Lisé de Baissac

Infobox Military Person
name=Lisé de Baissac


caption=
born=birth date|1905|5|11
died=death date|2004|3|28
placeofbirth= Mauritius
placeofdeath=
nickname=Agent Scientist, Odile|Irene|Margurite|Adele
allegiance=United Kingdom, France
branch=Special Operations Executive, FANY
serviceyears=1942-1944 (SOE/FANY)
rank=
unit=Scientist
commands=
battles=
awards=
relations=Claude de Baissac
laterwork=

Lisé Marie Jeanette de Baissac (11 May, 1905 – 28 March 2004) [Cite web | url=http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SOEbaissac.htm | title=Lise de Baissac | publisher=Spartacus Educational | accessdate=2008-03-13] [Cite web | url=http://www.specialforcesroh.com/browse.php?mode=viewiaward&awardid=2310 | title=Lise Marie Jeanette de Baissac - SOE - Special Forces - Roll Of Honour | accessdate=2008-03-13]

Born in 1905 in Mauritius, but of British nationality. De Baissac was a heroine of the Special Operations Executive during the Second World War.

Life

Escape to Britain

The third of three children, Lisé was born to a French family in Mauritius, but was a British subject as all Mauritians were. Her parents taught her French from an early age so she and her two brothers grew up billingual. The family moved to Paris when Lisé was aged 14.

In 1940, Paris was occupied by the Germans. Her eldest brother Jean de Baissac joined the British Army. Lisé and her other brother Claude de Baissac travelled to the South of France in an attempt to reach England. She obtained help with travel arrangements to England from the American Consulate and crossed into Spain and went to Lisbon, where she waited for five months for permission to travel to Gibraltar and on to the UK.

The ship docked in Scotland and Lisé made her way to London where she made contact with Lady Kemsley who helped her get a job at the "Daily Sketch". Claude was recruited by the SOE. As soon as the SOE began recruiting women, Lisé applied to join. She was interview by Selwyn Jepson, and was speedily accepted for training.

Her specialist training took place at 31 Training School at Beaulieu, Hampshire, where she trained with the second group of women reruited by the SOE including Mary Herbert, Odette Sansom and Jacqueline Nearne. She was commissioned in the FANY in July 1942.

First mission

On 24 September 1942, she was one of the first two FANY SOE agents to be parachuted into France. She was accompanied by Andrée Borrel (codename "Denise"). On the eve of her departure she was taken for dinner by Colonel Maurice Buckmaster and seen off from RAF Tempsford in a Whitley bomber. Andreé Borrell was the first to drop, with Lisé following in quick succession, landing in the village of Boisrenard near the town of Mer.

Her role was to be a courier and liaison officer on the Scientist network, communicating with the "Prosper" - PHYSICIAN network under Francis Suttill and the BRICKLAYER network under France Antelme, with the mission "to form a new circuit and to provide a centre where agents could go with complete security for material help and information on local details" and to organise the pick-up of arms drops from the UK to assist the French resistance. She was effectively reproducing in Poitiers what Virginia Hall had created in Lyons. Lisé used a number of code names (including "Odile", "Irene", "Marguerite" and "Adele") and her cover story was that she was a poor widow from Paris, but had gone to the Poitiers area to avoid the food shortages of the capital. She also used that of an amateur archaeologist looking for rock specimens in order to cycle round the Loire countryside to reconnoitre possible parachute drop-zones and landing areas for RAF 138 and 161 squadrons.

Having no radio, to send and receive messages she had to travel to Paris or to Bordeaux - at the latter, her brother Claude de Baissac was developing the SCIENTIST network, organising sabotage missions and gathering information on ship and submarine movements. In June 1943, the "Prosper" - PHYSICIAN network collapsed and Artist was also penetrated by the Gestapo, and so on the night of 16/17 August Lise, Claude and major Nicholas Bodington were flown back to England by Lysander. Lisé was then sent to RAF Ringway where she was conducting officer to two new agents, Yvonne Baseden and Violette Szabo. Whilst she was assisting them with their training, Lisé broke her leg.

econd mission

Once her leg was mended, Lisé returned to France (dropped by Lysander near Villers-les-Ormes on the night of 9/10 April 1944) to work for the PIMENTO network, headed by Anthony Brooks, under the new codename "Marguerite". However, in training related Maquis groups in weapons handling, she came into conflict with the group, thinking as she did that they were militant socialists with political motives. She rejoined her brother Claude, who had been dropped in February 1944 and made his way to Normandy to reconnoitre possible large areas which airborne troops could hold for 48 hours while they got themselves established. After D-Day, Lisé gathered information on German dispositions and passed it to the Allies, even renting a room in an house occupied by the local commander of the German Forces. When the US troops arrived to liberate the area, she was wearing her FANY uniform, which she had kept hidden whilst in France.

Post-war

After the war Lise married Gustave Villameur, an interior decorator living in Marseille.

Recognition

;Honours
*France : Knight of the Légion d'honneur ("LH"), Croix de guerre 1939-1945 ("CG") with palm ;
*UK : Member of the Order of the British Empire ("MBE"), September 1945.;Citations :
*One British officer declared : "The role she played in aiding the maquis and the resistance in France will never be over-praised and she did much to enable to maquis and resistance's preparations before the American breakthrough in Mayenne."
*Her SOE dossier states "She was the inspiring-force for the groups in the Orne, and through her initiatives she inflicted heavy losses on the Germans thanks to anti-tyre devices scattered on the roads near Saint-Aubin-du-Désert, Saint-Mars-du-Désert, and even as far as Laval, Le Mans and Rennes. She also took part in armed attacks on enemy columns.

ources and external links

* [http://www.specialforcesroh.com/browse.php?mode=viewiaward&awardid=2310 Photograph of Lise de Baissac on the Special Forces Roll of Honour]
* Michael Richard Daniell Foot, "SOE in France. An account of the Work of the British Special Operations Executive in France, 1940-1944", London, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1966, 1968 ; Whitehall History Publishing, in association with Frank Cass, 2004. This book presents the "official" British version of SOE's history in France.
* [http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SOEbaissac.htm Article on Lise de Baissac on Spartacus] .

* [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article822813.ece] Times Obituary

* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1458206/Lise-Villameur.html] Telegraph Obituary

References