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CHRISTINE: A SEARCH FOR CHRISTINE GRANVILLE PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Madeleine Masson | 352 pages | 01 Sep 2006 | Little, Brown Book Group | 9781844082384 | English | London, United Kingdom Read Christine : Search for Christine Granville, G.M., O.B.E., Croix de Guerre - warafdegi’s diary Their love affair only seemed to strengthen their dedication to their work, but things were becoming difficult. Krystyna was running out of money, communications with London were difficult and their work was becoming more dangerous every day. Kowerski hardly had time to sleep, but steeled himself to drive thousands of kilometres in his trusty Opel saloon to smuggle Polish airmen — now desperately needed to replace pilots lost during the Battle of Britain — into Yugoslavia. He had also become well known to the Hungarian police and their Gestapo counterparts, who stepped up surveillance of his movements. Despite their devotion to the cause and each other, they could not hope to carry on for much longer. The inevitable police raid came in the early hours of 24 January After several fruitless hours of interrogation the Gestapo were anxious to use more brutal methods of questioning, but Krystyna was able to interrupt the investigation by playing on her recent illness. Biting her tongue hard, she gave the impression that she was coughing up blood and might be suffering from TB. He obliged and issued them with new passports, but they first would need British names to go with them. Over the coming days they had to endure horrendous driving conditions and suspicious border guards but they eventually reached Istanbul in neutral Turkey, where the British consulate welcomed them. Christine made an unusual proposal to keep their work going in Budapest. Christine asked London to consider sending him over, and he arrived in Istanbul in March. She had no doubt that Gizycki was the right man to take their place, and although she knew their marriage was dead she mentioned nothing of her relationship with Andrew. Unfortunately by the time he reached Budapest he barely had time to do anything: under pressure from Hitler, Hungarian troops were about to support the Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia and British diplomatic relations were broken off. This meant that SOE could not send either Christine or Andrew back to the Balkans, and Polish section officer Peter Wilkinson had the unenviable job of breaking the news. Having just arrived himself after a difficult journey from Crete, Wilkinson was blunt to the point of rudeness something he later regretted then took the precaution of putting both of them under surveillance, which Andrew soon found out about. Having put their lives on the line for their country, they were now suspected of being Gestapo spies. Gizycki, now back in Cairo after an exhausting journey via Russia and Iran, was furious at their treatment. Gizycki was even more distraught after Christine reluctantly broke more bad news, telling him that she wanted a separation. Bruised and embittered, he accepted a gratuity from the British government and later emigrated to Canada. Christine was at a loose end in Cairo. She turned down the offer to become a cipher clerk — it seemed too much like office work — but took a wireless operator course, thinking it would be useful skill if another mission came her way. Meanwhile Andrew parted company and became a parachute instructor for SOE recruits despite his wooden leg he insisted on jumping with every group. By , Cairo had become a gilded cage. Like many of her class in Poland Christine spoke near perfect French and having wireless skills too made her a natural choice. Her codename would be Pauline. She parachuted near Vassieux in the Vercors region in the early hours of 7 July. The landing left her bruised and had smashed of the butt of her revolver, but that was no great loss. Weeks before the people of the Vercors had defied the Nazi occupiers and proudly declared their territory a new French republic, but more than 10, well equipped enemy troops were about to sweep into the area and reclaim it. Despite desperate pleas for help London failed to come to their aid, and Christine and Francis narrowly escaped the terrible massacre that followed by hiking their way out, covering 70 miles in just 24 hours. A day later Christine was off to the Italian border. Groups of Poles reluctantly pressed into German service were garrisoned at frontier posts overlooking the winding Alpine passes, and her job would be to persuade them to change sides and hand over their arms. One of her victories was the fort at Col de Larche, a foot high stronghold surrounded by dense larch forests. With maquis commanders reluctant to attempt a rescue, she immediately cycled 40 kilometres to the Gestapo HQ and presented herself to Albert Schenck, a French liaison officer working with the Germans. It was a desperate gamble, but amazingly it paid off. French and US troops landed on the Riviera as predicted, and Schenck hurriedly arranged a meeting with Max Waem, a Belgian interpreter working for the Gestapo. The money was dropped by air and the next day Waem drove Francis and his bewildered companions out of the prison, just hours ahead of their scheduled execution. After passing a roadblock they recognised Christine waiting for them by the roadside, and Waem was allowed to make his escape as agreed. But the war was not yet over for Christine. The first team, codenamed Freston, arrived on 27 December but it was overrun by Soviet forces in January, and all other missions were cancelled. Returning to Cairo she took a job at Middle East headquarters, and after some discussion SOE agreed to continue paying her until December , just before it was due to disband itself. Alone and with no work prospects, she now faced an uncertain future. Christine discovered that her mother had died in prison after being arrested by the Nazis, and with Poland under Russian occupation she knew she could not return home. Now stateless, she had no trouble finding referees to support her application for naturalisation but the Home Office ignored her extraordinary service record and she only became a British citizen in December Christine Granville, O. Said to have been Churchill's "favorite spy," her exploits in Poland, Hungary, and France were legendary, even in her lifetime. As an agent of the Special Operations Executive, Christine-the first woman to be dropped into France from Algiers-landed in the Vercors in , where as "Pauline Armand," she performed with tremendous valor. Christine is the thrilling tale of a fearless woman ready to die for freedom. That's when I discovered this book at the library. It was originally written in I wondered how dry the writing might be but this true story is told in a very lively fashion. Her operations took her to Poland, Hungary and France and at the end of the war was awarded the the French Croix de Guerre medal, as well as the British George Cross , and she was appointed the Order of the British Empire. Christine by Madeleine Masson | Waterstones The British considered sending Skarbek back to Hungary or to Poland itself, missions that were rejected because they were considered too likely to result in her death, although she herself was willing to undertake them. Finally, in July of , she parachuted into southern France. Her mission was to assist French resistance fighters in advance of the American ground invasion of southern France at the end of the summer. The sangfroid of the new agent, code-named Pauline Armand, quickly became legendary among British intelligence agents. One day she was stopped near the Italian border by two German soldiers. Told to put her hands in the air she did so, revealing a grenade under each arm, pin withdrawn. When she threatened to drop them, killing all three of the group, the German soldiers fled. On another occasion she dived into a thicket to evade a German patrol, only to find herself face to face with a large Alsatian hound. She managed to quiet the dog while making noises suggesting to the Germans that they themselves were about to be ambushed, and she took advantage of the confusion to escape another close call. Skarbek's most celebrated exploit was her rescue of her chief, Resistance leader Francis Cammaerts, who had been imprisoned by the Gestapo along with agent Xan Fielding. Skarbek first located Cammaerts by walking around the prison walls singing the American blues ballad "Frankie and Johnny," which they both knew; after some time, she heard Cammaerts singing along with her quietly. Then she convinced the police holding Cammaerts that she was his wife and managed to make contact with him in the prison. Finally, she identified herself as a British agent and said that she was the niece of a British General Montgomery, who was on his way to participate in the Allied invasion. She threatened Cammaerts's captors with reprisals if he and his agent were harmed, and demanded that she be allowed to negotiate the release of the British agents. Through a Belgian liaison, she secured an agreement that they would be freed in exchange for a ransom of two million francs, dropped by the SOE within 24 hours by parachute. Cammaerts and two other British prisoners were awakened the next morning and herded toward a car, convinced that they were about to be executed. But Skarbek, who could at any point during this process have been taken to a concentration camp like many other SOE agents, was waiting inside the car. After the war ended and her five months' of severance half-salary from the SOE ran out, however, Skarbek found it difficult to adapt to civilian life.