#pippa latour

[annafromuni]

Pippa Latour is the Last Secret Agent

You all know I love a WWII novel recounting the hard work done by women in the name of freedom and peace. When I walked into the library one day to drop off some books, I saw this on the Bestie stand – a display currently housing many New Zealand reads – and immediately knew I had to read it. This is the memoir of Pippa Latour, an SOE agent who lived to the age of 102 before she ever told her…

[alanmalcherhistorian]

Phyllis Latour SOE Wireless Operator in France

Phyllis Latour SOE Wireless Operator in France

Phyllis ‘Pippa’ Latour MBE, Legion of Honour (France), 1939-45 Star, French and German Star, Croix de Guerre (France). South African born Latour moved to England to join the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) but due to be able to speak fluent French and having spent time in the country she later came to the attention of the French Section of the Special Operations Executive (SOE). After…

[alessandriana]

"I did it for revenge," the snowy-haired, clear-eyed woman states without hesitation. She speaks clearly and with a hint of the South African accent that is a key to her background.

Pippa Doyle, maiden name Latour, is explaining what motivated her to parachute behind enemy lines and put her life constantly at risk gathering intelligence in the months before the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944.

...Her membership of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) was not originally intentional. Section Officer Pippa Latour had joined the RAF to train as a flight mechanic. But British Intelligence had other ideas."They took a group of about 20 of us away for training. It was unusual training – not what I expected, and very hard.” As well as extensive physical fitness training, the operatives were given other training to suit their work. "We climbed ropes, and learned to climb trees and up the side of buildings. Our instructor was a cat burglar who had been taken out of prison to train us. We learned how to get in a high window, and down drain pipes, how to climb over roofs without being caught."

...Dark-haired and diminutive, Pippa had six bicycles hidden around the countryside. She was in the area under the guise of being a 14 year old schoolgirl living in the countryside with extended family to escape the Allied bombing. With just one blue cotton dress to her name she pedalled around the countryside selling soap to mostly German soldiers, crossing fields on foot to where she had hidden another bicycle.

The Gestapo and SS were everywhere. And to add to the confusion and danger a double agent was working in the area. The SOE operative was friendly and talkative whenever she met German soldiers – "I'd talk so much about anything and everything, trying to be 'helpful' and they'd get sick of me" - and was constantly moving through the countryside where she was transmitting the information so urgently needed by the Allied Command.

It was crucial the information she transmitted was accurate – the lives of thousands of Allied soldiers relied on it.

"I always carried knitting because my codes were on a piece of silk – I had about 2000 I could use. When I used a code I would just pinprick it to indicate it had gone. I wrapped the piece of silk around a knitting needle and put it in a flat shoe lace which I used to tie my hair up."

Once she was loaded into a truck along with other locals and taken to the police station for questioning. "I can remember being taken to the station and a female soldier made us take our clothes off to see if we were hiding anything. She was looking suspiciously at my hair so I just pulled my lace off and shook my head. That seemed to satisfy her. I tied my hair back up with the lace- it was a nerve-wracking moment."

More at the link.

[alanmalcherhistorian]

Phyllis ‘Pippa’ Doyle (nee Latour) SOE wireless operator in France.

Phyllis ‘Pippa’ Doyle (nee Latour) SOE wireless operator in France.

Phyllis was born in South Africa on 8 April 1921, her father was a French doctor who died when she was three months old, and her mother was a British citizen. Her mother later married a racing car driver who was killed after his car crashed into a barrier and according to some writers her mother also died in a car crash after which Phyllis was sent to live with her father’s cousin in the AEF…

[carolinecastro123]

Phyliss ‘Pippa’ Latour Doyle MBE is the last surviving female Special Operations Executive. At age 23, Phyllis parachuted into occupied Normandy in May 1944 to gather intelligence on Nazi positions in preparation for D-Day. She is currently 100 years old