Lise de Baissac

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Lise de Baissac

Lise Marie Jeannette de Boucherville Baissac (born May 11, 1905 in Curepipe , Mauritius ; † March 28, 2004 in Marseille ) was an agent of the British special operations executive (SOE) during the Second World War .

De Baissac came from a French family with British citizenship, grew up in Paris and spoke fluent English and French . In 1940, after the Wehrmacht invaded France, she fled to London and was recruited by the SOE for Section "F". After extensive training for her future intelligence work , she started on the night of September 24, 1942, together with Andrée Borrel , another SOE agent, in RAF Tempsford and was parachuted over France.

Under the code names "Odile" (1942–1943) and "Marguerite" (1944) she worked as a liaison officer and courier for two SOE agent rings that supported the French Resistance . Disguised as an archaeologist, she rode a bicycle unmolested through the area to explore landing sites for British planes . As the alleged widow "Irene Brisse", she tried to start a liaison with the local Gestapo chief. After the agent rings were blown in September 1943, de Baissac managed to escape to England. She had another assignment in 1944 near Châteauroux , where she worked with Antony Brooks, the head of the agent ring "Pimento". Because of different opinions, this cooperation ended after a short time. De Baissac continued on to her brother Claude, who was scouting out possible landing sites for the Allied invasion .

In 1949 Lise de Baissac married Gustave Villameur, an interior designer with whom she lived in the south of France. England honored her with the Order of the British Empire . France awarded her the title of Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur . She died in Marseille at the age of 98.

literature

  • MRD Foot: SOE. The Special Operations Executive 1940-1946. London 1984.
  • David Stafford: Secret Agent. The True Story of the Special Operations Executive. BBC Worldwide 2000, ISBN 0-563-53734-5 .
  • Monika Siedentopf: Jump over enemy territory. Agents in World War II. Dtv, 2006, ISBN 3-423-24582-4 .
  • Marcus Binney: The Women who lived for Danger: The Agents of the Special Operations Executive. 2003.
  • Sarah Helm: A Life in Secrets: Vera Atkins and the lost Agents of SOE. 2006.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Baissac, Lise de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Baissac, Lise Marie Jeannette de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French agent for the British SOE
DATE OF BIRTH May 11, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Curepipe , Mauritius
DATE OF DEATH March 28, 2004
Place of death Marseille