Alix Maurice d'Unienville was born in Mauritius on 8 May 1918 and moved to France at the age of six.
CODE NAMES:
Aline Bowden
Myril
Marie-France
Aline Bowden
Myril
Marie-France
Commissioned in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, Alix commenced SOE training at Beaulieu in June 1943. On 31 Mar 1944 she parachuted into Loir-et-Cher from a Halifax aircraft. Her alias was Aline Bowden and cover story was she was born on the island of Réunion in 1922, moved to France in 1938 to study and was now the wife of a prisoner of war.
Working in Paris using the code names Myril and Marie-France, she was successful until her arrest on 6 Jun 1944 when she was arrested with Tristan outside Bon Marché in Paris. She was taken to Avenue Foch for interrogation and was searched and was held in Fresnes prison in solitary confinement. She pretended to be "mentally deranged" to escape from Fresnes and to be transferred to Saint-Anne hospital. This plan was foiled by the Gestapo, who transferred her to La Pitié, a place associated with brutal atrocities of the Gestapo.
By once again acting deranged, she was able to get herself transferred briefly to Saint-Anne, and then to the prison camp at Romainville, where she and another women, Annie Herve hatched a plan to escape over the walls using a rope they made out of black curtains. The attempt was abandoned when Herve was deported to Germany.
Alix was in the last convoy to be sent from Romainville towards Germany, but she able to escape when the prisoners were sent across a road bridge over the Marne because the rail bridge had been destroyed by Allied bombing. She hid in two villages before being liberated by the Americans, whereupon she was able to return to Paris.
After the war Alix worked as an air hostess for Air France and became a writer of fiction and nonfiction. She died on 10 November 2015.
Working in Paris using the code names Myril and Marie-France, she was successful until her arrest on 6 Jun 1944 when she was arrested with Tristan outside Bon Marché in Paris. She was taken to Avenue Foch for interrogation and was searched and was held in Fresnes prison in solitary confinement. She pretended to be "mentally deranged" to escape from Fresnes and to be transferred to Saint-Anne hospital. This plan was foiled by the Gestapo, who transferred her to La Pitié, a place associated with brutal atrocities of the Gestapo.
By once again acting deranged, she was able to get herself transferred briefly to Saint-Anne, and then to the prison camp at Romainville, where she and another women, Annie Herve hatched a plan to escape over the walls using a rope they made out of black curtains. The attempt was abandoned when Herve was deported to Germany.
Alix was in the last convoy to be sent from Romainville towards Germany, but she able to escape when the prisoners were sent across a road bridge over the Marne because the rail bridge had been destroyed by Allied bombing. She hid in two villages before being liberated by the Americans, whereupon she was able to return to Paris.
After the war Alix worked as an air hostess for Air France and became a writer of fiction and nonfiction. She died on 10 November 2015.
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