Women who Spied for Britain

by Walker, Robyn

  Sonia spent the next couple of years focused on her studies and trying to live life as a normal teenager under wartime conditions. By eighteen Sonia had completed her schooling (including getting her diploma from what she called a ‘domestic school’) and decided to take an active part in the war effort. She joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) and was assigned administrative duties at RAF Gosforth. This proved rather tiresome for the active and adventurous young girl, who quite often found herself at the centre of some sort of mischief. As punishment for her occasional high jinks, Sonia found herself spending a great deal of time on kitchen duty, usually peeling potatoes, and both she and her good friend Paddy O’Sullivan felt that their talents were being wasted. O’Sullivan thought that working as a translator might be more challenging and she applied for a position. Paddy’s interview was conducted by a Special Operations Executive recruiter, and once she discovered what the job entailed she urged Sonia to apply as well. Paddy was not able to reveal to Butt the true nature of the posting, so Sonia was quite surprised when she arrived for her interview at a luxurious Oxford Sreet apartment. Her surprise quickly turned to excitement, however, when she discovered that she was being considered for work as a secret agent. Sonia seemed to make an excellent impression upon all who met her, and she so impressed the SOE recruiters that they immediately recommended her for training school, despite her young age. After her command of the French language was thoroughly examined and she had been transferred from the WAAF to the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY), Butt was sent on a training course at Wanborough Manor. She found herself housed with a group of fellow agents, most of whom had French-speaking backgrounds; there were French Canadians, British men and women who had been educated in France, French-speaking citizens from the British colony of Mauritius, and South Africans who had lived in the French colony of Madagascar. Along with fellow SOE recruit Nancy Wake and her friend Paddy O’Sullivan (who was eventually sent to France as a wireless operator), she was put through a variety of tests designed to assess her personality and her eye for detail. Butt, ever the good sport, obligingly completed all of the tests, proving to be a resourceful and self-reliant young lady.

  The instructors watched the recruits carefully for behavioural ‘slips’ that might compromise their security in France. All conversations at meals were expected to be in French, and those who made too many mistakes were removed from the course. Butt experienced first-hand what lengths the instructors would go to in order to determine an agent’s ability to maintain his or her cover. One evening, after a session of heavy drinking (which was encouraged by the school authorities in order to help them evaluate an agent’s propensity for loose lips), she awoke to find an instructor sitting by her bed to see what language she spoke if she talked in her sleep! Candidates were put through exercises where they had to evaluate a stranger’s character so they would be better prepared to spot enemy agents and to select trustworthy people to work with in the field. They were also expected to learn how to steal, both from other students’ quarters and from locked and guarded rooms. The candidate agents did not only need to be able to enter secured rooms, but also had to remove objects while leaving the remaining contents undisturbed. One of the other exercises used by the instructors to explore the characters of the recruits involved having them hang a number around their necks, and asking them who, from the group, they would pick to spend time with on forty-eight-hour leave in London. Butt quickly scribbled down the number of a young French Canadian officer, Guy d’Artois. D’Artois just as quickly wrote down Butt’s number.

  After this initial phase, and with the unsuitable candidates weeded out, Butt and her squad were sent off to a remote part of Scotland for six weeks of commando training. It was physically demanding work, and the women were treated the same as the men. Butt was surprised and pleased to discover that her team leader was actually Guy d’Artois. Together they climbed trees, manoeuvred through obstacle courses, learned the art of silent killing, and received instruction in map-reading and the use of small arms and explosives. Butt performed well in all areas of the course with the exception of map-reading. An instructor who was sympathetic to her struggles asked fellow squad member d’Artois to provide Butt with some remedial map-reading assistance. This proved not to be a problem since the pair had already developed a deep affection for one another; in fact, it was growing deeper each day! According to Butt, ‘it was love at first sight … He was engaged in the same type of work and we were brought together frequently.’1

  After completing their commando training, Butt and d’Artois were sent to the Midlands to receive specialised instruction in explosives. Butt loved this portion of her training, and together she and d’Artois learned how to mix materials to create explosive devices, practising by demolishing small bits of railway track and some unfortunate trees. From there it was on to finishing school at the Beaulieu estate in the New Forest, where candidates were instructed on how to maintain their personal security. They were trained to detect if they were being followed and in how to blend in with crowds, and were also put through mock interrogations that gave them an idea of what to expect if they were captured. All recruits were given specific instructions that if they were arrested they needed to withstand torture for at least forty-eight hours to provide enough time for the other agents that they were working with to get away. A final training exercise, in Manchester, required Butt to rent a room and establish her identity as a young widow with a small child. Butt used a photo of her younger brother to depict her ‘son’. As part of the exercise, she returned to her room one evening and found that it had been ransacked; she was subsequently arrested and interrogated by instructors who were posing as Gestapo officers. Butt performed well during her mock interrogation, but generally her instructors were worried about her young age. Some felt that she lacked the maturity to fill the role of an SOE operative. However, Maurice Buckmaster, who was in charge of SOE’s French Section (‘F’ Section), spoke to her, basically advising that she stop acting so much like a teenager. It was tough advice for the high-spirited young woman, but she took it to heart since she was determined to succeed. Following Buckmaster’s advice Butt became much more serious and focused, and went on to complete her parachute training at Ringway with Guy d’Artois. Butt and d’Artois had continued to become closer, and now that their training was coming to an end they were worried about being separated. Just prior to one of their training jumps, Butt gave Guy a wink before she launched herself out of the plane. He must have had extreme difficulty focusing on his jumping technique as he descended to the ground after her, because sometime during his descent he made a momentous decision. Upon landing, he proposed to Butt and the two were married in London shortly afterwards. They had a gala wedding reception at the Royal Air Force Club in Piccadilly and were looking forward to heading off on a mission together in France.

  Butt and d’Artois had originally been assigned to work together in France and had been briefed accordingly. However, their marriage soon put an end to that assignment. SOE absolutely refused to consider letting a married couple work together, claiming that, should the two be arrested by the Germans, they would be far more likely to reveal their secrets if they witnessed their spouse being tortured in front of them. Butt had tried so hard to follow Buckmaster’s advice, but a bit of her immaturity sneaked through at this moment and she threw a tantrum, declaring, ‘Well then, I’m not going at all.’2 It didn’t take long for Butt to regret her hasty decision, though, and she agonised over losing the opportunity to be dropped into France. Disappointed about missing out on her mission, and worried about her new husband’s safety, Butt glumly accompanied Guy to the landing strip, where he was to board the plane that would fly him into France. At the airstrip was Colonel Buckmaster, who had come to wish d’Artois luck. Butt seized the opportunity and pleaded with Buckmaster to give her a mission. Since she had shown such promise in her training, and with the invasion of Europe (D-Day) fast approaching, Buckmaster granted her wi
sh. D’Artois was assigned to the DITCHER network and was parachuted into the Burgundy region of France on 1 May 1944. Butt, who had no idea where her husband had been sent, was herself parachuted into France near Le Mans nine days before D-Day. Late one evening, almost a month after she had watched her husband depart for his mission, Butt was transferred to RAF Tempsford where she met with Buckmaster, who had come down to say goodbye, and to give her a cigarette case and compact as a going-away present. He also gave her a final briefing on her assignment. Butt would be parachuting into France with both a wireless operator and a demolitions specialist. Her job, specifically, was to recruit, arm and train French Resistance members so that they could effectively sabotage and harass the German forces occupying the region. Butt was also instructed to gather as much information as possible about German strength and troop movements in the area so that it might be transmitted, via wireless, back to Britain. After reviewing her instructions, Buckmaster handed Butt an envelope containing several small white tablets, and a more ominous single blue capsule. The white, he explained, were stimulants that she was to use if she ever required extra endurance to complete a mission. The single blue capsule was to be used if she was ever captured and found herself suffering, beyond what she could stand, at the hands of German interrogators. Slipping the envelope into her pocket, the single blue capsule served as a chilling reminder to Butt of the danger she was about to face.

  Butt’s cover story, which gave her the alias Suzanne Bonvie, was meticulously researched and designed to provide her with a background that was both believable and difficult to trace. Her ‘fake’ home town was a place that had been bombed flat by the Allies, so that both the town records and the house itself were destroyed. Her cover story was that she was a representative for a Paris design house and was travelling to Le Mans to stay with a cousin, Jean-Paul Bonvie, who had a home there, in order to recover from a bout of bronchitis. The last name, Bonvie, actually did belong to a man who owned a home just outside of Le Mans, and that man was a member of the French Resistance. A lovely designer wardrobe was procured for Butt to support her identity as someone who worked in the fashion industry. As pretty things and new clothes were difficult to come by in wartime Britain, Butt was over the moon with this aspect of her story! She was given the code names Blanche and Madeleine, and was assigned to the HEADMASTER network.

  Sydney Hudson, HEADMASTER organiser, had been given the task of building up a network of Resistance groups to harass the German army in coordination with the D-Day invasion. While Hudson didn’t know the actual date of D-Day (a well-kept secret), he knew it was imminent, and that he needed to train, equip and deploy the Resistance groups in a timely manner. To do this effectively, he needed a courier, and he knew that a female would have much more freedom to move around the countryside than a male. He sent his request for a female courier in the middle of May 1944 and, on the 28th, Butt, along with Raimond Glaesner, Eugene Bec and several containers of weapons and explosives, was dropped into Hudson’s sector. Butt was terrified as she looked out over the landing zone; through fear, adrenaline, or just bad luck, she bungled her jump despite having completed four perfect practice jumps. Unable to fight the urge to look down, Butt forgot her trainer’s instructions to keep her head up as she exited the hatch or risk flipping over and twisting the shroud lines. Her lines twisted and she struggled to right herself during her descent. Dressed in a skirt, sweater, overalls (to keep her warm in the unheated plane) and ski boots, which were designed to protect her feet and ankles on landing, Butt hit the ground hard, crashing down in the middle of a ditch and injuring her shoulder.

  Stunned and shaken after her jarring impact, she struggled to make sense of her surroundings. She heard a rumbling noise in the distance and, certain that anything making that much noise must be the enemy, decided she needed to quickly release and bury her parachute. Unfortunately, her lines had been fouled during her awkward descent, and she was hopelessly entrapped. Dragging her parachute behind her with her pistol in her hand, she slowly made her way across a field to a grove of trees, which would at least provide some cover. Butt could still hear the rumbling noise in the distance, and correctly assumed it was some kind of convoy. Suddenly a group of men appeared through the trees, and Butt gripped her pistol more tightly, anticipating a firefight. A French voice whispered, ‘It is a woman.’3 Butt relaxed as a group of elderly Frenchmen gathered around her. They explained to her that the man who was supposed to meet her had been killed by the Germans a few days earlier. The detachment in the way the men spoke about death chilled Butt, and she was hit with the realisation that, for the French living under German occupation, violent death was now simply part of everyday life. The men quickly cut Butt loose from her parachute and urged her to hurry, as the rumbling she had heard was indeed a German convoy. The group moved stealthily away from the convoy, and Butt got a better look at her reception committee. They were even older than they had originally appeared, and one of the men, Alain, explained, ‘We old ones meet and guide those who come in planes. The younger men are needed for more serious work.’4 As they travelled, they made contact with Glaesner, and the agents followed Alain towards the main road. Butt struggled with the idea of walking down the roads during daylight, recalling, ‘It took a real effort for me to walk along that French road as though I belonged there, a road that soon would be crawling with enemy trucks, perhaps marching enemy soldiers who would pass close enough to touch.’5 Alain explained to Butt that travelling by night was dangerous because of the curfew, and that to travel through the fields during the day would be very suspicious. Pretending to be regular French civilians out for a leisurely walk along the road was, indeed, the safest way for them to move around. Butt soon had the opportunity to test Alain’s logic. Rounding a bend in the road, the trio encountered a truck full of Germans. Sonia’s first instinct was to flee, but her travelling companions simply lowered their heads and plodded on. The German truck passed slowly, and some of the Germans waved to Butt, shouting words that she didn’t understand, but that her female instincts told her did not mean ‘arrest that woman spy’.6 The trio continued their walk, and hours later arrived at their ‘safe house’ near the town of La Flèche. The other agent, Eugene Bec, was also safe, and was staying at a nearby farm.

  Butt’s ‘drop’ was considered a success, with one minor exception. The container carrying her wardrobe was not recovered by the reception committee and Butt was incensed when it was picked up by a German patrol. This container of women’s clothing gave the Germans a clue that there was a new female agent working in the area, but Butt refused to ‘lay low’, and began work immediately. Her new commanding officer, Sydney Hudson, was impressed with his new courier, not only because of her work ethic, but also because of her beauty. He remembers thinking that she was ‘an extremely pretty girl’.7 Butt and Hudson had met earlier in London, and they had developed feelings for one another, but he was married and Butt was involved with Guy d’Artois. When they discovered they had been teamed together on this mission, both Butt and Hudson knew that an emotional entanglement was going to be difficult to avoid. Butt recalled that her first thought upon seeing Hudson was, ‘My God. How am I going to handle this?’8

  Butt spent her first several days in France at the Château Le Breuil St Michel, where she became very close to the owner, Madame de Sevenet. De Sevenet’s son was a member of the Resistance, and had recently been killed in a friendly fire incident. Butt was introduced as a relative of the de Sevenets in order to explain her presence to the many German officers who were occupying the chateau, and she mixed freely and convincingly in her new surroundings. She even took the opportunity to make use of the chateau’s chapel, where she was baptised (Sonia was Anglican, but had promised to convert to her husband Guy’s Catholic faith). New clothes were an immediate necessity, since hers had been lost in the drop and the ones she was wearing were too hot for the mild June temperatures. Hudson had a contact who ran a small clothing store, and Butt was duly outfitte
d. She was pleased to discover that her SOE training made it quite easy for her to pass as a French civilian. In training she had studied how to use the Occupation ration books, and she made several purchases with ease. This was a great relief to her, as the Germans often altered rationing regulations in order to ‘make it difficult for underground organisers to slip quietly into the life of a French community’.9 She also acquired a bike, and knew exactly how much it cost and where to apply for a licence. Butt proved to her new co-workers early on that she was not some shrinking violet. Hudson recalled how, during an Allied bombing raid (actually the start of D-Day) on a nearby railway station, he had rushed upstairs to comfort Butt and soothe her fears. There was no need, since Butt was completely unfazed by the explosions. Her strength of nerve failed her, however, when it came to threats of a reptilian nature. On one of her first nights in France she was given a tent of her own for accommodation. When she awoke to discover a snake under her sleeping bag, she screamed bloody murder; from that point on, she shared a tent with the men.