And the courage of Team Giles lives on through every piece preserved for future generations.