HEROINES OF THE SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE - EILEEN MARY ”DIDI” NEARNE MBE, Croix de Guerre

Eileen was English born

And served as an agent for the SOE

She was Codenamed “Rose”

In March 1944 she was flown to France

On the same Westland Lysander

That picked up her sister Jaqueline

She then worked as radio operator

For the Wizard network in Saint-Valentin

She was arrested on 25 July 1944

After her transmitter was detected

And taken to Gestapo headquarters

In Rue des Saussaies in Paris

Where she underwent brutal torture

Before being sent in mid-August

To Ravensbrück concentration camp

And then to a labour camp in Silesia

On 13 April 1945 she escaped

With two French girls from a work gang

In Leipzig they were hidden by a priest

Until the arrival of the allied forces

After the war she was awarded an MBE

And a French Croix de Guerre

She died alone in Torquay aged 89