André Hue

André Hunter Alfred Hue (7 December 1923 – 11 January 2005) was an Anglo-French businessman, soldier and spy best remembered for his work as an operative with the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in France during World War II.

Hue was born in Swansea, Wales to a French father and Welsh mother. Fluent in both English and French, Hue grew up in Le Havre. Hue's father died when he was young and he was working as a sailor in the French merchant marine by 1939.

On 17 June 1940, the SS Champlain, the ship Hue was working on as a purser struck a mine off La Rochelle and sank, forcing Hue who was taking a shower at the time to swim ashore naked. Without a family in France, Hue ended up working as a railroad clerk in the town of Guer in Brittany, where he was recruited into the French resistance by François Vallée of the SOE "Parson" circuit. Hue provided information about the railroad time tables so the Royal Air Force could target trains carrying German troops and supplies. Afterwards, Hue become involved in smuggling Allied airmen shot down over France and in February 1944 he crossed the English Channel to Britain, so he could join the SOE. Hue's training reports called him "a very active, energetic, enthusiastic man with a reasonably stable personality, although inclined to excitement at times". After passing courses that taught him combat, sabotage and parachuting, Hue parachuted into France on the night of 5 June 1944 together with a number of men from the French Special Air Service (SAS) regiment. The 3rd and 4th Battalions of the SAS in 1944 were all French. Much to his surprise, Hue found himself having to dodge Cossacks that were hunting for him. The Cossacks were from the Ostlegionen (Eastern Legions) of the Wehrmacht as Soviet POWs who joined the German Army were known.

As a SOE agent, Hue's tasks to ensure the delivery of supplies from the SOE to the marquis and to co-ordinate operations between the French SAS team and the resistance. Hue who was attached to the Hillbilly circuit (network) in Britany later remembered that arranging supply drops to the resistance took up most of his time while attempting to evade the Wehrmacht, the SS and the Milice. This was highly dangerous work, and Hue was frequently involved in fighting with the German forces, during which Hue showed great courage, resourcefulness, and an ability to keep calm. The British historian Max Hastings in review of Hue's memoir The Next Moon wrote:

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