The Spy Who Loved: the secrets and lives of one of Britain's bravest wartime heroines

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With nerves of steel, she approached the German police as a British agent and niece of General Montgomery, claiming to have the authority to secure their release or else, threatening the Gestapo that they would face reprisals if her agents were executed as the British offensive was imminent. Her superiors had suddenly remembered that she spoke perfect French, which is why she was airdropped in France under the name of Pauline Armand on 6 July 1944. When the Germans carried out a huge offensive on the Vercors plateau, Granville and Cammaerts escaped the massacre that followed by hiking 70 miles in 24 hours. She feigned symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis by biting her tongue until it bled and a doctor diagnosed her incorrectly with terminal tuberculosis. Now without regular employment she found herself working on a cruise ship as a stewardess where she caught the interest of fellow ship worker, Dennis Muldowney.

Many times she managed to outsmart Gestapo officers, she stole the plans of the German invasion on USRR, and was able to take not only herself but others off the hook. Such an elaborate plan was met with some degree of scepticism as well as intrigue, however Taylor of MI6 was impressed by her patriotism and adventurous spirit and thus recruited her as the first female spy. This blog looks at the carefully-thought-out methods used by Special Operations Executive (SOE) agents to pass as members of the local population in Nazi-held territory. Christine Granville, one of Special Operations Executive’s most successful female agents, was all set for one last mission to Poland. There Krystyna was able to locate her mother who was facing a great threat to her life as a Jewish aristocrat in Nazi occupied territory.

When Skarbek told her husband that she loved Kowerski, Giżycki left for London, eventually emigrating to Canada. The prison had been designed in the mid-19th century by Skarbek's great-great-uncle Fryderyk Skarbek, a prison reformer and Frédéric Chopin's godfather, who had been tutored in the French language by Chopin's father. Her resourcefulness earned her a great reputation for bravery which was in evidence again when she successfully rescued resistance compatriot Cammaerts and two other agents from the Gestapo.

She became celebrated for her daring exploits in intelligence and irregular-warfare missions in Nazi- occupied Poland and France. She proved to be courageous and smart when she took a conspiratorial Tatra mountain trail through Slovakia to occupied Poland.During the trooping of Chech officers between Hungary and Yugoslavia the car of conspirators broke down. Having fled to Britain on the outbreak of war, she was recruited by the intelligence services and took on mission after mission. Her homeschooling finally came to an end when she was sent to school, where she attended fifth grade. though she was too proud to ask for any other assistance, she did apply for the protection of a British passport; for ever since the Anglo-American betrayal of her country at Yalta she had been virtually stateless.