Cormeau, Yvonne Beatrice (Oral history)

British officer served with Women's Auxiliary Air Force as wireless operator with F Section, Special Operations Executive in GB, 1943 and with Wheelwright Circuit, F Section, Special Operations Executive in France, 8/1943-9/1944

REEL 1 Background and education in China, France and GB, 1909-1939: languages spoken; employment as barrister's secretary; death of husband Rifleman Charles Cormeau on leave from Rifle Brigade during German Air Force's bombing of family home in London, 24/11/1940; reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; joining Women's Auxiliary Air Force; background to recruitment to Special Operations Executive, 1943. Recollections of recruitment and training with Special Operations Executive in GB, 1943-1944: recruitment interview with Selwyn Jepson; selection as wireless operator; personal temperament; training at STS 5, Wanborough Manor including coding and decoding, jamming, radio repairs, extra lessons in atmospherics; codes used including Playfair; story of hiding weapon in French countryside; question of advice on living and operating in France during training; false identity; importance of low grade paper for identity card; cover stories as nanny, district nurse and cow hand. REEL 2 Continues: story of being sacked as cow hand. Recollections of period as wireless operator with Wheelwright Circuit, F Section, Special Operations Executive in France, 8/1943-9/1944: parachute drop into Saint-Antoine-du-Queyret, 22/8/1943; clothing worn for parachute drop; reception committee; hiding parachute jump suit, meeting with leader of Wheelwright Circuit, George Starr, codenamed 'Hilaire' and his request for radio operator; opinion of George Starr; hiding radio set in grape barrel; messages transmitted to GB; dropping zones; unsuccessful drops of wireless sets; capture of reception committee member; question of personal security; primitive conditions; reaction to lifestyle; attitudes of French civilians. REEL 3 Continues: opinion of reasons for civilian collaboration; attitudes among French Resistance movement; receiving additional members to circuit, 1944; role of couriers; opinion of calibre of German forces in Gironde and Pyrenees areas; question of Gestapo presence; local Gestapo headquarters at Montrejeau and Auch; fear of French collaborators in Milice; question of betrayal of reception committee and circuit by agent 'Rodolph'; sight of 'Wanted!' posters for herself and George Starr at Saint-Antoine-du-Queyret, 9/1943; splitting up from George Starr; lying low; period finding suitable operation and reception fields; receiving messages from British Broadcasting Corporation; use of Greenwich Mean Time; weather conditions; civilian morale, effects of German propaganda, winter 1943/1944; effects on morale of British Broadcasting Corporation's output; sabotage plans in preparation for D-Day; aspects of operations including involvement in pre-D-Day disinformation and deception; French civilian reaction to collaborators after D-Day, 6/1944; increase in operations after spring 1944. REEL 4 Continues: preparation of reception fields; actions of reception committees; receiving confirmation of Allied invasion of Normandy, D-Day, 6/ 6/1944; concealing weapons beneath beehives; cleaning and preparing weapons; intensification of activities nearing D-Day; move to safer transmission site; formation of and fighting of resistance unit; collection of other Special Operations Executive members approaching Toulouse; transmitting from barracks in Toulouse; George Starr's reaction to orders from General Charles de Gaulle to leave Toulouse; searching with George Starr for civilians in need of aid, 25/9/1944; story of being stopped and questioned by German Army troops, 6/1944. REEL 5 Continues: question of use of term, Maquis; question of personal attitudes towards risk of capture, torture and taking suicide pill.