"In war-time, truth is so precious
that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies".
Famous quote of Sir Winston Spencer Churchill.
Page Quick Search Menu
[Historical WAV files][Bodyguard of Lies]
[Links to Related Sites][Contact Webminder]
{Missing Children's Banner][Sponsors]
[Memorial for Captains Macalister & Pickersgill]
Webspace dedicated to Noor-un-nisa Inayat Khan, GC.,CdG, heroine
of the French Resistance in 1943. Also an author of children's
stories: "Twenty Jataka Tales" retold.
The Following is a brief excerpt from the book: "Bodyguard of Lies" by Anthony Cave Brown.
Courtesy: Fitzhenry & Whiteside Limited, Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg and Vancouver. P.1975
Noor Inayat Khan
Noor arrived in Paris at a dangerous time. The Prosper network had begun to collapse, and she
was forced to find new lodgings, but she did keep her wireless post in the rue de la Faisanderie,
even after learning of the arrests of Prosper and his lieutenants, and reported the 'ratissage' to
London. London responded by telling her to lie low. This she did for a week or so; but then her
inexperience and carelessness showed themselves again.
Wearing a navy blue scarf wrapped around
her head like a turban, which emphasized her Indian features, she went on a sentimental journey to
her home of the 1930's, visiting school friends on the way. Bodington of "F" Section, who flew to
Paris to investigate the extent of the Prosper disaster, saw her briefly during this period-August
1943-and heard enough to recommend to London that she be brought home. She should have gone
out on the night of August 15, 1943, but although everyone else went, Noor remained behind; she
refused to obey her order to leave until a replacement operator had arrived. Almost incredibly, Noor
survived in Paris for another two months, although the SD knew of her existance.
Noor was arrested
in her Paris apartment on or about October 13, and within minutes found herself at Gestapo
Headquarters. It was another grave loss for "F" Section, for she was the last "F" Section wireless
operator in the Paris area. Princess Noor was calm when taken and calm when interrogated. Her
SD inquisitor, H. J. Kieffer (the chief of the SD's counterespionage service in Paris), came to admire
her and spared her much. He soon lost patience with her, however, for she made not one but two
escape bids while at SD headquarters on the Avenue Foch. Both times she got only as far as the
street before she was recaptured; but she was becoming a nuisance, and so soon found herself at
Badenweiler concentration camp where she spent many months, most of them in chains and solitary
confinement.
Noor was made of sterner stuff than her SOE instructors had realized, but she had
once again been careless. For when she was arrested, her wireless, her ciphers and all her back
traffic with London were also seized-everything, in fact, that Josef Goetz, the SD's wireless expert,
needed to play a convincing "Funkspiele" with London. Noor had recorded all her back traffic in a
child's exercise book, which the SD found on her bedside table. And with this invaluable
background information, Goetz, impersonating Noor, reopened the circuit and began transmissions
to London.
London responded but cautiously, for her messages did not quite ring true. Goetz
needed Noor's help to ensure the success of his game, but she consistently refused to give it and the
game was played without her. At Christmas. the British were still suspicious; the style of "Noor's"
transmissions suggested that she was being impersonated. But Goetz pressed the game forward.
Whatever the case, Goetz's "Funkspiele" now took a tragic turn-for the agents involved.
Still
apparently unaware that Noor was being impersonated, the British began to send in agents-seven in
all-to the false circuit. On the night of February 7/8, 1944, the first four-all of them so inexperienced
and ill-trained that their mission seemed to be sacrificial-were dropped together near Poitiers.
They
were
R.E.J. Alexandre, a twenty-two year old French aircraft fitter; an
American,
Robert Bennett Byerly who
was his wireless operator; a Canadian,
François Adolphe
Deniset, who was to have been Noor's replacement; and
Jacques Paul Henri Ledoux
, an Anglo-Frenchman who was to have established a
new circuit. All were
immediately captured.
This hard-cover book is sadly out of print but you may find a paperback edition @ Amazon.com or at your local library
PRINCESS NOOR APPRECIATION SOCIETY INTERNATIONAL
Click
HERE
|
_____God Save the Queen - La Marseillaise
_____
