The Princess Spy:
Noor-un-nisa Inayat Khan

Noor trains for the SOE

A.  The Women's Auxillary Air Force

Noor wanted to join the same armed service as her younger brother Vilayat.  When Vilayat joined the Royal Air Force (RAF), Noor joined the Women's Auxillary Air Force.  At first, there was some discussion about whether or not Noor could join the service.  Vilayat was a confirmed member of the British Empire, but for some reason, Noor was not.  This could have been due to their places of birth:  Noor was born in Moscow, Vilayat was born in London.  When Vilayat joined, he was quickly accepted.  Noor was not.  In an uncharacteristic move, Noor protested bitterly.  There was, after all, a war going on and Britain needed every volunteer.  The WAAF quickly changed their minds and willingly welcomed Noor into their service.
http://www.64-baker-street.org/assets/waaf.jpg

Click here for a web site which provides more information about the WAAF.

As a member of the WAAF, Noor was trained as a wireless radio operator.  She learned to operate the wireless radio transmitter and how to transmit using Morse code.  She learned how to code and decode messages.  She learned other things as well.  For example, as part of the WAAF's method of training wireless radio operator, Noor was taught to document and save all of her transmissions and receptions.  This perfectly normal documentation was fine for operators in England.  In fact, the WAAF would want operators to save everything so that if there were problems, then the codebreakers could go back to the original transmissions to figure out what happened and try to decode what was there.  This policy would cause Noor problems later in the war.

Life in the WAAF became dull.  Noor was stationed at Abingdon, and wrote to her brother about possibly changing services.  Vilayat had originally wanted to be a fighter pilot, but since he did not pass certain eye tests, this dream was not to be.  He transferred to the Navy.  To earn a commission in the Navy, he had to pass a navigation test.  He would eventually pass the test and earn a commission in this service.  Since Noor had joined the WAAF simply to be in the same service as Vilayat, she felt isolated and bored.  She also desired to change branches of service.  Her chance came when she received an invitation to attend an interview with Captain Selwyn Jepson in the War Office.  He would not tell her what the new opportunity entailed, but he was interested in meeting Noor.  She agreed to go to the interview.

B.  The Special Operations Executive (SOE)

Given Noor's training as a wireless radio operator, her ability to speak French fluently, her background in France before the war, and the British need for special secret agents to serve behind the lines in France, Noor seemed to be a perfect choice for a new secret organization created at the beginning of World War II.  This organization was the Special Operations Executive, or SOE, and the organization was placed in charge of espionage and sabotage activities within the occupied territories.  The SOE was specifically looking for female agents.  The head officers at the SOE believed that Germans would not expect female agents and therefore females would be safer than males.  Furthermore, there was a belief that the Germans would not torture women to the same degree that they were willing to torture men.  Throughout the war, the Germans proved the inaccurancy of these beliefs, yet there were some British officers still holding onto those beliefs. 

Noor's initial interviews with the SOE were conducted by Captain Selwyn Jepson.  He was soon convinced of Noor's willingness and confidence to go to France.  Major, later Colonel, Maurice Buckmaster agreed with Capt. Jepson.  Noor would join the SOE and become a secret agent in France.  The transfer meant a change from one branch of the service, the WAAF, to a different branch, the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (the FANY), and she would receive an officer's commission.  
C.  The First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY)
http://www.fany.org.uk/widgets/common/fany_logo_125_BLUE.gif

Click here for a web site with more information about the FANY.  Click here for the official website of the FANY.

Being placed in the FANY did make some sense.  After all, Noor and her younger sister, Claire, had trained as nurses before the war.  In fact, their desire to get their first aid certificates which certified their nursing training caused the problems as the Inayat Khan family tried to leave France when the Germans occupied the country.  Noor and Claire were trying to obtain their certificates as Vilayat and their mother, Begum, booked passage.  The certificates nearly split the family apart.  Luckily, the girls rejoined their brother and mother just in time.  

Training in the FANY was rushed.  The SOE had set up a decent training system for agents.  Agents went through stages of initial physical training, specialized training doing a particular job, and advanced training to make sure they were prepared to live in the occupied territory.  The system worked well when agents went through the entire process.   However, the British desperately needed to get agents into France, so they clearly cut corners with the training of certain agents.  This is what happened to Noor.
 
Noor was trained by the SOE at the wireless radio school at Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, but since Noor was already a wireless radio operator, the SOE did not put much emphasis on this training for Noor.  For example, instructors did not stress special SOE techniques to Noor.  Unfortunately, SOE techniques and WAAF wireless radio techniques were slightly different.  For example, while the WAAF wanted operators to save everything, the SOE trained operators to burn and destroy all documentation about what was transmitted.  The SOE did not want agents with a log of messages because if the Germans were to capture the agents 'Message Log' then the Germans could break the codes fairly easily.  Somehow Noor never learned this vital piece of knowledge and the Germans found her log book, with messages both in clear and in code, after her arrest.

Noor also failed to receive parachute jump school training.  To be placed in occupied France, she would need to be transported by Lysander aircraft.  The Lysander airplane would land in France and the agents would depart the plane in a normal way--they would not need to jump out.  This restriction meant that there were only certain times during the month when agents could go to their assignments in Europe.

Noor did attend an SOE school in New Forest where she learned 'Field Security.'  This included how to avoid detection and capture in enemy territory, how to notice if being followed, and how to get rid of detectives and curious individuals.  Part of this training included a fake Gestapo interrogation.  Noor was grilled by these fake Gestapo officers.  She cracked easily under the pressure.  One witness commented that Noor was 'absolutely terrified.'  Noor became inaudible.  Because of her poor showing with this fake Gestapo encounter, and because of other errors, there were several individuals recommending that Noor should not be sent to France.
http://www.omegapub.com/store/graphics/00000001/Sufi_Album/tn_P022.jpg
Noor at about the time
she was deployed to France

D.  Recommendations, or lack thereof, from superiors

There were several people, mainly fellow agents and superior officers, who believed Noor was not mentally prepared to work undercover in France as a secret agent.  She constantly fought this opposition during her training.  Colonel Frank Spooner was one of the officers assigned to place agents into the occupied territory.  He interviewed Noor more than once.  In his opinion, she should have stayed in England.  Spooner believed that women should not be sent into battle, especially behind the lines, and that the women who were sent should possess a certain 'worldly sophistication and toughness.'  He believed Noor was 'too innocent, too emotional, and too implusive . . . too vulnerable.'  Furthermore, he felt she was 'too highly strung and too nervous' to be of much use in the field.  In fact, she probably featured all of these characteristics.  Her service later in France would feature all of these elements.
 
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SOEbuckmaster.JPG
Col. Maurice Buckmaster

Colonel Buckmaster, head of the French section of the SOE, overruled Spooner's comments and decided to send Noor into France.  Whether Buckmaster really believed she was ready to go or that he just needed agents in France, one will never know, but Noor was given the 'go ahead' to be deployed in Europe.

E.  Final preparation for the field:  Taking on a new identity

With the final 'go ahead' came the final round of preparations.  Noor transferred to Chorleywood in Herefordshire to await her final deployment into the field.  Noor worked with Miss Vera May Atkins on the final preparations for her mission.
http://www.nlc.net.au/~bernie/Vera_Atkins_F_section.JPG
Vera Atkins

These preparations included a fake identity and her clothing.  When entering the service, Noor used the name Nora Baker to make herself sound more English.  Most of her fellow agents knew her as Nora.  She would need to change that name again once she arrived in France.  Her new name would be Jeanne-Marie Regnier.  This was later changed to Marie-Jeanne Regnier after the 'Prosper' circuit in Paris was broken up by the Germans.  Her code name to the resistance would be 'Madeleine' named after Noor's favorite character in the children's book series.  Her radio callname would then be 'Poste-Madeleine.'  Noor was given four boxes of pills including the famous cyanide suicide pill.  Other pills caused stomach aches (to create a fake illness) and long periods of sleep (sleeping pills).  Among the pills were some stimulants in case the agent needed some energy to complete a mission.  The pills were to be used cautiously and not carelessly, but the agents had the pills if they needed them.  Finally, one of the Air Force boys came to fetch her.  It was the night of June 16/17, 1944 and Noor was on her way to France.


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