Once again Sophie wondered whether her aunt could have been one of them.
As Peter left her, Sophie started working her way through the files kept by SOE, looking for information about agents who had visited Baker Street in early March 1944 when the photograph had been taken. Eventually, she found a copy of a file that recorded all the agents who had visited the offices during that time but it only stated their code names and their initials to help protect their identity.
A letter inside the file informed the reader this log had been kept in a secret vault until after the war, locked to protect the spies and their whereabouts. Sophie ran a finger down this register that had been maintained meticulously by the officers who had overseen the spy network from London.
There were only five spies mentioned having visited the office in early March before Karen Johnson, the photographer, died. And one of them had the initials ‘V.H.’ Next to them was the word ‘Sparrow’.
Sophie sat back in her chair. V.H., Vivienne Hamilton. Her instinct had been correct. She felt like cheering. Up until now, it had just been a rumour from her grandmother, but now it said it here plainly. Vivienne Hamilton had been working for the British sometime during the war and her code name had been Sparrow. But if she had been working for the British, why on earth did she smuggle a Nazi out of the hospital and disappear to France?
Sophie felt momentarily satisfied with herself. That was until she searched through more of the records and came across something alarming. In Sparrow’s file there was information about her assignment in Paris but on the next page there was an official letter thanking her for her work and discharging her from SOE. The stamp across the page stated she was no longer fit for duty. It was dated in 1943, the year before the photograph on Baker Street. So this part of the story was true. She had been working for the British in SOE early in the war but they then had dismissed her. What had she done? And why was she seen leaving the same building a year later if she no longer was an agent?
There was also a mention of the spy network Sparrow had been a member of in France. This spy cell was known by three names: F-section, which was short for French section, the Physician Network, and Prosper Network, the latter named after the man who headed it up. Something about its name rang a bell in Sophie’s mind – she had read it before. Sophie had placed a lot of the research she had been doing at home in a Google document and now pulled it up on her phone. Yes, here it was, she noted as she scrolled down the screen. The archival records stated that Sparrow had been assigned to the Physician Network, which had been compromised during the war, resulting in a large number of agents from that French spy network being caught or killed in 1943. Many shortly before her aunt had been discharged. Vivienne had been lucky to make it home alive, or… Another thought ran like a chill through Sophie’s body. Had her aunt helped with the deception? Had she compromised Physician?
Quickly, Sophie returned to her aunt’s file for anything else that could help. There was only one other piece of paper in it. A photocopy of a document with columns of letters on it. Underneath the letters was a scrawled note.
Passed from another agent so unable to confirm the fist. Received June 1944 – Not creditable as spy is no longer in the network. Determined to be enemy using an outdated code.
Sophie stared at the list of jumbled letters all in little blocks of five. What did they mean?
She moved back to the desk where Peter was sitting.
‘Did you find any ghosts?’ he asked with a smile.
‘I did,’ stated Sophie as she continued to stare at the sheet of paper. ‘I think my aunt might have worked for SOE during the war.’
‘Wow,’ responded Peter looking impressed. ‘Did you not know before?’
‘There is a little controversy around it, but I think I have found her file for SOE and this was in it. Would you know anything about what this is?’
She handed the paper to Peter.
‘This is a coded message,’ he responded, nodding. ‘Dated right before the Normandy Landings. Normally these were transmitted from wirelesses by SOE operatives in the field.’
‘Do you know what it says?’ enquired Sophie, getting excited.
Peter started to laugh. ‘We have hundreds of these unknown messages on file; unfortunately, unless you know this particular agent’s cipher, it is almost impossible to decode.’
‘Cipher?’
‘Each agent had their own cipher – usually they would memorise a poem – and from that they would pick a word to create their coded message. Then by a series of columns and rows using this code word they would send a message.’
‘Well that doesn’t sound too difficult to crack as long as you know their poem,’ stated Sophie. ‘How come you have so many that aren’t decoded?’
Peter smiled. ‘They never used just a single word. There are some great books you can download about how that was done. The important thing is to know the agent’s cipher.’
Sophie nodded, feeling despondent. ‘How would I find that out?’
‘If I knew that, I would be a very popular archivist,’ said Peter. ‘What do you know about your great-aunt? Did she have a favourite poem? That might be a starting place. Otherwise, I’m afraid you may never know what this says.’
Sophie shook her head. ‘I have only just found out about her recently. Also, do you know what this means?’ she enquired further, pointing to the scrawled note.
Peter read it. ‘Yes, this implies this was not sent by a real agent, but someone trying to lure real agents out of hiding in order to reveal themselves. They probably used her name signature.’
He pointed to the first few letters on the document. ‘This is the code for this SOE operative’s name, or her signature, this informed the receiver this was coming from your aunt, or, it appears by this note, someone pretending to be your aunt.’
Sophie stared at the first five letters, the name of her aunt, in code.
‘And what does “unable to confirm the fist” mean? Is it a typo?’
Peter started to come alive, he obviously loved this part of history. ‘Not at all. “Fist” is correct. All the messages were communicated by Morse code. The fist they talk about here relates to the way an agent typed their messages. Each agent had a particular style of tapping that could be read like a fingerprint. Heavy on a particular letter or longer on another. The receivers back here knew each agent in the field’s tapping fingerprint, or as they called it their “fist”. This helped them to be sure it was the actual agent and not someone pretending to be them.’
Sophie was amazed. She’d had no idea it had been quite so complicated.
‘What section of SOE did your aunt work for?’ Peter asked.
‘From what I can tell, something called the Physician Network.’
Peter’s eyebrows disappeared under his fringe. ‘That is why there is this note then. This was sent in forty-four and that network was compromised in forty-three. So everything coming in from those agents was really scrutinised. Did your aunt survive?’
‘From that period, yes. But she disappeared in 1944, very probably back to France. How were the agents compromised?’
‘Well, one story is that in 1943 the Nazis managed to get hold of a wireless and seemingly knew one of the agents’ codes. A lot of agents were uncovered. The fake radio operator sent Resistance fighters to locations for a drop or a pick-up only to find the Gestapo waiting for them. It took a while for England to figure out how the agents were being uncovered and in that time, sadly, many died – over eighty in all. The other very controversial story is that the British spy network back here knew the radio and agent were compromised and continued to send fake messages to sway the Germans from the intended route of the D-Day landings. That they were willing to sacrifice their agents to keep that up and running. But that has never been proven.’