In the years that follow, all kinds of people join the 2nd and 3rd Regiment de Chasseurs Parachutisten. Veterans from Libya, De Gaulle supporters, refugees from France, and volunteers from all over the world receive intensive training in England or Scotland to be deployed at any time. Their task is to obstruct or disrupt the German occupiers as much as possible, which they successfully do in Normandy, Burgundy, at the Battle of the Bulge, and ultimately in the Netherlands.

In the night of 7/8 April 1945, the two French regiments are dropped with about 700 people above Drenthe and Southeast Friesland. Operation Amherst has started. They must conquer bridges, secure airports, stimulate local resistance, and cause as much confusion as possible. Bad weather hugely influences the drops and once on the ground, the French paratroopers have to improvise. They quickly seek contact with the locals in order to find their bearings. Major Puech-Samson and Captain Betbèze are in luck when they meet Mr Van Lohuizen, director of the KNMI’s geomagnetic station in Witteveen, who speaks French.