Noor Inayat Khan became the first female SOE wireless operator parachuted into Nazi-occupied France.
On the night of 16 June 1943, Noor Inayat Khan was flown from England aboard a Royal Air Force Lysander aircraft and landed in Nazi-occupied France, becoming the first female wireless operator of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) to be inserted into occupied French territory.
Codenamed Madeleine, she joined the Prosper resistance network in Paris, tasked with the extraordinarily dangerous job of transmitting and receiving coded radio messages between the French Resistance and London. Wireless operators had among the shortest life expectancies of any SOE role, as German direction-finding vans could triangulate signals, and operators risked capture, torture, and execution.
Her selection was significant given prevailing doubts among some SOE trainers about her suitability, owing to her gentle temperament and pacifist Sufi upbringing; she nonetheless was chosen and proved dedicated and resourceful under extreme pressure.
Within weeks of her arrival, the Prosper network was compromised by mass Gestapo arrests, yet Noor chose to remain in France alone, continuing to operate her radio set — effectively functioning as the network's last active link to London for several months, an act of remarkable bravery that cemented her historical importance as a trailblazer for women in intelligence and special operations.