Carve their names with pride

[claidheamhmor]

I read an interesting article this morning on the topic of female SOE operatives deployed to occupied Europe during World War 2. Waiting for D-Day details two in particular, Violette Szabo and Princess Noor Inayat Khan, both of whom were captured on missions, interrogated, and eventually executed.

Also mentioned was the work of cryptographer, screenwriter and playwright, Leo Marks. While working at the SOE, he was responsible for the use of original poems in poem ciphers, including this poignant poem, written after the death of Leo's girlfriend in a plane crash, used by Violette Szabo:

The Life That I Have
The life that I have
Is all that I have
And the life that I have
Is yours

The love that I have
Of the life that I have
Is yours and yours and yours

A sleep I shall have
A rest I shall have
Yet death will be but a pause

For the peace of my years
In the long green grass
Will be yours and yours
And yours