#OnThisDay, 1 May 1944, South African Phyllis Latour parachutes into occupied France to be a radio operator for the British Special Operations Executive.

She's never captured.

She died in 2023, in New Zealand.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #WorldWar2
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Very early #OnThisDay, 30 April 1944, New Zealander Nancy Wake parachutes into occupied France to be a courier for the Special Operations Executive. The British SOE supported French Resistance to Nazi occupation.

Nick-named 'the white mouse' by the Gestapo, she is never captured. She died in 2011.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #WorldWar2 #Histodons

"My comrades, who did far more and suffered more profoundly than I, are not here to speak. Because of this, I speak for them."

#OnThisDay, 16 April 1943, Special Operations Executive agent Odette Samsom is arrested by the Gestapo in France. The British SOE worked with the French resistance.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #BritishHistory #WorldWar2

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Very early #OnThisDay, 12 Apr 1944, Odette Wilen parachutes into France to work as a wireless operator for the British Special Operations Executive. The SOE supports the French resistance.

Wireless operators were at the greatest risk of discovery, as their position could be triangulated whenever they were transmitting messages back to London.

Wilen evades capture by minutes and escapes over the Pyrenees. She lives until 2015.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WorldWar2

Very early #OnThisDay, 6 Apr 1944, Lillian Rolfe and Violette Szabo separately arrive in occupied France to work for the British Special Operations Executive (SEO). Rolfe is a wireless operator, Szabo a courier.

Szabo returns to the UK at the end of April but goes back to France in June 1944 and is captured. Rolfe is captured in July 1944.

They are executed together, by shooting, in Ravensbrück concentration camp in Feb 1945.

#WomenInHistory #WorldWar2 #History #Histodons #EuropeanHistory