Women on the front line
Women served the SOE in many capacities, including as couriers, organisers and wireless operators. Some entered occupied France under assumed identities and lived with the constant danger of surveillance, betrayal and arrest.
Noor Inayat Khan
Noor Inayat Khan became the first female SOE wireless operator sent into occupied France in June 1943. She continued operating after the Prosper network in Paris was compromised, was arrested later that year and was executed at Dachau in September 1944. Her story is particularly important to wireless history.
More than one kind of bravery
Violette Szabo, Odette Sansom, Yvonne Cormeau and others illustrate different tasks and experiences of women working with the resistance. They were not all wireless operators, and it matters to distinguish their actual roles while recognising their collective contribution.
A responsibility to remember
Their courage should be presented without making suffering an attraction. We honour them by teaching the history truthfully, listening to the records and encouraging new generations of women to take their place in technical and public service.