Minnesota Spy ClubMar 17, 1910: On this date, future Special Operations Executive agent Francis Suttill was born. He was organizer of the PROSPER circuit, the largest & most important network in France. Infiltrated by Nazis, the circuit collapsed in 1943. He was arrested 6/24/43 and hanged at Sachsenhausen on ~3/21/1945.
SOE agent Anne-Marie Walters survived the war and was awarded the MBE, the Croix de Guerre and the Médaille de la Reconnaissance française. In 1946, she published an account of her experiences with the SOE titled Moondrop to Gascony which won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1947. Walters died in France October 2, 1998, at the age of 75. (2/2)
#WW2 #SOE #FSection #France #WomensHistoryMonth #Shero
https://wartimespyladies.blogspot.com/2013/11/anne-marie-walters-1923-1998.html
Mar 16, 1923: On this date Anne-Marie Walters was born in Geneva, Switzerland. She served in the Special Operations Executive as a courier in F Section, WHEELWRIGHT circuit. Her SOE Code name was Colette. She arrived in France on Jan 3, 1944. At age 20, she was the 2nd youngest SOE agent to serve in the field. (1/2)
#WW2 #SOE #FSection #France #WomensHistoryMonth #Shero
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne-Marie_Walters
Didi Nearne was arrested July 25, 1944 after the Nazis detected her radio transmissions. She was tortured at Paris Gestapo headquarters & sent to Ravensbrück. After transfer to a forced labor camp in Silesia, Nearne escaped on foot as she was marched through a forest. She survived the war, worked for 30 years as a nurse telling no one of her wartime secrets, & died Sep 2, 2010. (2/2)
#WW2 #SOE #FSection #France #WomensHistoryMonth
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/oct/13/eileen-nearne-obituary
Mar 16, 1921: On this date, future Special Operations Executive agent Didi Nearne was born. She, her sister, and her brother all worked for the SOE. Didi was a radio operator using the code name “Rose.” She transmitted messages for the SPIRITUALIST, MUSICIAN, and FARMER circuits. (1/2)
Mar 13, 1995: On this date, Special Operations Executive agent Odette Sansom (Churchill / Hallowes) passed away at the age of 82. She was a courier for the SPINDLE circuit. Entrapped by Hugo Bleicher of the Abwehr, she endured brutal interrogation and was imprisoned at Ravensbrück. She was one of the few SOE agents to survive Nazi capture.
Benjamin Cowburn wrote a book about his work with the Special Operations Executive titled “No Cloak, No Dagger: Allied Spycraft in Occupied France.” (2/2)
Mar 13, 1909: On this date, Benjamin Cowburn was born. MRD Foot, the official historian of the Special Operations Executive, named Cowburn as one of SOE's half-dozen "best men." He was the longest serving F-Section SOE agent & was never captured. (1/2)
Oct 15, 1914: On this date, future Special Operations Executive agent Major Harry Reé (code name ‘César’) was born to a family of Danish Jewish heritage. In April 1943 he parachuted near Tarbes, initially to join the ACROBAT network and later the STOCKBROKER network. Among other successes, Ree organized the destruction of the Peugeot factory in Sochaux, France on Nov 5, 1943. He died May 17, 1991.
In 1985, Wake published her autobiography, The White Mouse, the nickname given to her by the Gestapo for her elusiveness. Some of her wartime exploits cannot be independently verified and though she was one of the most decorated women who fought against the Nazis in WW2, her stories remain apocryphal. She died on August 7, 2011, at the age of 98. (7/7 finis)
