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. 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.

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.

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

(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.

(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. 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.