Dr. Kate Vigurs

A Talk by Dr. Kate Vigurs

Signals intelligence (SIGINT) played a pivotal role in WWII but while the technological achievements are well documented the agents whose missions - and lives - depended on it get overlooked.

Britain’s Special Operations Executive was one of the War’s best-known clandestine forces and France its largest operation. Historian Dr Kate Vigurs in her new book - Mission France: The True Story of the Women of SOE - collects the interconnected stories of 39 of these secret agents for the first time: women selected from all walks of life who risked betrayal and death for freedom.

Kate joins us on June 23 to discuss her book, which is based on new research and interviews. In her talk at TNMOC she will:

• Introduce us to the housewives, shop assistants and countesses who learned vital new skills in such fields as radio and communications, instinctive shooting and survival.

• Discuss the dangers faced of landing alone by parachute, boat or aircraft to work in enemy occupied France where they led double lives as wireless operators or couriers.

• Describe the missions, the steps the Germans took to shut down radio transmissions and the risks agents faced - from capture by the Gestapo to death.

• Examine the pivotal role these daring women played preparing for D-Day, history’s largest amphibious invasion.

You can join Kate in person at our museum on June 23 (please select Museum ticket) or book to watch her presentation live online (please select Online ticket).