Category Archives: Espionage

Member of the Special Operations Executive and POW during WWII

The following is excerpted from Infinite Women creator Allison Tyra’s book Uncredited: Women’s Overlooked, Misattributed, and Stolen Work.

Such attitudes are particularly infuriating in light of the battles women have had to wage just to be allowed into the armed forces, and recognised as such when they have served. Historically, women have been grouped into supposedly civilian roles even as they perform the same duties as men in the armed forces and are frequently sent into war zones. The women of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) who spied—and often died—in service to their country during World War II often received commendations that were explicitly designated for “civilians.” Even when the SOE as an agency recommended women like Pearl Witherington (who led an SOE network of around 2,000 fighters in France) for military commendation, the government was likely to change it to a civilian version.

Using the cover name Jacqueline Gautier, the 45-year-old Rudellat worked as a courier, organized supply drops, and became skilled at sabotage after being deployed to France in July 1942.

Blanche Charlet was an influential gallery owner in Brussels after World War I. Known as Agent Japonica and Ventriloquist, Charlet was recruited by the SOE in 1941 and became a courier for the French resistance during WWII.

WWII French resistance member Marie-Louise Dissard, code name Françoise or Victoire, was in her 60s when she took over the escape network known as the Pat O’Leary Line.

Marie-Thérèse Le Chêne was the oldest woman the SOE sent to France—age 52 when she was served as a courier and distributed anti-Nazi materials from November 1942 to August 1943.