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SOE F Section timeline

Timeline of events in the history of Section F of the Special Operations Executive. See also SOE F Section networks.

Table of contents
1 May 1941
2 July 1941
3 October 1941
4 December 1941
5 January 1942
6 May 1942
7 August 1942
8 September 1942
9 November 1942
10 December 1942
11 January 1943
12 March 1943
13 April 1943
14 May 1943
15 June 1943
16 July 1943
17 August 1943
18 September 1943
19 October 1943
20 November 1943
21 January 1944
22 February 1944
23 April 1944
24 May 1944
25 June 1944
26 July 1944
27 August 1944
28 September 1944
29 February 1945
30 March 1945
31 April 1945
32 May 1945

May 1941

May 5
Georges Bégué was the first SOE agent dropped in France. He set up radio communications and met agents who followed.

July 1941

July 1
Brian Stonehouse parachuted into occupied France near the city of Tours in the Loire Valley.

October 1941

October 24
Brian Stonehouse and Blanche Charlet were arrested by Milice in Chateau Hurlevent near Lyons.

December 1941

December
Brian Stonehouse was transferred to Fresnes prison in Paris

January 1942

January
Peter Churchill was landed by submarine at Miramar in France to evaluate the Carte resistance group.

May 1942

May
William Grover-Williams was parachuted into France.

August 1942

August
John Starr arrived by parachute in a field near Valence in France on his first mission.
August
Peter Churchill went to Montpellier in France to organize the Spindle network.

September 1942

September 24
Andrée Borrel and Lise de Baissac arrived by parachute at a field near Mer, not far from the Loire River

November 1942

November
Gilbert Norman arrived in France to join the Prosper Network.
November
George Starr and Odette Sansom arrived by boat near Cannes on the Mediterranean coast of France. The return voyage carried John Starr out of France following his uneventful first mission, taking with him reports collected by Peter Churchill.

December 1942

December
Jack Agazarian arrived in Paris to join the Prosper Network

January 1943

January 22
Henri Dericourt arrived in France as the section's air movements officer.

March 1943

March
Peter Churchill returned to England with Henri Frager by Lysander flight. On the inward flight Francis Cammaerts arrived to take Churchill's place.

April 1943

April 15
Peter Churchill arrived back in France.
April 16
Peter Churchill and Odette Sansom were arrested by Hugo Bleicher.

May 1943

May
John Starr and his wireless operator John Young arrived by parachute at Lons-le-Saunier in the Jura mountains of north-eastern France.
May 13
Vera Leigh, Julienne Aisner, Sidney Jones and Marcel Clech arrived by Lysander at a location in the Cher Valley, near Tours and were met by F Section's air movements officer Henri Dericourt. The return flight carried Francis Suttill, leader of the Prosper Network, back to England.

June 1943

June
William Grover-Williams was arrested by the Gestapo.
June
William Grover-Williams was moved to Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
June 16
Diana Rowden Noor Inayat Khan and Cecily Lefort arrived by air at a location north-east of Angers in the Loire Valley, where they were met by Henri Dericourt.
Jack Agazarian returned from France to England.
June 20
Frank Pickersgill and John Macalister were parachuted into France. They were met by Yvonne Rudelatt, but were captured after a skirmish with waiting Gestapo.
June 23
Andrée Borrel, Francis Suttill and Gilbert Norman were arrested

July 1943

July 18
John Starr was captured and placed in the custody of the Sicherheitsdienst in Dijon.
July 22
Nicholas Bodington and Jack Agazarian returned to France to investigate the fate of the Prosper Network.
July
Jack Agazarian was arrested at a rendezvous in the rue de Rome near the Gare Saint-Lazare, which was a trap set by the Germans.

August 1943

August
John Starr was transferred from Dijon to Fresnes prison.

September 1943

September
John Starr was transferred from Fresnes prison to 84 Avenue Foch.
September 15
Cecily Lefort was arrested by Gestapo in Montélimar, Rhône-Alpes.

October 1943

October 13
Noor Inyat Khan was arrested.
October 30
Vera Leigh was arrested at a café near the Place des Ternes in Paris and taken to Fresnes prison.

November 1943

November 18
Diana Rowden and John Young were arrested at Clairvaux-les-Lacs, near Lons-le-Saunier.
November 19
Diana Rowden was taken to 84 Avenue Foch where she was interrogated for two weeks before being taken to Fresnes prison.
November 25
Noor Inyat Khan, John Starr and Colonel Leon Faye escape from 84 Avenue Foch but are captured in the immediate vicinity.
November 26
Noor Inyat Khan and Colonel Leon Faye are sent to Germany.

January 1944

January 13
Yolande Beekman and Gustave Bieler were arrested at the Café Moulin Brulé in Paris.

February 1944

February 5
René Dumont-Guillemet and Henri Diacono were parachuted into Touraine to establish the Spiritualist circuit.
February 28
Madeleine Damerment, France Antelme and Lionel Lee arrived by parachute into a field near Chartres and were immediately arrested by waiting Gestapo.

April 1944

April
Maurice Southgate was arrested.
April 5
Lilian Rolfe was dropped near the city of Orléans to work with the "Historian" network run by George Wilkinson
April 29
Nancy Wake parachuted into Auvergne to liaise between London and the local Maquis.

May 1944

May 13
Vera Leigh, Andrée Borrel, Odette Sansom, Diana Rowden, Yolande Beekman, Eliane Plewman and Madeleine Damerment were taken from Fresnes prison to 84 Avenue Foch, where they were joined by Sonya Olschanezky. They were all then moved to the civil prison at Karlsruhe in Germany.

June 1944

June 6
The D-Day landings occurred in Normandy.

July 1944

July 2
Henry Frager was arrested by Abwehr sergeant Hugo Bleicher at a rendezvouse arranged by Roger Bardet.
July 6
Diana Rowden, Vera Leigh, and Andrée Borrel were shipped to the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp in the Vosges Mountains of Alsace (France) where they were injected with phenol and disposed of in the crematorium. Their arrival at the camp was witnessed by Brian Stonehouse.
Christine Granville arrived by parachute in France, joining the Jockey network led Francis Cammaerts.
July 31
Lilian Rolfe was arrested in Nargis and taken to Fresnes prison.

August 1944

August
Francis Cammaerts was arrested by Gestapo.
August
Lilian Rolfe was shipped to Ravensbrück concentration camp.
August
John Starr was sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
August 25
General von Choltitz the German Military Commandant in Paris, formally signed an Act of Surrender to the Provisional Government of the French Republic, although some German strongholds remained in the city.
August 27
John Macalister, Frank Pickersgill and Roméo Sabourin, were shipped to Buchenwald concentration camp.

September 1944

September 6
Gilbert Norman was executed at Mauthausen concentration camp
September 10
Yolande Beekman,Madeleine Damerment, Noor Inayat Khan, and Elaine Plewman were transferred to Dachau concentration camp.
September 11
Yolande Beekman, Madeleine Damerment, Noor Inayat Khan, and Elaine Plewman were executed, each by a single shot to the head, and their bodies cremated at Dachau concentration camp.
September 14
John Macalister, Frank Pickersgill and Roméo Sabourin, were executed at Buchenwald concentration camp.

February 1945

February 5
Lilian Rolfe was executed and her body disposed of in the crematorium at Ravensbrück concentration camp.
February 17
John Starr was sent to Mauthausen concentration camp.

March 1945

March 29
Jack Agazarian was executed at Flossenbürg concentration camp.

April 1945

April 29
Brian Stonehouse was liberated from Dachau concentration camp by American troops.

May 1945

May 7
Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allies.

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