An important part of the teaching given concerns the knowledge that will be essential to us:the life and customs of the peoples or tribes among whom we will live and act, geography and history of the countries where we are likely to be sent, particular traits of the various populations, studied from the angle of the psychological action to be taken, measures taken by the occupier, its policy in the territories it occupied, the existence of cores of resistance...
We familiarize ourselves with the recent history of Indochina by studying the Record books which contain, day by day, the news on this country
. We have daily Japanese language lessons. It is not a question of teaching us all of Japanese, but of enabling us to identify enemy units, the names of CPs or military or police organizations, and also of making us capable of briefly interrogating a prisoner.
We study the organization of the economic system put in place by the Japanese army in the countries it controls, the vital sectors of the economy for it... We are also taught to eat with chopsticks, to recognize Chinese dishes from each other... because one day, if we have to hide our recent arrival in one of the Southeast Asian countries, we would quickly be unmasked if we appear too new to subjects that any resident of Asia learns quickly.
Our schedule is immutable:sunrise, volleyball game from which we come out a kilo lighter and soaked from head to toe. Lunch. Work, cut by lunch, until 5 p.m. Tea and dips in the river. Sports.
Personal work (homework and lessons) in the evening, sometimes until late.
Three times a week, we maintain our form by going for pistol shots. Once a week, exercise in Calcutta, from noon to 11 p.m. Another great one-day exercise in the countryside or around airfields, also every week.
Clandestine propaganda forms a large part of our curriculum. Tracts, posters, rumors, wall newspapers, graffiti..., all the techniques are explored, dissected, adapted to the particular kind of races or peoples among whom we will work.
We are taught to use makeshift means:engraved bamboo, roneotype machine made of two rolls of bamboo and rubber bands, primitive lithography stones, local papermaking making paints from what we can find in the jungle or in our pencil cases pharmacy. We get our hands (and clothes) dirty with ink, colors, we waste tons of paper, we study the themes to exploit or refute, propaganda plan, definition of the groups to "work on".
We are phosphorizing on a plan of strikes to be called in the coal mines in Hongay, among the dockers in the port of Haiphong or among a particular tribe in Upper Burma.
A practical application of what we learn in the secret of our villa is done in Calcutta.
Each week, we receive the mission, individually or in groups of two, to go and stick up subversive posters or paint the walls with red minium graffiti . Stripped of identity papers, we have to thwart the efforts of the police (who have no tenderness for the people who write on the walls perfectly revolutionary slogans, in times of war:"Release the miners of Bengal", "A down with the government of Bengal").
All is not without stories. Two of us, commissioned to paint an appeal for recently imprisoned miners, choose an elegant, white wall in the heart of Calcutta, a stone's throw from Choringhee Street.
The air as clear as it is possible to take when one carries a bucket of minium in the hand, badly concealed under a raincoat, the "painter" approaches the wall. His comrade is a few steps away keeping watch.
Engrossed in his work, the man with the paintbrush does not hear the slight signal given to him:two British soldiers have just come from approach and contemplate with interest the artist... well lit by the moon. Desperate to be heard, the lookout cautiously moves away and observes the evolution of the situation...
The artist, stepping back to better judge his work and still believing his comrade behind him, asks him, in French:“What do you think of that, eh? This is not bad ! " No answer. Repeating his question without further success, our painter turns around... and finds himself face to face with an immense British soldier placed in front of a group of indistinct figures.
In shock, he drops his minium bucket that spills over the nearest soldier and runs away. Immediately, whistles in all directions. From each street come the auxiliary guards armed with a club and an electric lamp which the police and the owners pay against thefts. Like a gigantic troop of vultures attracted by the corpse of a buffalo, this multitude of onlookers and curious people, which is constantly increasing, rushes at a run behind the fugitive. But the training received at Poona is good... and the culprit loses his pursuers and joins the villa.
The organization of propaganda or information networks intended for the preparation of action plans, psychological and military, is taught to us by two instructors whose job, outside of wartime, is precisely to prevent this kind of thing ... These lessons are applied during frequent exercises in Calcutta or in the neighboring countryside, bringing into play an organization, networks, contacts, effective acts of propaganda, reconnaissance. Combining these techniques and what we learned in Poona, we carried out raids several times, against American airfields located on the outskirts of Calcutta. What is interesting about the mission is that the said grounds are operational and that they are defended by American MPs, unprepared, who have the easy trigger.
Organization of maquis, relays, hiding places, liaisons, research and security of parachute landing sites, establishment of information networks in urban centers, partitioning, the whole technique of the general organization of a guerrilla is taught to us and we put it in practice during exercises reproducing as well as possible the conditions that we will encounter when we are there “for real”.
The course ends with a three-day exercise. Released at night, in the middle of the countryside, without identity papers, we have to recontact our network and, with it, carry out a series of missions relating to clandestine propaganda or guerrilla warfare. To make things better, our instructors entrusted the Calcutta police with our photos, asking them to search for these dangerous individuals. For many, this exercise is an opportunity to demonstrate all their composure, daring and skill.