#fsection — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #fsection, aggregated by home.social.
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July 30, 1942: Yvonne Rudellat was the 1st female Special Operations Executive agent to go to France, arriving by sailboat on July 30, 1942 on the French coast, a few km east of Cannes. Her cover name was Jacqueline Gautier; Field name, Suzanne. She worked in the MONKEYPUZZLE circuit. Following imprisonment by the Nazis, she died of typhus on April 23 or 24, 1945, days after the Allies had liberated Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
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July 6: On this date in 1944 Special Operations Executive agent Christine Granville was dropped into occupied France to join the JOCKEY circuit.
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June 17: On this date in 1902, recipient of the George Cross, F.F.E. Yeo-Thomas was born.
He served in the Special Operations Executive as an agent known as the White Rabbit and was one of the most highly decorated agents in WW2.
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June 9, 1911: Former Free French Forces intelligence officer Andre Dewavrin was born on this date. During WW2, Dewavrin, using the codename 'Colonel Passy', was an active member of the French Resistance & worked with Britain's Special Operations Executive.
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The Secret War: Special Operations Executive's Wireless Operators in Occupied France.
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May 27, 1916: On this date, future Special Operations Executive agent Jacqueline Nearne was born in Brighton, England. She served as a courier with the STATIONER circuit operating mostly in the Clermont-Ferrand area of France. Cover name: Jacqueline Norville. She worked in France for more than 14 months & subsequently returned safely to England. SOE F Section leader Maurice Buckmaster said Nearne was "one of the best (operatives) we have had."
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May 22, 1901: On this date, future, though some might think unlikely, Special Operations Executive agent Denis Rake was born in Brussels. Much of his childhood history is clouded in mystery. He was a small, effeminate, and campy gay man who UTTERLY excelled at the work of the SOE. Too much to say about his successes, but the stories are recounted at the link below.
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Michou Dumon’s cover was blown & she fed to Britain. She personally aided some 250 people escape the Nazis. In London, she met Pierre Ugeux, a French member of F Section of the Special Operations Executive. They married in 1945, after the war. The couple had 4 children: Nicole, Brigitte, Guy, and Stefan. Michou Dumon died November 16, 2017 at age 96. Read more about her incredible life at the link below. (5/5)
#WW2 #Resistance #Antifa #Belgium #FSection #SOE
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/12/micheline-dumon-obituary?CMP=share_btn_tw
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May 17, 1991: Special Operations Executive agent Harry Rée died at age 76. Alongside SOE agent Jacqueline Nearne, he starred in the film School for Danger, a 1947 British docudrama depicting the training & deployment of SOE agents during WW2. "Of the more than 400 SOE agents who worked in France during World War II, MRD Foot, the official historian of the SOE, named Harry Rée as one of the half-dozen best male agents.”
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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/
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Following training, Sonya Butt parachuted into France on 5/28/44, 9 days before D-Day, to serve as a courier for the HEADMASTER circuit. She was an explosives expert and she trained Maquis resistance forces in demolitions. She survived WW2. She and her husband moved to Quebec and they raised 6 children.
Sonya Butt (D'Artois) died Dec 21, 2014. Her obituary can be found here. (2/2) -
May 14, 1924: On this date, Sonya Butt was born in Eastchurch, Kent. She spent much of her childhood in France & was fluent in French.
At age 17, she joined the British Women’s Auxiliary Air Force and at age 19 she was recruited to the Special Operations Executive. During training she met & subsequently married Canadian SOE operative Guy D’Artois.(1/2)
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May 11, 1905: On this date future Special Operations Executive agent Lise de Baissac was born in Mauritius. One of the first SOE female agents to be parachuted into occupied France in 1942, she served as courier & liaison officer for SOE's SCIENTIST circuit using the code names Odile & Marguerite. She armed & organized French resistance forces. She survived the war & her exploits were later recalled in the 2008 French film 'Les Femmes de l’ombre.'
#WW2 #SOE #FSection -
Francine Agazarian suffered from survivor’s guilt about her husband's death. In 1967, she visited Flossenburg. Vera Atkins, a senior official of SOE, consoled and supported her with money for many years. She wrote to Atkins: "For many years I felt it was not right that I was alive. I should have gone when they did and in the same manner.” Francine Agazarian died on June 24, 1998 at the age of 85. (4/4)
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Jack Agazarian, however, returned to France in July, was later captured, imprisoned in solitary confinement at Flossenburg concentration camp, & executed by the Germans on March 29, 1945 at the age of 29. The collapse of the PHYSICIAN circuit (also called the PROSPER circuit based on Francis Suttill’s code-name) remains one of the most tragic and contested stories of SOE. Francine Agazarian survived the war & lived in London. (3/4)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_SOE%27s_Prosper_Network
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Jack Agazarian was suspicious of the circuit’s air operations officer, Henri Déricourt, leading to a conflict with the circuit’s organizer, Francis Suttill, On the night of June 16, 1943, Francine & Jack Agazarian returned to England on a Lysander flight. It was fortunate timing as the Germans began arresting SOE agents in the circuit less than a week later (& Déricourt is widely believed to have been a double agent). (2/4)
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May 8, 1913: Future Special Operations Executive agent Francine Agazarian (née Andre) was born on this date in Narbonne, France. On the night of March 17, 1943 she was inserted into occupied France, delivered by Westland Lysander, landing in a farm field. She operated as a courier for the PHYSICIAN circuit (code name Marguerite). In an unusual arrangement, she worked in the same circuit as her husband Jack Agazarian, who was a radio operator. (1/4)
#WW2 #SOE #FSection
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francine_Agazarian -
May 4, 1997: On this date Henry Baldwin Hyde died. He served as the Special Operations Executive Chief of Intelligence for France. The successful Operation Penny Farthing occurred under his guidance.
https://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/08/world/henry-hyde-is-dead-at-82-wartime-spymaster-for-oss.html
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April 30, 1899: Future Special Operations Executive operative Cecily Lefort was born on April 30, 1899 in Westbourne, London. She joined the SOE in 1943. Under the code name Alice, she served as a courier for the JOCKEY circuit in Nazi occupied France during WW2. She was arrested in September 1943 and executed May 1, 1945 at the Ravensbruck concentration camp. She was awarded the MinD and the French Croix de Guerre.
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April 28, 1912: On this date, future Special Operations Executive operative Odette Sansom (AKA Odette Hallowes) was born. She became a courier in the SPINDLE circuit in France.
She was awarded the George Cross in 1946; the first woman ever to receive the award, and the only woman who has been awarded it while still alive.
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Using the code name Nadine, she became a radio operator for the HISTORIAN circuit (led by George Wilkinson) based in Orleans. She was inserted into German occupied France on April 5, 1944, dropped off by Lysander at a clandestine airfield near near Tours. After 4 months in France, she was captured by the Germans on July 31, 1944. In late Jan 1945, she was executed at Ravensbruck concentration camp. (3/3)
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At the start of WW2, Lilian Rolfe was working for the British Embassy where part of her job was monitoring German ship movements in & out of Rio de Janeiro. In Feb, 1943, Lilian Rolfe & her family returned to Britain. Enroute her ship was badly damaged probably by a German mine. After arriving In England she joined the WAAF on May 16, 1943. The SOE recruited her due to her facility with languages & she joined on Nov 24, 1943. (2/3)
#SOE #France #FSection #Brazil
https://doyleglass.com/2025/12/16/the-quiet-courage-of-lilian-rolfe-a-sisterhood-in-the-shadows/
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April 26: On this date in 1914, future Special Operations Executive agent Lilian Rolfe was born in Paris. She & her twin sister were the daughters of a British accountant working in Paris & a Russian Jewish mother. She spent a summer in Britain learning English. At age 19 she & her family moved to Brazil. (1/3)
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Knight also participated directly in an attack by the French Maquis on a German military convoy, firing her Sten gun during the course of the operation. She also narrowly escaped capture & execution when she & French resistance fighters were betrayed to the Nazis. Knight was one of about 30 fighters who managed to fight through a German encirclement. She survived the war and died in 2004. (3/3)
https://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/579480.from-the-typewriter-to-blazing-sten-gun/
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She was rushed through a cursory 2 week training course at Thame Park, Saltmarsh, did only one practice parachute jump from a static balloon, & then, on May 5, 1944, was dropped near Marcenay in the Cote d'Or with a radio operator. Knight used the code name Nicole & worked as a courier with the DONKEYMAN circuit. Following the D Day landings, in June & July 1944, Knight repeatedly crossed back & forth across the front lines, carrying intelligence to the Allies. (2/3)
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April 19, 1920: On this date Marguerite “Peggy” Knight was born in Paris, France to a British father and Polish mother. She grew up in France & was a nearly perfect speaker of French language. In Spring of 1944 she was recruited to the SOE after she was overhead speaking French in a British cafe and was immediately recruited to the covert organization. (1/3)