Violette Szabo

The story of Violette Szabo is one of the most extraordinary in the annals of World War II espionage and covert operations. Totally fearless and a dead shot, Violette Szabo volunteered to become part of the Special Operations Executive, Britain's premier sabotage and subversion organization of the time. On 7 June 1944, Violette left behind a two-year-old daughter to parachute into France on a special mission.
Szabo and other British agents were assigned to organise French resistance fighters to hinder the advance of the SS Das Reich Division to the Normandy beaches. Unfortunately, Szabo's party was soon ambushed by the SS.
Unable to walk due to a twisted ankle, Szabo covered the retreat of her comrades with machine-gun fire. Captured, she went through a series of interrogations and changes of confinement before ending up at Ravensbruck, the German all-women's concentration camp. She was finally executed on 26 January 1945. She was twenty-three years old.
This exceptional work has been written with the assistance of Violette Szabo's daughter Tanya and unravels fact and fiction about one of the most fascinating characters of World War II.
Praise for Violette Szabo: the life that I have: ‘Ottaway confirms that she is a meticulous researcher and first-rate historian’ - Alliance Advocate ‘Extensive research and interviews with people who knew and worked with her have enabled the author to set out the facts and re-examine Violette's remarkable life’ - This England Susan Ottaway has had a lifelong enthusiasm for aeroplanes, books and twentieth century history. She worked for four different airlines over a period of twenty years, mainly in the UK but also in Germany and Australia, and wrote her first book, a biography of Wing Commander Guy Gibson VC, before leaving the world of aviation. She has since written seven more books including the acclaimed Fly with the Stars, a history of British South American Airways, with her brother and co-author Ian Ottaway, and the bestselling Sisters, Secrets and Sacrifice, the story of Jacqueline and Eileen Nearne, who were agents with the Special Operations Executive during the Second World War. She lives in Hampshire with Nick and their dog and three cats.