Page 28 - BBC History - September 2017

Amazing lives

SECOND WORLD WAR

A nerveless Nazi-killer

As part of our occasional series pro!ling remarkable yet unheralded
characters from history, Gavin Mortimer introduces Johnny Hopper,

the British lone-wolf !ghter who embarked on a campaign of violence
that made him one of the most wanted men in Nazi-occupied France
ILLUSTRATION BY STAVROS DAMOS

ohnny Hopper and his wife, Paulette, her wound. It was almost certainly fatal, yet in the head. I dropped him off at a hospital
arrived at the cafe on the rue he couldn’t bear to think of her in the hands with a word of advice about keeping his
Beaubourg on schedule. They chose of the Gestapo. He placed his pistol to her mouth shut.” Hopper did indeed deposit the
Ja table at the end of the long narrow temple and fired. “I have relived that moment dying Bénard at a hospital, but only after
cafe, their backs to the wall and with an every day of my life,” he said 48 years later. shooting him again in the stomach.
unobstructed view of the entrance. “Always asking myself the same question.” Four days later, Hopper was approaching
It was Paris, 8 May 1942, a dangerous place his lock-up garage when he became aware he
to be for an Englishman who was the subject Never give up was being followed. Hearing the click of a
of a nationwide manhunt having slain two Ian Kenneth ‘Johnny’ Hopper’s remarkable weapon being cocked, he spun round,
policemen the previous year in Caen. life began on 25 May 1912. Born in King’s whipping the two pistols from his pockets,
Hopper ordered two coffees and waited for Lynn, his parents moved to Normandy when and opening fire. The man he shot dead was
the arrival of a doctor, a member of the he was 12 and settled in the village of Bénard’s superior, Adolphe Morin, and
Resistance. He claimed he had information Varaville. He struggled at school and recalled although Hopper escaped on a bicycle from
about Paul Cole, a former British soldier who the only worthwhile education he received as a a hail of bullets, he left behind his identity
had been captured in 1941 and turned by the child came from the local priest, who instilled card, providing police with his name and
Gestapo into one of their agents. in him two philosophies to take through life: photograph. A description circulated
The doctor arrived on time and Hopper never complain and never give up. nationwide of a man of “athletic physique,
rose to greet him. But as he advanced he When war broke out, Hopper neither long face and extremely pale”.
noticed another man coming into the cafe. returned to England nor enlisted in the
Then two soldiers came into view on the French army. But when Germany marched Acts of arson
street outside. Hopper reached for the pistol into France, some martial spirit within him By now, the local press were labelling Hopper
in his pocket; at the same time the man stirred. Assembling a dozen local men, “a dangerous criminal”. One paper, Journal
accompanying the doctor went for his Hopper began to carry out acts of resistance de Normandie, furnished its readers with an
weapon. Within seconds, shots were being against the invader. They were small at first account of his activities, pieced together by
exchanged across the cafe as terrified – like laying a wreath on 11 November 1940 at the police after a search of his property. Not
customers dived for cover. Hopper felt a blow the Caen war memorial, to stealing wheels off only did they hold him responsible for several
to his arm. “I didn’t know at first how badly I German motorbikes – but soon Hopper and acts of arson against government buildings,
was wounded,” he recalled. “I ducked back his men had become an irritant. Several were but in his garage were 10,000 kilos of sugar
through a door next to our table, to take arrested and deported to Germany, but and 250,000 francs’ worth of clothing. In
stock and to get a fresh gun unstrapped from Hopper remained at large, more determined addition, police believed he had been
my leg. It was only a sort of closet back there, than ever to strike at the enemy. collecting information on German military
but the Germans must have assumed it was a A week into August 1941 and the installations and transmitting it to London.
rear door to the alley. I had hit all of them Englishman was one of the most wanted men Hopper and Paulette lived rough in the
more or less badly, and when I kicked my in France, described by newspapers as the forest for a fortnight, eventually joining the
door open, they were all running out the “Bandit Hopper” with a price of 5,000 francs growing Resistance network in Paris. He
front door to get help.” on his head. His first crime was to gun down furthered his reputation as a cold-blooded
Hopper glanced round the cafe. Everyone Edouard Bénard, deputy police chief of Caen, killer by assassinating an SS officer he
was still hiding under their tables. Everyone on 27 July 1941. “He had stopped my car and described as a “nasty piece of goods”, but
except his wife. She was slumped in her seat, ordered me to drive him to police also lived up to his reputation as a bandit,
blood flowing from her mouth. They had headquarters,” recalled Hopper. “When he robbing a Normandy bank of nearly
been married three years, had a young son saw that I was heading for open country, he two million francs, money that was used by
and were deeply in love. Hopper examined pulled out his gun. I was quicker. I shot him the Resistance to buy arms and equipment.

28 BBC History Magazine