11 Mar 2023The Spy Who Loved
Date: 11 Mar 2023 - 11 Mar 2023
Location: Biggin Hill Memorial Museum
Join author Clare Mulley on Saturday 11th March at 2pm for her fascinating lecture - The Spy Who Loved.
Churchill called her his favourite spy, and part-Jewish, Polish-born Countess Krystyna Skarbek, aka Christine Granville, was Britain’s first and longest serving female special agent of the Second World War. Despite being arrested more than once, Krystyna used her guile to save not only her own life, but also those of many of her male colleagues in three different theatres of the war. It was her service behind enemy lines in Nazi-occupied France that made her legendary among the special forces, however, not only did she make the first contact between the French resistance and the Italian partisans on opposite sides of the Alps in preparation for D Day in the south, but she also secured the defection of an entire German garrison on a strategic pass in the mountains.
Awarded the OBE, the George Medal, and French Croix de Guerre, her tragic early death made the papers around the world, yet her true story was kept hidden.
This is a tale of unbelievable courage, determination and resilience.