DOSSIER:
Jacqueline Francoise Mary Josephine Nearne, daughter of John Nearne and Marie de Plazoala, was born 27 May 1916 in Brighton, England. She died on 15 Aug 1982 in London, England.
CODE NAME:
CODE NAME:
Josette
At the age of 18 Jacqueline moved to Nice to work as a commercial travelling representative for an office equipment company. When France fell, she made her way to England via Portugal and Gibraltar. On her arrival in England, she applied to the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) but was turned down as she had no experience of driving in the dark and on the left hand side of the road. In 1942, she was recruited into the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) with her younger sister Eileen.
Her fluency in French quickly brought her to the attention of F Section, a branch of the SOE. She trained as a courier in mid-1942 and was also taught Morse code transmissions using a suitcase radio,
Her fluency in French quickly brought her to the attention of F Section, a branch of the SOE. She trained as a courier in mid-1942 and was also taught Morse code transmissions using a suitcase radio,
which would help her in her work with the French Resistance. She was the first woman, along with Odette Sansom, to train at Training School 51 Ringway Parachute School.
On 25 Jan 1943 she was parachuted into France to work for the vast Stationer circuit in central France. Despite the risks of being exposed or betrayed she travelled by train. She maintained contact with the neighboring Headmaster network and other SOE networks in the Paris area and carried spare parts for radios inside a cosmetics bag. After fifteen months in the field, she finally returned to Britain in April 1944 by means of Westland Lysander.
Eileen Mary "Didi" Nearne was born on 15 Mar 1921 in London, England. She died on 2 Sep 2010 in Torquay, England.
ALSO KNOWN AS:
Mademoiselle du Tort
Jacqueline Duterte
Alice Wood
CODE NAME:
Rose
Eileen made her way to London with her sister Jacqueline. On her arrival in England she was offered service in the WAAF working on barrage balloons, but turned this down and was recruited by the SOE.
Initially she worked as a home-based signals operator, receiving messages from agents in the field. Her sister Jacqueline was sent to France to work as a courier. The sisters were supposed to keep their roles secret from one another, but were unsuccessful.
On 2/3 Mar 1944 she was flown by a Lysander aircraft to a field near Les Lagnys, Saint-Valentin, France with Jean Savy to work as a wireless operator for the Wizard network as part of Operation Mitchel. Her cover story was that she was Mademoiselle du Tort (also using the aliases Jacqueline Duterte and Alice Wood). Using the code name "Rose", she was given the mission of helping Savy set up a network in Paris called Wizard; its aim, unlike the networks dedicated to sabotage, was to organize sources of finance for the Resistance. Eileen's role was to maintain a wireless link to London, and in the course of the next five months she transmitted 105 messages.
Savy had returned to London with important information about German V1 rockets, leaving Eileen on her own. Although she did not know it at the time, the same aircraft which took Savy home also carried her sister, Jacqueline, who had just completed 15 months in the field. She then worked for the Spiritualist network.
In July 1944 her transmitter was detected and she was arrested. She "survived, in silence, the full revolting treatment of the baignoire" in the torture chamber of the Paris headquarters of the Gestapo on the Rue des Saussaies.
She reportedly managed to convince her captors, under torture, that she had been sending messages for a businessman, unaware that he was British. On 15 Aug 1944, she was sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp where she refused to do prison work. Her head was shaved and she was told she would be shot if she continued to refuse. She was then transferred to a forced labour camp in Silesia. While in one of these prisons she was reportedly tortured.
On 13 Apr 1945 she escaped with two French girls from a work gang by hiding in the forest. They later travelled through Markkleeberg, where they were arrested by the SS. They were released after fooling their captors and reportedly hidden by a priest in Leipzig until the arrival of United States troops.
After the war Eileen lived in London with her sister, Jacqueline where, the New York Times reported, she suffered from "psychological problems brought on by her wartime service". After her sister's death in 1982, she moved to Torquay and lived there quietly until her death. She died alone from a heart attack in her seaside flat. Her body is thought to have remained undiscovered for some time until found on 2 Sep 2010.
On 2/3 Mar 1944 she was flown by a Lysander aircraft to a field near Les Lagnys, Saint-Valentin, France with Jean Savy to work as a wireless operator for the Wizard network as part of Operation Mitchel. Her cover story was that she was Mademoiselle du Tort (also using the aliases Jacqueline Duterte and Alice Wood). Using the code name "Rose", she was given the mission of helping Savy set up a network in Paris called Wizard; its aim, unlike the networks dedicated to sabotage, was to organize sources of finance for the Resistance. Eileen's role was to maintain a wireless link to London, and in the course of the next five months she transmitted 105 messages.
Savy had returned to London with important information about German V1 rockets, leaving Eileen on her own. Although she did not know it at the time, the same aircraft which took Savy home also carried her sister, Jacqueline, who had just completed 15 months in the field. She then worked for the Spiritualist network.
In July 1944 her transmitter was detected and she was arrested. She "survived, in silence, the full revolting treatment of the baignoire" in the torture chamber of the Paris headquarters of the Gestapo on the Rue des Saussaies.
She reportedly managed to convince her captors, under torture, that she had been sending messages for a businessman, unaware that he was British. On 15 Aug 1944, she was sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp where she refused to do prison work. Her head was shaved and she was told she would be shot if she continued to refuse. She was then transferred to a forced labour camp in Silesia. While in one of these prisons she was reportedly tortured.
On 13 Apr 1945 she escaped with two French girls from a work gang by hiding in the forest. They later travelled through Markkleeberg, where they were arrested by the SS. They were released after fooling their captors and reportedly hidden by a priest in Leipzig until the arrival of United States troops.
After the war Eileen lived in London with her sister, Jacqueline where, the New York Times reported, she suffered from "psychological problems brought on by her wartime service". After her sister's death in 1982, she moved to Torquay and lived there quietly until her death. She died alone from a heart attack in her seaside flat. Her body is thought to have remained undiscovered for some time until found on 2 Sep 2010.
Eileen talked about her wartime activities on a Timewatch television documentary in 1997 where she wore a wig and spoke in French under her code name "Rose". Her wartime activities were not generally known about. It was only when her flat was being searched by council workers to try to establish her next-of-kin that medals and other papers related to her war career were found.
No comments:
Post a Comment