The amazing women of SOE

One of my favourite television shows is Foyle’s War. Set in Hastings in the Second World War, it covers the work of Detective Chief Superintendent Foyle as he maintains law and order despite the war. Apart from the excellent acting and scripts, the production values are first class. The series looks like it takes place in 1940’s wartime Britain with authentic clothes, sets, vehicles and locations. But what I enjoy most is the whole idea of what the police had to deal with in wartime, crimes were still being committed including murder, black marketeering and dodging the call up or trying to avoid the war by living in a hotel in the country. There were dodgy dealings in a shipyard and the factory that was secretly making masses of coffins to put all those killed by the Blitz.

Ellie Haddington as Hilda Pierce

However there are several times that Foyle runs foul of the intelligence services in his pursuit of justice. On these occasions he is put right by the redoubtable Miss Pierce beautifully acted by Ellie Haddington. In the final episode of the whole series now set in post war Britain, Foyle is working for SIS (MI6). Miss Pierce is shot and it becomes apparent that during the war she and her current boss ran SOE.  She was portrayed as the real life Vera Atkins who sent many young men and women to France to work with the Resistance. Many of these women were betrayed or caught and tortured, then sent to concentration camps, hanged or shot.

Vera Atkins

Whilst researching Nick North: Cross Wires I read a lot about SOE, their French agents and Vera Atkins, the woman who recruited and trained them. Her story alone is fascinating. She was born in Romania and was raised in a wealthy Jewish family in what is today Ukraine. She was brought up in a life of privilege but when war was brewing she escaped to Britain in 1937. Her own life was shrouded in mystery much of which was not uncovered till Sarah Helm wrote her fascinating biography A Woman of Secrets. Amazingly she was able to work in SOE from 1941 even though she was not a British naturalised citizen till 1944.

Despite all manner of clues that the Nazis had infiltrated some of the SOE circuits in France, the young women continued to be sent to France where they were captured. Many disappeared and nothing was known about their whereabouts till after the war. Vera Atkins then single handedly toured war torn Europe to find out what had happened to her girls. She left no stone unturned till she knew exactly when they had been captured, where they had been taken, who had questioned and tortured them and where they had been sent and the manner of their death. It was an enormous task in incredibly difficult circumstances interviewing former Nazis and surviving prison inmates and warders.

Most SOE agents died, usually at the hands of the Nazis but one or two survived and I based the story of Nick’s great grandmother Yvette on the life of Eileen Nearne, who was parachuted into France from a Lysander plane and worked as a radio operator in France. Yvette also parachuted into France but I made her a courier in Paris. Eileen was captured and tortured and sent to Ravensbruck and then to another camp from which she escaped by miraculously fleeing from a work party.

Yvette too was captured and tortured and then sent to Ravensbruck camp. Nick and Ashley help Yvette and her friend Claudine to escape from a working party sent to work outside the camp.

As always the research for the Nick North books is fascinating. Here is an excerpt from Nick North: Cross Wires as Nick’s Gran finds out about her mother’s wartime career.

‘Incredible.  To think. All this about my own mother. I never knew.  She was a heroine.’

Gran studied another paper. ‘Oh.’ She dropped the paper and her hand flew to her mouth.

‘What’s up, Gran?’

‘She was sent to Ravensbrück.’

A bell was ringing in Nick’s head. ‘Where’s that?’

‘A death camp.’

‘She must have got out.’

‘Yes. Says here she escaped April 1945.’

Gran dropped the paper and sat back in her chair. Tears started to trickle down her face.

‘My poor mother. Avenue Foch. I bet she was tortured. And Ravensbrück.’

She started to sob and Nick handed her a tissue as he squeezed her shoulders.

‘Sorry, dear.’

‘It’s alright.’ Nick’s smile was tight. He sat beside his Gran and held her hand.

‘I’m not sure I should have started this,’ Gran said, smiling at Nick with watery eyes.

‘Yes, you should. She was a hero. At least you know now why she wasn’t much of a mum.’

‘You’re right.’

Memories of the War

London bomb damage 

I grew up in England just after the Second World War so whilst I never experienced the War first hand, it cast a long shadow over my childhood. My mother was quite a raconteur even though she never wrote stories down. My childhood years were peppered with tales of family life on the home front. At first both my father’s and mother’s families lived in Woolwich in London, opposite the docks. Every night they watched the heavy bombing and prayed that no stray bombs fell on their homes over the river. Of course they did and most homes were damaged. So later my father’s family moved out into Essex away from the blitz but nevertheless affected by the German air raids on a large RAF airfield nearby.

No one was called up for military service, my father was declared medically unfit but he was appointed a fire warden, an important night-time duty during the bombardment of Hitler’s planes. My aunts also told us stories of life in London during the War. One aunt described how she was waiting for a bus to return home when an air raid started. Rather than go to the shelter, she continued to hope the bus would arrive. It eventually did and as she climbed aboard and the bus pulled away, a bomb landed on the bus stop. She had missed death by seconds.

My mother’s stories of rationing, bombs and doodlebugs were as much part of my childhood as the bombed out buildings that stood for years as testament to the War.  

Our childhood films were often wartime stories with heroic Englishmen fighting the evil Nazis and their wicked plans to defeat the Allies in order to take over the world.  Sink the Bismarck, Dam Busters, Reach for the Sky, 633 squadron, Bridge over the River Kwai -  all stories of great heroism and bravery by British military personnel.

It was years before the true facts about some of these events became known and though they might have shown that the Dam Busters’ raid was not quite as successful as at first thought, nothing can undermine the genius of Dr Barnes Wallis and his bouncing bomb.

It was many, many years later before war was shown in all its brutality and horror. 1950’s and 60’s film audiences were not able to stomach the gruesome cruelty and viciousness of the Japanese Army or the SS and Gestapo which so many Allied forces had to face and overcome.

Children in Britain were largely sheltered after the War from the horrors of life in concentration camps and under Japanese domination that were discovered by the Allies and Russians as they marched across Europe and the Far East. Life in England may have been rationed and cheerless in those post war years with food and coal in even greater shortage than during the War, but the chaos of post war Europe with many cities bombed beyond recognition and the huge volume of displaced people was largely unknown on these isles.

However the War years were a vital part of my growing up even if it was second hand. From this came the seeds of Nick North: Cross Wires which took events in Second World War Europe and wove a story around them.

Here is an excerpt from Nick North: Cross Wires

‘The funny thing is, Nick. I was wondering about my family. After Leone found out about hers.’ 

Gran was bustling around getting some food ready. She opened the fridge and cupboard and started assembling her ingredients and chopping vegetables and chicken to make a curry.

‘My grandmother mostly brought Susan and I up. I was never quite sure why. My mother had bad nerves – well that’s what they called it in those days. She was French you know?’

‘Who was?’ Nick asked.

‘My grandmother. Her parents married after the First World War. He was a British soldier in France. Met her and they married and lived over there.’

Nick looked at Gran whilst continuing to tap into his phone. He yawned.

‘Of course, she taught Susan and I French. Well she spoke to us in French a lot. I used to be quite fluent.’

‘What?’ Nick stared at Gran wide-eyed. His fingers were motionless now. ‘You mean you can speak French? You never told me!’

‘What difference does it make?’

‘I could do with some help. I’m rubbish at French.’

Nick heard his mother’s laugh in the hallway. She came into the room, rubbing her hands.

‘Ooh. It’s lovely and warm in here. It’s freezing outside.’

‘I suppose your French is good as well.’ Nick’s voice oozed sarcasm.

‘Well it’s not bad. I did A-level French.’

‘What! Anything else you’d like to tell me? Any other family secrets?’