Bernard OConnor - Churchills Angels: How Britains Women Secret Agents Changed the Course of the Second World War

First published 2012

Amberley Publishing
The Hill, Stroud
Gloucestershire, GL5 4EP

www.amberley-books.com

Copyright Bernard OConnor 2012

The right of Bernard OConnor to be identified as the Author
of this work has been asserted in accordance with the
Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing
from the Publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-1-4456-0828-0 (PRINT)
ISBN 978-1-4456-1584-4 (ELECTRONIC)

Giliana Gerson, over Pyrnes to Lyon, 23 May 1941

Anatole, landed by a Lysander nr St Sans, 27 February 1942

Yvonne Rudellat, landed by felucca (fishing boat), nr Antibes, 30 July 1942

Valentine Blanche Charlet, landed by felucca, nr Agay, 1 September 1942

Lise de Baissac, parachuted from Whitley bomber, nr Chambord, 24 September 1942

Andre Borrel, parachuted from Whitley bomber, nr Chambord, 24 September 1942

Mary Lindell, landed by Lysander nr Ussel, 26 October 1942

Andre de Jongh, already in Brussels

Odette Sansom, landed by felucca nr Port Miou, 3 November 1942

Mary Herbert, landed by felucca nr Port Miou, 3 November 1942

Marie Thrse le Chne, landed by felucca nr Port Miou, 3 November 1942

Angela, parachuted from a Halifax nr Saumur, Autumn 1942

Jacqueline Nearne, parachuted from a Halifax bomber nr Brioude, 25 January 1943

Beatrice Trix Terwindt, parachuted from a Halifax bomber nr Steenwijk, 13 February 1943

Franine Agazarian, landed by a Lysander nr Marnay, 17 March 1943

Julienne Aisner, landed by a Lysander nr Tours, 14 May 1943

Vera Leigh, landed by a Lysander nr Tours, 14 May 1943

Noor Inayat Khan, landed by a Lysander nr Vieux Briollay, 16 June 1943

Diana Rowden, landed by a Lysander nr Vieux Briollay, 16 June 1943

Sonia Olschanezky, already in Paris

Ccile Lefort, landed by a Lysander nr Vieux Briollay, 16 June 1943

Eliane Plewman, parachuted from a Halifax nr Lons-le-Saunier, 13 August
1943

Beatrice Yvonne Cormeau, parachuted from a Halifax nr St Antoine du Queyret, 22 August 1943

Elyzbieta Zawacka, parachuted from a Halifax nr Warsaw, 9 September 1943

Yolande Beekman, landed by a Lysander nr Vieux Briollay, 17 September 1943

Cecile Pearl Witherington, parachuted from a Halifax nr Tendu, 22 September 1943

Elizabeth Devereaux Rochester, landed by a Hudson nr Bletterans, 18 October 1943

Danielle Redd, parachuted nr Montluon, 9 February 1944

Anne-Marie Walters, parachuted from a Halifax, nr Cron dArmagnac, 4 January 1944

Marguerite Petitjean, parachuted from a Halifax, nr St Uze, 29 January 1944

Madeleine Damerment, parachuted from a Halifax, nr Sainville, 29 February 1944

Eileen Didi Nearne, landed by Lysander nr Les Lagnys, 2 March 1944

Denise Bloch, landed by Lysander nr Baudreville, 2 March 1944

Yvonne Baseden, parachuted from a Halifax nr Gabarret, 18 March 1944

Yvonne Fontaine, landed by gunboat nr Beg-an-Fry, 21 March 1944

Virginia Hall, landed by gunboat nr Beg-an-Fry, 21 March 1944

Maureen Paddy OSullivan, parachuted from a Halifax nr Figeac, 22 March 1944

Lucie Aubrac, already in Lyon

Violette Szab, parachuted from a Liberator nr Azay-le Rideau, 4 April 1944 and again from a Liberator nr Saint-Gilles-les-Frets, 7 June 1944

Lilian Rolfe, landed by a Lysander nr Azay-sur-Cher, 5 April 1944

Muriel Byck, parachuted from a Halifax nr Issoudun, 8 April 1944

Odette Wilen, parachuted from a Halifax nr Issoudun, 11 April 1944

Nancy Wake, parachuted from a Liberator nr Les Menus, 29 April 1944

Phyllis Pippa Latour, parachuted from a Liberator nr Mont du Saule, 1 May 1944

Marcelle Somers, landed by a Hudson nr Manziat, 3 May 1944

Marguerite Knight, parachuted from a Liberator nr Poinon-les-Larrey, 5 May 1944

Madeleine Lavigne, parachuted from a Halifax nr Saone-et-Loire, 23 May 1944

Sonya Butt, parachuted from a Liberator nr La Cropte, 28 May 1944

Ginette Jullian, parachuted from a Liberator nr Saint-Viatre-les-Tanneries, 7 June 1944

Krystyna Skarbek (Christine Granville), parachuted from a Halifax nr Beaurepaire, 6 July 1944

Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, landed by a Hudson nr Egligny, 6 July 1944

Francoise Dissart, already in Toulouse

Elaine Madden, parachuted from a Halifax nr dHouyet, 3/4 August 1944

Olga Jackson, parachuted nr Brussels, 3/4 August 1944

Frdrique Dupuich, landed by a Lysander nr Genill, 6 August 1944

Josephine Hamilton, parachuted nr Abberkerk, 10 August 1944

Sibyl Anne Sturrock, parachuted into Yugoslavia, September 1944

Jos Gemmeke, parachuted from a Halifax nr Nieuwkoop, 10 March 1945

Between May 1941 and September 1944 over sixty women were infiltrated into occupied Western Europe. They were sent as part of Winston Churchills plan to set Europe ablaze with missions to work with various resistance movements in France, Belgium, Holland, Poland and Yugoslavia as organisers, couriers and wireless operators. Most left England on moonlit nights from RAF Tempsford, a remote, isolated airfield in Bedfordshire, between Bedford and Cambridge, about fifty miles north of London. Many parachuted from aeroplanes but some were landed in the early hours of the morning in fields or clearings in woods, away from built-up areas. A few were landed by motor boats and fishing boats. Some spent over a year on their dangerous tasks; others were caught as soon as they landed. Having to live in constant fear of arrest, imprisonment, interrogation, torture and execution, they were some of the bravest and most courageous women of the Second World War. Of those who were captured, at least fifteen are known to have been executed. Two were liberated at the end of the war and only one escaped. Two died of natural causes but the others either stayed in their home countries or were successfully brought back to England.

A measure of their contribution to the war effort is the number of awards they were given after the war. Some were honoured more than once and many posthumously. They include one Knight Commander of the British Commonwealth, one Commander of the British Empire, two Orders of the British Empire, nineteen Members of the British Empire, four George Crosses, twelve Chevaliers de Legion de lHonneur, twenty-nine Croix de Guerre, nine Mentioned in Dispatches, eleven Medailles de Resistance, one Medaille de Reconnaissance, one Kings Medal for Courage, six Kings Medals for Brave Conduct, one Chevalier de lOrdre de Leopold II, one American Distinguished Service Cross, one United States Medal of Freedom and one Australian Companion of the Order.

Having lived near RAF Tempsford since the mid-1980s, I have researched and published a number of books on the airfield. As I was often invited by local groups to give talks on the subject, often the Womens Institute, I tried to tailor my stories to those of the women involved. Researching accounts of their lives and wartime experiences has been rather like trying to find pieces of a jigsaw puzzle and put them together to produce a picture without having a box lid. Some pieces might not fit exactly and I have to admit that there are many gaps. Using their personnel files in the National Archives, contemporary and modern newspaper articles, obituaries, biographies and autobiographies, specialist history books, personal memoirs, interviews and the Internet, I have attempted to tell their stories. While some of these women have had books written and films made about their exploits, the vast majority have not. What follows is my attempt to ensure that the contributions they made to bringing about the successful conclusion of the Second World War is not forgotten. I will leave it to the reader to picture the reality of their experiences.