Harold 'Paul' Cole (24 January 1906 – 8 January 1946), was a British soldier in World War II who became infamous as a traitor. He caused more damage and human suffering than any other British Traitor of World War II.[1] He had been killed before he was ever able to face trial for Treason.
Harold Cole enlisted in the British Army on 4 September 1939 (Serial No. 1877989RE), his unit being the Eighteenth Field Park Company. He had only recently been released from prison. His unit was sent to France in late 1939 as a part of the British Expeditionary Force. Cole's unit was stationed in Loison-sous-Lens. Later, Cole became a Sergeant who was taken prisoner in France during 1940 but escaped to Lille and then Marseilles, where he helped establish and operate British escape lines with the French Resistance. During this period he was known as Paul Cole.
In 1941 he was rearrested by the Germans and became notorious for his betrayal of the escape lines he had helped form in occupied France by collaborating with the Gestapo.[2][3] He denounced many important figures in the resistance movement including Ian Garrow and Albert Guerisse (1911–1989) of the Pat Line. It is believed Cole betrayed at least 150 people of the French Resistance, of which 50 of them were executed by the Gestapo.[4] The Deputy Commander of Scotland Yard at the time, Reginald Spooner described him as 'The Worst Traitor of the War'.[5]
At the end of the war, Cole was wanted by both France and especially by the MI9 in England for Treason. He was captured at Bad Saulgau in June 1945 and was later imprisoned at the SHAEF military prison in Paris from where he escaped on 18 November 1945. A large manhunt was initiated for his re-capture.
On 8 January 1946, after receiving a tip, French police shot Harold Cole dead after discovering that he had been hiding on the fourth floor of a bar in the Rue de Grenelle in Paris. He was later buried in an unmarked pauper's grave in Paris.[6][7]