Embedded Files
Carmen Mª García, Celia Torres, and Irene Torres
Espionage was a vital factor in the progress of World War II. Two core oversight organizations were responsible for intelligence activities: Special Operations Executive (SOE), which was British, and Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which was American. Besides, there were ordinary men and women who provided covert information about places and strategic activities while they were able to head a normal life.
The SOE was established in July 1940 out of Churchill’s goal to “set Europe ablaze”. This secret intelligence agency was formed to train and administer undercover agents who would infiltrate enemy territory with the aim of collecting information, carrying out missions of recognition, subversion, and carrying out acts of sabotage. These spies would go to war zones and pass themselves off as inhabitants of the area. In fact, they used to be natives of the area where they worked.
SOE badge
Spy recruits emanated from all classes and backgrounds, from the Indian royal family to members to the working classes and even criminals. Women agents played an important role, as they could blend in with the crowd. The SOE started enrolling women with language skills into the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) or the Auxiliary Transport Service (ATS) for later forwarding them for specialist training, which was very important, as they had to go unnoticed among locals.
Most of the women had professional profiles that could be favorable to the cause such as nursing, nursing assistance, flight mechanics, and even women with military experience. Nevertheless, housewives could be recruited as well.
They followed an intensive training programme, where they were taught how to get on a boat by means of a rope, to jump on boats, to parade, to cross fences and barricades, etc. They even learned self-defense, surveillance and encryption. And of course, they had to pass difficult tests.
Some women pretended to be a character like a poor widow or an archaeologist while searching for suitable areas for launching missiles and landing planes. For these roles they used things for disguising themselves like false beards, glasses, different hair, taking a different gait and even using scars. What is more, there was a list of plastic surgeons that could modify the features of agents. They transformed their faces in order to look like Germans.
There were women who offered their houses as a refuge of passage and that helped evacuate their wounded allies. They carried out sabotage of bridges and roads and sent reports to London. They worked in newspapers where they had access to secret information. There was even a nurse who became the lover of some Nazis, whom she poisoned.
A small radio
Moreover, communication was pretty significant for espionage; the women made portable communication devices like small radios and telegraphs and sent coded messages to radio operators. They had to stay mobile, so they often carried the radio equipment on their backs and they had to be very fast transmitting messages. These coded messages were used to give information to the British about the German troop movements in preparation for the Normandy landings.
In this aspect, it is important to mention the military installations of Bletchley Park, where the decryption work of German codes was learnt. The park was called with the code name of “Boniface” to make people believe that it was a secret agent instead of a secret place. The important reports from “Boniface” were transferred to “Winston Churchill” in a safe. Only the Prime Minister had the key. This information was called “Ultra”. It was at Bletchley Park where Tommy Flowers designed the first programmable digital electronic computer, “Colossus”. Colossus broke the codes of the famous German machine “Enigma” (a rotors machine that was used both to encrypt and decrypt messages) and some codes of the “Lorenz” (a machine of 12 rotors that was even more complicated than “Enigma”).
On 18 January 1944 the first Colossus was conveyed at Bletchley Park and broke its first message on 5 February of that year. It was succeeded by colossus Mark II. In total 10 Colossus were installed before the end of the war. After the war all Colossus were dismantled.
The manor house at Bletchley Park
Around 10,000 employees worked in these facilities, of which two thirds were women. These women deciphered a million encrypted messages from the Germans, which helped to shorten the war, because the British could anticipate the Germans’ movements.
Colossus, the first programmable digital electronic computer
Furthermore, the SOE Operations developed unique devices for agents to use in sabotage and close-range combat. Some weapons were inventions which were hidden in everyday objects like umbrellas, pens, pipes and others more practical as the foldable bike called “the Welbike”, and waterproof containers that protected the agents’ supplies during parachute jumps.
The Welbike
Phyllis Lautor Doyle
Nowadays some of these ladies are still alive in spite of the fact that a lot of them died for the cause. Many of them were decorated. The most outstanding woman was Phyllis Lautor Doyle, who was decorated with the highest honor, being named “Lady of The Legion of Honor”.
SOURCES:
SOURCES:
https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/world-war-ii/espionage-and-the-soe/
https://daily.jstor.org/clothing-britains-spies-wwii/
https://www.thoughtco.com/female-spies-of-the-world-wars-3530435
https://www.exordio.com/blog/biografias/mujeres-agentes-del-soe-en-la-segunda-guerra-mundial.html
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bletchley_Park
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/the-women-who-helped-crack-nazi-codes-at-bletchley-park/
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/The-Female-Spies-Of-SOE/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/soe_training_01.shtml
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