Chapter 12
Winter 1941
When Fitz had agreed to join the Joint Technical Board that day at Biggin Hill airfield, she hadn’t known what to expect. All she knew was she had entered into the secretive world of the SOE(F) Special Operations Executive (France).
After being interviewed officially in London at the Baker Street headquarters of the SOE, Fitz had only five days to say her goodbyes to Marjorie and Elsie and all the other colleagues at the Hamble ferry pool.
‘I can’t believe you’re leaving us,’ bemoaned Elsie as she had helped Fitz pack her bag.
‘Just the two of us left now,’ said Marjorie.
‘You will keep in touch, won’t you?’ said Elsie.
‘Of course. As much as I can,’ replied Fitz, inwardly wincing at the lie. She would not be permitted to communicate very often with her friends for fear of giving away what she was up to. She didn’t know if she’d be needed for further assignments once she was back from this one. Assuming, of course, she made it back. Fitz was very aware of the dangers. They had been spelled out at her interview in London so she was under no misunderstanding about what she was doing. It wasn’t the time for rose coloured glasses she had been told.
Even though Fitz knew what she was undertaking was dangerous, and that she had lost Betty and Johnny to the war, it was still hard to truly, deep down inside, believe she could lose her life. Whether her mind was trying to protect her, she didn’tknow, but the thought of dying didn’t frighten her. However, she was all too aware this was totally at odds with her fear of Sam dying. That she couldn’t even contemplate.
‘You know Fitz is going to be far too busy doing lots of exciting stuff,’ said Marjorie.
‘Oh, I wouldn’t call being an air-taxi service exciting stuff,’ said Fitz.
Marjorie fixed Fitz with a long look. ‘Darling, Fitz,’ she began. ‘The three of us know full well that you’re not going to be a taxi service. You don’t get called up to London out of the blue like that and then have to hot-foot it out of here in a few days with very vague information of where you’re going and what you’re doing.’
Fitz bit her lip. ‘I really can’t comment.’
Marjorie smiled and stepped forward to hug her friend. ‘No. I shouldn’t ask, so I’m not going to.’
‘We will miss you, Fitz,’ said Elsie. ‘Whatever you’re doing, know that you’ll be in our thoughts and prayers.’
Marjorie made a scoffing noise. ‘You’ll be in my thoughts at least. If I did pray, then you’d be in those, too; but as I don’t …’ She left the sentence unfinished as Fitz hugged her this time.
‘Take care both of you,’ she said. ‘I’ll miss you both and with fair weather and a tail wind I’ll be back very soon.’
She blew kisses from the gate, before climbing into the waiting taxi.
Initially, Fitz had no idea where she was going, only that she was to pack for all weathers. So secretive was the branch, she was first taken to what was termed as Preliminary School where they were assessed for the suitability for whatever it was they were going to be requested to do. Neither Fitz nor the other candidates had any real idea what the branch actually did. Everyday, at least one or two candidates were deemed unsuitable and swiftly sent home.
During her first three weeks of assessment Fitz learnt far more than she imagined, weapons handling, unarmed combat, elementary demolitions, map reading, field craft and basic signalling. She passed that without any problems and was then sent to Paramilitary School in Scotland for further training and then on to Manchester for parachute training. This came easy to Fitz, after all, it was an essential skill to have as a pilot.
After that it was Beaulieu in the New Forest for what was called Finishing School. Fitz wasn’t sure this was the type of finishing school her father would have wanted her to attend, but she was certain it was far more up her street than a Swiss boarding school. It was in the New Forest where she was educated in the art of being a spy. It sounded all very exciting and Fitz thoroughly enjoyed learning about personal security, clandestine life, communication in the field and how to maintain a cover story.
She wished she could tell Marjorie and Elsie what she was up to, they would be thrilled to know she had entered the world of spying.
It was also at this point that the recruits who had made it this far were told about SOE and what they were about to undertake once they had completed the training programme. Fitz had been sworn to secrecy even to her colleagues, friends and family. Under no circumstances was she to breathe a word of what she was doing. Very few people knew about the SOE so Fitz had to come up with a cover story that she had been asked to work for the Joint Technical Board as a pilot – the department was a totally fictitious one of course.
Fitz felt dreadfully deceitful not being able to tell even Marjorie or Elsie what she was up to but she knew it was for the best.It wasn’t only to protect herself, it was to protect all the other operatives in and out of the field.
After three months of intensive and highly secretive training, and Christmas fast approaching, Fitz knew the details of her assignment off by heart, and was about to be flown out to France by the next full moon and dropped behind enemy lines. Wilding had been to see her two days before with the details of the mission.
‘The mission is to kidnap a highly regarded Colonel Rolf Hoffmann of the Wehrmacht. He has certain information we need and it’s a good bargaining chip for us. You’ll be tasked with … well to put it bluntly, seducing him. Getting him on his own in the right place at the right time, so the rest of our operatives can kidnap him.’
‘When you say seducing him …’ began Fitz.
‘Whatever it takes to have him where we need him.’ Wilding eyed her. ‘You do understand what I’m saying, don’t you?’
‘Whatever it takes?’
‘Yes.’
