www.voicesofwar.co.uk
went to Paris the same month to discuss an escape route for USA
pilots, the care of which also fell under her remit. From here she
was able to send photographs back to her family in the UK. Pearl
also reported back that they desperately needed more nancial
help to look after the airmen and she left 30.000 Francs to cover
some expenses in the meantime. In a personal letter to Vera Atkins
she said they were doing well in France, although she occasionally
she got “a bit hot round the collar now and again but I must say I’d
far sooner be here than sitting in an ofce”.
2
The stress of the constant checks on her documents and fear of
getting detected as well as the physical toll meant that after eight
months she was struck down with neuralgic rheumatism which
took her out of action for a couple of weeks and while she was
recovering, her commander was arrested.
With Southgate now a prisoner, Pearl set up her own network
and established herself as leader under the codename “Pauline”.
WRESTLER, her new network, was active across the Valençay–
Issoudun–Châteauroux triangle, and Pearl was now working
alongside her ancé Henri who had escaped the POW camp. With
this command, she became the rst female agent to lead a network.
D-Day - June 1944: Pearl’s new network was to be instrumental
in the ground disruptions prior to the Normandy landings. Sensibly,
Pearl decided not to issue orders to the maquis groups directly as
they may not have responded well to a woman, and so found a
willing French colonel to do so. WRESTLER agents were to work
closely with the adjacent SHIPWRIGHT network, headed by Pearl’s
former colleague Amédée Maingard. Together, their networks
2 Pearl’s personnel le in the National Archives (TNA) HS-9-356