The Maquis made their command post

The Maquis made their command post on top of one of the moun￾tains about six miles from their drop zone and they guided the newcom￾ers back to it before the sun rose. Over the next two days, they made their initial plans.31 Gough requested one of the SAS radio operators to send Jacob’s first message to London saying that Sergeant Seymour had been injured on the jump but would be recovered within a week, and they believed they would be contacting Grandval himself, soon. Team Jacob also sent a message on 15 and 16 August with the briefest of details on the local Maquis, which numbered 800 men, of whom 50 were armed. They had still not contacted Grandval but expected to on that day. For security reasons, they had to travel five miles from their command post to use the radio.32 Germans were thick in the area, and by this time, they had been ordered to evacuate France and the roads were crowded with moving vehicles going into Germany. But the regional Gestapo was also aware of the SAS and Jedburgh team’s presence and was organizing an effort to catch them.