 |
|
Agent
Blanche, the British teenage girl who spied on the Nazis in France |
|
Sonia
Butt was only 19 when she went to France to become a spy, helping to blow up bridges and ambush Nazis, book reveals. |
|
By
Telegraph Staff |
|
11:31PM
GMT 20 Mar 2014 |
|
 |
|
Sonia
d'Artois in 2011 Photo: NadyaMurdoch/BNPS |
|
It
is a story of espionage and derring-do that would barely be credible as
a work of fiction. |
|
In
fact, the exploits that have come to light of a British teenager who went
to Nazi-occupied France to become a spy are solid facts, and the protagonist
is still alive to vouch for them. |
|
Sonia
Butt — known as Agent Blanche — was just 19 when she parachuted into northern
France to act as a go-between for Allied troops and the French Resistance
before D-Day. Sonia was born in Eastchurch, Kent, in May 1924 but spent
her childhood in France where she became fluent in the language. |
|
During
her time with the Special Operations Executive she met and married fellow
spy Guy D’Artois. |
|
Sonia
would woo German soldiers for information while secretly recruiting and
training Resistance cells. |
|
Despite
her youth, Sonia was a specialist in explosives. She often joined in the
sabotage herself, blowing up bridges and ambushing German convoys. At
one stage she was arrested by the Germans and risked being executed by
the Gestapo. But she talked her way out of the scrape with a meticulous
cover story. |
|
Meanwhile,
her husband was several hundred miles away, leading a 600-strong army
of French Resistance fighters. The combat unit destroyed strategic bridges
and railway lines and attacked enemy positions. |
|
After
Paris was liberated in August 1944, she was reunited with her husband.
She was later apprehended by French soldiers who had seen her cavorting
with Germans. They threatened to shave her head. Luckily some partisans
intervened and explained that she was a spy. |
|
After
the war, the couple went to Mr D’Artois’s native Canada, setting up home
near Montreal where they raised six children. In October 1944, she was
awarded an MBE. She was still only 20. Now aged 89, Sonia is a widow,
living in Canada. Her full story has only emerged in a new book, The Women
Who Spied for Britain, by Robyn Walker. |
|
| Comment: | |
| I do not feel justified in making comments here. | |
 |
|
The article
is available at: |
|
