Flying Flea
Flying Flea
An interesting addition to the War and Peace Display’s collection of full-sized replica World War Two aircraft is the Flying Flea, an important part of the secret world of wartime activities.
The Henri Mignet Flying Flea or Pou Maquis was specially altered from a pre-war civilian version of the same aircraft. Small and lightweight, with the addition of folding wings it was perfect to be hidden in barns and the depths of forest undergrowth in occupied territory for use by French resistance for spying, sending messages or even sabotage. Rumour has it that even the Special Operations Executive (SOE) took advantage of this little plane.
Background on the Pou Maquis and its French Resistence work:
Frenchmen who escaped to Britain following the defeat of France in 1940, included Colonel Eon, appointed personal representative. to General Koenig, Head of Resistance in the de Gaulle “French Government” in London.
In early 1944 Eon, a distant and imperious character, contacted Henri Mignet, to design a small, unobtrusive aircraft capable of flying from roughly prepared ground, or even ground not prepared at all - such as a road.
The result was the design for the HM280 Pou Maquis. The Maquis were the French Resistance fighters taking their name from the French for “scrub”, prevalent where they operated initially in the largely unoccupied South of France.
HM280 was definitely also used
in French military manoeuvres in late 1945.
