The White Lady: The Story of Two Key British Secret Service Networks Behind German Lines [Hardcover]

A major new history of the two most important British secret service networks in the First and Second World Wars
 
Intelligence gathering was essential to both sides in the First and Second World Wars. At the heart of MI6’s efforts were two key networks in Belgium. Agents in The White Lady acted as couriers, radio operators and spies to facilitate the end of German control. And, when war broke out again two decades later, the leaders of the network regrouped and established a successor: The Clarence Service.
 
Helen Fry charts the history of these pivotal intelligence networks. Drawing on recently declassified information, Fry examines who the agents were, how they were recruited, and how the intelligence they gathered directly impacted the outcome of both wars. Operators in the field sent over eight hundred radio messages to London and delivered more than a thousand reports, including groundbreaking information on Hitler’s secret weapon the V-1. This is a compelling account of the agents who risked their lives and found ingenious ways to smuggle intelligence out of occupied Belgium.There has not been a comprehensive history of the White Lady for 90 years. . . . Working from newly declassified archives in Brussels, Helen Fry [shines] overdue light on what she rightly describes as astonishing tales of selfless heroism from behind the German lines.James Owen,Times(UK)

A useful book in helping us understand these wars, and it is also a tribute to the bravery of those who risked everything.Vin Arthey,Scotsman

A thrilling account.Matt Nixon,Daily Express

It is not often that a writer is able to add to history rather than interpret it, but in her exploration of Belgian and Luxembourg archives Fry has done just that.Alan Judd,Spectator

Fry is sincere and gracious in her memorialising. . . . The credentials of the [Clarence Network] melÓ6