Their nickname was derived from Colonel Merlin, the creator of the corps who formed the unit in French Algeria during the winter of 1942.

The corps was formed on 22 November 1942, six months after the establishment of the signals arm under Colonel Lucien Merlin as part of Admiral Giraud's forces in French Algeria.

[4] They took part in most Free French campaigns including the Italian campaign, after landing in Naples as part of the French Expeditionary Corps, and the Allied landing in Provence, Operation Dragoon, following the Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine.

After being parachuted into France in the spring of 1944, four of them, Suzanne Mertzizen, Marie-Louise Cloarec, Eugénie Djendi and Pierrette Louin, were captured, interrogated and sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp where they were executed by the Germans on 18 January 1945.

[5] On 13 May 2021 the French newspaper Le Monde published an article about the last living Merlinette, Colette Escoffier-Martini.