Code Name Pauline. Memoirs of a World War II Special Agent

161 Pages·2013·2.95 MB·English

by  Pearl Witherington Cornioley

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Copyright © 2013 by Kathryn J. Atwood All rights reserved
Published by Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
814 North Franklin Street
Chicago, Illinois 60610
ISBN 978-1-61374-487-1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cornioley, Pearl Witherington, 1914-2008.
Code name Pauline : memoirs of a World War II special agent / Pearl Witherington Cornioley with Hervé
Larroque ; edited by Kathryn J. Atwood.
pages cm. — (Women of action) Summary: “Pearl Witherington Cornioley, one of the most celebrated
female World War II resistance fighters, shares her remarkable story in this firsthand account of her
experience as a special agent for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE). Told through a series of
reminiscences—from a difficult childhood spent in the shadow of World War I and her family’s harrowing
escape from France as the Germans approached in 1940 to her recruitment and training as a special agent
and the logistics of parachuting into a remote rural area of occupied France and hiding in a wheat field from
enemy fire—each chapter also includes helpful opening remarks to provide context and background on the
SOE and the French Resistance. With an annotated list of key figures, an appendix of original unedited
interview extracts--including Pearl’s fiance; Henri’s story—and fascinating photographs and documents
from Pearl’s personal collection, this memoir will captivate World War II buffs of any age”—Provided by
publisher.
Summary: “The as yet unpublished memoirs for young adults of the only female SOE agent to lead a
French Resistance network during World War II”—Provided by publisher.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61374-487-1 (hardback) 1. Cornioley, Pearl Witherington, 1914-2008. 2. World War, 1939-
1945—Underground movements—France—Juvenile literature. 3. World War, 1939-1945—Secret service—
Great Britain—Juvenile literature. I. Larroque, Hervé. II. Atwood, Kathryn J., editor. III. Title.
D802.F8C626 2013
940.54’8641092—dc23
[B]
2013008734
Interior design: Sarah Olson Except where otherwise noted, all photos courtesy of Hervé Larroque/ Éditions
par exemple with permission of Pearl Witherington Cornioley.
Printed in the United States of America 5 4 3 2 1
T
o productive international relationships, represented most
dramatically by the French section of the British Special
Operations Executive during World War II; later by the willingness of
an initially reluctant British subject, Pearl Cornioley, to be interviewed
by Hervé Larroque, a French journalist; and finally, by the friendship
between M. Larroque and John Atwood, an American, initiated by
their shared respect for Pearl Witherington, continued because of their
mutual willingness to communicate in the other’s language, and
without which this edition of Pearl Witherington’s memoir would not
have been possible.
I don’t like blowing my own trumpet. I find it really difficult, but at the
same time I want people to know what really happened.
—PEARL WITHERINGTON CORNIOLEY
CONTENTS
Editor’s Note by Kathryn J. Atwood
Preface by Hervé Larroque
Introduction
Prologue
1 A Difficult Childhood
2 Courtship with Henri Cornioley
3 Escape from France
4 Training and Preparation in the Ranks of the SOE
5 Parachuting into Occupied France
6 Courier Missions, Code Names, and Covers
7 The Michelin Factory Affair
8 Arrest of a Resistance Leader
9 The Battle of Les Souches
10 Organizing the Maquis
11 Into the Forest
12 Postwar Life
13 Righting Wrongs
Conclusion
Epilogue by Raymond Billard, “Gaspard”
Acknowledgments
Key Figures
Appendix: Extracts from Original Interviews
Notes
Bibliography
Index
EDITOR’S NOTE
BY KATHRYN J. ATWOOD
What you hold in your hand is not a history book. It is a piece of history. History
books are often written by people who were not there. This is the testimony of
someone who not only was there but who actively participated in what
happened. It is what historians call “original source material.”
Pearl Witherington was an agent of the Special Operations Executive (SOE),
a British wartime organization that secretly trained and sent agents into Nazi-
occupied countries during World War II. Immediately following the war, the
British public was shocked to learn that female agents had worked behind enemy
lines for the SOE, risking their lives and in some instances losing them, in the
fight against the Nazis. Books were written and films produced about these
women for a fascinated public who couldn’t seem to get enough. Pearl became
very distrustful of such endeavors after an author wrote a book that fictionalized
her wartime work to make it seem more dramatic than it had been. When the
stories of other agents were deliberately altered in similar ways in books and
films, Pearl refused to give any interviews for many years.
Toward the end of her life, however, she began to feel that her story might be
inspiring to young people in difficult circumstances. French journalist Hervé
Larroque approached her in 1994 with the idea of writing her memoir, and as
their acquaintance progressed she felt she could trust him to handle her story
properly. He conducted multiple interviews, some with Pearl alone and others
including Pearl’s husband, Henri Cornioley, from December 1994 through June
1995. The transcript of those interviews was published in French by Éditions par
exemple in December 1995, with the title Pauline, one of Pearl’s wartime code
names.
M. Larroque appreciated what I had done with Pearl’s story in my book
Women Heroes of World War II, in which she is profiled, and agreed to have me
edit the English translation of Pauline into a straight narrative with added
introductory material to place the memoir within its historical context.
Because Pearl was adamant that her story not be altered, I have taken great