CARVE HER NAME WITH PRIDE (Pen & Sword Military Classics) [Paperback]

RJ Minney (Author)

Book Description

Series: Pen & Sword Military Classics | Publication Date: June 2008

Carve Her Name With Pride is the inspiring story of the half-French Violette Szabo who was born in Paris Iin 1921 to an English motor-car dealer, and a French Mother. She met and married Etienne Szabo, a Captain in the French Foreign Legion in 1940. Shortly after the birth of her daughter, Tania, her husband died at El Alamein. She became a FANY (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry) and was recruited into the SOE and underwent secret agent training. Her first trip to France was completed successfully even though she was arrested and then released by the French Police.

On June 7th, 1944, Szabo was parachuted into Limoges. Her task was to co-ordinate the work of the French Resistance in the area in the first days after D-Day. She was captured by the SS 'Das Reich' Panzer Division and handed over to the Gestapo in Paris for interrogation. From Paris, Violette Szabo was sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp where she was executed in January 1945. She was only 23 and for her courage was posthumously awarded The George Cross and the Croix de Guerre.

Product Details

• Paperback: 188 pages
• Publisher: Pen and Sword (June 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1844154416
• ISBN-13: 978-1844154418
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,392,300 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic WWII spy story, May 12, 2007

By 

Jane Mcgann "Nubeena" (Ohio USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: CARVE HER NAME WITH PRIDE (Pen & Sword Military Classics) (Paperback)

I first read a "children's" edition of this when I was about 11, and was so taken by it that for years I searched for an unabridged version. Sadly, it was out of print for years; now Pen and Sword Military Classics have published the unabridged version, and it was well worth the (decades-long) wait.
Violette Szabo, French-born of British and French parents, and living in London during WWII, joined the SOE (Special Operations Executive) in 1943, after the death of her French Foreign Legion husband and the birth of their daughter. She underwent rigorous secret agent training and was eventually sent into France in support of various French Resistance groups. Her second operation saw her parachuted into Limoges on June 7th, 1944 (D-Day +1), where she was to co-ordinate various Resistance work in the area.
Szabo and her Resistance liaison were ambushed and she was eventually captured, although not until she had secured the escape of the Resistance liaison. She was initially interrogated in Limoges, and was then sent to Gestapo HQ in Paris for further interrogation and torture. From Paris, Szabo was sent to Ravensbruck, where she and several other English spies were eventually executed, possibly to avoid the prospect of these women implicating the Ravensbruck command structure in systematic torture of prisoners. Szabo was twenty-three at the time of her death. She was posthumously awarded the George Cross and the Croix de Guerre.
Notwithstanding the somewhat more formal biographical style of the 1950's, R.J. Minney reconstructs and recreates with elan the short and intense life of Violette Szabo. This is an extraordinary tale of courage and deserves to be widely read.