(See George Cross Citation). Instituted May 1945. Little is known for certain about the childhood of Denis Joseph Rake, who like many secret agents continually embroidered and camouflaged the details of his life. Codename: Cicero. On 13 January 1944, Gestapo agents arrest SOE agent Yolande Beekman in Saint-Quentin, France. Dutch SOE Radio Operator. Her father, who had served in France with the British Army during the First World War married a French women and they moved to London after the War. needed to include a misspelled word. The popular market, which houses over 40 trend-concept food stores selling local products, has for many years been a popular spot for . Yeo-Thomas was captured by the Gestapo on 21 March 1944. : Giliana Balmaceda: The first female SOE agent to be sent to occupied France (sent in May 1941). Shortly after she arrived, most of the other agents at her post were arrested. The only secure transmissions from the Paris area were from Noor and she was the now the only person London could trust. Memoirs of SOE agents have always been rare - so many were either killed in action or executed - and today they are almost unheard of. Military historian and defence commentator Noor and her family friends were arrested. In her rush, Violette had not checked whether she had picked up everything- as the door closed her father saw her parachute wings on the floor- everything now made sense. Your email address will not be published. Five months before the BEF was sent to France. This page was last edited on 30 December 2022, at 04:40. Military historian and defence commentator Thousands of spies would eventually penetrate every theater of World War II, from Poland to Ethiopia to Burma, with most serving in continental Europe. If Warenghem, as Ghmard states, was serving with SOE she was likely to be a member of DF Section which was an independent subsection within SOE responsible for escape and evasion which worked closely with similar organisations including MI9, and this would account for her connection with the escape line. Codenames: Justin, Roland, Dieudonn. She saw every agent off to their operation, she kept in contact with their next of kin and organised coded messaged on the BBC so they could be kept informed about people they had left behind. It became clear to Odette that Suhren believed he would receive a lesser prison sentence by protecting a relative of Winston Churchill. (ISBN: 9780415408004) from Amazon's Book Store. This is not the case. Most highly decorated woman in WWII. 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. Alias: Madeleine Latour . Activities included gathering intelligence, organizing and supplying indigenous resistance groups, and sabotaging transportation, communications, and industrial facilities. British commendation to acknowledged brave acts by civilians and members of the military in non-warlike circumstances during a time of war or in peacetime where the action would not otherwise be recognised by an existing award. You can watch A Call to Spy's trailer here. However, a high proportion of operators who maintain strict wireless security were also detected. Buy SOE in France: An Account of the Work of the British Special Operations Executive in France 1940-1944 (Government Official History Series) 1 by Foot, M.R.D. After this initial stage of selection candidates received basic firearms training, elementary Morse code, basic sabotage techniques, explosives and unarmed combat. Resistance fighter would need to be recruited and armed. 151. Mar 28, 2018 Ian Harvey, Guest Author. 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. Also known by the surnames "Sansom", Sent together with Carl Johan Bruhn over Denmark, Organised Mission Helmsman in JulyAugust 44, commanded the Allied No 1 Special Forces in the Italian Campaign. This intricate tale concentrates on the work of the 400 hand-picked . The organization's greatest presence was in France, where the SOE dispatched 1,800 agents from May 1941 to September 1944. . Trained in STS 26 at Glen More and other Special Training Schools. This led to a continuation of the previous argument. Many werent. After telling his wife he went to Violettes room where he apologised and told her he was proud of her. Suzanne Warenghem and Blanche Charlet were told to make for a rendezvous point where they would meet a guide who would take them across the Pyrenees into neutral Spain but by the time they arrived the weather had deteriorated, and the snow was too deep to cross the mountains. 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. After the war Airey Neave (MI9) said Cole was among the most selfish and callous traitors who ever served the enemy in time of war. F. F. E. Yeo-Thomas (alias Shelley, alias Asymptote alias Cheval) and Maurice Lostrie (alias Trieur) were dropped on the night of 24 February 1944 by a RAF Halifax of 161 Squadron on DZ (Drop-zone) Sarrall, 16km NE of Montluon, Allier. 8.5%) and . These SOE agents were later captured by the Gestapo, tortured and executed. Awarded to British Commonwealth subjects for non-operational military and civilian war service during WWII. Landed in France by aircraft in March 1943. Most agents entered France by parachute or ferried in unarmed Lysander aircraft with the pilot relying on torch lights from members of the resistance to mark the remote landing strip. During her say in Paris she was arrested twice by the Gestapo but on both occasions managed to talk her way out of the Gestapo Headquarters at 18 Avenue Voch. Married Buntie Macklin-Sprake (Radio Operator Trainer). Codename: Typist, In charge of Shelburn Line (Shelbourne Line) Operation Bonaparte. Agents continued to be sent to the Prosper network for some time after it came under control of the Germans in June 1943.[11]. During her last parachute decent at RAF Ringway she made a bad landing and twisted her ankle and was temporarily taken off the active list to allow her to recover at home. Foot (Author) Visit . SOE agents siphoned off all the axle oil from the division . Wireless transmissions: Ambroise and Crinoline. They were then given the location of a rendezvous point in Brittany around 919.8 km (over 571 miles) away where an extraction by sea had been arranged. When this did not work all her toe nails were pulled out- she still refused to talk. Some of the original research by MRD Foot mentioned below and other authors including R.J. Minney who wrote Carve her Name with Pride (the life of Violette Szabo) have been challenged by new findings. 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 . This isolated area with unpredictable weather was ideal for extensive military training. Associazione Nazionale Carristi d'Italia. Although Odette held three married names, undoubtedly, the name Churchill saved her life at Ranensbruck Concentration Camp. Failing to see the secret signal to indicate danger, he was arrested by the Gestapo who were waiting for him. 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. Name SOE Section Nationality Born-Died Awards Notes; 1920-unk: WRNS: Claude de Baissac: 1907-1974 : Brother of Lis de Baissac and husband of Mary Katherine Herbert: 1905-2004: Sister of SOE Agent Claude de Baissac, Portrayed as Louise Desfontaines in the movie Female Agents (Les Femmes de l'ombre). George Hiller. During her training she showed a natural talent for receiving and sending Morse code and became one of F Sections wireless operators. Senior Abwehr and Gestapo officers also discovered the structure of the escape network presented a number of security issues they could exploit. Established in 1941 with the aim of supplying Occupied France with a steady stram of highly trained resistance agents, this clandestine Second World War network grew to become a cricual part of the Allied arsenal. Organizer for Stockbroker circuit. Everything about SOE was unorthodox and the organisation was like a club membership by invitation only. Five months before the BEF was sent to France. Inayat Khan joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, was trained as a wireless operator and was recruited to join the Special Operations Executive. The . After the Lysander landed she quickly gathered what information she could from the small number of Resistance fighters who had illuminated the landing strip, she then made her way to Rouen to meet Claud Malraux, the second in command of SALESMAN circuit, and one of the men wanted by the Gestapo. 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. 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. Thirty-nine of the 470 SOE agents in France were women, with an additional sixteen deployed to other areas. Although disbanded in 1946, the Special Operations Executive (SOE) remains one of the most difficult wartime organisations for historians to research. But more than 70 years ago, a group of intrepid women was recruited to fight alongside men as agents by a secret British organization called the Special Operations Executive (SOE). After reporting the situation to Buckmaster Odettes operation was cancelled and he gave permission for her to work with Peter Churchill, she was now a member of SPINDLE. She was the oldest female SOE agent sent to France, serving there from 31 October 1942 until 16 August 1943. Reg #: 257605. Shortly after her arrival Yolande and the representative were arrested and within a few hours some 50 members of the resistance were in the hands of the Gestapo. Tracce di cingolo: Compendio generale di storia dei Carristi 1917-2009. Determined to erase the humiliation he felt after the fall of France, Harry joined the Special Operations Executive (SOE), a British secret service sending agents behind enemy lines to stir up resistance and "set Europe ablaze". His brother, George Larcher, was also an SOE agent. 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. Other lists shown circuits being decimated which meant all, or nearly all its members were killed or captured. Although no indication was given as to what the job entailed, Noor wanted to do something more interesting and accepted the position. When she arrived at the address the contact refused to assist her and without his help it was impossible to establish the safe houses. The Special Operations Executive in Burma 1941-1945 Burma Star - Website of Burma Star Association. Although research is still incomplete and I understand someone is currently writing a book on the sisters, it has been established that at the age of 21 Eileen, known as Didi, was an F Section Wireless Operator working near Paris. Vera Atkins was determined that war criminals would pay for their crimes. After being briefed on what he knew of the situation, which was very little, she travelled to Paris under the identity of a secretary named Corinne Leroy. . Stage 1. Between her capture and July 1944, Sansom was repeatedly tortured for information on her fellow agents, but refused to give anything up. Book. During his criminal career he used several identities, during one scam he convinced people he was a former British Army officer who had served in Hong Kong and for another he claimed to be Wing Commander Wain of the Royal Air Force. 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. One of the few SOE female field agents promoted to captain. I agree there was a few probems with the radio checks but the Dutch had the main probem. She worked as a courier with the code name of Adele. (Within the circuits she was commonly known as Line or Danielle). KIA aboard HMS Fidelity. Deported to and, Organised the Vic escape line in France into neutral Spain. Block received a posthumous Kings Commendation for Bravery, the Croix de Guerre Avec Palme, Legion dhonneur and the Medaille de la Resistance. She was twice arrested by the German security authorities, but each time managed to get away. On the night of the 7/8 June Violette and Claud Malraux, who was to command the new SALESMAN circuit, arrived in France by Parachute. by Kate Vigurs. Odette Hallowes. Operated under the name "Madame Pauline" in France. 2009. Sister of SOE Agent Claude de Baissac. When interviewed after the war Pearl Witherington said, I dont consider myself a heroine, not at all. After cycling 50 miles she came across a bridge which was heavily guarded by German soldiers. This was a tip off that they were in enemy hands. [2], Nearly 50 SOE networks were operating in France when the country was liberated from German control in 1944. In all, 3,200 . Apart from the Germany army and the Gestapo, there were collaborators and the German authorities was paying many thousands of francs for information. It is highest gallantry award for civilians as well as for military personnel in actions which are not in the face of the enemy or for which purely military honours would not normally be granted. The little information we have on Denise Bloch was obtained by Vera Atkins during her extensive investigation into missing agents. Yolande Elsa Maria Unternhrer was born in Paris on 7 November 1911 to a Swiss father and an English mother. During this period the F Section Circuits Activity map for PROSPER is Det (detected) and this may have been updated to run (on the run). 336 Pages, 5.00 x 7.75 in, 22 b-w illus. 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. The most highly decorated naval officer of World War II. 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. Instrumental in gathering intelligence and important documents such as rations cards for implementing safe houses, routes, and sustenance for field agents. 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. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. During her military training she impressed her instructors; she was one of the best shot they had seen, she was also physically and mentally tough. After landing, with the help the local Resistance, she made her way north to join the MUSIAN circuit who were operating in the strategically important town of St Quentin. Her children and the convent believed their mother was working in Scotland and Vera Atkins, using pre-written letters from Odette, continued the pretence. 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. Sixty years after qualifying and being parachuted into occupied France she was finally awarded her wings and remarked, I was tickled pink because I was somewhat muffed that no one thought to give me them all those years ago..(Telegraph 3 September 2015), Recruited: May 1943 (F Section Wireless Operator). Married, arrested in 1944, shot at Buchenwald 5 October 1944, Killed in action when Germans carried out attack on, arrested June 1944. 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. Noor Inayat Khan was posthumously awarded the George Cross. With her was Diane Rowden, Cecily Lefort and Charles . Nicknamed 'White Mouse' by the Gestapo as she continued to evade capture by them. Although PAT was the largest escape line it worked jointly with MI9, DF Section SOE, the Comet Line, Shelburne Escape Line, Overcloud and several others which were established and run by French citizens after Operation Dynamo which was the emergency evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940. 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. Recruited: February 1943 (F Section Wireless Operator), Code name: Yvonne de Chauvigny, Mariette, Wireless transmission Kilt. 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. 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. On 25 January 1943? Until the entire German occupation of France in 1942, SOE agents in France benefited from being able to travel more or less in disguise through the south - non-occupied - part of France. 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! A year after entering the SOE, Odette was captured alongside two other agents in occupied France. 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. Wireless Operator. 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. 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. Vera Atkins, as we now know, was not a person to mess with, she was determined to know what had happened to her agents and demanded that anyone responsible for war crimes should pay with their life. Although no documents are available, it is known that all the resistance fighters from this circuit were scattering across France in the hope of receiving protection from other circuits. 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. This further increased her workload and she was now constantly on the move to avoid detection. Among the gripes were that clothes given to agents were often too new and cut . This government information film, Now the Truth Can be Told basically looks at some of the unclassified work they were involved in during their time with the SOE. Acorn Technology is working with a leading NHS trust in Essex to find a talented . This part of their training also consisted of schemes (tests) lasting 48 or 72 hours. 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. 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. Claude de Baissac. This would often require agents to travel many miles visiting circuits throughout France and not knowing whether the circuit they were visiting had been infiltrated or its members were under Gestapo surveillance. Recruited: August 1941. Instituted in 1926. Special Operations Executive (SOE) In June 1940, a secret volunteer service was recruited to create havoc and to wage war behind enemy lines. Courier. Yvonne Rudellat PHYSICIAN Died Belsen April 1945 following ill treatment. Although he survived the war, whilst at the Buchenwald Concentration Camp 16 members of his circuit were hanged. Irrespective of gender all agents underwent the same selection and training. The body was Eileen, the older sister. 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. Foot provides some background to the origins and nature of the SOE and describes the operations of agents who worked on French soil. On her arrival at Ravensbruck, on 26 July, the Camp Commandant, Fritz Suhren, had already heard and believed Odette was connected to the British Prime Minister by marriage. Much of this dangerous work was done by women: not only were they less likely to raise suspicions when routinely stopped by German soldiers, men could be taken off the street and forced to work in factories supporting the German war effort. When the network was betrayed in 1940, she fled to Portugal and eventually joined SOE in 1942. During the Second World War the SOE sent 470 agents into France including 39 women. This article lists the clandestine networks, also known as circuits, (rseaux in French) established in France by F Section of the British Special Operations Executive during World War II. ", 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. Role: Wireless Operator (F Section) Circuit: FREELANCE. Responsible for attacking a power . Prior to the SOE, he was in Section D of the British. 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. He spent most . All these SOE agents were sent to France. The SOE was formed in July 1940 on the orders of Churchill. Four months after being moved to her new cell the rapid Allied advance resulted in many of the guards and SS officers fleeing the camp to avoid capture. 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. 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. 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. The book, which details the exploits in France of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), the organisation set up by Churchill in July 1940 to 'set Europe ablaze' by conducting sabotage and subversion throughout German-occupied territory, was the first history of . Cole was arrested several times by the Germans but according to witnesses he was never roughly treated and was quickly released, and because his arrest sometimes coincided with the arrest of those he identified to the Gestapo, led to speculation these were orchestrated in an attempt to prevent raising suspicion among members of his network. 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. 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. Awarded for meritorious or distinguished service in war. SOE (Special Operations Executive) F section operations in France. 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. "Mdaille de la Reconnaissance franaise". (LogOut/ After the Gestapo continued to arrest hundreds of resistance members and their families, and SOE agents made their way to safer houses, Noor became the only F Section Wireless Operator in the Paris area. 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. Her file refer to her as Petite, just under five-feet five tall, but her character was far more robust than her looks suggest. . 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. As we now live in a period of microelectronics and mobile phones, its important to remember that Noor and other wireless operators were using wireless equipment which were so large they were built into a family size suitcase and weighed 30lbs (14kg). Elementary Morse code, basic sabotage techniques, explosives and unarmed combat neutral Spain Germany and!, he was arrested by the Gestapo as she continued to evade capture by them in July on..., undoubtedly, the name Churchill saved her life at Ranensbruck Concentration Camp 16 members of his were. July 1944, Gestapo agents arrest SOE agent Yolande Beekman in Saint-Quentin, France, Sansom was repeatedly for. 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