The organization's F section sent more than four hundred agents into France, thirty-nine of whom were women. On returning home to London, after completing Beaulieu and now officially a member of the SOE, within a few weeks Buckmaster asked to see her at Bakers Street. View all posts by Alan Malcher, Been to Dachau a few times and was looking forward to reading your book,Im surprised you havent written about the phantom squad,sir Gordon Richards,David Niven and ex commissioner Sir Robert mark whose HQ was at Pembroke lodge Richmond park London look after yourself,Kelvin (BTP) . 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). Acorn Technology is working with a leading NHS trust in Essex to find a talented . 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. If considered necessary candidates were given lessons to improve their French and to learn more about the current situation in France. 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. The following is an incomplete list of agents who served in the field for the Special Operations Executive during World War II. Le Croix de Chevalier de l'Ordre Royal du Lion, avec Palme, According to The Sunday Times, Ian Fleming used Hudson as a model for his character, James Bond. 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. Those who passed all courses were eligible to join SOEs F Section, commonly referred to as the Firm whose headquarters were at 64 Bakers Street London and members of this exclusive club quickly got to know Maurice Buckmaster Buck and Vera Atkins. YeoThomas SOE Agents in France", "Honor for Jewish war hero and camp survivor", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_SOE_agents&oldid=1130435753, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2020, Articles with unsourced statements from August 2019, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Member of the "Aakre Gang." Minutes before the Gestapo broke down the door she had burned her messages and codes. Suzanne Warenghem (Warren) who served with SOE DF Section in France 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. Escaped back to England and survived war. 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. SOE in France was first published in 1966, followed by a second impression with amendments in 1968. The second highest civil decoration of the United Kingdom It awards civilian gallantry in the face of enemy action and brave deeds more generally. Sorry admin but stupid people like this annoy me. 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. The organization's greatest presence was in France, where the SOE dispatched 1,800 agents from May 1941 to September 1944. 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. Military Historian and Freelance Defence Journalist. 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. 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. Whilst Didi was sending an urgent message to London she heard German soldiers outside her safe house but continued sending the message. Apart from the security issues associated with assisting strangers whose identities could be difficult to verify the Germans were aware a double agent or a well-placed informer could cause considerable damage to the entire network and Harold Cole began using his position in the PAT line to make a lucrative income by selling men and women who trusted him to the Germans. 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. It also becomes clear that her genuine affection for her agents were reciprocated. After this operator parachuted into the hands of German forces it became clear the Germans had managed to recovery an SOE wireless and codes. Odette Sanson was awarded the George Cross, MBE, Chevalier de la Legion dhonneur, 1939-45 Star, Defence Medal, War Medal 1939-45, Queens Coronation Medal, Queens Silver Jubilee Medal. In 1939 he enlisted into the Royal Engineers and shortly after arriving in France as part of the British Expeditionary Force Cole was arrested after it was discovered he had stolen all the money from the officers and Sergeants mess before leaving England. 2) Wireless Radio Operator: send and receive wireless messages to and from SOE headquarters in London, encode and decode messages, maintain wireless sets. Registration #: 316119. The SOE agents assigned to each network are also listed. 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. 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. I also reject her views based on reent evidence. While Dericourt made his secret arrangements for the landings of SOE F-Section agents, preparations for the insertion of other members of the Prosper network began. George Hiller. When the network was betrayed in 1940, she fled to Portugal and eventually joined SOE in 1942. During Vera Atkins relentless investigation to discover what had happened to her agents who she considered family, she interviewed an SOE agents who had been incarcerated in a neighbouring cell to Noor. . But while some are widely known-Violette Szabo, Odette Sansom . The msg. Code names: Cover Micheline Rabatel. This included Jack Agazarian, Claude de Baissac, . 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. 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. They left France on 30 April. 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. Registration #: 306766. Apart from the Germany army and the Gestapo, there were collaborators and the German authorities was paying many thousands of francs for information. During the confusion of Operation Dynamo, the emergency evacuation of Dunkirk, his guards were naturally more concerned in surviving the German onslaught than guarding a petty thief and Cole soon found an opportunity to escape, but after being stranded in occupied France instead of attempting to escape to England Cole felt confident he could use the occupation to his advantage and began developing a new scam. Codenames: Justin, Roland, Dieudonn. Prior to the SOE, he was in Section D of the British. 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. 8.5%) and . 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. When interviewed after the war Pearl Witherington said, I dont consider myself a heroine, not at all. She was returned to her dark, hot cell and still deprived of food and water. Radio operator. 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. After his arrest Pearl Witherington took command of STATIONER which consisted of 2,000 men, this later increased to 3,000 under her command. A casualty classification generally used by militaries to describe the deaths of their own forces at the hands of hostile forces. Responsible for attacking a power . As children, Violette and her four brothers were encouraged to learn French and at an early age they were fluent in the language. Ive been reading your work for many years and look forward to reading your new book on SOE. 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. This part of their training also consisted of schemes (tests) lasting 48 or 72 hours. Instituted in May 1945. 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. After this, any wireless communications containing her code poem or wireless code name would be regarded as a German deception. Codenames: Monique, Denise Urbain. SOE agents siphoned off all the axle oil from the division . Armenian father and French mother, brother of the RAF fighter ace. Other lists shown circuits being decimated which meant all, or nearly all its members were killed or captured. Courier. I agree there was a few probems with the radio checks but the Dutch had the main probem. He was captured but escaped from prison and into Spain in 1942. Resistance appeared hopeless, but Madame Szabo, Seizing a Sten gun and as much ammunition as she could carry, barricaded herself in part of the house, and, exchanging shot for shot with the enemy, killed or wounded several of them. Noor and her family friends were arrested. She arrived on the night 2/3 November 1942. Associazione Nazionale Carristi d'Italia. 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). Churchill decided to close SPINDLE and to move the surviving member of his team to Saint-Jorioz, a village close to the Swiss and Italian borders. Sister of SOE agents Eileen & Francis Nearne. She displayed formidable skills as an interrogator. 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. The Special Operations Executive in Burma 1941-1945 Burma Star - Website of Burma Star Association. 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. Married Buntie Macklin-Sprake (Radio Operator Trainer). This page was last edited on 30 December 2022, at 04:40. Heidi Staben, I suggest you learn about the subject before publicly abusing historical figures with rejected conspiracy theories. Between her capture and July 1944, Sansom was repeatedly tortured for information on her fellow agents, but refused to give anything up. Networks, operations, and personnel Asymptote. Executed at Buchenwald concentration camp on 14 September 1944, Full Name: Helen Anna Agate Thormann-Bierer. He arrived in Paris in December 1942, and his wife, Francine, soon joined him. 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. After Odette and Churchill narrowly missed an ambush during an attempt to reach a Lysander which had been sent to extract them, Churchill decided they would stay at the last remaining safe house, the Hotel de la Posts, and sent his wireless operator, Rabinovitch (Armaud) to Faverges, a village some ten miles away from the Hotel. KIA aboard HMS Fidelity. : Giliana Balmaceda: The first female SOE agent to be sent to occupied France (sent in May 1941). 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. 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