Covert Tactics

COVERT TACTICS Stories of WW2 Female Agents and Resistance Fighters

Written and Illustrated by Anjali Nanda

Covert Tactics

Covert Tactics

Stories of World War 2 Female Agents and Resistance Fighters

Written and Illustrated by ANjali Nanda

Thank you to my family, friends, and professors who have supported me throughout my schooling and encouraged me to keep going whenever I was having a hard time. This book would not be possible without you. I will always remember my time at George Mason University fondly.

Contents Introduction

1

The Wrens of Watu

3

The Wolfpack Commander

6

A Tragedy at Sea Sparks Action

7

Work Begins

10

A Blitz of Training

11

The Battle of the Atlantic Ends

14

France’s Secret Army

15

Beaulieu Agents

17

Moonlight Missions

19

Resistance Fighters

22

A Changing of Priorities

23

Betrayals and Setbacks

25

D-Day Liberation

29

Jewish Sisters

33

Humiliation and Ghettos

35

Youth Resistance Groups Form

37

Jewish Bullets

39

Revenge and the End

42

Fading Stories

45

Sources and Further Reading

48

IntroDuction

8

Covert Tactics

World War II was a global conflict that lasted from September 1939 to September 1945 between two opposing military alliances: the Allies, consisting of forces from Great Britain, France, the United States, and the Russian Soviet Union (in 1941), and the Axis powers, consisting of forces from Germany, Italy, and Japan. Beginning with the invasion of Poland, Hitler’s forces sought to expand Germany into a world superpower and took control of a majority of Europe through blitzkrieg tactics. Germany dominated the war in Europe for years until a series of rigorously planned and executed operations allowed the Allies to liberate captured countries and defeat the combined German and Italian forces.

However, these operations were only possible due to a group of people not often talked about or appreciated in the context of history: women. Even though their service in military and resistance conflicts were a large part of what made them successful, it is rare to hear their contributions even mentioned in war documentaries, books, school curriculum, or remembrance speeches. Many women died in service of their country, yet their hard work and sacrifices were forgotten. To highlight the roles and achievements of these dedicated women gives new and necessary perspectives to the significant events of World War II.

Introduction

2

The Wrens of Watu

The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest ongoing conflict spanning the entirety of World War II. Allied powers fought for control of the sea against German U-boats; and with the British so heavily reliant on trans-Atlantic shipments of raw supplies, food, and oil, it was of the utmost importance for the Allies to maintain an advantage.

(below) The facade of one of the Admiralty buildings in London. Strategic planning of the Allies on the naval arms race was focused here at the start of the war.

12

Covert Tactics

Within the Operations Room of the Allied navy’s London headquarters, the Admiralty, was a graph that tracked the number of ships sunk by German U-boats. If the rate of ships sunk significantly outpaced the number of ships built by the Allies, which was denoted by a red line threshold separating the upper fourth of the graph, then the British would have to pull out of the war entirely. No food meant starvation, and starvation leads to surrender. The Germans, however, had taken advantage of their early successes at sea and by the end of 1940 had sunk “more than 1,200 merchant ships, about five years’ worth of construction work in typical peacetime conditions, and more than the rest of the German navy and Luftwaffe combined” (Parkin 60). The Allies were losing, badly, and the chart’s plots were rising dangerously close to the red threshold of defeat.

The Wolfpack Commander Karl Doenitz joined the German navy at eighteen years old. With his idealistic views of life at sea formed by the novels he read as a child and the fact that he had become distanced from his family over the years, the navy offered an ideal career path as well as a new family for him to grow into moving forward. At the age of 25, two years into the first World War, Doenitz was trained and transferred to the U-boatwaffe where he joined the crew of U-39. There he learned U-boat warfare under the ace Kapitänleutnant Walter Forstmann, who had the highest hit rates of any captain at sea. Forstmann’s tactics made a deep impression on him; he crept much closer to his targets than other captains would to create a better chance of a torpedo hit, which with the technology at the time needed to be angled and aimed by eye. A year later Doenitz was given command of his own U-boat; however, within just 10 months his vessel experienced technical difficulties, and he and his inexperienced crew were captured as prisoners of war.

After taking time to sulk and think on his mistakes, Doenitz began to develop a U-boat tactic that he believed would change the entire course of the war at sea. He continued to develop this tactic in his mind even as he was sent back to Germany after the first World War had ended. Two years before World War II, Doenitz compiled his thoughts into a paper detailing how it might work. All he had to do now was to convince his superiors that it worked, and for that he had a game.

Wargames were commonly played both during and outside times of conflict within the military. They allowed for officers to test and train for various high-level strategies in imaginary, but very realistic, scenarios without the actual consequences of warfare. Now in the early days of 1939 before the war started, the Die Rudeltaktik, or rather the Wolfpack Tactic, which Doenitz had developed for years was to be put to the test in a scenario set four years into the future, when Germany would most definitely be at war with Britain. The tactic’s name and strategy derived from how wolves would work together to bewilder and take down larger prey. Officers were split into two teams, one of which (the red team) was to represent five convoys of Allied merchant ships that would be escorted to Britain by over 140 battleships and destroyers. The blue team was to represent the German force consisting of only 22 U-boats and ships with the objective of stopping the convoys from reaching their destination. This disparity in forces was excessive to the extreme, but necessary for Doenitz to test how the Allies would react at sea and how he could stop them.

During the 10 months that Doenitz spent at a British prisoner-of-war camp, he began to show signs of insanity, playing childish games with himself and even pretending to be a U-boat at one point. He was transferred to Manchester Lunatic Asylum as a result, but years later claimed that his actions had all been a ploy.

Predictably, the blue team of German forces lost, the vast expanse of the Atlantic Ocean proved impossible to parse by the small force of U-boats at their disposal—almost no merchant ships were found. The few times that they did spot a merchant convoy, they were quickly located by the escort destroyer ships and taken out. Doenitz had confirmed what he already knew: that the current German U-boat force at sea was nowhere near the size that The Wrens of Watu

6

was necessary to find Allied merchant ships reliably as well as implement his Wolfpack tactics. Months later he set up a new game scenario out at sea, off the coast of Portugal, where the U-boats outnumbered the merchant ships and escorts 15 to 4. With this smaller-scale scenario, the team of U-boats was able to easily find, track, and surround the merchant ships using Doenitz’s tactic. This exercise, along with a later attack on an actual convoy organized

by Doenitz, showed to his reluctant superiors that his strategy worked with hard evidence and—with a newly approved, larger force of boats—began its use to devastating effect.

A Tragedy at Sea Sparks Action While the Battle of the Atlantic was known to the general public in the early months of the war, the state of affairs had not been of much concern as Winston Churchill, at the time First Lord of the Admiralty, had been exaggerating wins and suppressing losses to allay fears. “Arguably, had the full miserable extent of the Allied performance [at sea] to date been fully known, it may have had an invigorating effect on the coordination of efforts to find an urgent solution” (Parkin 59). It was only until the sinking of one passenger ship in 1940 that both the public and the navy could no longer ignore their losses.

The SS City of Benares was part of a convoy travelling from Britain and carried within its luxurious interior 90 children of well-off and influential families.

Their parents had planned to send them away from the dangers of war to Canada where they would then disperse to live with relatives or continue their studies. However, one night when poor sea weather forced the convoy to slow down, a lone U-boat was able to sneak close to the SS Benares and sink the ship. Unaware that the leader of the convoy was carrying children to safer shores and that he had just committed a war crime, the commander of the U-boat reported a major success in sinking a high-value vessel. That night, 77 of the 90 children died, and their loss overtook the conversations in every newspaper and bar with outrage. The populace demanded a better response to Nazi brutality, and the navy was forced to make more decisive actions. To this end, a game much like the one Doenitz and his commanders used was created to understand the movement of U-boats and how escort ships could fight them off once attacked. However, while this game did expose pitfalls in directions and movements, it did nothing to expose the tactics employed by U-boats nor did it train escort ships on how to work together. A different game entirely was needed to win against the Germans. (right) U-48 retreats after successfully striking the SS Benares. Sailors tried to save as many passengers as they could by organizing lifeboats to be dropped; the captain was last to disembark after sending out a mayday signal.

7

Covert Tactics

Gilbert Roberts was told to report to the Admiralty in 1942 and given the run of the dire situation at sea. “Pre-war Britain was the recipient of 68 million tons of imports... this number had now more than halved, to just 26 million tons” (Parkin 121). Roberts was then told to leave for Liverpool where he would take charge of the entire top floor of the Derby House at the new Western Approaches HQ along with a young staff soon to arrive. As a retired British Naval officer who had been discharged—negatively invalidated for an illness

Section Title

15

he contracted due to his service—he was surprised to be chosen for the role, and even more so that the losses at sea had brought the British so close to defeat. However, true to his many accomplishments both during and after service as a skilled naval officer, wargame runner, and trainer, Roberts went straight to work in setting up his floor to be ready to receive his staff.

(below) Wrens work tirelessly to load torpedoes onto submarines. Their motto in World War I was ‘Never At Sea’, a negative and constant reminder that their contributions were not as important in comparison to a man’s.

16

Covert Tactics

Vera Laughton Mathews, often called VLM, had been one of the first women called to enlist in World War I for a group called the Wrens (Women’s Royal Naval Service) in 1917. “In addition to cooking and clerical work, they performed an array of duties... Wrens worked as telephonists calling up gun stations during air raids to pass on orders for gunfire and barrage... were employed in drawing, tracing, and preparing designs for new machinery and weapons... [and] worked as drivers for the Admiralty” (Parkin 66). VLM had been a proponent of women’s rights for years and was pleased to finally be able to contribute to the war effort.

Even though her time with the Wrens was brief, the friendships and connections she formed would eventually lead her to head the new wave of Wrens in World War II. Her care, attention, and advocacy for her fellow women allowed her to understand each of their strengths and assign them to roles where they would excel, allowing their reputation to grow as they proved themselves and

take on roles as welders, carpenters, torpedo loaders, and even plotted the progress of sea battles on maps in operations rooms. Working with the Wrens also provided these women the freedom they never had due to societal expectations. They no longer had a curfew, could run errands and work without a male escorting them, and were no longer being forced to stay at home to settle down and marry. This freedom turned into enthusiasm for their work, so when VLM was asked to send a group of wrens to the Derby House there were many volunteers eager to do their part. Ten women were selected to report to Roberts: Jean Laidlaw, for her skill with numbers and recordkeeping; Laura Janet Howes, for her skill with math; Elizabeth Drake, for her work at Derby House as an expert plotter; Nancy Wales, for her experience as a sportswoman in tennis, badminton, and hockey, who would know team tactics better than anyone else; and six ratings (junior wrens) who would handle the administrative side of the games as secretaries, coders, and messengers.

Work Begins Under Gilbert Roberts, the Western Approaches Tactical Unit (WATU) was created with the goals of understanding why the German U-boats had been so successful, facilitating the development of countertactics, and creating the basis for a school where these tactics could be taught to those who would fight at sea. Janet Okell, a rating who along with four others had been assigned to help Roberts set up his tactical school, was welcomed along with the wrens sent by VLM to the Derby House. They got to work immediately by helping Roberts set up games that mimicked previous battles and trying to understand why certain decisions were made by commanders of both sides.

All Wrens went through a 10-day training course where they were taught to decipher naval signals, memorizing ciphers that would detail the location of naval ships and any spotted U-boats. If the German wolfpack force at sea had only one weakness, it would be that they commanders needed to communicate regularly to coordinate their attacks. These signals would be picked up and give the Allies an idea of where the U-boats were located.

The wargame that Roberts created in the main room of the top floor mimicked the actual visibility at sea. On the floor of brown linoleum were white chalk lines spaced 10 inches apart to represent one nautical mile each, as well as see-through counter markers to represent U-boats, and wooden models of Allied convoy ships and their escorts. While the Allied team’s movements were plainly visible in white chalk, U-boat movements were made undetectable with the use of green chalk. Around the edges of the room were large, white canvas sheets with small peepholes cut into them at eye level. The peepholes were angled in such a way that when you peeked through you would only be able to see up to the equivalent of five miles, just like you would inside an actual warship. Along with Okell, Roberts would stage both recent sea battles as well as imaginary, yet realistic, scenarios while some few wrens would kneel on the playing field and carefully and accurately move pieces based on the players’ decisions. One team would represent the escort ships, while the other—usually commanded by Roberts or his now right-hand woman, Jean Laidlaw—would represent the U-boats. The convoy ships would move automatically to their destination as the escorts fought to protect them from the German force, and both sides would have to take turns making decisions within two-minute time limits to mimic the urgency of battle. Once the game finished, the players The Wrens of Watu

10

would sit around the board and Roberts would explain how the game went.

As the Derby House was ideally located at the Western Approaches HQ, Roberts was able to meet with every naval officer that came back from sea and ask them about what they had seen. With first-hand information readily available, he was able to understand the many problems the Allies were facing.

Before deployment, every sailor underwent a two-week long training course that “was intended to build efficiency among an individual ship’s crew, but it did not address the effectiveness of ships working in company. Not only was there no universal set of tactics with which to fight U-boats, neither was there any training for how escort ships should work as a team” (Parkin 151). In addition to the disorganization they faced, the sonar technology they had at the time was often not on every escort ship, being too specialized a tool to use as well as virtually ineffective in turbulent seas or at speeds faster than 18 knots. There was not much the escorts could do when attacked.

Most of the varying manoeuvers developed after Raspberry were also given memorable names of fruits and vegetables: ‘Pineapple’, ‘Artichoke’, ‘Strawberry’, etc.

11

Covert Tactics

Along with this information, Roberts was able to reenact one of his rival’s (Captain Frederick John Walker) recent battles at sea, and finally understood the most important aspects of the tactics the Germans were using to successfully destroy so many ships. They had been infiltrating the columns of ships within the convoy from the stern (rear) where the lookouts rarely checked, firing their torpedoes from close range, and then immediately submerging to wait for the convoy to roll overhead and get away. The same night Roberts discovered this, he began to test how they could oppose their tactics and asked Okell and Laidlaw to stay and help him. Roberts played the U-boat captain while the two young women played as the escort ships—a solution was revealed immediately. “Laidlaw and Okell lined the escort ships up around the convoy. While the convoy continued on its way, each escort ship performed a triangular sweep, listening for U-boats [using sonar]” (Parkin 159). In the three times that they performed this scenario, Roberts’ U-boat was found and sunk every time. After testing the strategy further for another day, Roberts had it approved by the Commander-in-Chief of Western Approaches HQ, Sir Percy Noble, and told Laidlaw to name it since she had done a majority of the hard work. She named this first counterstrategy against the German force at sea Raspberry, for the shape the ships formed when it was being performed as well as being a “razz of contempt aimed at Hitler and his U-boats” (Parkins 161).

A blitz of training Days after it was approved, the first group of naval officers arrived to take the six-day course to learn the strategy and its variants. The games were run by the wrens who moved the pieces across the board and guided the officers through the process, often offering advice of what to do and when. An officer would receive reports from both his lieutenant as well as his assigned wren that mimicked the chaotic and overwhelming amount of information of sonar reports, where shells had been fired, if another ship was trying to make contact, where explosions had been heard, et cetera. Wrens would also collect,

decipher, and transmit coded signals to the officers as well as introduce unexpected setbacks and problems that had to be solved quickly. Every turn, the officers would recieve all this information and then write their intended movements on small chits (sheets of paper) for the wrens to collect and execute.

The game was very real to the sailors who had just returned from sea and would have to go back immediately after their training. Failing at the games in Derby House would be the same as dying out in battle—the pressure was real to succeed. Four games were played throughout the entirety of each course “with each varied details such as visibility, the time of day and the size, speed, and start point of the convoy” (Parkins 164). When each game finished, Roberts would go over every move’s triumph, mistake, and turning point. Roberts found most enjoyment here, and his explanations made the complexities of battle

(below) Wrens calculating and recording moves on the tactical floor with the utmost accuracy. White canvas sheets surround the playing field and provide areas of visibility similar to those found at sea.

Section Title

19

seem simple to the officers—he hoped to ensure that when the officers left his training course that they would do so with self-assurance and confidence in their newfound knowledge.

(below) An extension of the Derby House run by wren Mary Charlotte Poole, the first woman to take the tactical course led by Roberts.

This giant deck simulator was built to teach evasive maneuvers for torpedo attacks.

20

Covert Tactics

Their Commander-in-Chief, Noble, had much praise for the wrens; Drake, Howes, Laidlaw, Wales, and six junior ratings including Okell had become invaluably skilled at conducting the games, providing knowledgeable advice, and creating new counterstrategies and tactics with Roberts. Experienced officers often balked at the idea of taking advice from young women, some not even out of school, who had never been out to sea. But as they played through each game and saw the confidence and respect the wrens provided when making suggestions, as well as seeing that these suggestions were flawless to such a degree, they eventually respected the wrens in turn and were in awe of their skill. Roberts had long believed that carefully designed games could make experts of amateurs, and both the skill of the wrens and the officers who completed their training became his proof. The course continued

to grow with more wrens joining to run the games and more officers arriving to complete their training, which ran every week uninterrupted until the end of the war. The work of Roberts and the wrens had increased to an unbearable degree, but their dedication to their work had changed the course of the war: the Germans were losing.

the Battle of the Atlantic Ends After a final decisive battle in which a convoy used WATU tactics and was able to fight off a large-scale attempt by Doenitz to dominate the sea as he did in the early months of war, the German force began to dwindle significantly. In July of 1943, the rate of Allied ships launched had finally overtaken the rate of those that had been sunk. The hard work of Roberts and the women of the Wrens had won the Battle of the Atlantic, and Doenitz was forced to withdraw the use of his tactics, and eventually his U-boats.

The wrens continued to monitor the situation and support the Navy as well as generate strategies against the Japanese force at sea. But with the main threat becoming almost non-existent, many of the wrens left the service to get married or transferred to other departments. Janet Okell was promoted to leading wren, and Jean Laidlaw, ever Roberts’ right-hand woman and the largest contributor to their successes at sea, remained at WATU with him.

Roberts was awarded for his contributions to the war at Buckingham Palace.

Laidlaw had gone along to join him at his request, though her age, rank, and most of all gender meant she would unfortunately not be a recipient. The work of WATU had been a secret the entire war but was eventually made public, and the skilled women of the Wrens were praised through the Honours List and the press.

The Wrens of WATU

14

France’s Secret Army

22

Covert Tactics

Section Title

23

Hitler’s blitzkrieg saw the capture of the majority of Europe in just under a year.

Beginning on the first day of World War II in 1939, Poland was bombarded by air and captured through a massive land invasion within just one month. Neighboring countries soon followed; by May 1940, the Nazis had taken Norway, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, and Denmark under their control. France was captured by June and forced almost 350,000 Allied troops to evacuate from Dunkirk to England on whatever seafaring vessels they could use. Britain was the only Allied country left in Europe to fight Germany’s forces; but with troops no longer on the continent, they were fighting at a disadvantage, and the Soviet Union could only fight off the Germans in the east for so long.

To that end, a secret agency was created within a government office on Baker Street in London. Working under the false name of Inter Services Research Bureau (ISRB), the Special Operations Executive (SOE), sometimes called the Firm, was an agency dedicated to covert warfare in enemy-occupied territory.

Captain Selwyn Jepson was put in charge of recruiting agents to be sent to France for infiltration, and he knew immediately that women were necessary for success. With so many men gone to fight, seeing a woman walk or bike around leisurely was a normal occurrence; they would be perfect couriers, and their skill for secrecy and ability to be courageous even when working alone and under immense pressure were perfect qualities for the many jobs they would have to take on. With some persuasion, Jepson’s old friend, Prime Minister Winston Churchill approved his idea. Recruitment was underway for the rebels who would make the D-Day invasion possible.

Beaulieu Agents General Charles de Gaulle had become the leader of the French resistance in London after escaping the German blitzkrieg. He extended his reach back into France through his wireless broadcast on BBC radio to keep French patriotism alive throughout the German occupation as well as give updates on the war.

However, while his intentions to help his beloved country were genuine, his Free French covert resistance group created to politically unite French citizens for the future of France was run with the same cruelty as the Nazis, earning it the nickname of La Gestapo Londonienne. A separate resistance group, the French Section, was created out of apolitical necessity by the British and employed all non-French citizens with the goal of preparing for the invasion.

“Between the [two groups], there was a perpetual shortage of the ‘right type’ of secret soldier. The complex knots of Anglo-French courtship only tightened demand for female recruits” (Rose 21).

Andrée Borrel, now 21 years old, had been fighting for her country ever since the Germans took over France. As a conductor on an underground railroad, she helped countless Allied prisoners of war, fallen pilots, and patriots escape to freedom as well as used her training with the Red Cross to save soldiers wounded in the blitzkrieg. Once France surrendered, she crossed the demarcation line into the unoccupied southern zone along with six million of her fellow 17

Covert Tactics

Section Title

25

countrymen. There she met Captain Maurice Dufour while working as a nurse at a Vichy-operated POW camp, and together they worked with MI9, the British secret agency financing the Allied escape routes, to help Allied soldiers escape from the prison. Their roles came to an end in when a high-ranking colleague was captured by the Nazi Gestapo and gave up information that blew their cover, and they had to escape through the very same underground railroad that they had used to help others. Andrée was commended for her service and asked to join de Gaulle’s Free French, but during her interview she refused to divulge the details of her roles or the people she worked with (full intelligence briefs were required for employment), and she was rejected. Captain Jepson was impressed by her intelligence, loyalty, and dedication to the safety of her colleagues and allowed her to join the French Section under British command.

Introduced to the SOE by her brother, Claude, Lise de Baissac was a model recruit even by standards set for men. In the Beaulieu training school of the French Section led by Major Maurice Buckmaster and Squadron Officer Vera Atkins, Lise and four other women underwent a three-week recurring course that taught the survival, combat, sabotage, and recruitment skills they would need to infiltrate France and set up a network of rebels. Out of all the women in her class, Lise was the only one able to complete and pass the course, due to her natural athletic abilities, intelligence, and driven and analytical mind. She was to be sent to parachute training immediately to prepare for her mission.

The invasion was the Allies’ biggest secret of World War II. The most senior officials would be told only what they needed to know of the time and date and the specific roles they would have when it began. D-Day was set for July 12th, 1943.

Moonlight Missions Andrée had been part of the first group of women trained at the Beaulieu School and was also the first woman to complete parachute training.

After completing their training, Andrée and Lise were set to drop together into the French countryside in September 1942 where they would be received by allies including Yvonne Rudellat. Yvonne was one of two women already in France (the other being Virginia Hall) who helped new agents get acclimated to their roles as well as gave them all the information they would need to start their missions. Andrée was happy to see her friend whom she trained with in the very first course of the Beaulieu school, and together they travelled to a safe house to rest for a few nights. When they were ready, Lise set off for Poitiers, and Andrée went home to Paris.

Within a month, both women accomplished much in receiving SOE agents and introducing them to their networks. By policy these networks were named after professions, and two had grown to a significant size within the Nazi-occupied zone; in Paris there was PHYSICIAN which would come to be led by Captain Francis Suttel, Andrée’s commanding officer; in Bordeaux there was SCIENTIST which was led by Claude, Lise’s brother. Before Lise and Andrée arrived, groups of French resistance fighters had only been able to commit disorganized Bangs, small-scale acts of sabotage, against the Germans to

19

Covert Tactics

little effect. Their arrival and work were a beacon of hope for an organized offensive that would take back control of France. In each network’s sphere of influence, they were responsible for recruiting and training rebels for the invasion as well as orchestrating acts of sabotage that would ruin German supplies and facilities. Coordinating efforts were organized through de Gaulle’s BBC radio in the form of coded messages that were broadcasted at the end of each program. These coded messages would also detail what supplies and agents would be dropped in by parachute every full moon, when visibility of the land was at its best in the cover of night. Acts of sabotage, however, were conducted during new moons when visibility was poor.

(above) Lise and Andrée, right and left respectively, complete their final equipment checks before they make their first parachute drop into France.

On one such night, Yvonne Rudellat and her team travelled to a small village by the name of Montrichard and approached a railway tunnel in between scheduled passes of train cars. “For almost three years, it had been the silent crossroads for human violence and international catastrophe: Nazi troops, guns, freight, and food moved through; the tiny village was a node in the rail network linking Berlin to its vast subjugated continent and the Battle of the Atlantic.

It was the direct supply line between Germany and its Kriegsmarine warships and submarine wolf packs hunting Allied shipping convoys. Railroads were the veins by which the Reich bled France” (Rose 87). Their mission was simple enough; they had to blow up the tunnel and sever one of the Nazi’s crucial supply lines. However, only Yvonne could do the job, she was specially chosen for it. Weighing at only 80 pounds and just barely reaching the height of five feet and two inches, she was the only one who could climb into the narrow France’s Secret Army

20

ventilation shaft within the tunnel and set the bomb. By the time it went off, Yvonne and her team were long gone and listening to an explosion they could no longer see.

(below) Lise casually exits her new residence on Avenue Foch and makes her way to her radio operator—her purse concealing documents detailing classified Allied information that could easily indicate her as a spy.

28

Covert Tactics

In Poitiers, Lise had taken on a daring residence on Avenue Foch. The apartment she moved into was only one door down from the Nazi Gestapo headquarters, a mansion for which the third floor was being used for a new team of expert spy hunters and radio and language specialists. Led by SS-Sturmbannführer Karl Bömelburg, the team of spy hunters listened to the same BBC radio broadcasts and telegraph signals as the Allies to record and make copies of coded messages. Even though they did not have the keys to the codes they used, Gestapo intelligence would be able to decipher them before too long. “Code breakers looked for patterns and applied statistical analysis. For example, e is the most frequently occurring letter in the English language, used about 10 percent of the time. The letters j, k, q, x, and z occur least often... So with simple counting and a little deduction, any message could be cryptanalyzed” (Rose 72). With such an operation going on next door, Lise’s cover was perfect; there was no British spy crazy enough to live so close to their enemy.

Resistance Fighters The FANY (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry) commission was a volunteer corps located in England of young, upper-class women who made up the majority of the SOE’s support staff. Agents on the field such as Andrée or Lise would hand off messages to their radio operator who would then scramble the words into code. This code would be received by the women of FANY who were listening to transmissions on schedule-based frequencies; the transmission would be put through a cipher twice, each time being decoded by a different key in a process called double transposition. Along with recording and decoding the hundreds of messages they received every day from various countries, FANYs would create poems to be used as codes once they become more complicated.

De Gualle’s BBC radio would use these poem codes when necessary to unite agents on ongoing operations.

By early 1943 in the dead of winter, France was rife with conflict; terrorist attacks against the Germans had increased exponentially due to food shortages and inflation. Beginning with ‘voluntary’ conscription, the Vichy-led south had instituted a policy of rounding up three young men to work in German factories in exchange for one French POW to be repatriated back to France.

This ‘voluntary’ offering of service became mandatory when families refused to send their sons and nephews into enemy territory for fear for their lives.

Raw materials and food were also being used up by occupying Germans as well as being sent to Germany to fuel the soldiers fighting the Soviets in the East. Women had to queue for hours to hopefully buy the bare necessities they needed to live; the rations of meat they were allowed to take were said to be so small that they could be wrapped in a metro ticket. “Starvation diminished France; one-third of the children born during the war had stunted growth, three-pound newborns were common, and only one in five was born at a normal weight. Women grew gaunt, and their periods were infrequent or stopped altogether...” (Rose 133).

With the few supplies they had been receiving from SOE, resistance fighters and rebel civilians sabotaged facilities, stole supplies, and killed as many Nazis as they could. Hitler had instituted conscription so that potential rebels would be sent to Germany out of sight and out of mind, but the policy had just created more. Out of anger, Hitler commanded his French officers to kill 50 French hostages as well as round up 300 Frenchmen for imprisonment for every German that was killed by rebel forces. The next attack on a German would lead to an increase of 100 hostages being killed and so on; retaliation would only stop if the rebels backed off. However, every move Hitler made just made the French populace angrier, and neither the SOE nor the rebels in the field had any intention of stopping.

After the Soviet win at the Battle of Stalingrad, the Allies were starting to change the tide of the war. The French were eager and ready to fight back, but the SOE had not been sending enough firepower to arm the various France’s Secret Army

22

growing resistance groups around the country. While they waited for their much-needed supplies, agents would teach rebels how to assemble and clean machine guns as well as load a pistol within the many cafes in France. Cafes provided a sense of safety and disguise as they were crowded throughout the day, and the employees and barmen would signal those in the circuit if any trouble was coming by. In Paris, Andrée, Francis, and Gilbert Norman (one of the only radio operators in the area) would often gather in these cafes and worked as an almost inseparable group—they liked and trusted each other with their lives. In Poitiers, Lise worked alone to recruit and train rebels— hosting many parties and using her social life as an excuse if questioned for talking to so many people. Poitiers was relatively safe, so when Lise got bored, she traveled to Paris to meet up with her friend Andrée for a chat or to give or collect information, or to Bordeaux to see her brother, Claude. Even on her own, she made good use of her time to receive agents dropping into France, procure contacts and safe houses, and arrange for guides across the northsouth militarized border that stayed in place even after Hitler had fully taken over France.

A Changing of Priorities A little more than a year after the bombing at Pearl Harbor, the Americans had arrived in northern Africa. British troops had been fighting for years at this point and were fatigued, American troops on the other hand were ready to fight, but the new recruits lacked the combat experience necessary to win the war. Operation Torch, a battle to take the French colonies and the Mediterranean Sea out of the control of the Nazis, was an offensive to open up a southern shipping route to supply the Soviet Army as well as an access point to the Suez Canal which would allow the Allies to stop the Japanese from joining up with the Germans. The combined British and American forces quickly won against Hitler’s troops, and France was given hope for a future free from the control of the Reich. Two birds were downed with one stone: the Allies had secured their first major victory, and the Americans were now combat ready.

Both Roosevelt and Churchill had their own worries about each other. The Americans were fighting their own war in the Pacific against the Japanese, and Roosevelt feared that the British would pull out of the war if Hitler was defeated, leaving America to fight alone. Churchill feared that if he did not keep the Americans’ attention on Europe with a well-made plan, they would leave and focus their attention on the Pacific.

23

Covert Tactics

President Roosevelt met with Prime Minister Churchill along with their highest-ranking commanders to discuss the specifics of the D-Day plan. They had to invade soon, or Hitler would have another year to build his Atlantic Wall; and if the Soviets were allowed to advance into Germany, the current dictator would just be replaced with another. The details were argued over to an intense degree: where in France was best to invade from, the number of troops needed and the logistics of the supplies needed to sustain them, the need for an air campaign to cripple German supplies and morale. Once the strategy was decided, a crucial element had to be taken care of in order for the Allies to be successful: German reinforcements needed to be halted or stopped altogether from coordinating and reaching the frontlines.

De Gaulle had been assisting the coordination of agents and rebels in France from Britain, but there was only so much he could do without leading from

within. Jean Moulin was sent into France as his personal emissary to organize the efforts of the rapidly growing and diverse resistance groups and unite them under his command. At this point, groups (in addition to SOE agents) consisted of manual laborers, socialists, Communists, ex-military, police, Jews, peasants, and students (many of which were in their teens). The Bangs were no longer a priority; as D-Day grew closer, large-scale, heavier attacks to the Nazis were of utmost importance.

In early spring of 1943, Gilbert Norman coordinated one such attack that would take place on the power stations in the town of Chaingy. “Whereas coal-driven engines were still used on the national north-to-south railway, the routes bisecting the country from the Atlantic coast to the Alps were electrified, and therefore vulnerable. The two thousand miles of high-voltage track were a perfect target for the Firm’s sabotage operations. The plan was to cut off power at the source, at the stations, with a series of explosions” (Rose 144).

While they would most likely be rebuilt within a day or two, disruption of the coordination of war supplies and manpower reaching all parts of the Reich would deal a devastating blow to their plans. The trains carrying the food that would feed the French populace would remain unharmed; it was important to make sure they did not turn against the resistance.

A total of eight teams including those led by Andrée and Gilbert themselves would destroy 27 power stations carrying 300,000 volts each. Agents had

(below) Andrée and her partner setting the bombs at their designated towers.

Pliers were used to cut two small copper cylinders that held an acid, that acid would slowly corrode a springloaded lead wire connected to a striking pin which would set off the bomb.

Section Title

31

been consistently drilled to ensure that any demolitions set must not fail— failure could jeopardize futures operations and lead to Allied deaths. As Andrée biked leisurely to her destination along with another member of the SOE, day slowly turned to night; a new moon darkened the skies—it was perfect for their mission. Once they arrived, she removed the explosives from her rucksack and set them at the bases of the three towers they had been assigned.

Her training ensured that the steps she took to start each bomb’s timer were done perfectly, they then biked back to safety with the same nonchalance they displayed before. Andrée and her partner were two miles away when the bombs went off, but one of the three towers did not explode as planned.

To go back would mean to be caught, so they continued on their way to go into hiding. Three Nazi officers went to investigate the wreckage, and that was when the final set of bombs exploded. One officer was killed, the other two were injured. Andrée’s mission was repeated and embellished throughout the country as one of the stories of French rebellion used to rouse support and morale. The spring of 1943 was a hotbed of rebellion which saw the destruction of trains, bridges, trucks, food stores, and fuel as well as hundreds of Germans wounded or killed in attacks. The leader of the elite spy hunters on Avenue Foch, Karl Bömelburg, could no longer use his current strategy of Allied agent monitoring: he had to take more decisive action.

Betrayals and Setbacks SOE had been searching for leadership of a new network in the south of France, preferably someone unlike de Gaulle. André Girard convincingly appointed himself the leader of this CARTE network and successfully recruited many under his command.

However, his recruits were poorly trained and lacked discipline: many errors were bound to happen.

André Marsac, a courier agent of the poorly run CARTE network, had been captured by Nazi officers in a cafe when he was betrayed trying to set up lines of communication between Marseilles and Paris. Months earlier he had also fallen asleep on a train due to fatigue; when he woke up, he found that the briefcase he was carrying containing an address book of trusted associates, their home addresses, passwords, safe houses and postboxes, contacts for the whole of France was stolen. It was a breach of security on an enormous scale, and now his arresting officer, Sergeant Hugo Bliecher, would be able to pry even more information out of him. Bleicher was a skilled interrogator, often using a friendly demeanor to set his detainees at ease and strike deals where the Nazis would benefit. Marsac fell for Bleicher’s act; in exchange for his freedom, Marsac (bluffing as he had no authority at this point) would provide Bleicher safe passage to England (to negotiate on the war and possibly become a war hero), a radio (which was scarce), a set of Allied codes, a list of arms caches, landing grounds, and British officers, and one million francs.

Bleicher also promised that the agents soon to be captured would be treated as prisoners of war and not spies; Marsac agreed to the terms, relieved that it would set him free even at the expense of his colleagues.

Located at Lake Annecy in the Alps was one of the many safehouses of the Allies—a resort-type lodging that catered to the bourgeois. The agents who had taken up residence there were Captain Peter Churchill, a skilled polyglot who coordinated with London and the CARTE network, and later Odette

25

Covert Tactics

Sansom near the end of 1942. She had arrived in France by sea and then train along with Mary Herbert, both of whom where in the same class at the Beaulieu school as Lise but needed additional training. However, Odette had landed in the wrong side of France through no fault of her own; her job was similar to Lise’s in that she had to set up safehouses to receive agents, but her assignment was located across the demarcation line in the north. Peter tried to help her by finding her guides around the military checkpoints and arranging for her travel through the CARTE network, but they were of no help due to petty squabbles for power they started between them and the SOE. Odette stayed to work with Peter as his courier, and Mary left to start her assignment as Claude’s courier in Bordeaux.

(above) Odette, Mary, and fellow agents being escorted

by Peter to a safehouse for rest. Necessary information must be passed on before they split off to carry out their respective missions.

France’s Secret Army

26

(below) Permitting Odette and Peter to collect the belongings they will need for prison, the arresting Italian officers watch them at gunpoint. Odette’s quick thinking allows her to hide documents detailing the identities of rebel collaborators and their recently assigned missions.

34

Covert Tactics

The Allies had been coordinating attacks at a much faster speed than before, however, mid-to-late spring of 1943 saw a rapid dismantling of the many networks and nationwide connections the SOE had worked so hard to build.

The combined forces of Bömelburg’s Gestapo and Bleicher’s Abwehr began rounding up agents and rebels in coordinated operations throughout the country. Odette had been followed by Bleicher himself as she returned to her residence; he approached her with Marsac’s demands to which she refused and reported the interaction to her radio operator. London told her to leave as she was compromised, but she defied orders to stay to receive Peter who was scheduled to drop back into France after he had spent a month out of the country briefing his contacts. The day after she received him, both Odette and Peter were captured by Bleicher and Italian officers; they also found a diary containing information on other network members which tied together rebel cells across the entire country.

While being questioned, Odette lied about Peter’s identity, stating that he was the nephew of Prime Minister Winston Churchill when he was only a very distant relative. After arriving at their destination of Fresnes Prison in Paris, they were questioned, tortured, and starved (Peter to a lesser degree for

his relationship to the Prime Minister) in order to glean more information on D-Day. Odette never revealed anything no matter how haggard she became, and in time she became so weak she could no longer take in food—she had been beaten, burnt with a poker from a fire, her fingernails and toenails had been ripped off, her neck had been swelling painfully, and tuberculosis was spreading throughout her lungs. She vowed to herself to never say anything that would jeopardize her colleagues since her defiance of orders gotten Peter caught. Even when she was told by Bleicher that Peter was to be traded for Rudolph Hess (Hitler’s close friend who was in British custody) and that she would be left behind, Odette still kept her silence. Her lie about Peter’s identity had saved him, and she would continue to protect as many as she could.

Odette’s heartbreaking state after each session of torture had affected the other prisoners who saw her. As weeks passed, she was barely able to eat at all. Bleicher gave up on interrogating her himself with no clear results in sight.

Around the same time, Francis had been called to England for a debriefing and used the opportunity to demand better assistance for the agents on the field in person. Bömelburg had incentivized betrayal by offering one million francs in exchange for the capture of British officers, there had been many mistakes within rebel groups which had led to safehouses being blown or agents being put in danger, the Nazis were now using injectable drugs during interrogations to get victims to talk (truth serums), and the SOE had not been rewarding agents for their years of hard work and danger they had put themselves in for service to their country (especially women, who had been almost completely ignored). Francis was furious with how they were being treated—there was only so much he could do to keep morale up as well as salvage compromised networks—but through his conversations he was able to convince Buckmaster (the man who co-led the Beaulieu school) to send in more radio operators to help with organizing the networks. Francis dropped back into France to tell the networks to be ready for the invasion; once the attack came, the rebels would be tasked with stopping Hitler’s elite panzer tanks from reaching the invasion zone.

Still, things continued to go poorly. In June, at the same time that weapons and troops were being stockpiled on the British Isles, 300 drops had been scheduled containing weapons and supplies to arm the resistance. However, in a botched drop set to be received by Yvonne, one of the bombs within the cargo exploded in the air and alerted the Gestapo. Her team scattered so as not to be caught, but days later the Gestapo moved in and set up barricade checkpoints at crossroads and flew planes low around the area to look for landing strips and drop zones. Five of her team were caught, and in an attempt to move some agents to safety Yvonne was shot in the head driving to escape the Gestapo. She lived as the bullet did not pierce her skull, and she worked with the hospital staff to make sure she was not interrogated as she healed. Francis had been waiting for Yvonne and the agents she was helping, but when they did not arrive, he knew they had been caught. As soon as he returned home, he was arrested as well.

Yvonne’s team panicked in the wake of the blast, but her confidence and clear instructions were able to calm and prepare them for their next steps to go into hiding.

Andrée and Gilbert were also captured at their safehouse while they were forging new documents for their network to devastating effect. The docuFrance’s Secret Army

28

ments were perfect for the Gestapo to use; in another large, coordinated effort, rebels and agents were found in hiding and arrested simultaneously, including de Gaulle’s representative, Jean Moulin. Compromised agents that had not been arrested were called home to Britain including Lise, Claude, and Mary. The decoders of FANY had suspected Gilbert had been breached since he was missing one of the two identity checks that he always used, but Buckmaster refused to believe them and scolded Gilbert for his breach of security.

Gilbert had done it on purpose to warn them and was angry that his constant dedication to safety meant nothing to the SOE; he surrendered to the Nazis and agreed to work for them, hoping he could convince other captured agents to spare themselves from torture.

On the promised day of invasion, it was revealed that the Allies were invading Italy, not France. It was a decision that had been made months earlier, but now more than ever it was revealed to be the correct choice. So many agents and arms dumps had been captured by the Nazis, and many of the networks that were built had been destroyed. The invasion of Italy beginning from Sicily was meant to sever their forces from Hitler, seize control of the Mediterranean, and divert German forces away from the Soviets. France was told to wait and that they had not been abandoned—their time would come. The French were disheartened, but with convincing and encouragement they continued to recruit rebel forces and rebuild the networks.

D-Day Liberation

Mary had moved into Lise’s old apartment on Avenue Foch. In her third trimester of pregancy with Claude’s child, she was taken in for questioning on Lise as she was the previous tenant. So as not to be questioned further, she created a strong cover story, aided by her pregancy, that she did not know of any of Lise’s activities and was able to successfully shake their suspicions off.

29

Covert Tactics

Despite all the arrests, France continued to sabotage the Germans: they took out factories, sunk boats, fouled locomotive axles with sand, and ruined U-boat uniforms with itching powder. By early 1944, the SOE was preparing for the invasion of France that was set for June and began ramping up its efforts.

Claude and Mary were back in the country to coordinate efforts and train rebels for their roles, Lise was soon to join them after she finished training her last class of female recruits for the invasion. After dropping in, Lise worked as Claude’s second-in-command in Normandy and cycled hundreds of miles to coordinate efforts and train her network of rebels.

For the days before D-Day, the BBC radio sent out signals to be ready for the invasion and laying out instructions for sabotage. On June 5th, the signal went out that the Allies would invade within 48 hours. The Paris Gestapo had already known what signals to look out for since they had keys to Allied codes for years, but the German forces were fatigued at this point, and when they were alerted to be ready, they did nothing. They had been told to be ready for invasion for months and grew frustrated at false alarms, those who took the alarm seriously were told to stand down since their commanding officers could not be bothered. The rebels, however, were more ready than ever, so much so that even though the Allies had hoped for sabotage in phases, it happened all at once.

As soon as Lise’s network heard the order, they demolished a train junction in the town of Avranches, took down two aerial power lines and felled trees across the main roads, and the teenagers she trained cut subterranean telephone and teleprinter cables all along the Normandy coast. Throughout France, there were 950 explosions cutting up the railways due to SOE coordination: the entirety of the invasion site, Normandy, had been isolated. Bomber planes flew around Normandy villages dropping pamphlets to warn the locals of the assault. The D-Day invasion, Operation Overlord, began on the early morning of June 6th; within one day the beaches were captured, but by day 45 Normandy was in full out stalemate war in all parts of the area.

(above) Resistance fighters and agents gather around a radio set to the BBC broadcast. As soon as the signal was given, they would need to act quickly.

Harassment and sabotage delayed German tank divisions by three weeks to the front lines, but the Germans had held their ground and thousands were dying every day. The secrecy of the invasion hurt their progress as they were not able to set up food and supplies on the mainland, and poor weather delayed or ruined shipments—the terrain was also hard to wade through for soldiers.

Another operation was planned to break though, Operation Cobra, which called for saturation bombing and a tight, four-mile-wide push down from the peninsula and into the rest of Europe. After the Allied blitz was successful, they had found another problem in that they had been moving so fast that they France’s Secret Army

30

(right) Despite a leg injury she sustained as a result of parachute training before her last drop into France, Lise bikes throughout the country to organize operations and courier important information during the final D-Day operation. She was in constant danger but always loved her work.

31

Covert Tactics

couldn’t see what was happening or where the fighting was; there were not enough radios on the field. Lise had to jump in and help: a parachute agent was dropped in to assist with signaling commanders, and Lise and Claude assigned some 31 local guides to run him to the fighting, sneak around into allied territory, and make contact with the commanders to supply news of the enemies. The German force was tired and outdated in its supplies compared to the Americans and were quickly pushed back by the newly organized Allied forces. By day 70, the Nazis had decided to retreat from Normandy in full. By day 81, August 13th, France was free.

Lise had finally completed her mission after two years and returned to Britain.

Yvonne died a few days after the news spread of the liberation—the nurses had not been able to take the bullet out of her skull and had done their best to help her body heal around the wound. When the war was ending in 1945, Odette and her fellow agents (who were moved to Germany) were freed by the Allied forces fanning out through the continent. In total, 14 of the 39 women trained for Britain’s French Section died; and including the women who joined the rebel forces, none save Lise and Odette received rewards above the Honours List for their service and sacrifice to the turning point of the war.

Section Title

39

Jewish Sisters

40

Covert Tactics

Section Title

41

Antisemitism in Europe had a long history even before World War II. However, Poland was a safe haven for Jews escaping persecution in Europe; the country was tolerant of their religion and also provided economic opportunities that they were not able to pursue elsewhere such as working as bankers, bakers, and bailiffs. Furthermore, “Jewish communities and [Polish] nobles had mutual arrangements: the gentry protected the Jews who settled in their towns and gave them autonomy and religious freedom; in turn, Jews paid taxes and carried out economic activities forbidden for Christian Poles, such as loaning and borrowing capital at interest” (Batalion 23). But as their successes continued to grow, Polish citizens began to blame Jews for many of their problems; this sentiment was compounded by false and hateful lies spread by the Catholic Church that accused Jews of murdering Christians to use their blood for their religious rituals. After World War I, Poland needed to rebuild both its cities and its identity; the ensuing fight for leadership continued to splinter the damaged relationship between the two groups, and the hatred and violence Poles directed at Jews—who by this time had grown into and taught their children Polish customs—was on a national scale.

When Hitler invaded Poland on the first day of World War II, his Nazi forces bombed roads and towns from the air and immediately after sent a wave of ground soldiers through Jewish communities to maim and kill indiscriminately.

No one knew where to flee, many families who were not able to leave the country hid wherever they could but were found and dragged out to be shot down. The lucky families that were able to hide from the first wave of attacks were spared and promised normalcy by the Nazis as long as they obeyed; the killings were just one example of what could happen, and any resistance was swiftly put down—but the Jewish community’s new life in Poland had only just begun.

Humiliation and Ghettos Throughout 1940, Hitler’s decrees were passed throughout Poland to single out and weaken Jews as well as make identifying them easier. “All Jews older than ten were forced to wear a white ribbon with a blue Star of David at the elbow. If the ribbon was dirty, or its width incorrect, they could be punished by death. Jews had to take off their hats when they passed Nazis; they could not walk on the sidewalk... Jewish property was seized and gifted over to folsdeutsch: Poles of part-German heritage who applied for this elevated status... the poorest Poles became millionaires...” (Batalion 52). Then in April, Jews were given two days to relocate to newly established “Jewish neighborhoods” consisting of small buildings and apartments and narrow alleys. These dwellings became known as the ghettos, with multiple families (up to 50 people in a small home) who were often strangers having to learn to live together without enough space to even spread their arms.

Around 400 ghettos were established in order to decimate the Jewish population through disease and starvation as well as for ease of rounding them up 35

Covert Tactics

for work camps. Men usually stayed home as they were often kidnapped, so in addition to caring for any children, women had to go out to look for work or sell what meager possessions they had for money and food. Men also had a much lower tolerance for starvation, so their spouses would come home to the food they had saved to share with their children eaten many times. Marital strife skyrocketed, mothers could not stand to see their children suffer and often adopted them into willing Polish families with whatever money they had. The lack of running water and sanitation also led to Typhus outbreaks, a disease spread through lice, that hospitalized and killed thousands. By 1941, Jews could no longer step outside their ghetto’s boundary. and Poles could not enter. Violation of this rule, again, led to execution. But even if they followed all the rules, Nazis would still come around to execute or torture those named on lists, or even whoever they wanted. Starvation, illness, and fear were now rampant in the ghettos.

(above) With little notice, Jewish families take as many belongings as they can carry before being forced into the ghettos. Most of these belongings would have to be sold for lack of space or for money and food.

But there was still a glimmer of hope bolstered by Jewish teachings and customs. Before the war, Jewish youth groups affiliated with different political parties (the same ones that had been vying for control over Poland) provided a sense of community and guidance to young Jews who felt lost and alone and continued to do so now with their new lives in the ghettos. Many groups, including the various Labor Zionist youth groups which were more secular, promoted nationalism, heroism, and individual sacrifice and put them into Jewish contexts; the people you cared about and the connections you made Jewish Sisters

36

were also valued over family, though not at its expense. With most members being in their late teens, girls and young women were often involved in leadership and organizational roles as they were more mature than their male counterparts. These groups helped keep hope alive among the poverty and seemingly random killings and drafts into work camps that had been terrorizing so many.

However, the safety the youth felt only lasted for so long. Many of those who were drafted for work camps were not writing back, and there had been rumors that those who were drafted were actually being taken to death camps for execution on a scale much larger than what they had seen in the ghettos.

Youth group couriers of non-Jewish, Aryan appearance, mostly women who would not have the physical tell of circumcision, had been sneaking out to find more information on these rumors. Finally, a meeting was called to gather members from several different groups in Warsaw and confirm the worst.

A young girl named Sara had been taken to massive twenty-foot-deep pit in Ponary, along with her family and other Jews, where they were ordered to take off their clothes and immediately shot and killed, falling into the pit as the life left their bodies. Sara was the only one of her group who survived, lying still until night came and hiding in the forest as she made her way back to her hometown of Vilna. Similar stories had been circulating throughout Poland: it was true, the Nazis planned to kill all Jews. Faithful to their teachings and despite their fears, their decision was unanimous: the Jews had to defend themselves—they had to fight back.

Youth Resistance Groups Form Of the Jewish youth groups that were now organizing to protect as many as they could, two (Zionist-based) groups became the most active and influential: Freedom and the Young Guard. While Aryan-passing, Polish-fluent courier girls spread the news of the death camps, leaders of these groups approached the “adult” leaders of the Jewish communities for help in acquiring guns and combat training. To their shock, the community leaders refused to believe that Jews were being taken to their deaths, that their family members who had been taken might be killed. They were angry that the youth were putting themselves and their families in danger by fighting back against the Nazis and urged them to back down immediately. Youth groups continually tried to convince their adult counterparts but talks went nowhere: they were on their own.

Then in the summer of 1942 came the main Aktion in the Warsaw ghetto, which was a Nazi euphemism for the mass killings and deportations set in place by Hitler’s Final Solution. The Nazi forces began by murdering intelligence groups in the area as well as anyone they saw in the streets. Then, posters were put up that stated that whoever was not under Nazi employment would be gathered up for deportation. In a panic (now understanding what deportation actually meant), hundreds of Jews were lining up in hopes of getting jobs before it started; many resorted to buying forged work papers from under37

Covert Tactics

ground networks for fear that they would not make it in time. However, after multiple waves of deportations, even those papers would not be enough. With so many Jews fleeing to different parts of Poland, hiding in Warsaw, or being exempt from deportation, the Nazis were unable to meet their quotas and began rounding up anyone they saw, and by the end of the first Aktion, 52,000 Jews had been deported. Angered by the adults’ lack of response, the Freedom youth group established their own force: the Jewish Fighting Organization, or Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa (ZOB).

Zivia Lubetkin, the only elected female leader in ZOB, had been the one who organized the couriers of Warsaw to gather and spread information throughout Poland. Now they would need to make good use of the connections she put in place to carry out operations to sabotage the Nazis and save their people.

Other female leaders—Tosia Altman, Frumka Płotnicka, and Leah Pearstein— were sent to forge ties and procure weapons. While they waited, the ZOB decided to make their influence known, and three groups were given tasks.

The first would be sent out to inform everyone of the new fighting force, the second (including Zivia) would set fire to abandoned homes and Nazi warehouses of looted goods, and the third would assassinate the Jewish police chief who was now working under Nazi command. All three groups were successful, and that same night, the Russians bombed the area for the first time.

However, even with the success of the operation and the newly flowing supply of weapons, their happiness was short-lived. Anxious Jews tore down ZOB recruitment flyers and beat up those who were trying to put up more on the

(below) Zivia’s group sets fire to one of many Nazi warehouses that held stolen Jewish property of which had been meticulously organized by value.

Section Title

45

Niuta Teitelbaum was an infamous assassin in the Warsaw ghetto. With her youthful looks and naive-presenting demeanor, she carried out stealthful killings of Nazi officers without arrousing suspicion. One story states that she feigned shame to the guards of an officer and stated that she needed to speak with him about a “personal matter.” Assuming the peasant girl was pregnant, the guards allowed her into his office. Once there, she took out a pistol with a silencer and shot him in the head, smiling meekly to the unsuspecting guards outside.

“Little Wanda with the Braids” was on all of the Gestapo’s most wanted lists.

belief that it was a Nazi ruse to capture noncompliants. Further operations were made inviable when two beloved leaders and one courier girl were captured and killed; that same courier was also carrying their entire cache of weapons (unfortunately small enough to be carried by one person) which was being moved to a new location. Unable to make any further movements, ZOB and its cooperative groups could only watch as three more Aktions took place; over 300,000 Jews were taken to death camp Treblinka’s gas chambers, and almost 99 percent of the children in the Warsaw ghetto were killed. The 60,000 Jews that remained were left with immense survivor’s guilt and sorrow at the loss of so many friends and family. Zivia and most of the remaining ZOB fighters were devastated and wanted to plan one last act against the Nazis: it would be a suicide mission. They were stopped by Yitzhak Zuckerman, known as Antek, who convinced them that an act like that would only save themselves—they needed to keep fighting for the honor of the Jewish people and their future. With a newly invigorated hope, Zivia got to work in rebuilding the resistance movement.

Jewish Bullets Kraków was a strategic city for the Nazis and became the capitol of their General Government, however, it was also the base for activities of the Zionist youth group Akiva. In preparation for an Aktion that was sure to come, female couriers were sent out to organize movements, collect and spread information, and smuggle in weapons for the resistance fighters. They also were able to establish a connection (though somewhat unreliable) with the PPR, the underground Polish Communist Party, which provided them with guides through forests and hiding places. Still, the Aktion that came took them by surprise.

Unlike how it happened in other ghettos, this Aktion that took place in the capitol city was quiet and orderly—many were too hungry to scream when they were captured. However, their response led to a much different outcome than what happened in Warsaw.

Starting with smaller acts of rebellion, Akiva set up bases inside and outside the ghetto as safe areas to be given orders and survive when not out in the field. Groups of two to three comrades would be sent out to find information, courier documents and false papers, and distribute flyers to recruit and inform the Jewish community. Fighters would also knock out or kill Nazis and their collaborators who were alone or in small groups to steal their weapons. Once conditions in the ghetto deteriorated to a severe degree, Akiva had to ramp up their operations to help Jews escape to other parts of Poland; Nazis were now being killed more often in the streets, and in anger they retaliated by taking Jewish hostages, increasing security around the ghetto, and moving up the curfew. Undaunted by the Nazis’ threats and motivated by their successes, Akiva made preparations for a major attack. Around Christmas of 1942 when Nazis were celebrating and shopping for gifts, forty Jewish men and women were gathering in the streets. When all was ready, groups attacked military

39

Covert Tactics

garages to set off alarms and cause confusion. They then arrived at their target: the coffeehouses where the Nazis were holding parties. Fighters threw grenades and set up bombs that killed at least seven Nazis and injured many more. While resistance leaders were captured and killed afterward, Jews continued to bomb facilities around Kraków all with the help of connections made by the female couriers who risked their lives.

(above) Young Jewish resistance fighters lie in wait for the right moment to ambush a Nazi officer.

Back in Warsaw at the beginning of 1943, yet another Aktion had come unexpectedly. Zivia and the ZOB had been preparing but were not yet ready to launch their own attack against the Nazis. With little time to think, groups immediately went into action. The first, comprising both male and female members, allowed themselves to get caught in the streets. When they were nearing the holding area, which was next to the railway station for ease of transport, their leader gave the signal to start their attack. Taking out their concealed weapons and grenades, they killed as many Nazis as they could and yelled for their fellow Jews to escape if they could. Many did, but the Nazis were eventually able to overpower the small force since they had so few weapons; of the group, only two were able to escape and survive. They had lost, but they had started a new wave of rebellion in the ghetto.

Zivia’s group was the second to fight back, though using a different tactic.

Getting to the remaining Jews in hiding meant that Nazis had to enter buildings to search. With this in mind, Zivia believed that waiting for the Nazis to Jewiish Sisters

40

48

Covert Tactics

enter the building and ambushing them would yield the least casualties. Zivia, Antek and forty other barely armed men and women took up positions in areas around their bases and waited. At Zivia’s position, Nazis entered and stormed past a comrade pretending to read and opened up the door to the room where the rest of her group was hiding, seemingly awaiting death. As soon as they peered in, the comrade who had been reading shot two Nazis in the back while the rest fled to a stairwell for cover. Zivia and her comrades sprang into action and killed more with whatever weapons they had, with some comrades taking time to gather weapons from the Nazis who had been shot down.

(left) A Jewish comrade prepares to shoot Nazi officers while they are distracted by Zivia’s group in hiding; they conceal their weapons and wait for the right moment to attack.

They had won in their first attack—having gained more weapons—but there was little time to celebrate as the Nazis were sure to send a second wave.

Two more Nazi attacks were pushed back by the Jews, and in total there had only been one injury and no casualties within the comrades. Now ZOB had time to become more organized, more groups were taking up better positions throughout the ghetto, and Nazis were coming less often and being less thorough in their building searches for fear of being shot at. Many other Jewsih attacks had been successful, and the Nazis had only been able to collect half of their quota for the Aktion. What should have taken the Nazis two hours was stretched to four days, and eventually they had to retreat. The Jewish community throughout Poland was amazed: it was now proven that the right resistance could stop an Aktion and save lives.

Yet still there could be no celebration. They had stopped this Aktion, but it did not mean that the Nazis would leave them alone. Impressed by their successful uprising, they now had the support of “adult-run” resistance groups who supplied the ZOB with 50 pistols, 50 hand grenades, and several kilograms of explosives. At the same time, workshops had been set up to produce more ammunition and explosives; with ZOB taking control of the ghetto, they also taxed rich Jews who had sided with the Nazis in order to get the funds they needed to buy supplies and food. An underground layout of bunkers had been mapped out for safety of retreat when necessary, and also included the sewage canal systems that led to different parts of the area. Combat training was proceeding at a fast pace, traps and bombs were being prepared; ZOB wanted to make sure they did everything they could possibly do to prepare for the Aktion that would be coming soon.

Revenge and The End Now, months after their successful rebellion, the Nazis were back with what could be called an army. If their lives were not at stake, it would have been an amusing observation that the Nazis were prepared for war against a much smaller force of emaciated, poorly armed (in comparison) Jews. Two thousand Nazis arrived with panzer tanks and machine guns to fight against 22 groups totaling 500 ZOB combatants. The tanks were allowed to pass through the front gate of the ghetto, and then a switch was pressed. “A thundering blast.

The mines they had planted under the main street went off. Severed arms Jewish Sisters

42

and legs went flying into the air. A new group of Nazis marched in. Now Zivia and her comrades threw hand grenades and bombs, a rain of explosives. The Germans scattered; the Jewish fighters chased them down with guns... No Jewish fighter was injured” (Batalion 198).

Zivia’s tactics were still being used to great success until the Nazis decided to change their approach. Now instead of entering buildings to search for Jews, they burned the buildings they were hiding out in and waited at a distance.

Those who ran out to save themselves were shot down, and those who stayed inside burnt to death. Zivia and other leaders did their best to save as many as they could: non-combatant Jews were moved to underground bunkers, attacks were pushing the Nazis back everywhere they could, tanks were being bombed, Nazis were being shot. But keeping hundreds of people in small bunkers with limited food, water, and ventilation made conditions even more unbearable than before. The Nazis were now hunting for the bunkers and taking Jews hostage for information, and despite Antek and some few courier girls venturing outside the ghetto to ask for help, not much was going in their favor anymore.

Zivia’s guilt over the hundreds who died in the bunkers never went away.

When she was safe in hiding, she urged other members of resistance groups to prioritize finding safety over fighting back.

43

Covert Tactics

Zivia and a few other scouts decided to look for an escape route out of the ghetto where they could take large groups discreetly. The guide she was given was able to help find them a map of the canals and a route to get out of the ghettos, however, when they returned to the bunker they were protecting, the worst had occurred. Nazis had found the bunker and attempted to break in. The bunker’s 120 occupants were unsure whether or not to escape out a back entrance or stay under the assumption that they would be too afraid to actually break down the door. Eventually they stopped trying to break down the door and started infusing gas into the bunkers to suffocate them slowly.

Except for a few that went out the back door, all bunker occupants died. Zivia blamed herself for the deaths and not being able to come up with a better plan, but she had no time to mourn. Gathering as many Jews as she could from various shelters, she led them back through the sewage canals in hopes of escaping outside the ghetto.

Earlier as she had been returning to her bunker, she had sent another group to verify the way out through the sewers; they had been able to meet up with Kazak, another comrade who went outside the ghettos to ask for help, who had been able to procure a truck that would get them to safety once they reached their destination. Together, they trekked through sludge and sewage, which at some points flowed neck-high, for hours until they reached the manhole outside the ghetto where their ride would be. When their ride was delayed, they had to wait in the heat and filth for an entire day until Kazak could get them a new one. Of the 60 Jews that had made it through the sewers, 20 left on foot to alleviate some space and find somewhere safe to lie low. When the truck arrived and they were nowhere to be seen, Kazik made the decision to leave them behind—he would have to send another truck to fetch them. Zivia argued strongly that they should wait, she did not want to lose anyone else,

but Kazik was adamant they had to leave immediately. Zivia relented for fear of putting more people in danger, and the truck sped off. Once they reached a safehouse, they cleaned themselves up as best as they could and dispersed: they would have to live as best they could in hiding.

There were many more acts of rebellion throughout Poland in the ghettos: women had been bringing in weapons, information, and fake identifying documents to help as many Jews as they could. Nazis were killed, and there were attempts to stop many of the Aktions throughout the ghettos. However, starvation and disease had taken a great toll on Jewish morale, it was hard to find people to trust. Smugglers often betrayed the Jews to the Nazis and their collaborators. It was only until the Russians and European Allied forces came to liberate Poland that the Jews were freed from the tyranny and suffering they had spent years enduring. Emaciated Jews in death camps cried with their liberators once they both realized what was happening when they saw each other: only 300,000 Polish Jews had survived, a mere 10% of the pre-war population. The Jewish people had fought bravely to live, but the effects of the Holocaust would always be felt through their lingering fear and loneliness— and the pain of those they lost.

(above) Kazik leads Zivia’s group through the sewage canals; the air was stagnant and filled with methane, and the sludge they waded through worsened the fatigue they had been forced to endure for years.

Jewish Sisters

44

Fading Stories

52

Covert Tactics

Women’s military contributions to the efforts of World War II have been overlooked for many reasons, the largest of which was that many of the operations and organizations they took part in were top secret in nature. Countries had to ensure that their tactics would not fall into enemy hands, especially during and right after the war. The general public were unaware of most, if not all, the military operations taking place since spies could be anywhere (though civilians were more focused on staying alive). Still, even though their roles were mostly secret in nature, women faced many other barriers in finding recognition for their efforts.

In the case of the Wrens, women had been seen as unfit for military work as their roles usually never went outside those of housekeeping and childrearing.

It was only the absence of men in the workforce that prompted a massive influx of women into new roles. However, even when proving themselves time and time again as having the same (or better) work ethic and skill as their male counterparts, most women did not receive awards above the lowest standing in the Honours List as they did not have official military positions due to their secretive work. It was a similar situation for France’s secret agents. Women did not have official positions, nor were there documents on their actual identities and roles for fear of compromising them and leading to their deaths if the documents got into enemy hands.

The women of the Jewish resistance on the other hand, were not recognized for much more heartbreaking reasons. The toll of the Holocaust was neverending even after liberation. The pain of being ripped away from their homes into camps of hard labor and death, of losing family and loved ones, of being humiliated and massacred just for being Jewish. As soon as it was over, there was a need for normalcy. Not many Jews wanted to talk about their experiences, and they wanted their children to grow up without knowing the horrors of what they had experienced. Survivor’s guilt led to suicides, and many who did want to speak of their experiences as resistance fighters were told to keep silent; victim blaming was common, “If they resisted then why did you not do the same? It must have not been as bad as you say. Why did you not fight back to save your people?” Prominent resistance leaders like Zivia gave speeches around the world on their experiences but were often ignored or not believed: it just could not be possible that humans could commit such atrocious acts.

Above all, the resistance stories that did get told were mostly about the roles of men, and the more secretive roles that mostly women took on were ignored.

However, women’s roles in the war are now beginning to surface recently as documents on their roles are being released to the public. Many books have been published detailing their important contributions, and just like those authors I hope this book gave a new insight to the successes of the largest conflict that led to the world we have today.

Fading Stories

46

Sources Batalion, Judy. The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos. First ed., HarperCollins, 2020.

Parkin, Simon. A Game of Birds and Wolves: The Ingenious Young Women Whose Secret Board Game Helped Win World War Two. First ed., Sceptre, 2020.

Rose, Sarah. D-Day Girls: The Untold Story of the Female Spies Who Helped Win World War Two. First ed., Crown, 2019.

Further Reading Ackerman, Diane The Zookeeper’s Wife Jackson, Jeffrey H. Paper Bullets: Two Artists Who Risked Their Lives to Defy the Nazis Kaminski, Theresa Angels of the Underground: The American Women Who Resisted the Japanese in the Philippines in World War II Loftis, Larry Code Name: Lise, The True Story of the Woman Who Became WWII’s Most Highly Decorated Spy Loftis, Larry The Princess Spy: The True Story of World War II Spy Aline Griffith, Countess of Romanones Olsen, Lynne Madame Fourcade’s Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France’s Largest Spy Network Against Hitler Purnell, Sonia A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II

Sources and Further Reading

48

COVERT TACTICS Beginning with the invasion of Poland, Hitler’s forces sought to expand Germany into a world superpower and took control of a majority of Europe through blitzkrieg tactics. Germany dominated the war in Europe for years until a series of rigorously planned and executed operations allowed the Allies to liberate captured countries and defeat the combined German and Italian forces.

However, these operations were only possible due to a group of people not often talked about or appreciated in the context of history: women. Even though their service in military and resistance conflicts were a large part of what made them successful, it is rare to hear their contributions even mentioned in war documentaries, books, school curriculum, or remembrance speeches. Many women died in service of their country, yet their hard work and sacrifices were forgotten. To highlight the roles and achievements of these dedicated women gives new and necessary perspectives to the significant events of World War II.