Life in Secrets: Vera Atkins & the Missing Agents of WWII by Sarah Helm
Authors: Sarah Helm
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and there were many new alarms. Several highly valued agents simply vanished, among them an expert in explosives who disappeared on his way to Pickersgill and Macalister's Archdeacon circuit in the Ardennes.
Wireless operators had also caused new fears. Extra security measures, agreed after the loss of Prosper, had brought in stricter rules on composing messages. For example, in addition to using his bluff check and true check, an operator named Marcel Rousset was instructed to sign off“adiós” or “salut” if all was well, and “love and kisses” if he was caught. Over a nerve-racking weekend in Baker Street in September, Rousset sent a series of strange messages that suggested that he had forgotten his new rules. Buckmaster, without any senior staff to consult, anxiously showed the messages to the duty secretary, Nancy Fraser-Campbell, and asked for her advice, but the messages soon reverted to normal and fears were dispelled.
A technique called “electronic fingerprinting,” by which a wireless operator's “fist” could be electronically recorded by a machine before departure, had also been introduced. This “fingerprint” allowed London to compare a message sent later from the field with the “fingerprint” that the agent left behind. But often there was little time to make such checks, because of the volume of F Section activity in the field. Among operations carried out around this time was the bombing of the Miche-lin factory at Clermont-Ferrand, set up by one of Buckmaster s most trusted organisers, Maurice Southgate, alias Hector, with the assistance of his resourceful courier, Pearl Witherington. At the same time, another of F's best men, Francis Cammaerts, who had built up the highly successful Jockey network in the southeast, was blowing up railway locomotives about to be taken to Germany.
It was Nora Inayat Khan who caused the most regular alarms in Baker Street during the autumn of 1943. In early October a message had come in saying an informant, unknown in London, called Sonia had reported: “Madeleine had an accident and in hospital,” which clearly meant “burned,” or infiltrated, if not captured. Sonia's reliability was never confirmed and the anxiety sparked by her warning then passed, until, in November, somebody drew attention to a report from Paris that said that nobody in the field had set eyes on Nora for nearly two months. Buck-master held his nerve, saying she must be sensibly lying low. The fact that no handwritten letters had come from Nora since September was, in Buckmaster's view, another sign of her new concern for security. Her latest request to London for a new letterbox had been properly encoded and sent by wireless message. The message detailing these changes had come in from Nurse at 1415 GMT on October 17:
MY CACHETTE UNSAFE. NEW ADDRESS BELLIARD RPT BELLIARD 157 RUE VERCINGETORIX RPT VERCINGETORIX PARIS PASSWORD DE PART DE MONSIEUR DE RUAL RPT DE RUAL STOP. THIS PERFECTLY SAFE. TRUE CHECK PRESENT. BLUFF CHECK OMITTED GOODBYE.
Anxieties about Nora were therefore once again dispelled until, at Christmas, she caused further jitters in F Section. This time the operations officer, Gerry Morel, was letting it be known that he was not happy about Nora's fist. A respected figure, and one of the few Baker Street staff who had experience in the field, Morel was not a man to voice concerns lightly. Vera offered a solution: to send a test message for Nora containing questions of a personal nature that only she could answer. The message was designed to settle the doubts about Nora once and for all. If the questions were wrongly answered, it would have to be accepted that she was in German hands. Although slow in coming, the answers were in Vera's view quite satisfactory, and Buckmaster's confidence was immediately restored.
Cheering Christmas messages from other agents had also lifted his spirits, among them one from Frank Pickersgill. Buckmaster had been warned by Bodington
Wireless operators had also caused new fears. Extra security measures, agreed after the loss of Prosper, had brought in stricter rules on composing messages. For example, in addition to using his bluff check and true check, an operator named Marcel Rousset was instructed to sign off“adiós” or “salut” if all was well, and “love and kisses” if he was caught. Over a nerve-racking weekend in Baker Street in September, Rousset sent a series of strange messages that suggested that he had forgotten his new rules. Buckmaster, without any senior staff to consult, anxiously showed the messages to the duty secretary, Nancy Fraser-Campbell, and asked for her advice, but the messages soon reverted to normal and fears were dispelled.
A technique called “electronic fingerprinting,” by which a wireless operator's “fist” could be electronically recorded by a machine before departure, had also been introduced. This “fingerprint” allowed London to compare a message sent later from the field with the “fingerprint” that the agent left behind. But often there was little time to make such checks, because of the volume of F Section activity in the field. Among operations carried out around this time was the bombing of the Miche-lin factory at Clermont-Ferrand, set up by one of Buckmaster s most trusted organisers, Maurice Southgate, alias Hector, with the assistance of his resourceful courier, Pearl Witherington. At the same time, another of F's best men, Francis Cammaerts, who had built up the highly successful Jockey network in the southeast, was blowing up railway locomotives about to be taken to Germany.
It was Nora Inayat Khan who caused the most regular alarms in Baker Street during the autumn of 1943. In early October a message had come in saying an informant, unknown in London, called Sonia had reported: “Madeleine had an accident and in hospital,” which clearly meant “burned,” or infiltrated, if not captured. Sonia's reliability was never confirmed and the anxiety sparked by her warning then passed, until, in November, somebody drew attention to a report from Paris that said that nobody in the field had set eyes on Nora for nearly two months. Buck-master held his nerve, saying she must be sensibly lying low. The fact that no handwritten letters had come from Nora since September was, in Buckmaster's view, another sign of her new concern for security. Her latest request to London for a new letterbox had been properly encoded and sent by wireless message. The message detailing these changes had come in from Nurse at 1415 GMT on October 17:
MY CACHETTE UNSAFE. NEW ADDRESS BELLIARD RPT BELLIARD 157 RUE VERCINGETORIX RPT VERCINGETORIX PARIS PASSWORD DE PART DE MONSIEUR DE RUAL RPT DE RUAL STOP. THIS PERFECTLY SAFE. TRUE CHECK PRESENT. BLUFF CHECK OMITTED GOODBYE.
Anxieties about Nora were therefore once again dispelled until, at Christmas, she caused further jitters in F Section. This time the operations officer, Gerry Morel, was letting it be known that he was not happy about Nora's fist. A respected figure, and one of the few Baker Street staff who had experience in the field, Morel was not a man to voice concerns lightly. Vera offered a solution: to send a test message for Nora containing questions of a personal nature that only she could answer. The message was designed to settle the doubts about Nora once and for all. If the questions were wrongly answered, it would have to be accepted that she was in German hands. Although slow in coming, the answers were in Vera's view quite satisfactory, and Buckmaster's confidence was immediately restored.
Cheering Christmas messages from other agents had also lifted his spirits, among them one from Frank Pickersgill. Buckmaster had been warned by Bodington
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