Female WW2 spy betrayed by double agent shouted single word of defiance before death
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One was a typist, another wrote children’s books, a third had worked in a department store, yet this disparate band of women became Winston Churchill’s most secret army of wartime spies. Parachuted into Nazi-occupied France to work as couriers and radio operators - a job with a life expectancy of just six weeks - they gathered crucial intelligence and helped orchestrate sabotage operations which made D-Day possible.
But, sending women to the frontline in World War 2 was illegal - so they weren’t protected by the Geneva Convention and, if captured, would have none of the rights of prisoners of war. They would most likely be tortured and killed. Churchill’s audacious plan was concocted as, desperate to smash the French Resistance, while the Nazis were deeply suspicious of men, they were not looking for women. Knowing Hitler was eyeing up Britain to invade next, it was enacted, despite the risks.
Now a fascinating six-part Sky History docu-drama, The Lost Women Spies reveals that virtually no one - least of all the media - knew about it. What followed was a story of astonishing bravery by the women agents, who fought incompetence from above and betrayal by a male colleague, alongside trying to outwit the Nazis.
Head of the France, or F-Section, of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) - nicknamed ‘The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’ - was Maurice Buckmaster. Previously Head of Marketing for the Ford Motor Company based in France, he had no experience of training people in guerilla warfare, but understood French culture and spoke the language fluently.
