The book I am writing at the moment is about the ‘Resistance Girls’ of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) an organisation set up in WW2 by Churchill to ‘set Europe ablaze’ by sending agents into occupied Europe to organise resistance groups and engage in sabotage against the Nazis.
The Allies sent more than four hundred agents into occupied France, of which 39 were women. The ‘Baker Street Irregulars’ as they became known, were trained in sabotage, small arms, radio and telegraph communication and unarmed combat. SOE agents were also required to be fluent in French so they could fit seamlessly into French society.
All the agents knew the risks and were told that they had no more than a 50% chance of survival in occupied France.
The women agents were mostly couriers or wireless operators, although some, such as NZ/Australia’s Nancy Wake, America’s Virginia Hall and British Pearl Witherington led maquis (guerrilla) groups of up to 7,500 strong and were personally involved in attacks on bridges, railway lines, and German convoys. They also underwent extensive training in resisting interrogation and how to evade capture. Sadly, sixteen women did not survive the war: thirteen were executed at Ravensbruck, Bergen-Belsen, Dachau or Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camps.
The stories of the SEO’s “irregular” women are stories of courage, daring and sacrifice and it is an honour to write about them, even if in a (slightly) fictionalised account.
I find it difficult to write about places I’ve not been to, walked around and got to know a little. I need to know how the air feels, the strength of the sun, how light reflects off the houses, the scents, the terrain, the trees, flowers – the general ambiance.
And so, in April we spent 9 days in south west France, where my heroine will be sent to work as a courier in 1943. We stayed mainly in a small town called Castillon de Bataille, which overlooks the Dordogne River. I wandered around taking masses of photos of little alleyways and rooftops, to figure out how my heroine could avoid German patrols, and where her ‘safe houses’ might be.
Our home was Chez Castillon, a tall house that is a Writers’ Retreat. There were nine guests, either (like me) writing and sightseeing, or taking a writing course. Janey and Mickey who run the place are both actors, although Janey now spends her time writing. Janey served up three delicious meals a day and we had Bordeaux wine every lunch and dinner. It was fab.
Castillon de Bataille is in the middle of the Bordeaux wine country. The town’s claim to fame dates from 1453, as it is where the last battle of the Hundred Years war was fought.
In WW2 it was called Castillon sur Dordogne and was on the frontier between occupied and Vichy France and Chez Castillon was a hospital for German officers. There is a plaque on this bridge that marks the former demarcation line.
I’m going to blow up that bridge! … in the book…
One day we visited the medieval town of Saint-Emilion, and rode the little bus around the Chateaux. And so, the first scene of the new book takes place just outside Saint-Emilion and in another scene there will be a chase through scrub and through steep, narrow cobbled streets.
But I’m not sure if I’ll include this: when Castillon was liberated, as in the rest of France, ‘collaborateurs horizontales’ (women who’d been too friendly to the German soldiers) were rounded up, their heads were shaved and they were painted with tar. The women from Castillon were put on show on this balcony which overlooks the main square.
They got off better than those at a village down the road, where they were shot… according to our host, Mickey.
We finished the holiday in beautiful Bordeaux, where I again scoped out scenes for the novel. Unsurprisingly, I came back full of ideas for the new books.
