May 15: On this date in 1942, Yvonne Rudellat is accepted into the Special Operations Executive. Cover name, Jacqueline Gautier; code name, Suzanne. She was the first female SOE-trained agent to go to France, arriving by felucca near Cannes on July 30, 1942. She initially joined the MONKEYPUZZLE circuit near Tours but subsequently worked in an offshoot of the vast PROSPER circuit. (1/4)
https://alanmalcher.com/2021/07/30/soe-agent-yvonne-rudellat/
Yvonne Rudellat served as a courier for the circuit & traveled widely around the Loire river valley delivering messages and engaging in sabotage. She organized parachute drops, stored & distributed arms, explosives, & other supplies, established & trained other sub-circuits, and engaged in sabotage of trains & power lines. (2/4)
Yvonne Rudellat and 3 other members of the resistance were stopped at a Nazi checkpoint. Suspicions were aroused and, as they attempted to flee, Rudellat was shot in the back of the head by a German soldier. She survived, was taken into custody, transferred to Ravensbrück and ultimately to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. (3/4)
Yvonne Rudellat died of typhus and dysentery on April 23 or 24 (1945), only days after the Allies had liberated Bergen-Belsen. At the time her identity was unknown and she was buried in a mass grave with some 5000 others. (4/4)
Minnesota Spy Club