As Germany invaded, hundreds of thousands of civilians fled Belgium and then northern and eastern France. Some would spend four years far from home.
Separated from their husbands and sons who had left to fight, those who remained in these occupied regions had to comply with strict regulations. They suffered draconian restrictions and requisitions by the German Army. Women, children and the elderly were also subjected to forced labour, and severe penalties awaited those who dared defy German authority, sometimes going as far as deportation or execution.
In these occupied regions, women like Louise de Bettignies organized to inform the Allies of the situation of German troops. Others, like Edith Cavell, took advantage of their professions to organize evasion routes. They were often persecuted by the Germans, but went on with their actions, sometimes sacrificing their lives.
Rumours about German atrocities, including looting, destruction, executions and rape spread, amplified by the reports from the first refugees. These crimes were publicized on the posters and art of the time, and used in propaganda.
Élisabeth Rouy (1897-1988)
Élisabeth Rouy lived between Sedan and Charleville. During the invasion, she stayed where she was and drew. Her watercolours and charcoal drawings were mostly of German soldiers. Despite her youth, she was equally capable of drawing a cheerful Bavarian soldier smoking his pipe, two young girls joyfully chatting, and the severity of a nurse. She even drew high-ranking figures such as the Crown Prince. In 1917, she was evacuated and tried to smuggle her drawings out by hiding them in the secret compartment at the bottom of a paint box. The box was refused and stayed with the family in occupied territory, but the drawings were not discovered and were kept. After the war, Élisabeth Rouy became a nun in the congregation of the Little Sisters of the Assumption, where she remained for the rest of her life.
Edith Cavell (1865-1915)
English nurse Edith Cavell studied in Brussels, where she became matron of the Institute of Surgery then Director of the Nursing School of the Berkendael Medical Institute in Ixelles. When Belgium was invaded, Cavell braved military law to help hundreds of Belgian soldiers escape to the neutral Netherlands. Thanks to an evasion route from Lille to Brussels via Mons, soldiers who remained in field hospitals could join the Allies. The network was swiftly discovered, however, and Edith Cavell was arrested on 5 August 1915. She was sentenced to death on 11 October and executed the next day. In 1919, her remains were solemnly transferred to England. Many monuments pay tribute to Cavell, considered a “martyr” of the Great War.
Very diverse realities are hidden behind the idealized image of espionage. On the one hand, society women used their connections and their frequent travel to collect and pass on messages. That was mundane espionage, often supported by very senior officers, like Mistinguett working with General Gamelin. On the other, there were the networks of women on the ground, particularly in occupied areas, whose work was more like that of intelligence agents. They collected rumours and hearsay and spread false intelligence, in an information war that developed as the conflict became bogged down.
While intelligence services in all countries used these “fighters of the shadows”, methods differed: the British and Germans created training centres and offered payment, while the French were more suspicious, deeming women not reliable enough and considering that the only payment should be the honour of serving the fatherland.
The motivations of these women varied: some had lost relatives, while others were driven by patriotic sentiment, hatred of the enemy, or simply the hope of payment or authorization, in the case of prostitutes, to continue working. In all cases, this was dangerous work and many laid down their lives.
Nobody’s ever had me for 12 balles* before!
[* Play on words: balles are bullets, referring to the 12-man firing squad, but also French francs].
Félicie Pfaadt (1880-1916)
Félicie Pfaadt (agent R 17) worked with her colleague, Madame de Gimeno-Sanchez, in the ports of Toulon and Marseille to collect information on French ships leaving for Salonica. She observed the toing and froing of French troops in the ports and seduced naval officers. She passed on her intelligence to German U-boats, which could then torpedo cargo ships and troop transports. She was arrested after being betrayed by Mathilde Lebrun, a French double agent to whom she admitted her activities, before being sentenced to death by Marseille’s War Council on 18 May 1916 and executed in August.
Louise de Bettignies (1880-1918)
Louise de Bettignies spoke multiple languages and was highly patriotic, becoming known as the “Joan of Arc of the North”. She was recruited by the British intelligence services in 1914. Operating under the name Alice Dubois, she collected information on German troop movements in Belgium through a network of 40-odd agents. She passed this information on to the British with her friend Léonie Vanhoutte, disguising herself and travelling dangerous routes. She was reported and arrested in October 1915. Her death sentence was commuted into lifelong forced labour, but she died of pleurisy in September 1918.