New book on WWII Indo-Brit agent

The life and times of Noor Inayat Khan - a descendant of Tipu Sultan and the only Asian secret agent to work for the Allied forces during World War II - have been captured in a fascinating new book to be launched March 1.

The book, titled "Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan" (Sutton), is authored by journalist Shrabani Basu, the London-based correspondent for the Ananda Bazar Patrika Group.

Based on extensive research and interviews with Noor's relatives, descendants and friends, the book presents a graphic account of her life till Sep 13, 1944, when she was shot dead by German forces at Dachau. She was 30.

Born in Moscow, Noor was raised in the Sufi style of Islam and joined Britain's Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the war. She was one of three women in the SOE to be awarded the George Cross and was also honoured with the Croix de Guerre.

Noor was brought up in France and Britain and joined the Red Cross when World War II broke out. The author writes that "...she felt she had to do more to oppose the horrors of fascism".

In Britain, Noor trained as a wireless operator before being recruited by the SOE. Such was the urgent demand for radio operators that she was sent to France before her training was completed.

Working under the codename Madeleine, she joined a group that sabotaged communication lines.

But, Basu writes, disaster struck soon and within days her network collapsed as her colleagues were arrested. Noor was instructed by her controller, the famous Maurice Buckmaster, to return home, but she refused to abandon her post as she was the last radio operator left in Paris.

Basu writes: "For a time she successfully dodged the Gestapo but by late 1943 her luck had run out. She was betrayed, arrested and imprisoned at Avenue Foch. Undaunted, she made two dramatic escape attempts, but was recaptured and sent to Germany. Here she was interrogated and tortured and finally sent to Dachau where she was shot.

A long time ago I fancied writing a book about her, but I just didn't have the 'gift'.

Noor Khan was an interesting woman: She had been born in the Kremlin when her Sufi 'mystic' father and Christian Scientist mother were guests of the royal family. Many mystic and occult healers were invited to try to help Alexei, the hemophiliac tsarevich.

Her family later moved to Germany, then to Paris were Noor tried her hand at writing children's books. When WW II started, she fled to England. Being fluent in French and German, she would make the perfect covert agent exept for one problem: her beauty. Stevenson and her instructors worried that she would attract too much attention.

As part of Khan's cover, this 'pianist' (as the female Morse operators were known) was commissioned in the FANY (nursing yeomanry) in hopes that her treatment after capture might be a little less severe.

It didn't help.

Khan's group was blown before she even landed in France, yet she managed to ride around with her portable Morse radio on a bicycle for several weeks, sending information on troop movements. Agent 'Madeline' was soon captured, tortured, escaped, recaptured, retortured, and executed.

When I was later stationed in Germany I visited Dachau. In the crematorium is a plaque that reads:

Here in Dachau on the 12th of September, 1944, four young woman officers of the British forces attached to Special Operations Branch were brutally murdered and their bodies cremated. They died as gallantly as they had served the Resistance in France during the common struggle for freedom from tyranny.

Noorunisha Inayat Khan's name was followed by "Member of the British Empire", as well as the George's Cross and French Croix de Guerre.

Rest in peace, Madeline.

Actually, she wasn't a descendent of just any sultan, but the daughter of the last 'Tiger of Mysore'. I told you wrong about her mother - she was not Mary Edy Baker, the founder of Christian Science, but a close relative, Ora Ray Baker. Dang fat fingers ;-)

Here's a website her brother did on her:

http://www.angelfire.com/co/begumnoor/sufi2.html

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