In charge of "Operation Osprey" that parachuted in Rogaland county on Dec. 10 1943. In her execution of the delicate researches entailed she showed great presence of mind and astuteness. Peter Lake. The organization's F section sent more than four hundred agents into France, thirty-nine of whom were women. Autobiography by a former New York Times journalist and one of the first SOE agents to arrive in France. Although F Section was commanded by Major (later Colonel) Maurice Buckmaster, known to his agents and the Gestapo as Buck, Vera Atkins has been described as his formidable and brilliant assistant. Interestingly, Witherington was not interested in medals or recognition (another common trait) and her prized possession was her para wings which she had not been given after qualifying at RAF Ringway. We know that she moved to various safe houses and transmitted using pre-arranged skeds (schedules) on specific frequencies three times per week, but we dont know why she always transmitted from the same location. Special Operations Executive (SOE) In June 1940, a secret volunteer service was recruited to create havoc and to wage war behind enemy lines. Codenames: Justin, Roland, Dieudonn. After joining the resistance in Paris, she became second in command of the local network by March 1943. Registration #: 309883. The organization's F section sent more than four hundred agents into France, thirty-nine of whom were women. Two weeks later both were moved to Gestapo Headquarters at 84 Avenue Foch in Paris. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. She was returned to her dark, hot cell and still deprived of food and water. After this, any wireless communications containing her code poem or wireless code name would be regarded as a German deception. On every main street in Paris there were wanted posters for Claud Malraux and other members of his circuit. White Eagle Resistance Group in Poland during World War Two. back in England from the agents saying they had arrived safely. During their advanced interview potential field agents were told if they were captured they were liable to be tortured and then executed and were given the opportunity to reject special employment. The staff were looking for individuals who could easily communicate and build rapport with people they dont know, stick to their legends (cover stories which were given to them prior to attending) and not to reveal their true identity or other personal information. French order that is the highest decoration in France. Irrespective of gender all agents underwent the same selection and training. Comte Jacques-Arthus Marc de Montalembert, SOE parachute commander from 1943 to 1945, Married Arie Van Duyn. The Special Operations Executive was engaged in clandestine warfare throughout the world but more is known about their French Section than any other section within this highly secretive organisation. The popular market, which houses over 40 trend-concept food stores selling local products, has for many years been a popular spot for . Madeleine Barclay. However, a high proportion of operators who maintain strict wireless security were also detected. The full story of the thirty-nine female SOE agents who went undercover in France Formed in 1940, Special Operations Executive was to coordinate Resistance work overseas. Code name: Unknown, Wireless name unknown. According to Foot, agents who passed the selection and training were also informed The chances of a safe return from occupied France were no better than evens, that is, the staff expected to lose half their agents Consequently, prior to committing themselves to hazardous operation all agents were given another opportunity to consider the dangers. Lieutenants Philippe and Joseph Rousseau who served with Canadian Airborne Forces during WW2. Candidates were also encourage to drink alcohol to see if this made them indiscrete. Prior to the SOE, he was in Section D of the British. In an article written by Jacques Ghmard he describes Suzanne Warenghem as a 19-year-old British agent serving with the Special Operation Executive (SOE) who worked with the PAT escape line. Courier. Recruited: Unknown (Wireless Operator F Section). Basically, SOE was the weirdo cousin of the legit security services in Britain, and the French Section consisted of agents dropped (literally, via bomber jets) into occupied France in order to perform . She was ultimately executed. While her colleagues were being arrested, Inayat Khan remained at large for months, the only active SOE radio operator in the Paris area. Foot, who can be considered as the SOEs official historian, says that many of their records remain secret and are kept by the Foreign Office whilst others were deliberately destroyed. Noor, because of her inferior dark complexion which made her a dangerous prisoner was almost beaten to death by SS officer Friedrich Wilhelm Ruppert, before she was finally shot in the head with her own SOE issue pistol the following day. While her circuit concentrated on recruitment the neighbouring circuit, code named FARMER, concentrated on sabotage and killing German forces. Tue 21 Feb 2012 10.39 EST. It is clear the Gestapo were aware she was a wireless operator and consequently she was tortured to reveal her poem code and wireless set. The second highest civil decoration of the United Kingdom It awards civilian gallantry in the face of enemy action and brave deeds more generally. When it became clear soft interrogation techniques would not work the Gestapo resorted to torture in order to extract information- red-hot pokers were used to burn her back and every time she passed out from the pain buckets of cold water were used to revive her so the torture could continue, Odette refused to talk. Operated in northern France from October 1942 to June 1943. They were then told to make their way to Paris and await orders from London and several days later they received instructions to meet a contact in Lyon but by the time they arrived this contact had been arrested. Circuits: DETECTIVE, CLERGYMAN and WHEELWRIGHT. After successfully making contact with Peter Churchill (Raoul) who ran the SPINDLE Circuit (who she married after the war), he gave her the address of a contact who was vital for her operation. Had a French wife, after easing out of circuit was implicated in documents found in 1943 when other agents arrested. 151. Between her capture and July 1944, Sansom was repeatedly tortured for information on her fellow agents, but refused to give anything up. Croix de Guerre avec palme, Legion d'honneur, 1st Knight of The Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav, Head of Billet circuit, Head of Eduard escape line to Spain. Apart from Harold Cole being responsible for mass arrests in Lillie which resulted in that section of the line collapsing his close working relationship with Kurt Lischka, the Gestapo chief in Paris who after the Normandy landings helped Cole escape is testament to his importance as a double agent and his influence within the Gestapo. Last award: February 14, 1959. Although trained to keep their transmissions as brief as possible in order to make detection more difficult, many went over the recommended time limit to ensure London received vital information. Networks, operations, and personnel Asymptote. Associazione Nazionale Carristi d'Italia. when I am up against it I think of these women especially the dozen that were eXecuted .. The point you made about agents being sent to certain death mainly occurred in the Netherlands due to German wireless deception, but this deception failed in France. 2023 will be a year of celebrating the Danish design and architecture heritage. British independent all-female unit active in both nursing and intelligence work during the World Wars. SOE (Special Operations Executive) F section operations in France. After joining the RAF as a wireless operator she came to the attention of the SOE talent spotters and was asked to attend an informal interview at a hotel near Trafalgar Square London, where she was asked whether she would be interested in becoming specially employed. This is not correct and simply echoes several conspiracy theories which have long been rejected. Lieutenants Philippe and Joseph Rousseau who served with Canadian Airborne Forces duringWW2. His next mission was to Switzerland via Occupied France to assist SOE agents in France and also deal with couriers from F Section SOE who used Switzerland as a channel for communicating with London.After many adventures, Van reached Switzerland where he carried out his task until the end of the war in Europe. Although the 1944 circuit activity shows CLERGYMAN listed as fragmented, unbeknown to London and Denise Block prior to her arrival, CLERGYMAN had been seriously compromised. When they found her wireless set she denied all knowledge and improvised: she played the role of an innocent French girl she did not know anything about the wireless set, the Resistance or SOE. Another tactic the SOE agents used was to claim they were married and related to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, in the hopes that would make them more valuable prisoners. Created July 13, 1917 to honor civilians who had performed acts of heroism in the face of the enemy during WWI without military obligation. . His brother, George Larcher, was also an SOE agent. [citation needed], David Twiston Davies, Canada from Afar: The Daily Telegraph Book of Canadian Obituaries, Dundurn, 1996, [Maurizio Parri. Activities included gathering intelligence, organizing and supplying indigenous resistance groups, and sabotaging transportation, communications, and industrial facilities. She worked as a courier with the code name of Adele. This circuit was so successful the Gestapo put 1 million francs on her head. It was, therefore, agreed in 2000 that Professor Foot should produce a revised version. On 24 June the leader of the neighbouring PROSPER Circuit was arrested along with other members of his team. He asked Violet whether she would go to Paris to assess the situation and Violet agreed. Since these editions were published, other material on SOE has become available. These schemes included making contact with an intermediary referred to as a cut-out; trailing someone in a city; losing someone who is following them, a variety of counter-surveillance drills, and making contact with a supposed resistance member. 2) Wireless Radio Operator: send and receive wireless messages to and from SOE headquarters in London, encode and decode messages, maintain wireless sets. When she arrived at the address the contact refused to assist her and without his help it was impossible to establish the safe houses. What did female SOE agents do? Some agents served in more than one network and are listed more than once. ", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_SOE_F_Section_networks_and_agents&oldid=1122280860, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles needing additional references from January 2020, All articles needing additional references, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Noel Fernand Rauol Burdeyron (real name, Norman F. Burley) agent, single-handedly derailed German supply train by pulling up a rail, Autogiro's only successful attack. Harold Cole was born in the east end of London on 24 January 1906 and after leaving . To coordinate the combined resources of both circuits she arranged a meeting with a representative of the FARMER circuit at a safe caf. Military Historian and Freelance Defence Journalist. Code name, Member of the Shetland gang. Hugh Dormer. The SOE was formed in July 1940 on the orders of Churchill. Several SOE agents recall a time they were physically and mentally exhausted and violently woken up in the early hours of the morning by men dressed in German uniforms- they were expected to immediately reply in French and during the mock interrogation to maintain their cover story (legend), role play and when necessary improvise. . Escape lines required a string of expensive safehouses, helpers had to be paid and transport needed to be obtained and these along with other expenses finance by Duprez were considerable. She was also noted for her intelligence and capability of cracking complex ciphers. According to several writers Suzanne Warenghem was 19-years-old when she started working on the PAT line with Harold Cole and if correct she was one of the youngest SOE agents in France. After completing her compulsory military training she was sent to the SOE Wireless School at Thames Park and them to the finishing school at Beaulieu. There is some question by historians as to its effectiveness during the German occupation of European territories but to the SOE agents, their activities were extremely beneficial to the various Resistance movements, especially in France. Operation Asymptote was mounted in February 1944, while the Operational Instructions were quite clear, the disguised . Crew on board the, Later become the first Chinese-Canadian MP, Radio Operator - Shelburn Line (Shelbourne Line) Operation Bonaparte, Deported to KL Buchenwald (Jan 1944Jan 45)-. A Call to Spy is a very worthwhile film and we finally get to see some of these intriguing operatives on screen, something that was well overdue. After assessing the situation Claud decided he would require the assistance of the DIGGER circuit which was operating south of Limoges and sent Violent and one of his new resistance members, Jacques Dufour, by car to ask for assistance. Memoirs of SOE agents have always been rare - so many were either killed in action or executed - and today they are almost unheard of. She was immediately sent to a cell in the basement without windows and Suhren ordered she must remain in darkness and put on a starvation diet. I agree there was a few probems with the radio checks but the Dutch had the main probem. By January 1943 the SPINDLE Circuit had been infiltrated by a double agent and the Gestapo knew the names of its members, passive supporters, the locations of their safe houses and mass arrests followed. Sometime in 1944, as Allied forces were fighting their way through France as part of Operation Overlord, Denise Bloch and Violet Szabo were taken to the crematorium yard where an SS guard shot them through the back of their necks and their bodies were cremated. Although Odette held three married names, undoubtedly, the name Churchill saved her life at Ranensbruck Concentration Camp. (The London Gazette, Friday 12 June 1946, HMSO), Recruited: Unknown (Wireless operator F Section). Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window). Neither mentioned the subject again. Recruited: August 1941. When Odette was recruited and agreed to work for SOE she had three Children, Francoise aged 11; Lillie aged 8 and Marianne aged 6, and during her training and hazardous work in occupied France they stayed at a convent school in rural England. She was also noted for her cockney accent and wild sense of humour. Her operational brief was to contact a resistance group on the French Riviera before moving north to Auxerre to establish a safe house for other agents passing through the area. French military decoration created on September 26, 1939, to honour people who fought with the Allies against the Axis force at any time during World War II. This intricate tale concentrates on the work of the 400 hand-picked . After this initial stage of selection candidates received basic firearms training, elementary Morse code, basic sabotage techniques, explosives and unarmed combat. (LogOut/ Wife of, Killed in concentration camp March 1945. After finding Odette collapsed in her cell due to heat exhaustion and lack of food she was examined by a camp doctor who concluded that if she continued living under these conditions she would be dead within two weeks. Pg. One of the longest serving of Britain's wartime women agents. Instrumental in gathering intelligence and important documents such as rations cards for implementing safe houses, routes, and sustenance for field agents. The new organization became known as Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the staff were given an office at 64 Baker Street in London. This included Jack Agazarian, Claude de Baissac, . Formed in 1940, Special Operations Executive was to coordinate Resistance work overseas. Code names: Cover Micheline Rabatel. This was not unique to France, in most countries under occupation could be found the morally disengaged who were willing to sell members of their communities to the highest bidder and this was often the Gestapo whose reputation for brutality was well known throughout occupied Europe. Twice. So it was that in 1943 this unlikely agentshe seemed incapable of telling a liewas landed by light aircraft in France, to work with the ill-fated PROSPER network in Paris. During the early hours of the morning the Gestapo raided the Hotel, Odette and Churchill were arrested and taken to Fresnes Prison. But when the morning came she buried her emotions and remained defiant. 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