Marguerite Diana Frances "Peggy" Smith, daughter of Alfred Rex Knight and Charlotte Beatrice Mary Ditkowski, was born on 19 Apr 1920 in Paris. She died in 2004.
CODE NAME:
Nichole
Owing to her mixed British-French parentage and upbringing in France, Peggy was a nearly perfect speaker of the French language — so much so that one day early in the spring of 1944 leaders of the British intelligence organization Special Operations Executive (SOE) overheard her speaking French in a cafe and immediately moved to recruit her into to the organization.
On 11 Apr 1944, Knight began attendance at the Students' Assessment Board of the SOE at Wanborough. She was rushed through a cursory two week training course at Thame Park, Saltmarsh, during which she did only one practice parachute jump from a static balloon, rather than the customary three, before being sent behind enemy lines in Vichy France to establish herself as a secret British courier.
Under the code name "Nicole," Peggy worked as a courier for the Donkeyman network. Following the Allied invasion of France at Normandy of June and July 1944, she crossed back and forth between battle lines several times, carrying intelligence messages and information. She also participated directly in an attack by the French resistance upon a German military convoy, firing her Sten sub-machine gun during the course of the operation.
She narrowly escaped capture and execution later in 1944 when she and a group of resistance fighters were betrayed by one of their number to the Nazis. Peggy was one of about 30 fighters who managed to fight through a German encirclement. The man responsible for the betrayal, Roger Bardet, was later arrested, tried and sentenced to death as a collaborator after the war. This sentence was commuted, however, and Bardet was ultimately released from prison in 1955.
Knight left the employment of the SOE in November 1944.
On 11 Apr 1944, Knight began attendance at the Students' Assessment Board of the SOE at Wanborough. She was rushed through a cursory two week training course at Thame Park, Saltmarsh, during which she did only one practice parachute jump from a static balloon, rather than the customary three, before being sent behind enemy lines in Vichy France to establish herself as a secret British courier.
Under the code name "Nicole," Peggy worked as a courier for the Donkeyman network. Following the Allied invasion of France at Normandy of June and July 1944, she crossed back and forth between battle lines several times, carrying intelligence messages and information. She also participated directly in an attack by the French resistance upon a German military convoy, firing her Sten sub-machine gun during the course of the operation.
She narrowly escaped capture and execution later in 1944 when she and a group of resistance fighters were betrayed by one of their number to the Nazis. Peggy was one of about 30 fighters who managed to fight through a German encirclement. The man responsible for the betrayal, Roger Bardet, was later arrested, tried and sentenced to death as a collaborator after the war. This sentence was commuted, however, and Bardet was ultimately released from prison in 1955.
Knight left the employment of the SOE in November 1944.
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