Sunday, March 24, 2013

http://secretfire.wordpress.com/pearl-cornioley/
This blog post, the result of an interview that took place nine months before Pearl's death, is a very good one but its chief appeal in my opinion is the actual clip of Pearl's voice.

Saturday, March 23, 2013

A Dangerous Encounter . . . with the Resistance

One day Maurice said to me, “Some parachutists have just arrived; they have money for the network, go and collect it. Go to La Châtre, there’s no password, we don’t know anybody there and nobody knows you. Just in case there’s a problem, you can say that Robert sent you. Sort it out.”

I arrived at the address he had given me in La Châtre, it was a grocer’s shop and bistro. There was a lady behind the counter. I said,

“Good morning, is Monsieur Langlois in?”

“No, my husband’s away today.”

“I really need to see him. Money has arrived, on behalf of Robert I’ve come to collect it for our network.”

“Well he’s not here. I don’t know anything about it.”

“Can I come back later?”

“You can come back tomorrow.”

“No, I can’t come back tomorrow because I have to come by train from Montluçon.”  There were only three trains a week, so I couldn’t return until the day after.

Two days later, I returned to La Châtre from Montluçon. When I entered the bistro, I saw Madame Langlois’s expression and thought, “Oh dear, I’m in for trouble.” I sensed it immediately.  A man whom I had never seen before entered through a side door.

“Good morning, Madame.”

“Good morning, Monsieur.”

“I’m Robert, I don’t know you.”

“Indeed, well I don’t know you either.”

“Follow me.”

He led me up a spiral staircase into a room where I noticed a door ajar. He asked me to sit down and started interrogating me. We didn’t work for the same network, so he didn’t know any of the people I knew and vice versa. After a number of other questions I could not answer, I started to panic . . .

Excerpt from the English translation of Pearl Witherington's memoir, Code Name Pauline: Memoirs of a World War II Special Agent. Pearl's wartime exploits -- including the incident described above -- are also included in the British section of Women Heroes of World War II: 26 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Resistance, and Rescue.

"Expecting a man, not a woman."

"There wasn’t much I could do during those three weeks while waiting for my luggage but during that time Maurice introduced me to the young courier for the Auvergne network. Something quite funny happened when we met. I’m sure Maurice did it on purpose. He must have told him, “Tomorrow morning we have a meeting with an agent who has just arrived.” We met in Clermont-Ferrand park. You should have seen his expression when he saw me! On the spur of the moment I didn’t understand why. Later, when I was wondering why he looked so surprised to see me there, the penny dropped -- he must have been expecting a man, not a woman!"

Excerpt from Code Name Pauline: The Memoirs of a WWII Special Agent. Pearl is also featured in the British section of Women Heroes of World War II: 26 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Resistance, and Rescue.