The forgotten role of women spies in World War II

At the outbreak of war in 1939, governments across the Allied nations mobilised large parts of their populations for a prolonged global conflict.

To help fill the growing demand for military support roles, Britain formed women’s branches such as the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), and Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS), while similar forces appeared in Australia, Canada, and the United States.

As such, thousands of women enlisted to operate searchlights, maintain vehicles, repair aircraft, and decode intercepted signals. 

By the end of the war, the SOE had recruited over 3,000 personnel, including approximately 40 female field agents in France, while the American OSS had employed over 4,000 women in a range of capacities, though far fewer served in direct field operations.

On the home front, many women worked in factories that manufactured weapons and machinery, staffed overloaded hospitals, and filled agricultural roles that had been vacated by men sent to the front.

Wartime posters and recruitment drives praised their efforts as essential to national defence.

Yet, away from public attention, intelligence agencies began to identify a smaller group of women whose contributions would remain unspoken for decades. 

By mid-war, both the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) had recognised that, in some cases, women could carry out undercover missions more effectively than many of their male counterparts.

Given their relative ability to attract less suspicion in Nazi-occupied areas, women were recruited for espionage, sabotage, courier work, and wireless operation.

Many of these women spoke fluent French, Polish, or German and already understood how to move quietly through unfamiliar environments. 

A key turning point came in 1942, when British Prime Minister Winston Churchill approved greater use of female agents by the SOE, arguing that their gender could sometimes provide tactical advantages behind enemy lines.

Agents selected for fieldwork underwent intense training, which typically included instruction in firearms, radio communication, silent killing, demolitions, and disguise.

Much of the SOE's intense training occurred at facilities such as Arisaig House in Scotland, which specialised in fieldcraft, and Beaulieu in Hampshire, which focused on security and surveillance measures supported by mental preparation.

They rehearsed false backstories that were meant to survive intense questioning, learned code phrases that identified contacts, and learned how to forge identity papers.

Their missions required them to operate without uniforms or legal protection, which meant that capture could result in torture, execution, or being sent to concentration camps.

To support Allied strategy in Europe, spies carried out missions that gathered troop locations, sabotaged railway lines, disrupted supply convoys, and sent intelligence about fortifications ahead of major offensives.

They created networks of local contacts, used bicycles or trains to transport classified information, and maintained radio contact with command centres in London or Washington.

Many even posed as nannies, shopkeepers, or students to avoid suspicion as they moved between safehouses. 

To remain as undetected as possible, agents constantly changed addresses, rotated their radio broadcast schedules, and avoided lingering in one location for too long.

German detection teams could pinpoint a radio's position in under 20 minutes, which forced operators to transmit in short bursts and to relocate frequently, often at night to reduce the risk of discovery.

Portable wireless sets allowed them to send vital information back to Allied command, but the presence of signal detection teams, which meant that every transmission risked betrayal or exposure, and many agents were caught by enemy patrols or exposed by informers.

In addition to communication, women arranged parachute drops, coordinated guerrilla attacks, and planned ambushes that delayed or destroyed German reinforcements.

Often, they operated with no guarantee of backup or rescue. Some smuggled explosives that were hidden inside loaves of bread or bicycle frames, while others learned entire reports to avoid carrying written evidence.

Their survival often depended on quick thinking, careful planning, and absolute trust in a few key contacts. 

Female agents often helped coordinate sabotage and intelligence gathering before operations like the Normandy landings, Operation Dragoon in southern France, and the destruction of key rail junctions during the retreat of German forces in 1944.

Many of these women became key figures in local resistance movements when they operated alone or with minimal support.

They planned operations that crippled enemy supply routes, helped Allied airmen escape from occupied territory, and supported coordination for the D-Day landings.

Without their efforts, many local resistance groups would likely have lacked supplies, direction, or reliable connections with Allied intelligence.

Born in Wellington in 1912 and raised in Sydney, Australia, Nancy Wake became one of the most successful agents of the SOE, earning her the nickname “White Mouse” from the Gestapo due to her ability to avoid capture.

After she had moved to France in the 1930s and married French businessman Henri Fiocca, she joined the resistance during the early years of occupation.

She assisted in the escape of Allied pilots and some Jewish families and helped distribute underground newspapers. 

Eventually, her resistance activities attracted Gestapo attention, which forced her to flee France in 1943.

Once in Britain, she joined the SOE and completed training in parachuting, sabotage, and radio work.

In April 1944, she parachuted into central France and became a liaison officer for resistance groups in the Auvergne region.

She helped organise supply drops, trained fighters in sabotage tactics, and directed coordinated attacks on enemy installations ahead of the Allied landings.

At one point, she cycled over 300 kilometres to restore communication between resistance units and Allied headquarters after a failed transmission and, according to her later account, once killed a German sentry with her bare hands to prevent the alarm from being raised.

Her courage and leadership helped unify otherwise scattered fighters and maintain operations in the face of growing German pressure.

After the war, Wake received honours from Britain, France, and the United States for her wartime service.

Vera Atkins was born in Romania in 1908 and became the acting senior intelligence officer for F Section of the SOE, where she managed the recruitment and deployment of agents into France.

After she had moved to Britain in the late 1930s, she joined British intelligence and rose to become Colonel Maurice Buckmaster’s deputy.

She oversaw the planning and briefing that enabled coordinated action for over four hundred agents, including nearly forty women. 

Each mission required Atkins to select suitable candidates, construct detailed false identities, and arrange transport into occupied France.

She ensured that agents carried the proper codes, contacts, and escape routes necessary for survival, and her careful preparation in many cases gave agents the tools to remain undetected for long periods.

Her memory for details and commitment to her colleagues made her essential to the section’s success.

After the war, Atkins dedicated herself to tracing missing agents. She travelled to Germany to interview captured Nazis, visited former concentration camps, and worked out the final movements of agents who had disappeared.

Her investigations revealed the fates of numerous SOE personnel, including several who had been executed in captivity.

Though she never worked in the field herself, her wartime and post-war efforts ensured that the contributions and sacrifices of many agents were not forgotten.

Odette Sansom was born in France in 1912, later became a British citizen, and volunteered for war service after responding to a request for photographs of the French coastline.

Her knowledge of France and fluency in the language led to her recruitment by the SOE, and in 1943 she was sent to France under the alias “Lise” to work as a courier for agent Peter Churchill.

The two posed as a married couple to reduce suspicion and improve their chances of surviving capture. 

When she worked in the Rhône-Alpes region, Odette coordinated the delivery of messages, arranged meeting points, and maintained radio communication with London.

However, her network was betrayed in April 1943, and both she and Churchill were arrested by the Gestapo.

Subjected to long periods of torture at Fresnes prison, she refused to provide information and protected her fellow agents by maintaining her cover story.

She was later sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she endured isolation, severe hunger, and multiple threats of execution.

She survived until liberation in 1945 and received several honours for her work during the war.

Her George Cross citation recognised her “outstanding courage and determination” in the face of ongoing torture and imprisonment.

Born to an Indian father and American mother in Moscow in 1914, Noor Inayat Khan grew up in Paris and moved to Britain in 1940 after the German occupation of France.

A trained musician and writer, she joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force and was soon recruited into the SOE for wireless work.

Despite her personal belief in nonviolence, she saw the defeat of Nazi Germany as a moral imperative and accepted one of the most dangerous assignments available. 

She parachuted into France in June 1943 and operated in Paris as the first female wireless operator for the SOE in the city.

Her job required her to move constantly, set up temporary transmission locations, and send messages to London without detection.

After most of her network had been arrested, she refused orders to return to Britain and continued to operate alone, and she knew that the city was heavily patrolled by German security forces.

Eventually betrayed by a local contact, she was captured and questioned by the Gestapo.

Despite physical abuse and long periods of solitary confinement, she continued to refuse to reveal any information.

After multiple escape attempts and months of imprisonment, she was sent to Dachau concentration camp and executed in September 1944.

She was awarded the George Cross and the Croix de Guerre after her death, and her bravery has become symbolic of silent wartime resistance.

Krystyna Skarbek was later known as Christine Granville, was born into a Polish aristocratic family in 1908, and became one of Britain’s longest-serving agents.

After escaping German-occupied Poland, she contacted British intelligence in London and offered her services.

Her fluency in multiple languages and her knowledge of Central Europe proved valuable to MI6 and later the SOE.

She worked in Poland, Hungary, and later France, where she smuggled intelligence reports across borders, arranged the release of imprisoned agents, and disrupted German operations by leading sabotage missions.

During one arrest, she reportedly convinced her captors that she had tuberculosis when she bit her tongue and then coughed blood.

Her quick thinking and charisma helped save lives on multiple occasions, and she remained active until the end of the war. 

Afterwards, she struggled to adapt to civilian life and took short-term jobs before being murdered in 1952 by a rejected suitor.

Her courage earned her the George Medal, the Order of the British Empire, and the Croix de Guerre, yet she remained largely unrecognised in public discourse for decades.

Born in the United States in 1906, Virginia Hall lost her lower leg in a hunting accident and wore a wooden prosthesis.

Virginia Hall was determined to serve despite her disability, and she joined the British SOE and later the American OSS.

Disguised as a journalist, she entered occupied France and built extensive resistance networks across Lyon and its surrounding regions. 

Her work included organising parachute drops, directing guerrilla operations, and transmitting intelligence to Allied headquarters.

After her identity had become known to the Gestapo, she crossed the Pyrenees into Spain during winter, despite her prosthetic leg.

Later, she returned to France to coordinate resistance efforts ahead of Allied offensives in 1944.

She became the only civilian woman during World War II to receive the Distinguished Service Cross from the United States and went on to work for the CIA after the war.

Her determination and strategic effectiveness left a lasting mark on Allied intelligence operations, though she never sought publicity or personal recognition.