Paine, Lauran. Mathilde Carré, Double Agent. London: Hale, 1976. Paine, Lauran. Mathilde Carré, Double Agent. London: Hale, 1976.
Carré was actually a triple agent, working successively for the French underground, the German Abwehr, and SOE. She is best known in popular literature by one of her underground codenames, "Cat." See also, Carré, J'ai été la chatte (1959); and Young, The Cat With Two Faces (1957).
Pattinson, Juliette. [Capet]
1. "'Playing the Daft Lassie with Them': Gender, Captivity and the Special Operations Executive during the Second World War." European Review of History 13, no. 2 (2006): 271-292.
2. Behind Enemy Lines: Gender, Passing and the Special Operations Executive in the Second World War. Cultural History of Modern War Series. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007.
3. "'Passing Unnoticed in a French Crowd': The Passing Performances of British SOE." National Identities 12, no. 3 (2010): 291-308.
4. "'The Thing That Made Me Hesitate': Re-examining Gendered Intersubjectivities in Interviews with British Secret War Veterans." Women's History Review 20, no. 2 (2011): 245-263.
Pawley, Margaret. In Obedience to Instructions: F.A.N.Y. with the SOE in the Wartime Mediterranean. London: Pen & Sword/Cooper, 1999.
The first-person story of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry attached to SOE. See also, Popham, The FANY in Peace and War (2003). For more on the FANY/Princess Royal's Volunteer Corps, see http://www.fany.org.uk.
Pearson, Judith L. The Wolves at the Door: The True Story of America's Greatest Female Spy. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2005.
Clark comment: This is a biography of Virginia Hall, who served with both SOE and OSS in German-occupied France. Peake, Studies 49.4 (2005), notes that the author has worked with recently released SOE and OSS files in telling the "fascinating story" of a "genuine heroine." See also, Nouzille, L'espionne: Virginia Hall, une Americaine dans la guerre (2007); and Miller, "MI Corps Hall of Fame: Virginia Hall," Military Intelligence 20.3 (1994).
Popham, Hugh. The FANY in Peace and War: The Story of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, 1907-2003. Rev. ed. Barnsley, Yorkshire, UK: Leo Cooper, 2003.
Peake, Studies 49.3 (2005), notes that for the intelligence professional "[a] principal point of interest ... is the FANY's service in the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II and their operations with the resistance in occupied France. Some 73 were trained as agents and 39 went to France. Several were caught by the Gestapo and ended their lives in Dachau and other camps. At a time when women in the intelligence services was not an everyday occurrence, the FANYs established a powerful precedent. Popham summarizes their story well, and the bibliography provides sources where more detail can be acquired." See also, Pawley, In Obedience to Instructions (1999).
Rochester,
Devereaux. Full Moon to France. New York: Harper & Row, 1977.
According to Knouse, http://home.att.net, this work is "[s]hort on technical details but [offers] a good insight to the life of a Resistance fighter in France during the course of the war. Devereaux worked with the RAF SOE units and the Maquis."
Stevenson, William. Spymistress: The Life of Vera Atkins: The Greatest Female Agent in World War II. New York: Arcade, 2007.
Troy, Studies 51.2 (2007), rips this book as "history and fiction distressingly conmingled," although "[t]here is no question" of the author's honesty. Rather, Troy sees Stevenson as letting his passion and imagination run rampant. That Atkins "worked in an especially dangerous wartime role ... is beyond cavil." However, this account "hardly proves her a great agent, much less 'the greatest female secret agent in World War II.'"
An even more negative reaction to this book comes from West, IJI&C 21.3 (Fall 2008), who says that the author is "just wrong about ... almost every ... item in his book." West also uses such descriptions as "nonsensical," "fanciful," "patent invention," "invariably inaccurate or plain wrong," and "many obvious fabrications." He concludes that "Stevenson's interpretations, based on fake quotations, invented missions, and non-existent organizations, really amounts to literary fraud."
Sugarman, Martin. "Two Jewish Heroines of the SOE." Jewish Historical Studies 35 (1998): 309-328. [Capet]
Szabo, Tania. Young Brave and Beautiful: The Missions of Special Operations Executive Agent Lieutenant Violette Szabo. Jersey: Channel Island Publishing, 2007.
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) The author is Violette Szabo's daughter.See also, Minney, Carve Her Name with Pride (1964); and Ottaway, Violette Szabo (2002).
Taylor, Eric. Heroines of World War II. London: Robert Hale, 1995. [pb]
Surveillant 4.3: "Taylor shows the parts women, as nurses, spies, soldiers, WAAFS and WRENS, played in the Allied conflict."
Tickell, Jerrard. Odette: The Story of a British Agent. London: Chapman, 1949. Odette: Secret Agent, Prisoner, Survivor. London: Headline Review, 2008. [pb]
Clark comment: This is the story of Mrs. Odette Samson who was awarded a George Cross for her service with SOE in France. To Seaman, I&NS 20.1 (Mar. 2005), 30-31, this work "was a virtual hagiography." The author's opportunity to consult some SOE documents did not prevent him from "drifting into a cloying narrative."
Wake, Nancy. The White Mouse: Autobiography of the Woman the Gestapo Called the White Mouse. Melbourne: Macmillan, 1985.
See Kim Willsher, "Farewell to Nancy Wake, the Mouse Who Ran Rings around the Nazis," Guardian, 8 Aug. 2011; Adam Bernstein, "Nancy Wake, 'White Mouse' of World War II, dies at 98," Washington Post, 9 Aug. 2011; amd Paul Vitello, "Nancy Wake, Proud Spy and Nazi Foe, Dies at 98," New York Times, 13 Aug. 2011.
Nancy Wake-Fiocca ("Andreé") was an Australian national who was living in Marseilles when France fell in June 1940. She joined the Resistance and had to flee France when the escape organization with which she was working was rolled up in March 1943. She parachuted back into France as an SOE liaison with the Maquis in March 1944. Cookridge, Inside SOE, p. 355. See also, Braddon, The White Mouse (1957); and Fitzsimons, Nancy Wake (2002).
Walters, Anne-Marie. Foreword, M.R.D. Foot. Intro., postscript, and notes, David Hewson. Moondrop to Gascony. London: Macmillan, 1946. Hampshire, UK: Moho Books, 2009.
From publisher: In January 1944, Walters parachuted into southwest France to act as a courier for SOE's Wheelwright circuit headed by George Starr. "For this Moho edition, David Hewson ... adds biographical details for the main characters, identifies the real people behind the pseudonyms and provides background notes. He also reveals what happened to Anne-Marie at the end of the war."
Wynne, Barry. No Drums, No Trumpets: The Story of Mary Lindell. London: Barker, 1961. The Story of Mary Lindell: 'Marie-Claire' of M1.9 Wartime Secret Agent. Milton Keynes, UK: Robin Clark, 1980.
http://www.abebooks.co.uk: "When Paris was occupied in WWII [M]ary [L]indell ... began evacuating children to unoccupied France, and soon found herself helping British soldiers in the same way. She was eventually betrayed in 1944 and ended the war in the notorious Ravensbruck Concentration Camp."
Young, George Gordon. The Cat With Two Faces: The Most Amazing Spy Story of the Second World War. New York: Coward-McCann, 1957. London: Putnam, 1957.
Constantinides: "The Cat" was Mathilde Carré, who as mistress of her Abwehr case officer, Hugo Bleicher, was involved in the destruction of the Inter-Allié Resistance network. See also, Carré, J'ai été la chatte (1959); and Paine, Mathilde Carré, Double Agent (1976).
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