Page 34 - All About History - Issue 53-17

Spies That Won WWII

COLIN GUBBINS HENRI DÉRICOURT

The disciplined and dapper Scotsman who The inscrutable Frenchman’s history
headed up the Special Operations Executive remains a mystery to this day

The prime
T a resistance war in the UK should After escaping to Britain in August 1942, Frenchman Henri Déricourt joined
mover in
m the Germans complete a successful the SOE and was parachuted back into his native land in January of the
t the Special invasion, before he was invited following year. He worked mainly for the Prosper network and arranged the
Operations to oversee the SOE. He took the transportation of over 60 SOE agents including Noor Inayat Khan, Vera Leigh,
Executive codename M (a moniker borrowed Yolande Beekman, Eliane Plewman, Diana Rowden, Jack Agazarian, Francis
(SOE), this by Fleming when he wrote his Suttill, Pearl Witherington and Lise de Baissac.
energetic James Bond novels). Under his When the Prosper network was compromised, the likes of Agazarian and
Scotsman guidance, SOE formed separate Suttill believed Déricourt might have been working against them as a double
served with sections to co-ordinate activities in agent. In the aftermath of WWII, evidence emerged that Déricourt was guilty
distinction specific countries, with the greatest of providing information to the Gestapo that led to the arrest and execution
in the Royal concentration focusing on France. of several agents including Inayat Khan, Agazarian and Suttill, among others.
Artillery The SOE enjoyed many successes and When interviewed for the book Double Agent, Déricourt claimed that the SEO
di
during WWI before going on to fight in endured many failures, including a had used him as a triple agent. Aware that the Gestapo had compromised the
WWI b f
i
Russia for the White Army and then to disastrous campaign in the Netherlands Prosper network, he said, the SEO deliberately sacrificed key agents in a bid
Ireland, where he fought in the Anglo- that cost many agents’ lives. to divert Nazi attention from
Irish War of 1919-21. His experiences As the head of SOE, Gubbins Operation Overlord and the Déricourt claims agents were
in these two arenas gave him a keen co-ordinated the activities of D-Day landings in Normandy sacrificed to protect D-Day
insight into guerrilla warfare and he resistance movements across the in Operation Neptune.
went on to author a number of training globe and Gubbins consulted with Déricourt was reportedly
manuals, such as 1939’s Partisan the Foreign Office, the chiefs of staff, killed in an air crash over Laos
Leader’s Handbook, which outlined the representatives of the resistance in November 1962. His body
principles of sabotage and guerrilla organisations, governments-in-exile, was never found, however,
warfare, for British Military Intelligence. and other agencies including his and suggestions abound that
He worked on establishing the counterparts in the American Office of his death was faked so that
Auxiliary Units, who would fight Strategic Services (OSS). he might live a new life under
an assumed name.
EDDIE MYERS

Engineer who sabotaged the Gorgopotamos viaduct VIOLETTE SZABO

Lieutenant-Colonel Eddie Myers was The brave agent who avenged her husband
t the commanding officer on Operation
Harling, an SOE mission held in Bo
orn Violette Bushell, Szabo joined the
SOE in July 1943 following the death of her
conjunction with Greek Resistance SO
groups, which aimed to destroy the h usband, Etienne Szabo, at the great tank
battle of El Alamein. Her first mission, which
viaduct and thereby hamper Field b
Marshal Erwin Rommel’s supply route to s he completed, was to check whether one
o
north Africa. The sabotage was a success of the Prosper network sub-chains had been
and proved that guerrillas working in compromised. She was then parachuted back
c
conjunction with Allied officers could i nto France in early June 1944, just two days
achieve spectacular results in occupied after D-Day with the intention of disrupting
a
German communications.
Europe. Myers remained on the ground, G
building his own guerrilla network, Shortly after landing, when in the company
whose further successes included the of French Resistance fighter Jacques Dufour
destruction of the Asopos viaduct. and Jean Bariaud, her car ran into a German
roadblock and she and Dufour laid down
JACK AGAZARIAN escaped. Szabo and Dufour retreated towards a wood, exchanging fire
covering fire while the unarmed Bariaud
The selfless spy who made the ultimate sacrifice with pursuing enemy troops. Szabo had an ankle injury and in the chase
it gave way, forcing her to a standstill. She continued the firefight in a bid
RAF officer Jack Agazarian more than proved his mettle when to let Dufour get away. She was captured and taken to the Ravensbrück, a
he decided to return to France for a second mission in July 1943, concentration camp for women. She was executed in February 1945.
even though the Gestapo knew who he was from his time with the Her bravery saw her become the second woman to win the George
Physician network. His bravery was further amplified when he stood in Cross, her citation stating that while she was brutally tortured, she never
for his commanding officer, Nicholas Bodington, at a meeting that they surrendered any significant information. Her exploits are remembered in
felt might end up being a trap. It was, and Agazarian was arrested and the book and the 1958 film, Carve Her Name With Pride.
subsequently killed. His wife also worked for SOE’s F Section.
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