Advent Calendar - 6th December 2024 - Noor Inayat Khan

Noor-Un-Nissa Inayat Khan, also known as Noor Inayat Khan, Nora Baker or Madeline as was her codename, was to be the first female Special Operations Executive wireless operator to be dropped into occupied France during the Second World War.

Noor was born in Russia in 1914. Her father, Inayat Khan was from India and came from a family of Indian Muslims with hereditary nobles and classical musicians among both sides of his ancestors. Inayat Khan's great-great-grandfather was Tipu Sultan the ruler of Mysore. Noor’s mother, Pirani Ameena Begum, was an American.

Shortly before the outbreak of the First World War, the family left Russia, destined for London and settling in Bloomsbury. Six years later they moved to Paris. After the death of her father in 1927, Noor had to grow up fast, evolving from a quiet child to protector of her siblings and carer for her grief stricken mother. Through her studies and talents, Noor was to become an accomplished musician and writer.

When France fell to the Nazis in May 1940, the family fled to Bordeaux and then boarded a ship to Cornwall, UK.

Noor was to write:

"I wish some Indians would win high military distinction in this war. If one or two could do something in the Allied service which was very brave and which everybody admired it would help to make a bridge between the English people and the Indians."

She was compelled to do something for the war effort, and in November 1940, she joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) as an Aircraftwoman 2nd Class. She was sent for training as a wireless operator. Upon assignment to a bomber training school in June 1941, she applied for a commission in a bid to do more and relieve the boredom!

Noor was recruited to join F (France) Section of the Special Operations Executive; and in early February 1943 she was posted to the Air Ministry, Directorate of Air Intelligence, seconded to First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY). She was sent to Wanborough Manor, near Guildford in Surrey, after which she was ordered to Aylesbury, in Buckinghamshire, for special training as a wireless operator in occupied territory. Having had previous wireless telegraphy training, Noor had an edge on others just starting out and proved to be both fast and accurate.

The ultimate training exercise however, was the mock Gestapo interrogation, intended to give agents a taste of what might be in store for them if they were captured. The report into this part of her training was fairly damning, "she seemed terrified … so overwhelmed she nearly lost her voice", and that afterwards, "she was trembling and quite blanched. Her final report read: "Not overburdened with brains but has worked hard and shown keenness, apart from some dislike of the security side of the course. She has an unstable and temperamental personality and it is very doubtful whether she is really suited to work in the field." Next to this comment, Maurice Buckmaster, the head of F Section, had written in the margin "Nonsense" and that "We don't want them overburdened with brains."

Noor's superiors held mixed opinions on her suitability for clandestine work and her training was cut short due to the need to get agents out in the field as soon as possible. Her physical exercise field reports were also far from top marks, notes including "Can run very well but otherwise clumsy. Unsuitable for jumping", and "Pretty scared of weapons but tries hard to get over it." As the time came for a final assessment on Noor’s suitablitie’s, the intelligence officer for F Section, Vera Atkins, insisted Noor's commitment was unquestioned.

Noor's work was to be one of the most dangerous jobs going. The wireless operator was the linchpin of a resistance group, receiving and transmitted messages between London and in the field. Without such communication it was almost impossible for any resistance strategy to be co-ordinated - nothing would happen without her.

Hiding themselves as best they could, with aerials strung up in attics or disguised as washing lines, they tapped out Morse on the key of transmitters, and would often wait alone for hours for a reply saying the messages had been received. If they stayed on the air transmitting for more than 20 minutes, their signals were likely to be picked up by the enemy, and detection vans would trace the source of these suspect signals. When the operator moved location, the bulky transmitter had to be carried, sometimes concealed in a suitcase or in a bundle of firewood. If stopped and searched, the operator would have no cover story to explain the transmitter. In 1943, an operator's life expectancy was six weeks.

Just before Noor was to leave for France, Atkins was told that she may not be up for the mission, but Noor was adamant, she was happy to go. The core issues was saying goodbye to her mother. Atkins asked if there was anything she could do to help with family matters. Noor said that, should she go missing, she would like Atkins to avoid worrying her mother as far as possible. The normal procedure, as Noor knew, was that when an agent went to the field, Vera would send out a periodic "good news" letters to the family, letting them know the person concerned was well. If the agent went missing, the family would be told so. What Noor was suggesting was that bad news should be broken to her mother only if it was beyond any doubt that she was dead. Atkins said she would agree to this arrangement if it was what she wanted. With this assurance Noor seemed content and confident once more.

Promoted to Assistant Section Officer (the WAAF equivalent of RAF pilot officer), Noor was to fly into France by Lysander and make her way to Paris to link up with the leader of a Prosper sub-circuit named Emile Garry. Once on the ground Noor would make contact with the Prosper circuit organizer, Francis Suttill, and take on her new persona as a children's nurse, "Jeanne-Marie Renier", using fake papers in that name. To her SOE colleagues, however, she would be known simply as "Madeleine".

From 24 June 1943 the 'Prosper' network that Noor had been sent to be a radio operator for began to be rounded up by the Germans. Noor remained in radio contact with London. When Buckmaster told her she would be flown home, she told him she would prefer to remain, as she believed she was the only radio operator remaining in Paris. Buckmaster agreed to this, though she was told only to receive signals, not to transmit.

Noor Inayat Khan was betrayed to the Germans, possibly by Renée Garry. Garry was the sister of Émile Henri Garry, the head agent of the 'Cinema' and 'Phono' circuits, and Inayat Khan's organiser in the Cinema network.

Renée Garry was allegedly paid 100,000 francs (some sources state 500 pounds). Her actions have been attributed at least partially to Garry's suspicion that she had lost the affections of SOE agent France Antelme to Noor. After the war, she was tried but escaped conviction by one vote. On or around 13 October 1943, Noor was arrested and interrogated at the SD Headquarters at 84 Avenue Foch in Paris. During that time, she attempted escape twice.

Noor did not talk about her activities under interrogation but the SD found her notebooks. Contrary to security regulations, Noor had copied out all the messages she had sent as an SOE operative (this may have been due to her misunderstanding what a reference to filing meant in her orders, and also the truncated nature of her security course due to the need to insert her into France as soon as possible). Although Noor refused to reveal any secret codes, the Germans gained enough information from them to continue sending false messages imitating her.

Some claim London failed to properly investigate anomalies which would have indicated the transmissions were sent under enemy control, in particular the change in the 'fist' (the style of her type)

As a result, however, three more agents sent to France were captured by the Germans at their parachute landing. Colonel Maurice Buckmaster ignored the message as unreliable because he did not know who Olschanezky was. As a result, German transmissions from Noor's radio continued to be treated as genuine, leading to the unnecessary deaths of SOE agents, including Olschanezky herself, who was executed at Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp on 6 July 1944.

On 25 November 1943, Noor escaped from the SD Headquarters, along with fellow SOE agent John Renshaw Starr and resistance leader Léon Faye, but was recaptured in the vicinity. There was an air raid alert as they escaped across the roof. Regulations required a count of prisoners at such times and their escape was discovered before they could get away. After refusing to sign a declaration renouncing future escape attempts, Noor was taken Pforzheim for ten months. She gave nothing away, but she scratched messages on the base of her mess cup, informing her inmates of her identity, giving the name of Nora Baker and the London address of her mother's house.

On 12 September 1944, Noor Inayat Khan was transferred to Dachau concentration camp along with three fellow agents. At dawn on the following morning the four women were executed.

George Cross and Ribbon bar.

The announcement of the award of the George Cross was made in the London Gazette of 5 April 1949 and gives us a much better understating of what Noor endured,

The KING has been graciously pleased to approve the posthumous award of the GEORGE CROSS to:— Assistant Section Officer Nora INAYAT-KHAN (9901), Women's Auxiliary Air Force.
Assistant Section Officer Nora INAYAT-KHAN was the first woman operator to be infiltrated into enemy occupied France, and she was landed by Lysander aircraft on 16th June, 1943. During the weeks immediately following her arrival, the Gestapo made mass arrests in the Paris Resistance groups to which she had been detailed. However, she refused to abandon what had become the principal and most dangerous post in France, even though she had been given the opportunity to return to England, because she did not want to leave her French comrades without communications and she also hoped to rebuild her group. Therefore, she remained at her post and did the excellent work which earned her a posthumous Mention in Despatches.
The Gestapo had a full description of her, but it only knew her code name "Madeleine". It deployed considerable forces in its effort to catch her and break the last remaining link with London. After 3 months, she was betrayed to the Gestapo and taken to its H.Q. in the Avenue Foch. The Gestapo had found her codes and messages and as a result, it was now in a position to work back to London. It asked her to co-operate, but she refused and gave it no information of any kind. She was imprisoned in one of the cells on the 5th floor of the Gestapo H.Q. and she remained there for several weeks during which time she made two unsuccessful attempts to escape. She was asked to sign a declaration which stated that she would make no further escape attempts, but she refused to sign it and the Chief of the Gestapo obtained permission to send her to Germany for "safe custody" from Berlin. She was the first enemy agent to be sent to Germany.
Assistant Section Officer INAYAT-KHAN was sent to Karlsruhe in November 1943, and then she was sent to Pforzheim where her cell was apart from the main prison. She was considered a particularly dangerous and uncooperative prisoner. The Director of the prison was also interrogated and confirmed that Assistant Section Officer INAYAT-KHAN refused to give any information whatsoever, either about her work or her colleagues when she was interrogated by the Karlsruhe Gestapo.
She was taken to the Dachau Concentration Camp with three other female prisoners on 12 September 1944. On her arrival, she was taken to the crematorium and shot.
Assistant Section Officer INAYAT-KHAN displayed the most conspicuous courage, both moral and physical over a period of more than 12 months.

Noor is such a deserving figure in our 2024 advent calendar. She chose one of the most dangerous jobs and when offered a way out, she said no. When she was offered an escape route, she declined, as there was no one else to do the job. She paid the ultimate. We must never forget her name, her work, her dedicated.