Noor-un-nisa Inayat Khan
Noor's mission in France
A. The Prosper Network
The SOE inserted Noor into France on the night 16/17 June 1943. She flew into the occupied territory abroad a Lysander plane. Noor was supposed to be greeted by a landing party. The landing party did not show up for the plane, but Noor knew her first instructions. She was to join the 'Prosper' circuit in Paris as a wireless radio operator by linking up with her first contacts. Luckily, Noor made it safely to her first contacts. These contacts included Lt. Emile Garry and his fiancee. Noor thought she was meeting an old lady on an one on one basis. Lt. Garry's fiancee was fairly young and Lt. Garry was present. Noor was not quite certain she was in the right place. Passwords were finally exchanged, and Noor was gladly accepted into the group, but it was a nervous way to begin her work.
The next day, Lt. Garry escorted Noor to Professor Alfred Serge Balachowsky. Noor was to stay with the Professor and his wife until Noor could find a place of her own. Staying with the Balachowskys was a stroke of good luck which helped prevent an early capture of Noor by the Gestapo. This is because the timing of her insertion into Prosper was dreadful; less than a week after she arrived, the Germans arrested almost all of the major agents of the circuit including Major Francis Suttill, the agent codenamed Prosper.
Francis Suttill, aka 'Prosper'
Because Noor was staying with Balachowskys,
she escaped and began broadcasting to London the sad news of the destruction
of the circuit. She used the code name 'Madeleine' and her radio operation
became the 'Poste Madeleine.' At the time, she believed she was the
only wireless radio operator in Paris. That was not quite true, but
Noor believed it. One other Paris wireless operator evaded the Germans,
and he also sent confirmation of the German raids back to England.
After the destruction of most of the 'Prosper' circuit, Noor then began working for the remaining fragments of the network. Most notably she was the wireless transmitter for the 'Cinema' and 'Phono' circuits. She also operated a mail drop for what was left of the Prosper network. She found a room within a building used to house German soldiers. She used this room because the room had access to a window and there was a tree nearby outside the window. There was a story about Noor enlisting the help of a German soldier to help her install her antenna in the tree. The soldier complied with her request thinking he was helping her string up her clothesline for her laundry. Whether the story was truthful or not really does not matter. Noor was constantly surrounded by the Germans and constantly needed to think fast to evade capture.
B. Making Mistakes
Noor continued to make mistakes throughout her operational phrase. She made three glaring errors during the time before her arrest.
Noor
Noor's first mistake was that she was occasionally careless with her codebooks and other espionage equipment. She would accidentally leave this equipment out where anyone could see it. This was extremely dangerous simply because the Germans paid well for information which led to the capture of any British agent. This first happened only a couple days after Noor arrived in France. She left her codebook out, and Professor Balachowsky found it. Luckily, the Professor was part of the resistance movement and simply returned the code book to Noor. Of course, he was fairly upset because if the Germans captured Noor's codebook, then he would be in danger of arrest. He made his displeasure known to Noor.
Her second glaring error occurred with her documentation of messages she sent to London. She would write down everything both in clear format and in coded format. The problem with this documention was that once she was captured by the Germans, then the Germans would be able to decode all sorts of messages. The documentation would give the code away. This was what eventually happened. Not only did the Germans break the code, they began to use Noor's radio against the British by posing as Noor and sending messages for more men to be sent into France. Of course, these additional agents were quickly captured by the Germans.
Noor can hardly be blamed for the third mistake. The British placed Noor within a few miles of her childhood home at Fazal Manzil in the Surenses. It was understandable then when she returned to this area many times during the war, despite the fact that most people knew her and many were willing to betray her for a price. Many of her neighbors were willing to hide her, but not to help her in other ways. She walked very dangerous grounds when she visited the Surenes. In the end, Noor's betrayal came not from a childhood acquaintance, but rather the sister of a fellow agent. Still, the visits to Fazal Manzil and the Surenes were dangerous.
The SOE inserted Noor into France on the night 16/17 June 1943. She flew into the occupied territory abroad a Lysander plane. Noor was supposed to be greeted by a landing party. The landing party did not show up for the plane, but Noor knew her first instructions. She was to join the 'Prosper' circuit in Paris as a wireless radio operator by linking up with her first contacts. Luckily, Noor made it safely to her first contacts. These contacts included Lt. Emile Garry and his fiancee. Noor thought she was meeting an old lady on an one on one basis. Lt. Garry's fiancee was fairly young and Lt. Garry was present. Noor was not quite certain she was in the right place. Passwords were finally exchanged, and Noor was gladly accepted into the group, but it was a nervous way to begin her work.
The next day, Lt. Garry escorted Noor to Professor Alfred Serge Balachowsky. Noor was to stay with the Professor and his wife until Noor could find a place of her own. Staying with the Balachowskys was a stroke of good luck which helped prevent an early capture of Noor by the Gestapo. This is because the timing of her insertion into Prosper was dreadful; less than a week after she arrived, the Germans arrested almost all of the major agents of the circuit including Major Francis Suttill, the agent codenamed Prosper.
Francis Suttill, aka 'Prosper'
After the destruction of most of the 'Prosper' circuit, Noor then began working for the remaining fragments of the network. Most notably she was the wireless transmitter for the 'Cinema' and 'Phono' circuits. She also operated a mail drop for what was left of the Prosper network. She found a room within a building used to house German soldiers. She used this room because the room had access to a window and there was a tree nearby outside the window. There was a story about Noor enlisting the help of a German soldier to help her install her antenna in the tree. The soldier complied with her request thinking he was helping her string up her clothesline for her laundry. Whether the story was truthful or not really does not matter. Noor was constantly surrounded by the Germans and constantly needed to think fast to evade capture.
B. Making Mistakes
Noor continued to make mistakes throughout her operational phrase. She made three glaring errors during the time before her arrest.
Noor
Noor's first mistake was that she was occasionally careless with her codebooks and other espionage equipment. She would accidentally leave this equipment out where anyone could see it. This was extremely dangerous simply because the Germans paid well for information which led to the capture of any British agent. This first happened only a couple days after Noor arrived in France. She left her codebook out, and Professor Balachowsky found it. Luckily, the Professor was part of the resistance movement and simply returned the code book to Noor. Of course, he was fairly upset because if the Germans captured Noor's codebook, then he would be in danger of arrest. He made his displeasure known to Noor.
Her second glaring error occurred with her documentation of messages she sent to London. She would write down everything both in clear format and in coded format. The problem with this documention was that once she was captured by the Germans, then the Germans would be able to decode all sorts of messages. The documentation would give the code away. This was what eventually happened. Not only did the Germans break the code, they began to use Noor's radio against the British by posing as Noor and sending messages for more men to be sent into France. Of course, these additional agents were quickly captured by the Germans.
Noor can hardly be blamed for the third mistake. The British placed Noor within a few miles of her childhood home at Fazal Manzil in the Surenses. It was understandable then when she returned to this area many times during the war, despite the fact that most people knew her and many were willing to betray her for a price. Many of her neighbors were willing to hide her, but not to help her in other ways. She walked very dangerous grounds when she visited the Surenes. In the end, Noor's betrayal came not from a childhood acquaintance, but rather the sister of a fellow agent. Still, the visits to Fazal Manzil and the Surenes were dangerous.