Death of FANY SOE operator Yvonne Baseden on 28 October 2017 has been announced

Discussion in 'The Women of WW2' started by Harry Ree, Nov 1, 2017.

  1. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    The youngest SOE female agent to be parachuted into occupied France,Yvonne Baseden has died aged 95 years.

    After an aborted attempt to parachute into France where her SOE circuit, Scholar would be centred around Dole in the Jura,Eastern France,she was parachuted into Gabarret near to Mont de Marsan in SW France where she was received by George Starr of Wheelwright.She then made her way to Dole and with the French operator "Lucien", aka Marie Joseph Gonzague de Saint-Genies helped to organise Operation Zebra,the dropping of substantial arms and essential supplies in the daylight operation of 25 June 1944.

    Betrayed by local sympathisers,Lucien was killed and Yvonne Baseden was captured and deported to Ravensbruck where she contracted TB from the harsh treatment.Befriended by Mary Lindell and treated by the Percy Treite,the assistant camp doctor who was to pay the supreme penalty for his medical crimes within the camp,she pulled through.

    Her release came in April 1945 when Himmler, anxious to gain credibility with the Allies agreed for Count Bernadott of Sweden to evacuate selected concentration inmates to Malmo in neutral Sweden.Undertaken by the distinctive Swedish Red Cross White Buses, the inmates were bussed through Denmark and crossed the Kattegat to Malmo.

    It took 9 months in a sanatorium for Yvonne Baseden to recover from TB....the modest announcement of her death appeared in today's D.T along with a comprehensive obituary relating her work in the SOE.
     

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