1. On her second mission into occupied France, Szabo was captured by the German army, interrogated, tortured, and deported to Ravensbruck concentration camp in Germany, where she was executed.
50 Facts About Violette Szabo
1. 2.
Violette Szabo Bushell was born on 26 June 1921 in Paris, France, to Charles George Bushell and Reine Blanche Leroy, as the second child of five and the only daughter.
3.
The family was reunited in South London when Violette Szabo was 11 years old.
4.
Violette Szabo was an active and lively girl, enjoying gymnastics, long-distance bicycling and ice-skating with four brothers and several male cousins.
5.
Violette Szabo met Etienne Szabo, a decorated non-commissioned officer in the French Foreign Legion of Hungarian descent, at the Bastille Day parade in London in 1940, where Bushell had been sent by her mother, accompanied by her friend Winnie Wilson, to bring home a homesick French soldier for dinner.
6.
Violette Szabo returned to the UK for a brief leave later in the year.
7.
Violette Szabo was posted to Leicester for initial training before being sent to one of the first mixed anti-aircraft batteries of the 7th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Training Regiment, Royal Artillery in Oswestry, Shropshire for specialised instruction as a predictor and then to the 481st Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery.
8.
Violette Szabo found within weeks that she was pregnant, so she left the ATS to return to London for the birth.
9.
Violette Szabo took a flat in Notting Hill, which was to be her home until she left for her second mission to France in June 1944.
10.
Violette Szabo sent her baby to childminders while she worked at the South Morden aircraft factory, where her father was stationed.
11.
Violette Szabo would have been invited to an interview regarding war work with E Potter, the alias of Selwyn Jepson, a detective novelist and the F-Section recruiter.
12.
Violette Szabo was given security clearance on 1 July 1943 and selected for training as a field agent on 10 July.
13.
Violette Szabo was commissioned as a section leader in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, a civilian service often used by SOE as a cover for female agents.
14.
Violette Szabo received intensive instruction in fieldcraft, night and daylight navigation, weapons and demolition.
15.
Violette Szabo was sent to the SOE "finishing school" at Beaulieu, Hampshire, where she learnt escape and evasion, uniform recognition, communications and cryptography, and had further training in weaponry.
16.
On her first attempt, Violette Szabo badly sprained her ankle and was sent home for recuperation, spending some time in Bournemouth.
17.
Violette Szabo was able to take the parachuting course again and passed with a second class in February 1944.
18.
On 24 January 1944, Szabo made her will, witnessed by Vera Atkins and Major R A Bourne Paterson of SOE, naming her mother, Reine, as executrix and her daughter Tania as sole beneficiary.
19.
Violette Szabo's cover was that she was a commercial secretary named Corinne Reine Leroy, who was born on 26 June 1921 in Bailleul, and who was a resident of Le Havre, which gave her reason to travel to the Restricted Zone of German occupation on the coast.
20.
Violette Szabo returned to Paris to brief Liewer, and in the two days, before they were due to depart, she bought a dress for Tania, three frocks and a yellow sweater for herself, and perfume for her mother and herself.
21.
Violette Szabo returned to England by Lysander, piloted by Bob Large, DFC, of the RAF, on 30 April 1944, landing after a stressful flight in which the plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire over Chateaudun, and Szabo was thrown about the body of the plane.
22.
On 24 May 1944 Violette Szabo was promoted to Ensign in the FANY.
23.
Violette Szabo had insisted upon using the car, even though the Germans had forbidden the use of cars by the French after D-Day, to drive her half of the 100 kilometres of her journey.
24.
At her request to Liewer, Violette Szabo was armed with a Sten gun and eight magazines of ammunition.
25.
Violette Szabo was dressed in a light suit, flat-heeled shoes and no stockings.
26.
Violette Szabo refused Dufour's offer of help, urging him to flee, and, dragging herself to the edge of the cornfield, she struggled to an apple tree.
27.
Violette Szabo fought the Germans for thirty minutes, killing a corporal, possibly more, and wounding some others.
28.
Violette Szabo was questioned by a young officer whose armoured car had drawn up nearby.
29.
Violette Szabo's captors were most likely from the 1st Battalion of 3rd SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment Deutschland whose commanding officer was the missing Sturmbannfuhrer Kampfe.
30.
Violette Szabo was transferred to the custody of the Sicherheitsdienst in Limoges, where she was interrogated for four days by SS-Sturmbannfuhrer Kowatch.
31.
Violette Szabo gave her name as "Vicky Taylor", the name she had intended to use if she needed to return to England via Spain.
32.
On 8 August 1944, Violette Szabo, shackled to SOE wireless operator Denise Bloch, was entrained with other male and female prisoners, including several SOE agents she knew, for transfer.
33.
Violette Szabo volunteered for tree-felling in the forest, where the trees gave some shelter from the bitter winds.
34.
Violette Szabo was dressed only in the summer clothes she had been wearing when sent to Germany and the women received barely any food and slept in frozen barracks without blankets.
35.
Violette Szabo was killed in the execution alley at Ravensbruck, aged 23, on or before 5 February 1945.
36.
Violette Szabo was shot in the back of the head while kneeling down, by SS-Rottenfuhrer Schult in the presence of camp commandant Fritz Suhren, camp overseer and deputy commandant Johann Schwarzhuber, SS-Scharfuhrer Zappe, SS-Rottenfuhrer Walter Schenk, chief camp doctor Dr Richard Trommer and dentist Dr Martin Hellinger, from the deposition of Schwarzhuber recorded by Vera Atkins 13 March 1946.
37.
Violette Szabo was killed in the gas chamber sometime in February 1945.
38.
Twelve were executed including Violette Szabo, one was killed when her ship was sunk, two died of disease while imprisoned, and one died of natural causes.
39.
Violette Szabo was the second woman to be awarded the George Cross, bestowed posthumously on 17 December 1946.
40.
Madame Violette Szabo volunteered to undertake a particularly dangerous mission in France.
41.
Violette Szabo was parachuted into France in April 1944, and undertook the task with enthusiasm.
42.
Violette Szabo was twice arrested by the German security authorities but each time managed to get away.
43.
Resistance appeared hopeless but Madame Violette Szabo, seizing a Sten-gun and as much ammunition as she could carry, barricaded herself in part of the house and, exchanging shot for shot with the enemy, killed or wounded several of them.
44.
Violette Szabo was arrested and had to undergo solitary confinement.
45.
Violette Szabo was then continuously and atrociously tortured but never by word or deed gave away any of her acquaintances or told the enemy anything of any value.
46.
Madame Violette Szabo gave a magnificent example of courage and steadfastness.
47.
Violette and Etienne Szabo are believed to be the most decorated married couple of the Second World War.
48.
Violette Szabo stayed at the farm while she was recuperating from her ankle injury and between her two missions to France.
49.
Tania Violette Szabo attended the museum's opening in 2000, as did Virginia McKenna, Leo Marks and members of SOE.
50.
Violette Szabo is named on the SOE memorial at Valencay to the agents of F Section who gave their lives for the liberation of France, and on the memorial to the SOE agents who flew from England but did not return at RAF Tempsford.