309 lines
13 KiB
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309 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
news
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obituaries
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military-obituaries
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special-forces-obituaries
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1458206
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-----
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# Lise Villameur
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## Lise Villameur, who has died aged 98, was one of the first two female
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agents to be parachuted into France by SOE in the Second World War.
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12:02AM BST 01 Apr 2004
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[Comments][1]
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On the night of September 24 1942, Lise de Baissac (as she then was) and Andre
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Borrel - code-named Odile and Denise - were dropped over the Loire valley. De
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Baissac's mission was to form a new circuit, called "Artist", based at
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Poitiers, where she could provide a secure centre for agents in need of help
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and information.
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![][2]
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She found a small flat in the town, where she assumed the name of Madame Irene
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Brisse, a widow of quiet habits. With typical sang froid, she chose to live
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next to the Gestapo headquarters. It was in a busy street, she explained
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afterwards, and on the way to the station; visitors, even at night, were
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unlikely to attract attention.
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In the first weeks, she bicycled through the country lanes looking for
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possible landing and dropping zones, and building up contacts who would be
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prepared to help her. "I was very lonely," she said afterwards. "I discovered
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what solitude was. Having false papers, I never received a letter or a
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telephone call."
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She had no wireless set or wireless operator, and had to go to Paris or to the
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circuit run by her brother in Bordeaux to send or receive messages or pick up
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supplies of cash. In Paris, she reactivated circuits badly damaged by
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betrayals of agents.
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From the spring of 1943, she widened her operations, acting as liaison officer
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between the "Scientist", "Prosper" and "Bricklayer" circuits. When these were
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disabled by the Gestapo, she was sufficiently brave and calm to extricate
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herself unscathed.
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She returned to London with her brother in August, but broke a leg while
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helping to train two new agents in parachuting, and it was April 1944 before
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she was fit enough to go back to France. She was given the code name
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Marguerite, and flown in by Lysander to work as a courier in a branch of the
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"Pimento" circuit with a rendezvous at Toulouse.
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The circuit had many useful contacts among railway and industrial workers, but
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Lise de Baissac believed that the leadership was composed of militant
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socialists whose main aims were political rather than patriotic.
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She therefore obtained permission to join her brother in south Normandy, where
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his circuit, "Scientist", had re-formed and was reconnoitring landing grounds
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and arming Maquis groups in the run-up to D-Day.
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She was on a recruiting trip to Paris when the D-Day action messages came
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through, and she had to cycle through streets full of German troops to meet
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people whom she knew were under Gestapo observation. Sleeping in ditches and
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keeping to the small roads, it took her three days to return to Normandy.
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In the second half of June, when the Allied forces were held up at Caen, the
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"Scientist" resistants were involved in mining roads and cutting rail and
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telephone communications. She cycled between the groups, often covering 40
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miles a day, taking arms and explosives and relaying instructions about
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targets. Groups organised by her and using tyre-busters caused heavy losses to
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the enemy, and she took part in several attacks on enemy columns.
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On one occasion, when the radio set broke down, she and her radio operator
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cycled to another village where there was a replacement. She was carrying
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crystals for the set and codes in a belt around her waist. They were stopped
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and searched by a German soldier doing a spot check; but he did not find them,
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and they were allowed to proceed.
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On another occasion, a party of retreating Germans requisitioned the house in
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which Lise de Baissac was living. Returning to her room, she discovered that
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the soldiers had opened her sleeping bag, which was made out of parachute
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silk; one of them was sitting on it.
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In the kitchen cupboard, there were three bags of English sweets which had
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been part of a parachute drop. The German officer regarded her with suspicion,
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but he locked the cupboard door without looking inside and handed her the key.
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She coolly gathered her belongings and left the house, returning two days
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later when the soldiers had moved on.
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De Baissac worked with her brother in the south of Normandy until the Germans
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had retreated eastwards and, in September 1944, returned to England, where she
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remained until she was demobilised. She took part in the parade on VE Day, and
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was received by Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace.
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Lise de Boucherville Baissac was born on May 11 1905 on Mauritius. Her parents
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came from French families long settled on the island; but, as Mauritius had
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been British since 1810, she grew up bi-lingual. She completed her education
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in Paris but, when the Germans invaded France in 1940, she moved to Dordogne
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in the Free Zone and then on to Gibraltar.
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There she was reunited with her brother, Claude, who had been arrested and had
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spent some months in a Spanish jail. Claude de Baissac obtained an
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introduction to the SOE and, as soon as the organisation started recruiting
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women, his sister was interviewed and accepted.
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At a meeting with Colonel Maurice Buckmaster, the head of F section, she urged
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upon him the need to establish an SOE base in France in order to provide
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greater support for the French resistance movement. Poitiers was chosen. It
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was well placed for landing and dropping grounds; the wooded slopes of the
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Vienne provided good cover.
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Lise de Baissac was trained in the second intake of SOE's women agents. The
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commandant of the Special Training School at Beaulieu reported that she was
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intelligent, extremely conscientious, reliable and quite imperturbable and, in
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1942, she was granted a commission in the FANYs (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry).
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After the war she worked for the French Service of the BBC as a programme
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assistant, announcer and translator. Following her marriage in 1950 to Gustave
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Villameur, an artist and interior decorator, she lived in Marseille and St
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Tropez. Slimly built, she retained her elegance and poise into great old age.
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She was vice-president of the Association France-Grande Bretagne in Marseille
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for many years. She was appointed MBE in 1945 and was, in addition, made a
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Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur and awarded the Croix de Guerre avec palme.
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Lise Villameur died on Monday. Her husband predeceased her. There were no
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children.
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_First published April 1 2004_
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## [Special Forces Obituaries][8]
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In news
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[![Eddie Chapman][12] ][13]
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### [Eddie Chapman][13]
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[![Frank Bessac][14] ][15]
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### [Frank Bessac][15]
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[![Eileen 'Didi' Nearne][16] ][17]
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### [Eileen Nearne][17]
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[![John Herivel][18] ][19]
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### [Knut Haugland][21]
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