Yvonne Fontaine

The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in occupied Europe against the Axis powers, especially Nazi Germany.

"Vivacious, and smart and worldly" with "no family obligations," she worked as the manager of a dye and dry cleaning company in Troyes.

Cowburn came into contact with Pierre Mulsant and through him met Fontaine who he hired as a courier for a salary of 2,000 francs (about 10 British pounds) per month.

Given the code name Nenette, she was adept at the job, carrying messages and sabotage material over a large area in northeastern France.

[9] She made her way to Paris where she re-united with her friends Pierre Muslant, the organiser (leader) of the new Minister network, and Denis Barrett, the radio operator.

[10] In addition to her travel as a courier, she located farm fields suitable for air drops of arms and supplies for the French Resistance.

In April she also met on their arrival by parachute a team of three American military officers who were to work with the French Resistance preparing for D-Day, the allied invasion of France which took place on 6 June 1944.

The Minister network was successful in organising and carrying out several small-scale sabotage operations aimed at hindering German logistics[6] and transport of supplies to the battlefields after D-Day.

Fontaine, the sole survivor of the Minister network, continued work with the Resistance until the liberation of the area from German control in late August 1944.

The capture of Mulsant and Barrett, she wrote, "was entirely the fault of sending in SAS parties in uniform in an area which was very closely patrolled by SS troops."

He said of Fontaine, "Her present nervous condition is largely due to the fact that she blames the organization [SOE] for the arrests of her two friends."