This is the story of Pearl (Marie / Pauline) Witherington
who was a British agent working with the French Resistance during the Second
World War. She was parachuted into Occupied France on 22nd September
1943, and lived by her wits till she returned to London at the end of the war
on 20th October 1945.
Pearl grew up in Paris, and had not only an innate
understanding of the French people and language, but also through having to cope with
very dysfunctional parents had learnt valuable survival skills which prepared
her for her role as a secret agent. She had
also fallen in love with her neighbour, Henri Cornioley, and was motivated to
return to France under any pretext to fight beside him against the Occupation.
As it turned out Pearl did more that – she was made circuit
commander of one of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) networks with more
than 500 maquisards (Resistance fighters) under her command. The appointment of
a ‘foreigner’ and a woman raised a lot of eye-brows amongst the locals, but
Pearl was tall, pretty and got things done. Henri became her lieutenant, though
he almost uncovered the whole operation by foolishly blowing their cover when a
German patrol, keen to arrest Pearl, appeared at the chateau they were using for
their operations. Henri fired a shot hoping to find out if the approaching men
were Germans or maquisards! Despite his shortcomings, Pearl did marry her
childhood sweetheart and they were able to bring up their daughter, Claire, in
more peaceful circumstances.
According to the details of this account of Pearl’s war efforts
there is no question that her work was heroic and courageous, as she succeeded
in baffling the enemy and commanding a divided group of maquisards, in particular
in the support of the D-Day invasion. As recognition, Pearl was awarded a civil
MBE, as opposed a Military Cross, which she refused to accept. She quite
rightly claimed that there was nothing civil about what she did: ‘I was
personally responsible for the training and organisation of 3000 men for
sabotage and guerrilla warfare.’ She continued to dispute the discrimination
against women at the time not to be recognised for military achievements, and
was awarded a CBE in 2004. Finally, her proudest moment was to be presented
with her parachute wings, by which time she was living in a retirement home, reminiscing
her brave maquisards and the battles of 1944.
Despite the beautifully romantic title of this book, the actual
story is rather drawn out and verging on the tedious in some parts. It is
constantly morphing from a thrilling narrative to an indiscriminate detailed historical
account, bombarding the reader with information that is often superfluous to
the main story. An excellent eye-opener to the lives, events and day-to-day
concerns of those living through the Occupation, but it could have been
half the length and twice as gripping.
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