Records released on female WWII spyThe secrets of a female spy who posed as a cosmetics saleswoman during World War II and helped lead the resistance inside Nazi-occupied France have been unsealed.
Pearl Cornioley outfoxed the Nazis by, among other tricks, concealing secret messages in the hem of her skirt and helping airmen escape to safety, according to records unsealed at Britain's National Archives on Monday. The release follows Cornioley's death on February 24.
The records shed light on a woman who quickly adapted to life as an agent but never forgot about her family in Britain, requesting in handwritten notes that officials in London send her mother and sisters timely birthday and Christmas presents.
The National Archives released two packets of information detailing Cornioley's training as a special agent, her activities in the war and her struggle to be recognised by the government.
Cornioley, whose nom de guerre was Genevieve Touzalin while in France, was educated in Paris.
She escaped France before the Nazi invasion and returned to Britain via Spain. Upon returning to Britain, she worked briefly at the Air Ministry in London but used her French to gain a slot as a Special Operations Executive agent - one of about 40 women to serve.
The Air Ministry became part of the Ministry of Defence in the 1960s, while the Special Operations Executive evolved into the Secret Intelligence Service, known as MI6.
Early in her training with the Special Operations Executive, supervisors noted that she lacked the natural moxie to excel as an agent, but she compensated with her social nature, innate skill with weapons and useful memory.
"She is of average intelligence and fairly practical, but rather slow in picking up new ideas. She has, however, a good memory and does not forget what she had learnt," a review of her training states. "Outstanding shot with pistol and other weapons. Probably the best shot (male or female) we have had yet."
She parachuted into France - initially posing as a cosmetics saleswoman to deliver coded messages to members of the French Resistance. Following the capture of her leader, she assumed control of the cell in the north Indre department of the Loire River valley, about 90km south-east of the Normandy beaches.
She interrupted the Paris-Bordeaux railway line more than 800 times and attacked convoys in June 1944, the same month of the D-Day invasion. All told, she led 3,000 French Resistance fighters in a host of guerrilla warfare missions.
She proved so crucial that the Nazis offered a reward of one million francs for her capture, hoping to quash her pivotal role in the Resistance.
"She's obviously a very brave woman. She goes through Gestapo lines, helps airmen escape to safety and baffles the Nazis in the field," said Mark Dunton, a historian specialising in World War II until the present.
The records also showed her struggles with what she considered prejudices against women. She refused a British government award for extraordinary service to the country because the honour was for civilians rather than military personnel. She alleged that the government refused military honours on the basis of sex discrimination.
"She's really standing up for women," Dunton said of evidence in the records.
Later in life, she was showered with recognition.
Queen Elizabeth II made her a Commander of the Order of the British Empire during a visit to Paris in 2004. Two years later, Royal Air Force officers presented her with coveted parachute wings in 2006 at her Paris retirement home. She also received France's Legion d'Honneur.
She met and fell in love with Henri Cornioley, a French prisoner-of-war who escaped and joined the Resistance. They married in a quiet London ceremony after the war and spent the rest of their lives in France. He died in 1999
http://au.news.yahoo.com/080401/2/16btm.html 
