SOE Work
In early March 1943, she received an invitation to a preliminary interview with an officer of SOE F Section, and on 18 March began her training. On 16 June 1943 she was flown to a location north-east of Angers, in the Loire Valley, in occupied France with fellow-agents Noor Inayat Khan and Cecily Lefort, where they were met by Henri Dericourt, the air movements officer for F section. From there, she made her way to St. Amour where she was assigned to the Acrobat network, led by John Renshaw Starr.
Her duties included acting as a courier, delivering messages to other agents and members of the underground in Marseille, Lyon, and Paris. She also helped agent Harry Rée plan the destruction of the Peugeot factory at Sochaux, where tank turrets and aircraft engine parts were made. A month after Rowden's arrival, network leader Starr was arrested. Rowden and wireless operator John Young took refuge with a French family at the village of Clairvaux-les-Lacs, near Lons-le-Saunier.
Read more about this topic: Diana Rowden
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