Tuesday, 24 June 2025

HEROINES OF THE SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE - GILIANA GERSON NÉE BALMACEDA

 

Giliana was Chilean born

But served as an agent for the SOE

She had worked as an actress in Paris

Where she met and married

Victor Gerson, a dealer in fine rugs

The couple escaped to England

On 18 June 1940 and both joined

The Special Operations Executive

To facilitate ways to more easily

Enter and exit occupied France

Giliana volunteered to go

In order to reconnoitre the territory

She was the first female SOE agent

To be sent to occupied France

Seemingly on holiday she travelled freely

On her Chilean passport in France,

During her three weeks in Vichy France

She compiled a long list of names

And addresses of those willing to help

And who she believed could be trusted

She also collected timetables,

Details of bus and railway controls

Required Administrative documents

Ration cards, and identity papers

Which could be reproduced by SOE

She returned to the England via Spain

And the British base at Gibraltar

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HEROINES OF THE SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE - ANNE-MARIE WALTERS MBE, CdG, MdlR

  She was born in Switzerland But worked for the French Resistance Under the Codename “Colette” From January 1944 until August 1944 ...