Danielle Georgette Reddé

Danielle Georgette Reddé

MBE
Born(1911-10-07)7 October 1911
Châtillon-sur-Seine, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France
Died16 July 2007(2007-07-16) (aged 95)
Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France
Allegiance France
BranchFrench Resistance
Bureau central de renseignements et d'action
Direction générale des études et recherches
Special Operations Executive
Service number17213
Known forParachuting into occupied France and Indochina
AwardsBritish Empire Medal (United Kingdom)
Colonial Medal
Combatant's Cross
Commemorative medal for voluntary service in Free France
Croix de Guerre (Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 and Croix de guerre des théâtres d'opérations extérieures)
Escapees' Medal
Légion d’Honneur
Médaille militaire
Order of the Million Elephants and the White Parasol (Kingdom of Laos)
Resistance Medal
SpouseCharles de Mourgues (m.1958)
Children3

Danielle Georgette Reddé MBE (7 October 1911 – 16 July 2007), alias Camille Fournier or Édith Daniel, was a French resistance member during World War II. She was awarded medals including the British Empire Medal, Croix de Guerre, Escapees' Medal, Légion d’Honneur and Resistance Medal for her service.

Early life

Reddé was born on 7 October 1911 in Châtillon-sur-Seine in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France.[1] She worked as a typist, then at the Postes, Télégraphes et Téléphones service from 1932, assigned to Dijon and Lyon.[2]

Military service

World War II

During the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Reddé operated as a message courier for the French resistance's Pat O'Leary Line.[3] She also helped to get French, Belgian and British escapees out of France and into Spain by providing them with clothing and food.[2]

On 11 January 1943, Reddé was arrested, alongside Australian agent and radio operator Thomas Groome, at a house in Montauban, Occitania, France,[4] when the resistance network she was part of was betrayed. They were taken to Hôtel de l'Ours Blanc in Toulouse, the Gestapo headquarters, for questioning. Left unguarded in a commotion while Groome tried to escape by throwing himself out of a window,[3][4] Reddé slipped out of the headquarters.[3][5] Groome was recaptured and was later sent to a concentration camp in Germany, where he was tortured.[3]

In March 1943, Reddé escaped to Spain with Australian resistance member Nancy Wake and nine other resistance fugitives who had escaped from the prison at Castres,[3] crossing the Pyrénées mountains on foot.[2] Reddé then travelled via Perpignan, Barcelona, Madrid and Gibraltar to Greenock, Scotland,[4] then on to London, England.[6] In London, Reddé was she was recruited into the Central Bureau of Intelligence and Action and the French Volunteer Corps, which became the Women's Auxiliary Corps (Corps Auxilaire Feminin).[4][7] She was chosen by Colonel Pierre de Chevigné to be trained in radio communications by the Bureau central de renseignements et d'action (BCRA), which was operating in exile.[6][8] She trained in June 1943,[7] alongside two other women, Eugénie Grüner and Yvonne Gittus. Reddé's service number was 17213.[9]

After her training, Reddé was parachuted from a Royal Air Force Handley Page Halifax bomber aircraft near Montluçon and the Allier Department,[2] in February 1944.[6][10][11] She was among the first of nine French women to be parachuted into France.[4][11] Reddé set up a radio transition network under the pseudonym "Moroccan" in the region of Saint-Étienne and Haute-Loire, sending messages to Free France.[12] She remained on her mission until the end of the war in Europe.[12] She operated under several aliases, including the code names Camille Fournier and Édith Daniel.[13][14]

Indochina

Reddé then volunteered to serve in the Far East with the French Direction générale des études et recherches (Directorate General of Studies and Research, DGER, which replaced the BCRA) and the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) in the neo-colonial First Indochina War. She was parachuted into Japanese occupied Indochina with French Lieutenant Francis Klotz, into Viet Cong lines.[15][16] She was the only French woman to be parachuted into Indochina during the conflict.[17]

Reddé served as a radio operator during Operation Cantry, which aimed to locate and assist French and Allied nationals and repatriate them to Europe. After the end of her mission, she served for another year and a half in the Technical Archives office in Saigon.[2] She returned to France in August 1947 and was demobilised.[18][12]

Personal life

Reddé had married Charles de Mourgues on 10 November 1958 in Châtillon, Hauts-de-Seine, France.[4] They had two daughters and a son together.[2]

Death and commemoration

Reddé died on 16 July 2007 in Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France, aged 95.[1] She is commemorated on the Tempsford Memorial, the home of the former Royal Air Force station RAF Tempsford.[19]

Awards

She was also recommended for a Military Cross (United Kingdom),[9] but was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1946.[17]

References

  1. ^ a b "Danielle Georgette Reddé épouse Mourgues". Les Français Libres. Retrieved 24 October 2025.
  2. ^ a b c d e f O'Connor, Bernard (15 March 2018). SOE Heroines: The Special Operations Executive's French Section and Free French Women Agents. Amberley Publishing Limited. p. 227. ISBN 978-1-4456-7361-5.
  3. ^ a b c d e Fleming, Brian (15 April 2019). Heroes in the Shadows: Humanitarian Action and Courage in the Second World War. Amberley Publishing Limited. ISBN 978-1-4456-8733-9.
  4. ^ a b c d e f O'Connor, Bernard (2016). "Contributions: DANIELLE REDDÉ". Les Français Libres. Retrieved 24 October 2025.
  5. ^ Clutton-Brock, Oliver (12 February 2021). RAF Evaders: The Complete Story of RAF Escapees and their Escape Lines, Western Europe, 1940–1945. Casemate Publishers. ISBN 978-1-908117-71-7.
  6. ^ a b c Faure, Pétrus (1962). Un témoin raconte (in French). Imprint Dumas. p. 99.
  7. ^ a b Albertelli, Sébastien (2 January 2020). Elles ont suivi de Gaulle - Histoire du corps desVolontaires françaises (in French). Place des éditeurs. p. 262. ISBN 978-2-262-08548-3.
  8. ^ Rossiter, Margaret L. (1986). Women in the Resistance. Praeger. p. 177. ISBN 978-0-03-005338-2.
  9. ^ a b Recommendation for Award for Redde, Danielle Georgette. The National Archives (TNA). Retrieved 23 October 2025.
  10. ^ "Marseille - the first Capital of the Resistance". Alliance Francaise London. Retrieved 24 October 2025.
  11. ^ a b Foot, M. R. D. (22 April 2004). SOE in France: An Account of the Work of the British Special Operations Executive in France 1940-1944. Routledge. p. 418. ISBN 978-1-135-76988-8.
  12. ^ a b c Joly, Oliver (10 August 2020). "Jeanne Bohec, Hélène Terré, Danielle Reddé... : qui sont ces résistantes françaises à Londres ?". Femme Actuelle (in French). Retrieved 24 October 2025.
  13. ^ Castaingt, Stéphane (2000). Gustave Gimon : un citoyen hors norme (in French). S. Castaingt. p. 47.
  14. ^ "HS 9/392/4 Reddé DANIELE or DANIEL or DANIELLE aka MAROCAIN, aka Edith DANIEL, aka Danielle REDDE". The National Archives (TNA). Retrieved 24 October 2025.
  15. ^ Vincenot, Alain (2004). La France résistante: histoires des héros ordinaires (in French). Syrtes. p. 248. ISBN 978-2-84545-089-9.
  16. ^ "Lisez Questions à… Elles ont suivi De Gaulle. Histoire du corps des volontaires françaises (Perrin/Ministère des Armées), ce livre vient de recevoir le prix Guerres et paix". Citéphilo. Retrieved 24 October 2025.
  17. ^ a b "Reddé, Danielle Georgette". TracesOfWar.com. Retrieved 24 October 2025.
  18. ^ Dossier Danielle Reddé, SHD 16P 502905.
  19. ^ "Women". Tempsford Memorial. Archived from the original on 5 June 2014. Retrieved 24 October 2025.
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