HEROINES OF THE SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE – VERA LEIGH née GLASS

Vera was born in England

And served as an agent for the SOE

After working for the Resistance

Under the Codename  “Simone”

She was also known as “Almoner”,

And Suzanne Chavanne

Leigh returned to France May 1943,

On an SOE Westland Lysander

Where she worked as a courier 

For the SOE's Donkeyman network

And the Inventor sub circuit

In October the circuit was betrayed

She was arrested and taken to Paris

To Gestapo headquarters at Avenue Foch

Before going to the Natzweiler-Struthof

Concentration camp in France

Where she was executed July 6^th 1944 

After the war she was awarded

The King's Commendation for Brave Conduct 

HEROINES OF THE SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE - ELŻBIETA ZAWACKA

 

She was born in Thorn, at the time

Part of the German Empire

But today its Toruń, in Poland

In October 1939 she joined

The Polish resistance in Silesia

Under the nom de guerre “Zelma”

Which she later changed to “Zo”

Moving to Warsaw in 1940

Where she worked as a courier

In 1943 she travelled to Gibraltar

Via Germany, France, and Spain,

In Britain she underwent training,

And on September 10^th 1943

She parachuted into Poland,

In 1944 she fought in the Warsaw Uprising

After the war she was awarded

The Order of the White Eagle,

Golden Cross of Merit with Swords 

Silver Cross of Order of Virtuti Militari, twice

And the Cross of Valour five times

She died in Toruń, Poland aged 99

In 2017 she was posthumously awarded

The Cross of Freedom and Solidarity