the Comet Line had been successful in exfiltrating downed Allied airmen, mostly British and American, out of occupied Belgium and through occupied France to neutral Spain. However, in November 1942, a large number of the Belgian helpers of the line were arrested and imprisoned by the Gestapo and in January 1943, the Comet Line's founder, Andrée de Jongh was captured by the Germans. Andrée's father, Frederic de Jongh, who had fled Brussels to Paris, was attempting to put the pieces of the Comet Line back together. A young Belgian who called himself Jean Masson had been successful in escorting airmen from Paris to Belgium. After winning de Jongh's trust, Masson, the name Desoubrie was using, requested that de Jongh and other Comet Line leaders meet him at a train station in Paris to receive six airmen he was escorting from Belgium. At the train station, Frederic De Jongh and several other Comet line leaders were arrested by French police and turned over to the Germans. Acting on Desoubrie's knowledge of the Comet Line, additional arrests decimated the Comet Line. Masson, however, was not generally known as the betrayer of the Comet Line—except by some of those who had disappeared into German prisons. In January 1944, information provided by Desoubrie enabled the Gestapo to arrest the Comet Line's leader, Jean-Jacques Northomb (code named "Franco"), and British intelligence agent, Jacques Legrelle (code named "Jerome'). Desoubrie, now using the name Pierre Boulain, was finally unmasked in Paris on May 7, 1944, by Comet Line guide Michelle Dumon (code named "Lily" and "Michou"). In exposing Boulain, Dumon became vulnerable to the Gestapo and fled France. MI9 agents Albert Ancia and Jean de Blommaert asked the Resistance group French Forces of the Interior (FFI) to assassinate Desoubrie. The FFI reported this done on May 22, 1944, but Desoubrie soon re-appeared, so either the FFI lied or the wrong man was killed. Later activities Desoubrie did not cease his activities after being identified as a German agent. Among the airmen later betrayed by Desoubrie was Roy Allen as well as Phil Lamason and his English navigator Ken Chapman. Lamason along with Chapman, was picked up by members of the French Resistance and hidden at various locations for seven weeks. In August 1944, while attempting to reach Spain, Lamason and Chapman were captured by the Gestapo in Paris after they were betrayed by Desoubrie for 10,000 francs