Code Name Verity(86)

I was too mad this time to think of Dorothy at the end of The Wizard of Oz. I gave the poor Rosalie such a kick in the front mudguard that I made a dent in it with my wooden clog. Everyone was shocked. Apparently I’ve got a reputation for being quiet and a bit weepy – in a word, they think I’m gormless.

Paul again, explaining: ‘They couldn’t have waited – it’s so late now it’ll be daylight by the time they get back to England. They couldn’t risk being caught over France in daylight.’

Then I felt dead selfish and bossy and mean, and tried to apologise to Papa Thibaut’s mate, in my rubbish French, for denting his fender.

‘No, no, it is I who must thank you, Mademoiselle –’ says he, in French ‘– for you have mended my choke!’ And he held the door open for me gallantly. No suggestion that he had wasted yet another night risking his life for an ungrateful foreigner who would never be able to repay him – the Aerodrome Drop-Off Principle taken to extremes.

‘Merci beaucoup, je suis désolée –’ Thank you so much, I’m sorry, I’m sorry – seems like I’m always saying ‘Thank you, I’m sorry.’

One of the reception committee stuck his head into the car after me. ‘The Scottish airman said to give you these.’

Jamie left me his boots.

True to my reputation for gormlessness I blubbed most of the way back to Ormaie. But at least my feet were warm.





Penn’s found her. Georgia Penn’s FOUND HER! Julie disappeared 13 Oct. and Penn talked to her yesterday, 19 Nov. NEARLY SIX WEEKS.

I don’t recognise any of my emotions any more. There’s no such thing as plain joy or grief. It’s horror and relief and panic and gratitude all jumbled together. Julie’s alive – she’s still in Ormaie – she’s in one piece, in her usual battle gear, every elegant hair swept neatly into place 2 inches above her collar, she’s even still managing to do her blooming nails somehow.

But she is a prisoner. They caught her almost immediately. She looked the wrong way before crossing the street, typical Julie. Oh – I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry. So fed up with crying all the time, but too upset to laugh. If she’d had the right ID on her when they first questioned her she might have got away with it. She didn’t stand a chance without ID.

Miss Penn had asked if she could interview an English-speaker and they got to talk face to face, under guard, and Penn verified Julie by her code name. She wasn’t told Julie’s real name. Don’t know what excuse they gave, Penn came away fairly well convinced the whole interview set-up was a complete sham, and Julie herself was being kept on a tight rein somehow. Invisible, but there. I suppose Julie knew that if she stepped out of line they’d silence Penn too – I know Julie would never risk that. She didn’t even go against orders and say her name, all information was passed in hints and code words. The captain and slave-girl were both there, and one or two others, and they all sat around drinking cognac – except the slave-girl of course! – in the captain’s dead swanky office where Julie has been temporarily put to work as a translator. So in fact she’s actually doing what she was sent here to do!

No name given, no military service or rank mentioned – she introduced herself to Penn as a wireless operator. She has told the Nazis she’s a wireless operator. MADNESS – that’s not why she’s here and so now they’ve gone to a lot of effort to get code out of her – Penn hadn’t any doubt they’d got code out of her, must be obsolete or invented, but definitely something they can try to work with. Penn thinks that’s exactly why she told them she was a w/op – they call it W/T in SOE, wireless telegraphist: so she could give them code. It’s more common for a girl in SOE to land in France as a courier, but if Julie had told them she was a courier they’d have grilled her about her circuit – obsolete code is safer to betray, I suppose, than real live people. And it’s straight truth in terms of Julie’s original training and her WAAF commission, and it goes along with the pictures they took at the crash site, which they’ve certainly shown her by now. As long as they’re focused on her non-existent wireless activities they won’t ask her about Operation Blow-Up-the-Ormaie-Gestapo-HQ or whatever it’s really called.

Penn was shown only a few of the administrative offices and an empty dorm room with 4 tidy beds in it – no contact with any other prisoners and no sign of the conditions they’re kept in. Julie gave her some clues. She said