The German occupation of France 1940 – 1945 and the Low Countries during World War II was a consequence of forestalling a repeat of the British invasion during World War I, when the cream of European youth was scythed down by decisions made by their warlords.

There was much Allied concern at the lack of resistance to the German Occupation in the Low Countries and France. 

Special Operations Executive

To inflame passions and invite reprisals, Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE) proceeded to carry out acts designed to shake off such inertia. 

Typically, parachuted-in British agents would clandestinely butcher German servicemen, often sentries. 

One former SOE operative, who boasted to me that he had been part of such engagements, was Clarence Souter Evans.  

After such forays, SOE commandos would leave clues to suggest responsibility lay with the local resistance. In many cases, units of the local occupation force were fooled and sometimes did take out reprisals on the local population.  

This had the effect of arousing bad feelings and encouraging attacks on German targets. 

Violette Szabo

One such British agent was the Anglo-French Violette Szabo. Recruited as an Allied agent, she made several drops into occupied France. 

With other agents, she brought considerable destruction and loss of life to civilians, to French and German servicemen and women. Szabo was twice captured, and twice she escaped. 

Killed several German soldiers

WITNESS TO HISTORY Mike Walsh. Click the picture for more details

On a third occasion, holed up with others, she killed several German soldiers before she herself was captured.  Szabo was subsequently shot strictly in accordance with international convention. 

The Bullshit Propaganda

Claims that the Gestapo routinely tortured captives are wide of the mark.  Incidences of maltreatment had to be made up.

The most infamous of these fraudulent torture claims related to the capture of Violette Szabo. These lurid fantasies were later repeated in the film and book, Carve Her Name with Pride.

Carve her Name with Pride

Szabo’s fellow captives, Captain Peuleve and Wing Commander Yeo-Thomas G.C., both of whom were interrogated and imprisoned with Violette Szabo, stated unequivocally that their German captors never maltreated the female agent. 

The torture claims made by her researcher, Mr Minney, caused Captain Peuleve much embarrassment.

The captain had wrongly and without his knowledge been cited as the sole source of evidence for the torture allegations in the posthumous George Cross citation awarded to Violette Szabo. (Sunday Times 4.4.1965). Tell us what you think

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