 Lonely Courage by Rick Stroud. Narrated by Sarah Borges. Only the dark, dark night shows to our eyes the stars. After Walt Whitman. Suggestion for inscription on the SOE Memorial at Knott's Vyla Struthhoff concentration camp for women. Three people can keep a secret if two of them are dead. Benjamin Franklin. Women have a far greater capacity for cool and lonely courage than men. Selwyn Jessip. SOE Recruiting Officer to Winston Churchill. Introduction. I have been fascinated with the women of the SOE, Special Operations Executive, All My Life. When I was nine, the eagle serialized, Carve Her Name With Pride, the story of Violette Zabo. Each installment became the high point of my week. When I was about thirty, I made a television drama series, Diana, about two SOE agents. A man and a woman. In the series, we recreated Beulie, the SOE finishing school, described the life of an agent going into the field, blew up a train, and rescued our heroine from a concentration camp. The series stayed in my mind long after it was shown. A few years ago, when I began to write history, I made a list of the subjects I wanted to tackle, and that list included some of the female agents of SOE. Two years ago I decided the time had come to write their story. This book is about the women of F-section SOE, the ones who were sent undercover to work with the resistance in France. There were thirty-nine, of whom twelve were executed and two died of illness. It would be impossible to write about all of them. I have therefore chosen to focus on seven and to use them as a lens through which we can look at the whole unit. The women came from all classes and walks of life, from a Polish aristocrat to a shop assistant living in Stockwell, London. They all proved capable of great bravery and courage. Some of the young women came to lead hundreds of men and lived to see the liberation of France. Others were captured and endured endless torment before being executed. I hope I have done them proud. A note on codenames. All the agents had code and field names. Sometimes they had several. To give an idea of how confusing this can be, both Christine Granville and Pearl Witherington were at some time given the codename Pauline. The name Solange applies to a friend of Sample complete. Ready to continue?