King, Stella. "Jacqueline": Pioneer Heroine of the Resistance. London: Arms and Armour Press, 1990. King, Stella. "Jacqueline": Pioneer Heroine of the Resistance. London: Arms and Armour Press, 1990.
Surveillant 1.1: Yvonne Rudellat was the "first female field agent trained by ... [SOE] during WWII." She set up a resistance unit and sabotaged rail lines and trains. Rudellat was wounded and captured, sent to Ravensbruck and on to Bergen-Belsen where she died. The book "reads like a fast-paced spy novel."
Kramer, Rita. Flames in the Field: The Story of Four SOE Agents in Occupied France. London: Michael Joseph, 1995.
According to Funk, WIR 14.4, the four women mentioned in the title were "among the thirteen female [SOE] agents who served in France but did not return.... Kramer explains who the women were, how they were trained, what their mission was, and how they were captured and executed.... Kramer demonstrates exemplary competence in research." In addressing the controversy as to whether these and other agents had been sacrificed as part of Allied deception operations, Kramer "sets forth the evidence, reviews the literature, and brings her readers up-to-date on a controversy that will not be readily resolved." But she "is too conscientious a historian to reach conclusions on conjecture."
Moore, I&NS 11.1, says the book "contains little in the way of analysis which is truly original," and, therefore, "is essentially a book for the general reader." Nevertheless, "the story of these four women has been well-told."
Long, Helen. Safe Houses Are Dangerous. [UK]: Abson Books, 1989.
Surveillant 1.1: This is the "story of the evasion line; a web of safe houses spread out over occupied France, its heart in Marseille, which sheltered servicemen on the run."
Lynn, Vera. Unsung Heroines: The Women Who Won the War. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1990.
From the publisher: "Women of all ages, abilities and social backgrounds played a vital role in the winning of the Second World War. In this book Dame Vera Lynn amasses the experiences and memories of WRENS, WRACS, ATS officers, ambulance drivers, nurses, land-girls, radio operators and code-breakers, spies and resistance workers, from the mundane to the dramatic and sometimes painful. She also recollects the courage and stoicism of those who just got on with family life."
Marriott, Edward. Claude and Madeleine: A True Story of War, Espionage and Passion. London: Picador, 2005.
Madeleine Victorine Bayard [Madeleine Barclay] and Claude André Michel Péri [Jack Langlais] served with SOE. They died when the specialty boat HMS Fidelity was sunk by U-boats in late December 1942-early January1943.
Masson, Madeleine. Christine: A Search for Christine Granville, GM, OBE, Croix de Guerre. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1975. Christine: SOE Agent & Churchill's Favourite Spy. London: Virago, 2005.
According to Constantinides, Granville was an SOE agent in Hungary, Poland, and France. This biography, however, neglects her operational work for details of her life, leaving the reader with having learned little of her substantial accomplishments. See also, Mulley, The Spy Who Loved (2012).
Miller,
Gene E. [SFC/USA] "MI Corps Hall of Fame: Virginia Hall." Military
Intelligence 20, no. 3 (Jul.-Sep. 1994): 44-45.
Adapted from Lawrence J. Cerri, Army Magazine (Feb. 1988). Using the pseudonym of Marcella Montagne, the "Incredible Limping Lady" served in France with SOE and the French underground and, later, in OSS' Operation Heckler preparatory to Operation Overlord. See also, Nouzille, L'espionne: Virginia Hall, une Americaine dans la guerre (2007); and Pearson, The Wolves at the Door (2005).
Miller, Joan. One Girl's War: Personal Exploits in MI5's Most Secret Station. Dublin: Brandon, 1986.
Steiner, I&NS 3.2, calls this "a delightful and entertaining account of the war-time exploits" of a young woman "who entered the secret world of intelligence and became personal assistant to Maxwell Knight,... Chief of MI5's B5 (b) section."
Minney, R.J.
Carve Her Name with Pride: The Story of Violette Szabo. London: Collins, 1964. Barnsley, UK: Pen and Sword, 2006.
Szabo was an SOE agent in France. Captured by the Germans on a second mission, she was murdered in the Ravensbruck concentration camp. Szabo was portrayed by Virginia McKenna in the 1958 British film "Carve Her Name with Pride." (Nash, Spies, p. 550) See also, Ottaway, Violette Szabo (2002); and Szabo, Young Brave and Beautiful (2007).
Mulley, Clare. The Spy Who Loved: The Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville, Britain's First Female Special Agent of WWII. London: Macmillan, 2012.
Jones, Telegraph (London), 3 Jul. 2012, finds this to be a "compulsively readable biography" of Krystyna Skarbek, aka Christine Granville. Originally recruited by MI6, Granville joined SOE and parachuted into France where she worked with the "Jockey" resistance network. For her exploits, Granville was awarded an OBE, but died forgotten in a cheap London hotel in 1952 at the hand of a stalker. This is a "dogged piece of detective work"on the author's part. For Peake, Studies 57.1 (Mar. 2013), and Intelligencer 20.1 (Spring-Summer 2013), this book "is very well documented and a pleasure to read." See also, Masson, Christine (1975).
Nouzille, Vincent. L'espionne: Virginia Hall, une Americaine dans la guerre. Paris: Fayard, 2007.
Foot, Studies 53.1 (Mar. 2009), says that this is an "excellent account of one of the war's most remarkable secret agents...; a translation into English would be most welcome." It "is a great improvement" over Pearson, The Wolves at the Door (2005). See also, Miller, "MI Corps Hall of Fame: Virginia Hall," Military Intelligence 20.3 (1994).
Ottaway, Susan. Violette Szabo: "The Life that I Have...." Barnsley, UK: Leo Cooper/Pen & Sword, 2002. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2003.
Szabo was an SOE agent in France. Captured by the Germans on a second mission, she was murdered in the Ravensbruck concentration camp. Szabo was portrayed by Virginia McKenna in the 1958 British film "Carve Her Name with Pride." (Nash, Spies, p. 550) Ringlesbach, IJI&C 16.4, notes that the author's research has "corrected many errors in R.J. Minney's book" [Minney, Carve Her Name with Pride (1964)]. The reviewer found the work "fascinating." See also, Szabo, Young Brave and Beautiful (2007).
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