Lise de Baissac: The Brave SOE Agent Who Fought in World War Two

Lise de Baissac: The Brave SOE Agent Who Fought in World War Two

Today I want to tell you about an extraordinary woman. Her name was Lise de Baissac, and she became one of the first female agents of Britain’s secret wartime organisation, the Special Operations Executive, known as the SOE.

Lise de Baissac was born on the 11^th of May 1905 in Curepipe, in what was then British Mauritius. She came from a wealthy family and later moved to Paris with them in 1919. Like many upper-class women of the time, she was not expected to work. But Lise was a strong-minded and independent woman, and she was determined to make her own choices.

When Germany invaded France during the war, she refused to accept occupation. Lise managed to escape from France with her younger brother Claude. They had a long and dangerous journey to Britain. They travelled through Spain, Portugal, and Gibraltar before they finally got to Britain in 1941. It must have been a very scary time because they didn’t know whether they would survive or even if they would ever see home again.

 

Lise spoke English and French fluently and so she was a perfect for the SOE. She joined in 1942 and went through intense training, where she stood out for being calm under pressure.

In September 1942, alongside Andrée Borrel, she became one of the first female SOE agents to parachute into occupied France. Imagine the fear she must have had jumping into enemy territory. Knowing the risks of capture.

She was charged with organising resistance groups. She arranging weapons drops, carried messages, and helped to build secret networks. She worked largely alone in Poitiers where she used the cover story of being a poor widow from Paris. She even lived near Gestapo headquarters and sometimes even spoke with German officers who had no idea who she really was.

Lise usually rode a bike, pretending to be an amateur archaeologist while secretly scouting out landing zones and drop sites for Allied supplies. During one mission she helped to receive and hide weapons for the French Resistance. In 1943, as more arrests were happening and the risks grew, she returned briefly to England.

She went back to France in 1944, just before D-Day. This time her job was even more dangerous. She cycled long distances carrying messages, gathering intelligence, and helping resistance fighters to sabotage German movements. On the evening of the 5^th of June 1944, Lise heard the BBC coded phrase  “Blessent mon cœur d’une langueur monotone,” a secret message to the French Resistance that told them the Allied invasion of France was imminent. She cycled over 300 kilometres in just three days to warn her network.

Her intelligence and bravery helped slow German reinforcements after D-Day, giving the Allies support during a crucial moment in the war. After the liberation, she helped to search for missing SOE agents.

After the war, Lise worked for the BBC and married her childhood sweetheart. She died in Marseille on the 29^th of March 2004 at the age of 98.

 

Do you think you could have done what Lise did?

 

I want to say the I have only touched on a small part of Lise de Baissac’s remarkable story here.