Madeleine Damerment

Madeleine Zoe Damerment (11 November 1917 – 13 September 1944) was a French agent of the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) organization during World War II.

The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, Sabotage, and reconnaissance in countries occupied by the Axis powers, especially Nazi Germany.

SOE agents allied themselves with resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England.

Damerment was first involved in escape lines helping downed allied airmen escape occupied France.

Damerment was born in Tortefontaine, Pas-de-Calais Department, France on 11 November 1917.

She was the second daughter of Charles Damerment, an official in the French Postal and Telegraph Service.

Her father was appointed Postmaster in Lille of the city's postmaster.

Her father got her a job as a clerk in the Post Office.

She was living in Lille when the Germans defeated and occupied France in summer 1940.

Following the occupation of France by the Germans, Damerment's family became actively involved with the French resistance.

Damerment worked as a courier on the clandestine Pat O'Leary escape line (Pat Line) set up by Albert Guérisse.

She helped downed British airmen and others to escape France to neutral Spain and hence to British Gibraltar or neutral Lisbon, Portugal from where they would be flown to Britain.

She helped an estimated 75 British airmen escape.

Damerment became engaged to Roland Lepers, a young man who guided escaping Allied airmen and French soldiers from Lille to Marseille, where the Pat Line was headquartered.

In May 1941, her parents were arrested by the Germans.

Although they were released, Damerment went underground.

An escape line worker, a former British soldier named Harold Cole, betrayed the Pat Line and many were arrested by the Germans.

She fled France in March 1942 to avoid arrest.

After arriving in Britain, she was recruited by the SOE.

Avoiding arrest, Damerment crossed the border illegally into Spain, reaching Barcelona along with Lepers on 10 March 1942.

She initially stayed in the home of Michael Cresswell, a British diplomat who was helping escapees from the Germans.

Spain was attempting to quell the influx of people fleeing the German occupation of most of Europe and Damerment was arrested on 24 April and incarcerated until 30 May, when the British Embassy secured her release.

She was then driven to Lisbon in a British Embassy automobile and flown to Britain by the British on 27 June 1942.

Lepers also reached Britain, but he broke off his engagement with Damerment.

She recuperated from an illness at a Catholic convent and became a French teacher.

Damerment's undercover experience with the escape lines and her knowledge of France made her attractive to SOE, which was in search of qualified personnel to serve as agents in France.

She was recruited and volunteered to work with the SOE.

She was given the cover name Martine Dussautoy and commissioned as an ensign in the FANY.

Sent to Scotland for paramilitary training, Captain Dixon-Robertson, her signals instructor at Inverie (STS 24), determined that, only being considered fair for sending and receiving messages, she was unsuitable for work as a wireless operator.

However, Captain Smith reported that, for physical training, Damerment was a "keen and hard worker with good stamina."

Damerment had a good grasp of the principles of close combat, worked well and was aggressive.

For rope work, she was reported to have fair muscular strength and good co-ordination, but required more practice.

She worked well and showed keenness in fieldcraft, although she found the theoretical side difficult.

For weapons training, Damerment was reported to have improved and was "now a fair shot with pistol and carbine, but is lacking in aggressiveness."

She was very good at explosives and demolitions, both in theoretical and practical work, as she was reportedly "extremely keen" and made up "splendid charges", and was very good at writing route reports, being "accurate and painstaking".

For schemes and tactics, Damerment was considered to have been a "very hard-working member of a band on all schemes and has a good knowledge of tactics as well as a fund of common sense."

She was not very interested in boat work but "worked well and acquired a fair knowledge for elementary small boat handling and of knots."

Damerment was to be a courier for SOE's Bricklayer circuit but was captured by the Gestapo on 29 February 1944 upon arrival in France.

The Gestapo knew she was coming because they had captured SOE radios and were reading SOE radio messages.

She was subsequently executed at the Dachau concentration camp on 13 September 1944 along with three other female SOE agents.