Noor Inayat Khan: Gestapo at the Door

Noor Inayat Khan

Courtesy of Shrabani Basu

The Gestapo knew there was a radio operator in Paris, but for months Noor successfully eluded them. They failed to track her down because Noor was careful to transmit from many different locations and because she was a very fast radio operator. She also possessed a keen intuition that alerted her to the dangers of being followed or the overtures of too-friendly strangers. The SOE knew that the Gestapo was closing in on Noor and continued to urge her return to London. But she still refused to leave until they could send a replacement. Once she was assured that this would happen, she would make plans to return to London.

One day when Noor opened her apartment door, a French man named Pierre Cartaud, who was working for the Gestapo, was there to meet her . . .

Excerpt from "Noor Inayat Khan: Royal Agent" from Women Heroes of World War II: 26 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Resistance, and Rescue.

Pearl Witherington: SOE Courier

Pearl Witherington and Henri Cornioley, courtesy of Herve Larroque.

Courier work was often dangerous, sometimes in surprising ways. Once Pearl was sent to collect money from a certain maquis leader but she had been given no password with which to identify herself. She was greeted coldly. She tried to give code names of the other agents. This did nothing. The leader became more hostile. Pearl sensed she was in serious danger. Finallly, she mentioned the name of the farmer on whose property she had landed the night she parachuted into France.

Suddenly, several large men came into the room . . .

Excerpt from "Pearl Witherington: The Courier Who Became a Leader" from Women Heroes of World War II: 26 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Resistance, and Rescue.

Great Britain's Princess Anne at the 20th Anniversary of the F Section SOE Memorial in Valencay, France, May 6th, 2011

The memorial to the agents of the SOE F (French) Section was dedicated in May of 1991 in Valencay, France. The 20th anniversary of the memorial marks the 70th anniversary of the first SOE agent dropped into Nazi-occupied France, May 6, 1941.

Photos by Herve Larroque, publisher of Pearl Witherington Cornioley's 1995 originally French memoir, Pauline, which was translated into English in 2013 as Code Name Pauline.

Josephine Baker, the Spy at the Party

A beautiful, glamorous woman at the Italian embassy party was making quite a stir. No one who noticed Josephine Baker laughing, talking, and flirting with the party guests would have suspected for a moment that she was there on a mission as an Allied spy. After a while, she walked casually toward the ladies' room. She had overheard something that might prove to be valuable information. When she was alone, Josephine quickly wrote what she had heard and pinned the note to her underwear. Then she returned to the party, once again playing the part of a vivacious entertainer. Who would dare even think of searching for evidence of espionage in the undergarments of Josephine Baker, the famous African-American turned Frenchwoman who had taken Paris by storm?

Apparently no one.

Opening from "Josephine Baker: Singer Spy" from Women Heroes of World War II: 32 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Resistance, and Rescue.

Condemned at Ravensbruck

Andree Virot, courtesy of the estate of Andree Peel and Loebertas Publishing.

During a roll call, a Nazi official was moving slowly through the rows of prisoners, looking at each prisoner intently. He stopped and looked at Andree for a long moment.

"Take that woman's number," he shouted, lashing at Andree with his whip, "for the gas chamber."

A guard came up to Andree and violently twisted her arm so that he could see the number tattooed on it. He wrote her number on a piece of paper, then walked away and placed the paper on a table containing a pile of similar papers with the numbers of other doomed prisoners. Andree was filled with a deep sadness. She would never see her family again. She would not live to see France freed from Nazi tyranny.

Excerpt from "Andree Virot: Agent Rose" from Women Heroes of World War II: 26 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Resistance, and Rescue.

Andree Virot: The Invasion of Brest, Brittany

Andree Virot. Courtesy of Estate of Andree Peel and Loebertas Publishing.

The Germans were coming. Everyone in Brest, a French coastal town in the far northwest province of Brittany, had shut themselves inside their homes. Andree Virot was inside her beauty salon, filled with a deep sadness. The street outside was absolutely quiet.

Suddenly, loud running footsteps shattered the silence. Andree ran to the window. French soldiers were trying to escape from the fast-approaching Germans. In their military uniforms, they would certainly be taken prisoner by the Germans. Andree quickly invited them to hide in her beauty salon. Then she ran from house to house, asking neighbors for men's clothing. Everyone was willing to help, and the soldiers were able to go on their way disguised as civilians.

A short time later, a huge number of German troops appeared on the street, making a loud noise with their motorbikes, roughly pushing the people of Brest against the walls so they could parade through. As Andree watched, a German officer approahced her, sneering, and said, in very good French, "This upsets you, does it not? We are the conquerors!"

Opening paragraphs of "Andree Virot: Agent Rose" from Women Heroes of World War II: 26 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Resistance, and Rescue.

Muriel Phillips: U.S. Army Nurse. At the Battle of the Bulge.

Muriel Phillips during the Battle of the Bulge. The blackjack is in her right hand and the switchblade in her left pocket, both gifts from wounded GIs in case the Germans came too close.

Section of the 16 general tent hospital, courtesy of Muriel Phillips Engelman.

"In December 1944, six months after the Normandy invasion, the buzz bombs were still falling all over Liege, but now something even worse was on the horizon. German troops launched a sudden surprise attack that managed to push U.S. troops backward, making a bulge in the troop line, in what was called the Ardennes Offensive, more commonly known as the Battle of the Bulge.

"The tent hospital became more crowded than ever with wounded GIs, and the Germans were coming closer and closer. Muriel had more to worry about than most of the other nurses. Her dog tag -- the metal identification tags that every serviceman or -woman was required to wear at all times -- had an "H" on it, for Hebrew. Muriel was Jewish, and she understood what the Nazis would do to her if they were able to capture her.

"On Christmas Eve, the Germans were only 10 miles from Liege. The sickest patients were evacuated to hospitals in France or England, away from the fighting. The wounded GIs who remained in the tent hospital were concerned for the safety of their nurses and often urged the nurses to take their places in the evacuation vehicles. None of the nurses did so, of course. Muriel received two "presents" from her protective patients that week. One was a blackjack, a type of weapon made out of rubber hosing and lead sinkers, and the other was a switchblade. Muriel had no idea if she would be able to follow the instructions that accompanied her gifts if approached by a German (the blackjack was to be slapped across his eyes and the switchblade plunged into his abdomen), but she was grateful for her patients' concern."

Excerpt from Women Heroes of World War II: "Muriel Phillips: U.S. Army Nurse."

(Note: Muriel wrote the forward to the second edition of the book mentioned above).

Muriel's Memoir: Mission Accomplished: Stop the Clock.