An official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which is described the person's gallant or meritorious action in the face of the enemy. Awarded to British Commonwealth subjects for non-operational military and civilian war service during WWII. executed by a firing squad on November 7, 1944, in Budapest. But Sydney Hudson's story, which he has waited nearly sixty years to tell, is just about as dramatic and thrilling as any to have ever appeared. Instituted in 1926. 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. When she was away for several weeks at a time this allowed her to tell inquisitive people she had been driving senior officers around the country. . The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration and is awarded in recognition of "an act or acts of exemplary gallantry during active operations against the enemy on land to all members, of any rank in Our Armed Forces". The full story of the thirty-nine female SOE agents who went undercover in France"The freshness and honesty of Mission France make it an ideal book for taking a new look at the secret war, at a time when knowledge of these brave women's exploits is fading from living memory."Vin Arthey, The Scotsman Formed in 1940, Special Operations Executive was to coordinate Resistance work overseas. Vera was involved in every aspect of F Section interviewing potential recruits, organising and planning training and planning the agents reception in France. At each prison she deliberately spread the rumour that she was married to Peter Churchill who was a close relative of the British Prime Minister and these rumours quickly spread among the guards and officers. Eye witnesses of the Gestapo raid on the caf recall a woman fitting Yolande Beekmans description being dragged away by men in civilian clothes. Although there was a rank structure SOE was run on self-discipline, there were no social barriers and gender equality was seen as paramount. As the situation was becoming more confused every day and further arrests may have resulted in other circuits being compromised, as Noor was the only wireless operator in Paris she rejected Buckmasters plan for an emergency extraction by Lysander. According to Brendon Murphy who wrote Turncoat, Cole convinced a wealthy businessman named Franois Duprez he was Captain Delobel of British Intelligence and then persuaded him to finance an underground organisation to rescue British, French and Belgium soldiers and help them reach England. The two women quickly became friends and later escaped together during an audacious mass escape consisting of around 37 prisoners. A new book is out that tells the story of French women who worked as spies for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), who were captured by the Nazis in France and executed for their actions. Through her parents activities she had already gained extensive experience working with various Resistance circuits before making her way to England where she was subsequently trained as an SOE agent. Noor has gone down in history as a great heroine because she defied her captors to the end, never cooperating with the Germans in any way. After discovering his real name and informing MI9 of Coles string of convictions which included burglary, fraud, theft and various swindles MI9 decided to disregard his long criminal background because he was helping British and allied military personnel to escape and there was no indication this was simply a continuation of his criminal career rather than patriotism. 1905-2004: LdH, CdeG: Sister of SOE Agent Claude de Baissac, Portrayed as Louise Desfontaines in the movie Female Agents (Les Femmes de l'ombre). Violette volunteered for the operation. Family Originally from Ukraine Immigrants in the early 1900's to UK, The first female SOE agent to be sent to occupied France (sent in May 1941). SOE agents siphoned off all the axle oil from the division . Five months before the BEF was sent to France. Registration #: 316119. The first SOE network, organised in Paris by Pierre de Vomcourt in May 1941, but destroyed in May 1942 after being betrayed by Mathilde Carre. also known as Nikolaos Tsenoglou. Much of which continues to be published about the SOE is based on the records made available to Professor Foot and his book, History of the Second World War: SOE in France which was first published by HMSO in 1966. Twice. 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. You can watch A Call to Spy's trailer here. Awarded to British Commonwealth forces who served between June 6, 1944, and May 8, 1945, in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Germany, and adjacent sea areas. During her training she showed a natural talent for receiving and sending Morse code and became one of F Sections wireless operators. 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. Vera was also known for her deep humanity and sense of responsibility to those she was sending to possible death inside occupied France. : The first female SOE agent to be sent to occupied France (sent in May 1941). The organization's F section sent more than four hundred agents into France, thirty-nine of whom were women. Also, she made no mention of Henri Dricourt! After her recovery she was put back on the active list and completed her course at Beaulieu. Recruited: Unknown (Wireless Operator F Section). It also becomes clear that her genuine affection for her agents were reciprocated. Skip to content. Important Preface Although this article is dated July 2019 this is the date it first appeared on this blog and was written several years previously. . Had a French wife, after easing out of circuit was implicated in documents found in 1943 when other agents arrested. Consequently, the following is an overview of events leading to the deaths of an unknown number of agents and French citizens of which Suzanne Warenghem, who later changed her surname to Warren, was unaware until her husband was exposed by other agents. 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. She was also noted for her intelligence and capability of cracking complex ciphers. by Kate Vigurs. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Eventually the mysterious Captain Delobel came to the attention of MI9 in London and they asked MI5 to conduct background checks. 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. Killed in Burma, 1945. In 2010 the police were called to a small house in Torque and found the body of an 89-year-old female who had been dead for several days. Instituted September 6, 1886. by . If arrested trainees had the telephone number of an SOE officer to get them out of trouble. They also say her face was severely swollen as if she had be repeatedly punched. Based on your comments I believe you are confusing the French Section with the Dutch Section as the Netherlands section was almost wiped out due to the Germans playing back captured radios to London. The food market at Cape Town's V&A Waterfront is closing down. She was the oldest female SOE agent sent to France, serving there from 31 October 1942 until 16 August 1943. Due to hundreds of soldiers on the street, and people being arrested by the lorry load, Noor concluded that all the safe houses must be considered compromised and she had no option but to seek refuge with pre-war family friends and made her way to friends of her parents. Code names: Cover Micheline Rabatel. Died during the first attempt at drop-off with a parachute in Denmark by SOE agents. Harold Cole was born in the east end of London on 24 January 1906 and after leaving school at the age of 14 he quickly became known to the police as a petty criminal, embezzler and con man and was sent to prison several times. As far as we can gather, on 12 September Yolande, Plewman and Damerment joined Noor Inayat Khan on a train to Dachau Concentration camp. With her was Diane Rowden, Cecily Lefort and Charles . Whilst Didi was sending an urgent message to London she heard German soldiers outside her safe house but continued sending the message. The little information we have on Denise Bloch was obtained by Vera Atkins during her extensive investigation into missing agents. Brossolette died while trying to escape the next day. The only secure transmissions from the Paris area were from Noor and she was the now the only person London could trust. Not only did all SOE agents know the dangers, during their initiation and training they were also informed they would be expected to conduct activities Outside the boundaries of conduct of international law for normal times and normal war (Foot) Their role would be to use bribery, subversion, sabotage, assassination there were no rules! ", 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. In his book Carve her name with Pride by RJ Minney and the film which was based on this book, it is claimed Violette Szabo and Claud Malraux, were involved in a firefight with German troops after reaching a road block. Some agents served in more than one network and are listed more than once. One evening, after her father asked how she had injured herself, Violette replied she had twisted her ankle after jumping out of a lorry. Change). As you said Heidi is probably getting confused with Holland or has not read recent work in French section. Macintosh was . For instance, in 1943 the CORSICAN circuit is listed as escaping, which meant the circuit had been compromised and its members were avoiding capture; part of AUTOGIRO was collapsing, this could mean the circuit had been infiltrated or was suffering from bad leadership. Instrumental in gathering intelligence and important documents such as rations cards for implementing safe houses, routes, and sustenance for field agents. From throughout-the-year events and new installations in Copenhagen, the UNESCO World Capital of Architecture, to the long awaited opening the underground bunker museum REGAN Vest in North Jutland. Due to conspiracy theories and published accounts which vary considerably the story of Suzanne Warenghem and her treacherous husband Harold Cole is complex and beyond the scope of this short article. In March 1946 she interrogated Rudolf Hoess, the notorious commandant of Auschwitz. Susanne Wareneghem and her husband Harold Cole worked for the Pat OLeary Line which was also referred to as the PAT Line, OLeary Line, PAO and PAT, and this underground network was financed by MI9 in London to facilitate escape and evasion of allied soldiers and airmen and is credited for assisting over 5,000 military personnel, mainly consisting of downed aircrews, to escape occupied Belgium and the Netherland and it is thought PAT rescued over 600 allied soldiers and airmen from France. The . Unique to the SOE, candidates also mastered the gunfighter technique for rapid and accurate use of handguns and became efficient with an assortment of British and German weapons. She received the, courier, Codename: 'Gaby', 'Dean', 'Madame Dupont'/ Agent Monk, parachuted into France on the night of 13/14 August 1943, arrested and tortured by Gestapo in March 1944, transferred to Dachau with, liaison officer with the partisans in Albania. This further increased her workload and she was now constantly on the move to avoid detection. I also reject her views based on reent evidence. She married former SOE agent Geoffrey Hallowes. Under the cover of darkness, with her bicycle across her shoulders, she swum across the freezing river, continued her journey and safely delivered the message. He was captured but escaped from prison and into Spain in 1942. As the search continued they found a French medal, a Croix de Guerre, other medals and more photographs taken during the War. Codename: Cicero. . Shortly after she arrived, most of the other agents at her post were arrested. Again, those who failed were sent to the cooler. Her file refer to her as Petite, just under five-feet five tall, but her character was far more robust than her looks suggest. Suzanne Warenghem who was now pregnant and feared her husband, travelled to Marseille to join an escape line where some writers say her child was still born, and sometime in March 1943 she was arrested and sent to Castres prison where she met SOE agent Blanche Charlet. 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. SOE (Special Operations Executive) operations in Belgium. Note: The map does not show the correct location of the original Autogiro network, which operated in the Paris area and did not exist after the spring of 1942. However, a high proportion of operators who maintain strict wireless security were also detected. After the war Vera became a member of the British War Crimes Commission gathering evidence for the prosecution of war criminals and set about tracing the fate of the 118 agents who failed to return from their operations. It was, therefore, agreed in 2000 that Professor Foot should produce a revised version. Foot (Author) Visit . In 1940 she Married Etienne Szabo who was an officer in the Foreign Legion and in June 1942 she gave birth to a daughter, Tanya, but four months later Etienne was killed at the Battle of El Alamein. What did female SOE agents do? 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. Acorn Technology is working with a leading NHS trust in Essex to find a talented . It was also very dangerous. He was born in Brussels in 1901, the . Although Odette held three married names, undoubtedly, the name Churchill saved her life at Ranensbruck Concentration Camp. 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. SOE Wireless Operator/Courier Odette Wilen (nee Star). 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. 1939-1945 Star, Africa Star, Defence Medal, Italy Star, War Medal 1939 - 1945, Palestine Police Medal, MiD, Shadow Force - under command of Sir Anthony Quayle, Albania Section plus. Flames in the Field: The Story of Four SOE Agents in Occupied France by Rita Kramer and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles available now at AbeBooks.com. After Noor reported the confused situation back to London Maurice Buckmaster sent another wireless operator to assist her. She was ultimately executed. As FARMER had no leadership or wireless operator Yolande was ordered to keep London informed of the developments and problems associated with both circuits: this resulted in a large increase in wireless traffic and increased possibilities of detection. Leaving school at the age of 14, Violette worked as a shop assistant at Woolworths in Brixton London. For example, SOE organiser George Reginald Starr was the organiser of the Wheelwright network and known as "Hilaire" to French contacts in the Resistance and to other SOE personnel. 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. After her capture an SOE agent sent a diverted telegram to Buckmaster saying, Madeline had a serious accident and she was now in hospital, meaning, she had been captured and taken to Gestapos Headquarters at Avenue Foch. The new organization became known as Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the staff were given an office at 64 Baker Street in London. ARTICLES. She had been assigned to CLERGYMAN where she would organise resistance across the city of Nantes. Block received a posthumous Kings Commendation for Bravery, the Croix de Guerre Avec Palme, Legion dhonneur and the Medaille de la Resistance. His brother, George Larcher, was also an SOE agent. The following is an incomplete list of agents who served in the field for the Special Operations Executive during World War II. Christine Granville. Yolande Beekman. A quarter of them did not return. The result was the Special Operations Executive - the SOE. She gave evidence against him at the Nuremburg Trials and Suhren was convicted and hung for his crimes. When Odette joined SOE she was married to Roy Sanson, after his death she married SOE agent Peter Churchill, and after their divorce in 1955? In May 1944 the leader of STATIONER, Maurice Southgate, (code name Hector), was sent to Montlucon to meet a member of the resistance. As can be seen by the F Section Circuit activities, each circuit had a unique code name and was responsible for a specific geographical area and conditions within these circuits could suddenly change without warning. Apart from coordinating all the circuits in occupied France, SOE agents were also responsible for rebuilding circuits which had been compromised or had bad leadership and to form new circuits to replace those which had been decimated. After successfully completing the unconventional warfare course successful candidates were then sent to the Finishing School, STS1 on the Beaulieu Estate in Hampshire. Yes, there was some security probems with the Frech but not to the extstent she suggests and I would not describe the CO as incompetent and the other negative descriptions she levelled at him. Autobiography by a former New York Times journalist and one of the first SOE agents to arrive in France. I agree there was a few probems with the radio checks but the Dutch had the main probem. Courier. She displayed formidable skills as an interrogator. Code name, Member of the Shetland gang. 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. After contacting SOE in London via a wireless link they were involved in a very long and dangerous trek across France which required putting into practice all the escape and evasion skills they had been taught whilst knowing they were on the wanted list and their prison photographs were being circulated. Previously a jockey. To makes these schemes more difficult a concerned member of the public would phone the police telling them there was someone acting suspiciously and they may be a spy. Codenames: Monique, Denise Urbain. . During the chaos an SS officer entered her cell and told her to come with him, Odette assumed she was going to be shot. Francois Michelle William Reeve[citation needed], He was not used operationally. Noor and her family friends were arrested. Now a number of events, TV programmes and books are marking the sacrifice of the SOE agents alongside their comrades in uniform. Awarded for meritorious or distinguished service in war. When this did not work all her toe nails were pulled out- she still refused to talk. The popular market, which houses over 40 trend-concept food stores selling local products, has for many years been a popular spot for . back in England from the agents saying they had arrived safely. Lysander aircraft become such a regular feature of SOE operations they were nicknamed the SOE Taxi. On the night of 16/17 June she boarded a Lysander at RAF Tangmere in Sussex, bound for a landing field near Angers in north-western France. Denise Bloch was eventually taken to Ravensbruck Concentration camp, along with Violet Szabo (mentioned later) and Lilian Rolf, who was the wireless operator for HISTORIAN Circuit. [2], Nearly 50 SOE networks were operating in France when the country was liberated from German control in 1944. Instituted on August 16, 1945, and issued to subjects of the British Commonwealth who served full-time in the Armed Forces or the Merchant Navy for at least 28 days between September 3, 1939, and September 2, 1945. Successful candidates were then sent to STS21, Arisaig House, in Inverness Scotland. . French. Codename: Csar. While her colleagues were being arrested, Inayat Khan remained at large for months, the only active SOE radio operator in the Paris area. Pg. After explaining they worked for the resistance and had just escaped from prison they were told to climb onto the back of an open horse drawn cart, the Farmer and his family then hid them under straw before taking them to a Benedictine monastery where the monks fed and sheltered them for two months. Annoyed with her father, Violette grab her handbag, stumbled and the contents of her bag was scattered across the floor. Executed at Buchenwald concentration camp on 14 September 1944, Full Name: Helen Anna Agate Thormann-Bierer. From this cell, Odette later recalled she heard the shots which killed Violet Szabo, Denise Block and Lilian Rolf. Responsible for attacking a power . Thirty-nine of the 470 SOE agents in France were women, with an additional sixteen deployed to other areas. After the SS were informed by a double agent that Odette had sent plans of the German navy base at Marseille to London, all food was withdrawn and the heating to her cell was turned up. Operated in northern France from October 1942 to June 1943. If considered necessary candidates were given lessons to improve their French and to learn more about the current situation in France. Im just an ordinary person who did a job during the war (Telegraph 3 September 2015) Based on similar interviews of other former members of SOE there is no doubt that extreme modesty and humility was a common trait among SOE agents and may be one of the traits the staff looked for at Wanborough Manor. Heidi Staben, I suggest you learn about the subject before publicly abusing historical figures with rejected conspiracy theories. Commander of the British order of chivalry. Prior to the SOE, he was in Section D of the British. This new Special Operations Executive (SEO) was to be responsible for recruiting and training agents who would then be sent behind enemy lines. 1911-1943. On the night of 16/17 June she boarded a Lysander at RAF Tangmere in Sussex, bound for a landing field near Angers in north-western France. As Foot says, in his extensive official research into SOEs F Section (French Section) It has long been British government policy that the archives of SOE, the wartime Special Operations Executive, must remain secret like the archives of any other secret service.. The Abwehr (German Military Intelligence), Gestapo and Milice were always competing for the recruitment of double agents and collaborators from the small number of morally bankrupt members of society who were willing to sell people to the Germans and were not concerned those they informed on were likely to be executed or deported to concentration camps. Doing her bit in Churchills Secret Army. She was told, Noor distracted herself by writing childrens stories in her cell, and she could often be heard sobbing throughout the night. Courier. After cycling 50 miles she came across a bridge which was heavily guarded by German soldiers. It was decided Armaud would to return to Faverges, Odette and Churchill would go back to the Hotel. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Most highly decorated woman in WWII. She arrived on the night 2/3 November 1942. Approximately 470 SOE agents served in France during World War II. Its vast size, for instance, occasionally made communications and intelligence sharing difficult and due to the network being responsible for transporting people they did not know and whose identities could be difficult to verify, German agents attempted to infiltrate networks by claiming they were airmen in need of help after being shot down or crash landing in France or Belgium and some were shot after their cover stories failed to pass scrutiny. Hugo Bleicher, an Abwehr (German Military Intelligence) officer who worked against the French Resistance judged her interrogation the most skilful to which he had been subjected to by his captors. Codename: Rose. The highest civil decoration of the United Kingdom. To keep these camps apart, RF Section (pro-Gaullists) was mooted in late 1940 and came into being in early 1941. Large networks sometimes had more than one courier and wireless operator. Here they learned a variety of specialist skills such as lock-picking and safe cracking. When it comes to understanding the fate of the 118 agents who failed to return from occupied France we must turn to the many years of investigation work conducted by Vera Atkins who has been described as the most powerful and influential women to have served with SOE. It has also been estimated around 12,000 people, nearly all civilians and around half of which were women worked on the escape line and a conservative estimate of the number of those captured and subsequently executed is around 500 to 575. SOE agents, with a few exceptions, were trained in the United Kingdom before being infiltrated into France. 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