Eileen Nearne

Infobox Military Person
name=Eileen Nearne


caption=
born=1921
died=
placeofbirth=London
placeofdeath=
nickname=Rose
allegiance=United Kingdom, France
branch=Special Operations Executive,
First Aid Nursing Yeomanry
serviceyears=1943-1945 (SOE/FANY)
rank=
unit=Wizard
commands=
battles=
awards=
relations=Jacqueline Nearne, Francis Nearne
laterwork=

Eileen Nearne was a member of the UK's Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II. She served in occupied France as a radio operator under the codename 'Rose'.

Born in London to an English father and Spanish mother, she was the youngest of three children, her olders sister, Jacqueline Nearne, and brother, Francis Nearne was also were SOE operatives. In 1923, the family moved to France. When France fell, she made her way to England with her sister, via Portugal and Gibraltar. On her arrival in England she was offered service in the WAAF working on barrage balloons, but turned this down and was recruited by the SOE, from which she was commissioned in the FANY.

Eileen was flown into an airfied near Orelans on March 2 1943 to work as a wireless operator for the Wizard network with Jean Savy as part of Operation Mitchel. Her cover story was that she was "Madamoiselle du Tort" (also using the names "Jacqueline Duterte" and "Alice Wood"), a scatterbrained French tomboy helping the Resistance for fun and excitement. In July 1944 when her transmitter was detected and she was subsequently arrested. She persuaded her captors that she had been sending messages for a businessman, unaware that he was British.

On 15 August she was sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp, and then transferred to Silesia Camp near Leipzig to work labouring on the roads. On the 13 April 1945 she escaped with two French girls from the working gang by hiding in the forest. They stayed two nights in a bombed out house. The next night they travelled through Merkkleeberg where they were arrested by the SS, but released after telling them a story. All three girls were hidden by a priest in Leipzig until US troops arrived.

After the war she lived in London with her sister Jacqueline.