Young, Brave and Beautiful Read online

  Two days later, I was in a flurry of transmissions concerning her capture. I found that I missed her, even though I was very much occupied. It was only after the war that I found out her real name and some of her background, including her mission around the Normandy area. In fact, the feeling that I have missed her for so long is a tribute to the effect her personality, friendliness, concern and efficiency had on me and all the others who knew and dealt with her.

  Jean C. Guiet, CdeG*

  Tucson, Arizona, US

  April 2007

  Dramatis Personae

  The many SOE and Résistance operatives working in occupied France often had code names to protect their identity. Here, some of them used in Young, Brave and Beautiful are explained, along with the brave people who were assigned them. The names in italics signify code and cover names.

  Atkins, Vera Buckmaster’s assistant in SOE and an Intelligence officer

  Bloch, Denise Denise was an SOE operative and wireless operator for Roger Benoist. She was executed along with Violette at Ravensbrück concentration camp

  Boulanger, Henri Known as Commandant Fantomas, Henri ran the Maquis group called the Diables Noir with his brother, Raoul, until their arrest

  Boulanger, Pascaline Known as Calourette, Pascaline ran the Diables Noir after her sons, Henri and Raoul, were captured by the Gestapo

  Boulanger, Raoul Known as Capitaine Cartouche, Raoul ran the Diables Noir with his brother, Henri, until their arrest

  Buckmaster, Maurice Head of SOE French section in the UK

  Clement, George Known as Edmond, Driver, Georges Bourdias and Georges Flamand, George was an SOE operative who first thought Violette would be suitable as an SOE operative

  Desvaux, Denise No known aliases, Denise was a Résistance worker who ran a safe-house in Rouen

  Dufour, Jacques Known as Anastasie, Jacques was a Résistance worker involved with Salesman II. He ran his own Maquis group called Soleil

  Liewer, Philippe Known in London as Major Charles Staunton; known in France as Charles Beauchamp or Clément Beauchamp in the Salesman circuit and Hamlet and Capitaine Charles Clément in the Hamlet sub-circuit, among other aliases. Philippe Liewer, a French journalist, was an SOE operative who ran Salesman in the Rouen area, Hamlet in Le Havre and Salesman II in the Haute-Vienne during the Second World War

  Maloubier, Bob Known as Robert or Bob Mortier, Robert or Bob Mollier, Paco and as Dieudonné – God given! Bob, a Frenchman, was an SOE operative and trained Résistance groups

  Malraux, André Known as Colonel Berger, André was an author, Résister and much more besides and held an important role directly from de Gaulle who tried to bring together disparate Résistance groups

  Malraux, Claude Known as Cicero or Serge, Claude was a Résister and Philippe Liewer’s second-in-command in the Rouen Salesman circuit. He was André Malraux’s half-brother

  Malraux, Roland He was André Malraux’s other half-brother and a Résister. He was Harry Peulevé’s lieutenant in the Author circuit

  Mayer, Roger Roger was a Résister and Philippe Liewer’s lieutenant in his Le Havre Hamlet circuit

  Newman, Isidore Known as Pierre Jacques Nerrault or Pepe. Isidore was an SOE operative, working as a wireless operator further south in France until he became the w/o for Salesman and Philippe Liewer

  Peulevé, Harry Known as Paul in the Author circuit, which he ran, Harry was an SOE operative who trained with Violette and was in love with her

  Philippon, George Known as Jo, George was an important Résister and hid weapons from London. An external member of the Diables Noirs

  Pionteck, Bronislaw Known under the nicknames of Broni or Bruni, Broni was a Résistance worker and Isidore Newman’s wireless operator and ‘bodyguard’

  Poirier, Jacques Known as Nester or Captain/Capitaine Jack. Jacques was a Résister who took over Harry Peulevé’s Author circuit

  Rolfe, Lilian Lilian was an SOE operative and wireless operator for George Wilkinson. She was executed along with Violette at Ravensbrück concentration camp

  Samson-Churchill-Hallowes, GC, Odette Known as Lise, Odette was an SOE operative who met Violette at Ravensbrück

  Southgate, Maurice Known as Hector, Maurice was an SOE operative who ran the Southgate circuit

  Sueur, Florentine Known as Jeanne and Micheline, Florentine was a Résistance worker and external member of the Diables Noir who ran Micheline’s store with her husband, Jean

  Sueur, Jean Known as Nénésse, Néné or Serge. Jean was a Résistance worker and external member of the Diables Noir who ran Micheline’s store with his wife, Florentine

  Szabó, Violette Known in London as Vicky Taylor; known in France as Corinne Leroy, Louise Leroy, Madame Marguerite Blanchard, née Picardeau, widow, among other aliases. Violette was an SOE operative, working as courier and liaison officer. She was illegally executed in Ravensbrück concentration camp in 1945

  Valois, Lise Lise worked with Jean and Florentine Sueur and kept their Résistance links active after their arrests

  List of Organisations

  AMF French organisation under de Guélis, which was the duplicate of SOE’s F Section. Taken over by Brooks Richards in October 1943, it took on the mantle of the RF, de Gaulle’s French Section within SOE

  Allied Air Force (AAF) RAF, French, Polish, Dutch, Australian, New Zealand, American & Canadian pilots among others who flew during the Second World War

  Bureau Central de Renseignements et d’Action (militaire) BCRA(M) Created under Dewarin, the BCRA eventually became the French intelligence service

  Comité départemental de Libération nationale (CDLN) Formed to bring the disparate Résistance groups of Rouen together to co-ordinate sabotage and intelligence gathering within the Seine-Inférieure

  Défense contre avions (DCA) French organisation of defence against aircraft

  Défense Passive The equivalent of the air raid wardens in London

  Diables Noirs A group set up not long after the beginning of the Occupation, formed to receive the first parachute drops of material and to gather intelligence, which later expanded to train young réfractaires as fighting units in the Maquis

  First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) Incorporated in 1909 as an unofficial auxiliary of upper-crust women volunteers set up to serve mounted troops. It was later called the WTS – Women’s Transport Service – incorporated in 1939 into the ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service)

  Forces Françaises de l’Intérieur (FFI) Groups of Résistance fighters who became organised and worked with the Free French forces

  Francs-Tireurs et Partisans (FTP) (armed section of the PCF) Partisans and Sharpshooters, the armed section of the French Communist Party; frequently the final ‘F’ is excluded, as it is obvious they are French

  Free French Charles de Gaulle’s military forces who worked with the Allies against German occupation

  French Communist Party (PCF) (of which FTP was the armed section) Worked with SOE and OSS to some extent

  L’Heure H Group of Résistance fighters

  Libé-Nord Set up by Léon Gonier, a Freemason, among others, in 1941 to work with the Allies against the German occupation of France. A leading member was Raoul Leprettre who worked to bring the Rouen groups under the newly formed réseau

  Mouvements d’Unité de la Résistance (MUR) A single group made up of Combat, Libération and the non-communist Franc-Tireur (FT)

  Maquis Groups of Résistance fighters in occupied France, aiding the Allies and fighting back against the Milice and German occupiers

  Navy, Army and Air Force Institute (NAAFI) Her Majesty’s Forces (HMF) official trading organisation, with shops or outlets wherever armed forces are stationed

  Office of Strategic Services (OSS) American counterpart to SOE, which evolved into the CIA after the war

  Organisation civile et militaire civil (OCM) Military organisation that recruited high-ranking and junior French officers into its service along with French professionals in the teaching sector, l
aw and various industries

  Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, now often known as MI6) British organisation that works abroad to collect foreign intelligence

  Service du travail obligatoire (STO) Compulsory work service of French prisoners in Nazi Germany from 26 February 1943

  Sicherheitsdienst (SD) The intelligence agency of the SS and Nazi Party

  Special Operations Executive (SOE) Set up in 1940 to work with often disparate Résistance groups to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance, among other things

  Vagabond Bien-Aimé Group of Résistants and saboteurs

  Part I

  1

  Dropped Blind

  5/6 April 1944 – night of Wednesday/Thursday

  Full moon in the week before Easter Sunday

  ‘She stepped from a plane, high in the air, in the darkness of the night’

  From ‘Ode to Violette’ by her father, Charles Bushell, 1946

  Tangled in the hedgerows, south of Paris, her parachute lying all around, a mud-spattered Violette froze in her struggle to free herself. Voices. Garbled voices. Voices in the dark. Footsteps closing in. Language – what language were they speaking? French? German? Breath held, sweat prickling her eyes, she listened hard. To be caught on landing before her work had started would be ignominious. As the two men stopped some way off to light a cigarette, they chatted on and Violette could dimly hear and see they were French. Which French? Friend or foe? Peering through the brambles, she first thought that they were farm workers. But her natural instinct and her training told her never to presume. The Nazis are certainly setting up clandestine organisations in France too, thought Violette. Looking again, she saw that the men were armed and in the uniform of the gendarmerie – Pétain’s semi-military country police force. Many gendarmes joined the Résistance but many did not. Some infiltrated and reported to their German masters.

  The discussion between the two gendarmes was becoming decidedly animated. Violette moved not a muscle, breathing slowly and quietly in the damp cold hedgerow. The moon was at full gleam with the occasional cloud scudding up from the south. There had been a few light April showers during the day and rain was forecast for the morrow.

  After a while, the men walked on, still engrossed in their discussion. Perhaps they had heard the dull roar of the aircraft flying from the north to drop ‘joes’1 but they remained unaware of the slim young woman in parachute garb, entangled in a heap of wires and silk, ankle a little sore from the thud of landing. Perhaps on the morrow, seeing the propaganda leaflets dropped on the neighbouring towns, including Châteauroux, they would assume the roar in the night had merely been an Allied aircraft dropping its load of leaflets. Scattering such propaganda was frequent and, in fact, used to cover this very kind of operation, parachuting or landing agents in France.

  This would make a great gown, thought Violette fleetingly as she extricated herself and hastily gathered up the silk of the parachute, burying it in the shallow hedgerow’s ditch under a mass of wet autumn and winter foliage. Her initial fright had died down quickly – this was her mission; no more practice runs – and she felt the thrill of the adventure. She inhaled deeply. Her eyes adjusted to the dark and, quickly scanning her surroundings, she searched the night for the reception committee and her commanding officer Philippe Liewer (whose cover name in the UK was Major Charles Staunton), who was to accompany her as far as Paris (Philippe was French and had been a journalist for the Havas agency, which in 1944 became a public company, Agence France-Presse (AFP), which rivals Reuters today). She smiled to herself, feeling she had overcome one hurdle – fear of discovery. Fear had been overcome and defeated.

  ‡

  Violette had completed her SOE2 training with very mixed reports that would not have delighted her had she read them. Reports that showed some instructors were somewhat smug in their clearly superficial understanding of this half-French, half-English young woman.

  On completion of her initial training assessment course at Winterfold in August 1943, this FANY Section Leader, Violette Szabó, clearly had leadership qualities, but gave somewhat disappointing results on her mechanical and Morse code abilities which were merely average; an intelligence rating of 5 and general agent grading an unpromising D:

  A quiet, physically tough, self-willed girl of average intelligence. Out for excitement and adventure but not entirely frivolous. Has plenty of confidence in herself and gets on well with others. Plucky and persistent in her endeavours. Not easily rattled. In a limited capacity not calling for too much intelligence and responsibility and not too boring she could probably do a useful job, possibly a courier.

  On 7 September, a first report on her paramilitary course with an illegible signature stated:

  I seriously wonder whether this student is suitable for our purpose. She seems lacking in a sense of responsibility and although she works well in the company of others, does not appear to have any initiative or ideals. She speaks French with an English accent.

  Violette had been invited to join SOE, where she mixed and trained with people from every stratum of English and European society. She came from a working-class background in England and her life in France had been that of la petite bourgeoisie. Her excellent French was accented from the northern regions of France where she had lived and been schooled and where she had travelled every year, working briefly on the Belgian border. Violette had learned to move effortlessly from one social circle to another and had turned out to be exactly the right material – better than SOE could have imagined. She was also extremely athletic and a crack shot with rifle or pistol.

  Violette was vivacious and very attractive, and she knew it in a quiet, unpretentious way. She had enjoyed romantic encounters and had fun-loving cousins and friends for dancing, skating and cycling. With her soft French accent and gaiety she was captivating. A free spirit, she loved the cinema, cycling and dancing, attending many dance halls, including the Locarno in Streatham, the Hammersmith Palais and the Trocadero.

  With her residual French accent and her gaiety, she was captivating. An accomplished acrobat and dancer, a strong swimmer and skater, especially on ice, she could pedal the pants off her brothers or cousins.

  Other successful agents from similar backgrounds to Violette fared no better in their reports. She was conscious that some of her instructors, mostly military, came from a class and educational background vastly different from her own yet they were not able to dampen her spirit of fun or her determination to succeed, no matter what they threw at her. Fortunately, as in every organisation, there were people who could spot and promote agents of real calibre and who also saw in Violette the ability, intelligence and the will to win through to the end of arduous courses.

  Violette had often demonstrated both her frivolity and her clear determination as a child, as a teenager, and finally in early adulthood as a young working woman and at the various SOE ‘Special Schools’ scattered throughout England, Wales and Scotland. Her co-students thoroughly enjoyed her company, especially when she led them on pranks against their superiors. As a youngster she had butted in and sent packing boys who were bullying one of her girlfriends. To my grandmother’s very real consternation, Violette would allow her father to put an apple on her head and shoot it off with an air rifle with great giggles from her and chuckles from her father.

  ‡

  During the ten years of the Great Depression in England, the Bushells had at first decided to live in Paris where they tried to carve out a living from Reine’s expertise with the needle while Charles ran his one-man private taxi and chauffeuring service. So, at the age of four, Violette had already glimpsed life in the beguiling French capital but as my grandfather did not enjoy learning ‘that bloody language French’, he would grumble until they reluctantly returned to England.

  On their return, it proved very difficult for Violette’s English father, Charles Bushell, to get a decent job or maintain his own small business endeavours. In the late 1920s and early ’30s, money wa
s increasingly scarce, even with his French wife, Reine,3 working on commissions of sewing work and her intermittent winnings at whist, at which she excelled.

  With great heartache, especially on Reine’s side, the couple decided that their children, Roy and Violette, would be better served living with Reine’s parents and sister while attending school in France until things improved in England. They could then bring them back home. These years in France had been far superior, in quality and education, to what she could have had in England. The two children lived in France seven long years – years in which both Roy and Violette became French children, living a French way of life with the settled French bourgeois family of grand-mama Blanche Leroy, grandpapa Eugène Leroy and with Tante Marguerite, housekeeper to the Chorlet household, then married to M. Victor Hoëz. The French extended family lived in Pas-de-Calais, Picardy and Nord, close to the Belgian border. The local accent was that of Picardy and the border towns – quite different to a Parisian accent.

  These seven long, character-forming years in France were bliss to the two Bushell children; they became indistinguishable from their French cousins and friends in the sleepy villages of Quevauvillers, Pont Rémy and Englefontaine. Reine visited them only rarely, when she had saved for the fare and a little extra so as not to seem impoverished by contrast with the French Leroy family.

  Vi, as she was called in England, received a good education in France, at Noyelles-sur-Mer, near Étaples and at a Catholic boarding school in Abbeville. This was roughly interrupted at the age of twelve, when her father Charlie recalled her and her brother, Roy, to England to join the rest of the family. He did not want them to become foreigners, strangers to their own growing family.