The new dedicated website http://www.violetteszabo.org/ under the authorship of Violette's daughter gives further insight ito the life of Violette and full details of the new book by Tania Szabo - Young Brave and Beautiful - (The missions of Special Operations Executive Agent, Lieutenant Violette Szabó, George Cross, Croix de Guerre avec Etoile de bronze, CIP, 2007.) ISBN 1-905095-20-1. 496pp, Index, Bibliography plus 30 pages of illustrations and of Tania herself.

A most welcome return to current bookshelves is R.J.Minney's "Carve Her Name With Pride". First published in the UK in 1956 (George Newnes Ltd), reprinted in 1964 (Collins Clear-type Press) and published now by PEN & SWORD MILITARY CLASSICS (www.pen-and-sword.co.uk) of 47 Church Street, Barnsley, S.Yorkshire S70 2AS in paperback at 190pp - ISBN 1 84415 441 6 and 978 1 84415 441 8 this is a veritable bargain at £8.99 ($16.99 US).
Possibly the story of Violette Szabo has never appeared in one volume so comprehensively - and includes 24 pages of black and white photographs as added bonus. The 21 chapters commence with Violette's birth and end with the award of the George Cross - little between these two dates being omitted in the detail which Minney supplies.

Commando Country EXHIBITION is on at the National War Museum [Scotland], Edinburgh Castle until 25 February 2008 and looks at how remote properties in the Scottish highlands were transformed during the Second World War into special training centres to teach new tactics such as sabotage, close combat and outdoor survival. The exhibition also looks at the schools set up to train the Special Operations Executive (SOE), officers who carried out the highly dangerous work of supporting and organising resistance movements in enemy-occupied countries. The SOE schools were situated in the Arisaig and Morar area of the West Highlands.
Visit:
http://www.nms.ac.uk/commandocountry_1.aspx

STORIES and Research portal

The story of HANNIE SCHAFT - "Symbol of the Resistance" begins "It is the evening of 17 April 1945. A truck leaves the Huis van Bewaring, a prison on the Amstelveenseweg in Amsterdam. The truck contains a Dutch driver, three German soldiers and the Dutch detective, Maarten Kuijper. These men form the escort for one prisoner, a young Dutch woman of 24. They drive to the German Ortskommandantur in Haarlem where a soldier of the Feldgendarmerie (Gefreiter) equipped with a shovel gets in. The truck moves off again and the new man gives directions to the beach at Overveen, a few miles away. The truck stops near the beach where a path leads into the sand dunes. Kuijper and the German, Mattheus Schmitz, lead their prisoner into the dunes, the man with the shovel bringing up the rear. Schmitz, who is walking a few paces behind the girl, draws his pistol and fires, she cries out in pain but does not fall. Kuijper, seeing she has a wound to the head but is still standing, levels his machine pistol and takes his turn. This time the bullets find their mark and the young woman falls dead. " on the dedicated website at http://www.haarlemshuffle.com/history/topic.php?id=12 and continues for a fascinating coverage of this brave young lady.

"A LIFE IN SECRETS : The Story of Vera Atkins and the Lost Agents of SOE", by Sarah Helm (Little, Brown £20 463pp) concerns the F (French) Section of SOE and perpetuates its controversies.
Vera Atkins was the Head of F Section at the material time and this book reveals details of an interview with her in 1998 - the author at the time being one of The Sunday Times' investigative reporters - and her subsequent deep delving into one of the intelligence disasters of the period, aided by the further release of hitherto classified documentation,

"SECRET WAR HEROES : Men of the Special Operations Executive" has been published by Hodder & Stoughton (March 2005) - 324pp written by Marcus Binney in his well-known style. This is the story of ten men of the SOE - all with different characters and fascinatingly portrayed - including Marcus' own stepfather George Binney.

Within the ever-growing WW2 PEOPLE'S WAR website of the BBC there is inevitably coverage of matters relating to Special Operations and Intelligence and many stories including:

• Arrival at Porton Down 1940
• ATS Dispatch Rider
• Bletchley Park, Churchill's 'Secret Weapon'
• Britain's Secret Army - Chapter 1
• Britain's Secret Army - Chapter 2
• Counteragent
• Out-of-bounds Football
• The Secret Tunnels of South Heighton
• Special Operations Executive in the Far East
• Stuck in France
• Wartime Friends in the Middle East
• Yes, Mum, there really was a secret

The Little Breeze art show about Violette Szabo was on display during December 2004 at the University of Toronto in Canada:

SOME BOOKS - all with reference to Violette Szabo

• "Like many World War II widows in Great Britain, Violette Szabo was devastated by the death of her husband, an officer of the Free French Forces. Turning her grief into action, she volunteered for covert service with the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) and became a legendary agent known for her courage and daring. This illuminating new biography, based on recently discovered and previously unpublished papers, tells how the half-French Szabo parachuted into occupied France, scouted resistance efforts in the Rouen area, talked her way out of an arrest by the French police, engaged in a fierce gun fight near Limoge just after D-Day, and was finally captured and incarcerated at the infamous concentration camp at Ravensbrück where she was executed by the Gestapo in 1945. King George VI presented Britain’s highest civilian honor, the George Cross, to Szabo’s 4-year old daughter in 1946. This gripping story of valor and espionage is a moving tribute to those who served their country in an hour of need."
  And so writes the reviewer of VIOLETTE SZABO - 'The Life That I Have' (228 pages, 38 photographs) by Susan Ottaway (ISBN 1557504997) published in August 2002 at $32.95 by The Naval Institute Press (the book-publishing arm of the U.S.Naval Institute) in their Special Warfare Series.

• "Violette Szabo: The Life That I Have" by Susan Ottaway (ISBN 0850527805) is also available as published by Pen and Sword Books at the price for the hardback version of £19.95. ($31.12) by whom the publication is described viz:
  "The book and film Carve Her Name With Pride have moved millions of men and women with their tale of incredible bravery and fortitude. The heroine Violette Szabo was an attractive young mother who volunteered for the Special Operations Executive, and after arduous training, parachuted into Nazi-occupied France. Captured dramatically by the Germans she was tortured and cruelly shot in Ravensbruck Concentration Camp, aged a mere 23 years old. Inevitably fact and fiction have become confused in the past, but this well researched biography reveals the truth behind this remarkable story."
Susan Ottaway is the author of a number of successful books including 'Dambuster - The Life of Guy Gibson VC' and 'She Who Dared'
• By MARCUS BINNEY, a new 395page tome was released at the beginning of August 2002: entitled THE WOMEN WHO LIVED FOR DANGER (the Women Agents of SOE in the Second World War), priced at £20 and published by Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0 3408 1839 5
  This tome concentrates on the histories of 10 of such female agents including Christina Granville, Violette Szabo, Leia Karayanni and Yvonne Rudellat - as Binney puts it "They were the girls who did the business".
  This book was reviewed by M.R.D.Foot, the leading authority on SOE, in the London TIMES (T2 supplement) on 21 August 2002.
• BEHIND THE LINES (the Oral History of Special Operations in World War II) (published by Secker & Warburg - £16.99) (ISBN 0 4362 0534 3) is a 308pp skilful compilation by RUSSELL MILLER of carefully collected interviews, diaries, reports and letters by SOE Agents of the most intense moments of their lives - torture, isolation, fear, and other human suffering.
  This book was reviewed by M.R.D.Foot, the leading authority on SOE, in the London TIMES (T2 supplement) on 21 August 2002.
• "CARVE HER NAME WITH PRIDE" by R.J.MINNEY published by NEWNES in 1956
• "SOE 1940 - 1946" by M.R.D.FOOT published by PIMLICO in 1999 ISBN 0-7126-6585-4

This has a lengthy introduction by David Stafford he being the author of a recent book - Secret Agent: The True Story of the Special Operations Executive published by the BBC ISBN 0-563-53734-5 at £16.99. It contains 254 pages and is the book of the September series Secret Agent shown on BBC television in four parts. The author is a former diplomat who writes authoritatively on matters of Intelligence. The book contains many personal accounts from those who served in SOE.
• "UNDERCOVER TALES OF WORLD WAR II" by William B. BREUER published by JOHN WILEY & SONS INC in 1999 ISBN 0-471-31862-0

This book contains many illustrations including a photograph of Violette Szabo. It also mentions that she was cremated immediately after her death and cites references thereto.
• "A QUIET COURAGE" by LIANE JONES published by BANTAM PRESS in 1990 ISBN 0-593-01663-7

This book contains much "personal" information and mentions the Special Forces Club in Knightsbridge.
• "WE LANDED BY MOONLIGHT" by HUGH VERITY published by Ian Allan Ltd. in 1978, reprinted 1979 ISBN 0 7110 0886 8

This is the lengthy story of Secret RAF landings in France 1940-1944 and is dedicated to the memory of "those who did not survive" and has a Foreword by Air Chief-Marshal Sir Lewis Hodges KCB, CBE, DSO, DFC, ADC.
At pp176 there is coverage of Tempsford, Philippe Liewer and Violette Szabo and later it tells of Bob Maloubier being wounded by three German bullets and only just surviving. There are of course many other interesting items in this excellent book and many great names.
• "HEROINES OF WORLD WAR II" by ERIC TAYLOR published by ROBERT HALE - LONDON in 1991 ISBN 0-7090-4348-1


• "WOMEN WHO WENT TO WAR" by ERIC TAYLOR published by ROBERT HALL - LONDON in 1988 ISBN 0-7090-3317-6

This book contains many photographs and tells us that Violette Szabo joined the ATS and served with 481 AA Battery in the first instance on predictors before joining SOE. There is a reference to the ATS Museum, Guildford and it is said that the full details of a vigorous campaign mounted by Irene Ward MP to have Violette Szabo's George Cross replaced with the Victoria Cross are therein.

The Property Section of the DAILY TELEGRAPH on Saturday, 11th November 2000 carried a half-page story and pictures of GARRAMORE HOUSE, Arisaig, Highland - this is one of 8 houses in the area which were requisitioned during WWII and where French-speaking agents of the SOE were accommodated including Violette Szabo, Odette Hallowes and Jacqueline Nearne.

No Resistance to a French Invasion
Between 20th and 22nd of April 2004 Arisaig was visited by a French film crew making a documentary about the British connection with the French Resistance during World War 2. The team consisted of Jean-Marie Barrère (Director), Stéphanie Lataste (Assistant Director), Didier Colin (Cameraman) and Thierry Culnaert (Sound-recordist). They were accompanied by David Harrison from Lancashire who has researched the subject and has compiled a booklet about this area's significant involvement. The full story is on the WEST WORD website.

The New SOE book - 74 pages, laminated covers, comb-bound. Author: David Harrison is on sale at the Land, Sea and Islands Centre or by mail order price £10 (+ £2 P&P). Cheques should be made payable to 'Land, Sea and Islands Centre'
"The Arisaig area played an important part in the para-military training of about 3000 secret agents. The vicinity was ideal as there was only one road to seal off, there was railway access and it was remote and a long way from Germany. The locals had to have passes for movement into or out of the protected area. The agents spent 4 - 5 weeks at one of several houses that were requisitioned by the War Office including Arisaig House, Meoble Lodge, Traigh House, Rhubana Lodge, Inverie House, Garramor, Camusdarach and Glasnacardoch. The agents then went to Ringway (Manchester) for parachute training before being split between either wireless training at Thame Park in Oxfordshire or learning to be an organiser or courier at Beaulieu House in Hampshire. Finally, the agents were parachuted into enemy territory on moonlit nights from Tempsford airfield in Bedfordshire or landed by Lysander from Tangmere in Sussex."

Maurice Christie writes: 'I have finally published my father's wartime story.
At the tender age of 18 I asked my father "What did you do in the war dad?"...............a question all kids ask their fathers who had been in World War Two..............his reply was not what I wanted to hear..........."Nothing."
It has taken a lot of tears; and more tears, to get my father to talk about his war adventures, but eventually he did................and now I have been able to get them all together in one book............My father read the final proof copy and said "It's ok now, it's all yours."..........He passed away in August 2003 without seeing the final book.'
Mission Scapula .......This is Arthur Christie's wartime story told in his own words. The first part of his story relates to his childhood days and the then approaching war. Then his introduction into the Army, and the clandestine world of "Special Operations Executive" (this was the organization Winston Churchill instigated with the words "And now, set Europe ablaze") and his involvement in Mission “Scapula” Singapore in the Far East, and his eventual captivity by the Japanese. In three parts, packed full of reality, if you are looking for James Bond look no further, he was fictional - this is reality. 200 pages and 8 pages of Pictures, original Drawings, and declassified reports newly released. In paperback. Limited Edition - a website gives further details at: http://www.btinternet.com/~m.a.christie/book.htm

Containing hitherto unpublished diaries and letters and "gripping accounts" of the men and women of SOE who risked torture if caught are revealed in Russell Miller's new book "BEHIND THE LINES" - published by Secker and Warburgh and available for £14.99 plus £1.99 p&p from Telegraph Books Direct on 0870 155 7222.

THE FOREST AT WAR "is a new written account that documents the social and military history of the New Forest in Hampshire during World War II. The Forest was on the Front Line of the massive build up to and launch of the Invasion of Europe in June 1944. Although many parts of the country 'contributed' to the final assault, it was this part of Hampshire that was used as the primary assembly and departure point. There were over 1 million troops under canvas, thousands of vehicles parked in the lanes and on the roads throughout the area. There were many thousands of ships off the Forest coastline in the waters of the Solent. Many books have been written about the war but still new aspects of history are revealed daily. Using unpublished photographs, archive footage, re-enactments and first hand accounts, The Forest At War gives a fascinating insight into the social and military history of this unique part of the UK which today is one of Europe's top visitor destinations."
and

SISTERS OF RESISTANCE - This PBS film chronicles the heroism and lifelong friendships of four young non-Jewish women who were imprisoned in concentration camps during the Second World War for their resistance to the Nazi occupation of France. On the accompanying website you can follow the lives of the four brave women highlighted in the film from just before the war until liberation. You can also go deeper into the fascinating stories of French Resistance heroes Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, Jacqueline Pery d'Alincourt, Anise Postel-Vinay and Germaine Tillion, in this untold story of the Holocaust.

Published in the Spring of 2001 is BODY OF SECRETS: How America's NSA and Britain's GCHQ Eavesdrop on the World. Written by James Bamford and published by Century at £20 its 733 pages reveal much about some of the most sensitive organisations in the field of intelligence gathering that exist today.
One view is that this tome may well become the standard reference work on the subject and is of especial interest to Royal Signals personnel on account of its coverage of electronic surveillance and other aspects of "Crypto City" and its electronic armoury.

"The Hidden Hand :Britain, America and Cold War Secret Intelligence" by Professor Richard J. Aldrich will be published on 5th July 2001 and deals with the subject in considerable detail so much so we have prepared a dedicated page accessed by clicking on the title. The same information is also available from the E-LIBRARY of the RSARS website in PDF format to facilitate your printing.
There are special purchase benefits to former members of "Y" Services, SOE, and similar organisations and agencies.
The Intelligence & Secrecy Section of the RSARS website will lead you to further sources of similar material.

Professor Aldrich of the University of Nottingham also edited "Espionage, security and intelligence in Britain 1945-1970" - first published in 1998 (ISBN 0 7190 4955 5 hardback and 0 7190 4956 3 paperback) by Manchester University Press (Manchester and New York) and printed in Great Britain by Bell & Bain Ltd., Glasgow this 262-page book is part of the series DOCUMENTS IN CONTEMPORARY HISTORY designed for sixth-formers and undergraduates in higher education which aims to provide both an over-view of specialist research on topics in post-1939 British history, and a wide-ranging selection of primary source material. This collection of fascinating material makes interesting reading as well as providing a wonderful immediate reference for students and writers alike.

February 2002 with the appearance of the American film "Charlotte Gray" dramatising Sebastian Faulk's romantic novel of the same name saw M.R.D.FOOT, the leading authority on the SOE, publishing his "SOE in the Low Countries" (St.Ermin's Press - £25.) with its inevitable and wecome references to Violette Szabo et al.

The very mention of Violette Szabo brings to mind a very wealth of connections - Odette, Noor, SOE, Resistance, Special Forces and much more - all to be found on the extremely informative website of WARNER BROS the film makers.

Published (by Viking and Penguin at £19.99)) early in 2004 "THE NEXT MOON: the Remarkable True Story of a British Agent Behind the Lines in Wartime France" is as long as its title suggests - some 320 pages - and is by André Hue and Ewen Southby-Tailyour. It tells in graphic detail the story of André Hue from his survival following a French passenger liner (on which at the age of 16 he was a Trainee Purser) striking a German mine in June 1940 and his determination to escape to Britain and how he did so and became an SOE Officer. Many adventures in this role and his deep involvement in clandestine operations prove to be an absorbing story - written with the aid of Southby-Tailyour himself a miltary historian and a Falklands veteran of the Royal Marines.

WEST WORD the community paper for Glenfinnan, Lochailort, Glenuig, Arisaig, Morar, Mallaig, Knoydart and the Small Isles carries a full page story under the headline of "Special Ops Hero's message for the people of Arisaig" in its issue for August 2001 (online from the hypertext opening words of this paragraph). This article contains the illustrated story of the return visit of Major General Antonin Petrák (now aged 89) to Traigh House and Camusdarach House which played an important role for Slovakian forces stationed in Great Britain during WWII. Violette Szabo and Odette Churchill were both trained at Arisaig and Morar.
There is a special display panel about SOE exploits at Arisaig's Land, Sea and Island centre.
General Petrák wrote the chapter "Czechoslovak-British Reminiscences 50 years after the war" in the book 'SOE Paramilitary Training in Scotland' compiled by David Harrison which is also on show at the Centre.
The Editor of WEST WORD can be contacted at Morar Station Buildings, Morar, PH40 4NR, by telephone on 01687 462720 or by e-mail westword@care4free.net

Spartacus Educational publishes Education on the Internet every week. This Newsletter includes news, reviews of websites and articles on using ICT in the classroom. Subjects covered include Primary Education, English, Mathematics, Science, Modern Languages, History, Geography, Design & Technology, Business Studies, Media Studies, ICT, Sociology, Music, Politics, Economics, Photography, Art & Design, Theatre Studies, Physical Education and Religious Studies. To subscribe visit the Spartacus website which has 4million page impressions a month and links to 13,300 (mainly Schools) other websites.
The Violette Szabo Museum website is listed in their very useful Web Directory where you will find much on the subject of Women in War and matters allied to Violette and her comrades in arms.

This website is also linked in the Genesis Project website which is a mapping initiative, funded by the Research Support Libraries Programme (RSLP) to identify and develop access to women's history sources in the British Isles.
The Genesis Project Team is currently designing the database which will enable you to search over 2000 archive, library and museum collections from 45 institutions relating to women's history. This will be available in June 2002.

This website is linked now in the very comprehensive 24 HOUR MUSEUM website - the National Virtual Museum and a gateway to over 2,500 UK museums, galleries and heritage attractions for everyone. There are also connected "trails" which lead to matters relevant to SOE etc.

The International Spy Museum is the only public museum in the world solely dedicated to the tradecraft, history, and contemporary role of espionage. The Museum's permanent exhibition presents the tradecraft of espionage through the stories of individuals and their missions, tools and techniques. Exhibits feature the largest collection of international espionage artefacts ever placed on public display -- many for the first time. These artefacts, combined with historic photographs, state-of-the-art audio visual programs, computer interactive displays and special effects, reveal the strategies and techniques of the men and women behind some of the most secret espionage missions in world history!
The International Spy Museum is located at 800 F Street, NW in Washington, DC’s historic Pennsylvania Quarter neighbourhood. It is within 4 blocks of the National Mall, directly across the street from the National Portrait Gallery, steps away from the MCI Center, and within one block of FBI headquarters. The Gallery Place/Chinatown Metrorail Station is within a block of the Museum Complex.
A useful archived Press Release.

Some 18 JEDBURGH survivors met at Earl Fitzwilliam's Milton Hall, Peterborough over the weekend of 12/13th June. They included Baroness Park of Monmouth (who herself, then Daphne Park, was an encoding Instructor at the Hall during WWII), and Sir Tommy Macpherson (who led the Jedburgh team "Quinine" when it was parachuted into the Aurillac region of the Massif Central in June 1944). The "Jeds" 3-man teams were trained as part of SOE in sabotage, guerilla tactics and liaised with the French Resistance to impede the German forces following the invasion. 300 Jeds were trained at Milton Hall - 100 British, 100 French and 100 American - all of whom were parachuted into France following D-Day.
The London TIMES of Wednesday 14th July 2004 carried an article by Michael Tillotson and pictures.

Vera Atkins, 92, Spymaster for British, Obituary - from The New York Times, June 27, 2000 - by Douglas Martin - http://www.mishalov.com/Atkins.html