Benjamin Cowburn was the creator and leader of the Tinker network which operated in the area of Troyes, France.
17 Facts About Benjamin Cowburn
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Benjamin Cowburn was the longest serving F-Section SOE agent.
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Benjamin Cowburn had arrived in Paris, aged eight with his parents, and studied at a British school in Boulogne-sur-Seine and then at a Lycee.
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Benjamin Cowburn later studied electrical engineering and worked for the American firm, Foster Wheeler, building distillation plants for oil refineries all over France.
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Benjamin Cowburn was part of a group of six agents who were met by wireless operator Georges Begue and French Resistance member Max Hymans.
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Benjamin Cowburn first journeyed to Paris, crossing clandestinely on foot from Vichy France into occupied France and due to the danger involved in the crossing he resolved to find a better way in the future.
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Benjamin Cowburn worked with Pierre de Vomecourt, an aristocratic resistance leader.
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Benjamin Cowburn got tangled up in the delicate dance between Vomecourt and double agent Mathilde Carre and attempted to return with them to Britain by boat.
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Benjamin Cowburn received two air drops of sabotage supplies and persuaded French friends in Chateauroux to introduce abrasives into the production line for manufacturing aircraft engines and to destroy high-tension electrical lines at the Eguzon power station, interrupting power transmission for a few hours.
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Benjamin Cowburn returned to London along with Georges Duboudin from a clandestine airfield by Westland Lysander on 26 October 1942.
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Benjamin Cowburn adopted the code name Germain for his third mission.
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Benjamin Cowburn was a believer that SOE networks should avoid contact with each other for reasons of security as many SOE agents were being captured by the Germans.
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Benjamin Cowburn delivered the crystals, but expressed concern to Suttill about the number of people involved with Prosper.
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Benjamin Cowburn continued on to Troyes where he set up his own autonomous network called Tinker.
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Benjamin Cowburn took as much of the risk of capture as possible on himself, securing a house by himself and storing weapons and preparing plastic explosives for use.
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Benjamin Cowburn quickly removed all the arms and explosives to another location.
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Pierre Mulsant and John Barrett of Benjamin Cowburn's Tinker network had returned to France.