The Spy Who Loved: the secrets and lives of one of Britain's bravest wartime heroines

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However, due to being suspected of treason, she and Kowerski were not involved in any important espionage operations during that period. Both Krystyna and Andrzej were released after suspicions that they were suffering from tuberculosis which is extremely contagious.

With the assistance of a Belgian liaison as well as a bribe of two million francs, Christine was able to secure their release: Cammaerts and the two fellow agents walked free. Christine adopted her code name as her own but faced rejection for various military positions, leaving her to work menial jobs. I understand from Major Wilkinson of SOE that General Kopański [Kowerski's former commander in Poland] is doubtful about Kowerski's loyalty to the Polish cause [because] Kowerski has not reported to General Kopański for duty with the Brigade.

So too those women who risked their lives for the SOE, working as radio operators with an expected life expectancy behind enemy lines of just six weeks.

Digne was liberated by the American army two days after Skarbek rescued Cammaerts, Fielding, and Sorensen.Maria Krystyna Janina Skarbek is to be noted here too, who joined the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) and was lauded for her daring exploits as a spy, infiltrating Nazi occupied areas. The Spy Who Loved', (Macmillan, 2012) looks at the secretss and lives of Krystyna Skarbek, aka Christine Granville, the first woman to work for Britain as a special agent the war. Steward Dennis Muldowney protected Skarbek from the rest of the unfriendly crew, but eventually also fell obsessively in love with her.

Christine Granville, one of Special Operations Executive’s most successful female agents, was all set for one last mission to Poland.Amongst her many adventures she took the surrender of a German garrison persuading the polish conscripts there to join her; she tamed a man-hunting German soldier’s Alsatian dog which also switched sides under her spell and wouldn’t leave her side; perhaps most famously she marched into the Gestapo headquarters alone, despite the enormous bounty on her head and demanded the release of Francis Cammaerts and Xan Fielding who had been captured and were due to be executed that afternoon. At one point, she was issued a loaded revolver, a razor-edged commando knife, a compass hidden behind her hair clip, a magnifying glass in the end of a cigarette lighter, and a round, brown, rubber-coated cyanide tablet sewn into the hem of her skirt. Churchill recruited the young bride into Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE), the first female British agent to serve in the field and the longest-serving of all Britain's wartime women agents. Skarbek had promised Waem he would not be arrested by the British, and battled with SOE leaders with some success to protect him. Increasingly alarmed by the thought of what might befall him when the Allies and the Resistance decided to avenge the many murders he had committed, Waem struck the butt end of his revolver on the table and said, 'If I do get them out of prison, what will you do to protect me?

Skarbek managed to meet with Captain Albert Schenck, an Alsatian who acted as liaison officer between the local French prefecture and the Gestapo.In 1941 the Gestapo arrested them in Hungary and, following a lengthy interrogation, Christine reportedly bit her tongue so she appeared to cough up blood. On 15th June 1952, Christine left her hotel room ready to embark on a trip with her long-time lover Kowerski. She got into the automobile without a nod of recognition and they thought that she too was a prisoner.