Editing Timeline of SOE French Section (section)

==1941==
===April 1941===
:'''April'''
::[[Vera Atkins]] joined SOE and was appointed the intelligence officer for Section F.  Romanian born, she became "the most powerful personality in SOE."<ref name="Helm">{{cite book |last1=Helm |first1=Sarah |title=A Life In Secrets |date=2005 |publisher=Doubleday |location=New York |isbn=9780385508452 |page=xx}}</ref>

===May 1941===
:'''May '''
::[[Giliana Balmaceda]] was the first female SOE agent to be sent to occupied France. A citizen of [[Chile]], she traveled legally to Vichy France and collected documents such as ration and identification cards that could be forged by the SOE for its undercover agents in France.<ref name="Foot">{{cite book |last1=Foot |first1=M.R.D. |title=SOE in France |date=1976 |publisher=Her Majesty's Stationery Office |location=London |isbn=0116301929 |page=156}} First published in 1966.</ref>
:'''5 May'''
::Wireless operator [[Georges Bégué]] was the first male SOE F section agent in France and the first to arrive by parachute. He landed in [[Indre]] Department. Headquartered in [[Châteauroux]], he set up radio communications and met agents who followed him.{{sfn|Foot|1976|page=162}}

===June 1941===
:'''13 June'''
::The first airdrop of weapons to the French Resistance took place, arranged by Georges Bégue and [[Pierre de Vomécourt]]. Two [[CLE Canister]]s were parachuted onto the estate of [[Philippe de Vomécourt]] near [[Limoges]]. The Vomécourt brothers created the first two SOE networks (or reseau) in France, named [[SOE F Section networks#Autogiro|Autogiro]] and [[SOE F Section networks#Ventriloquist|Ventriloquist]].{{sfn|Foot|1976|pages=163-164, Appendix H}}

===August 1941===
:'''6/7 August'''
::SOE agents [[Jacques Vaillant de Guélis]] and G.C.G Turck parachuted into France. Turck was injured and captured on landing; de Guélis spent a month in France recruiting agents, collecting documents, and preparing the way for the arrival of [[Virginia Hall]].{{sfn|Foot|2004|page=154}}   

:'''23 August'''
::American Virginia Hall departed England for Vichy France as a SOE agent. Her cover was as a correspondent for the ''[[New York Post]]''. The United States was not yet at war with Germany and Americans could travel to and from France. Hall was the first female SOE agent to live and work in France for an extended period of time.<ref name="Escott">{{cite book |last1=Escott |first1=Beryl E. |title=The Heroines of SOE |date=2010 |publisher=The History Press |location=Stroud, Gloucestershire |isbn=9780752487298 |page=35}}</ref>

===September 1941===
:'''September'''
::[[Maurice Buckmaster]] was appointed the leader of SOE F Section.{{sfn|Cookridge|1967|page=55}} At this time the SOE headquarters staff of Section F consisted of eight people which would be increased to 24 during the next year and many more thereafter. [[Nicolas Bodington]] became Buckmaster's deputy.{{snf|Cookridge|1967|page=57}}

:'''4/5 September'''
::The first clandestine landing of a [[Westland Lysander]] airplane in support of SOE F Section took place on a farm field in [[Indre]] Department. the Lysander dropped off SOE agent Gerald Morel and picked up Jacques Vaillant de Guélis. The Lysander transported agents and reports back and forth from England to France and vice versa.<ref name="Verity">{{cite book |last1=Verity |first1=Hugh |title=We Landed by Moonlight |date=2017 |publisher=Crecy Publishing Ltd. |location=Manchester |isbn=9780947554750 |page=204}}</ref> 
 
[[File:Westland Lysander-B-MA.jpg|thumb|250px|right|The Westland Lysander landed on farm fields and ferried SOE agents, arms, and equipment back and forth from France to England.]]

:'''6/7 September'''
::SOE agents [[Benjamin Cowburn]], [[Michael Trotobas]], [[Victor Gerson]], [[George Langelaan]], [[:fr:Jean du Puy|Jean du Puy]], and [[:fr:André Bloch (SOE)|André Bloch]] parachuted into France at night near [[Châteauroux]]. They were met by Bégué, [[Max Hymans]], and a local farmer, Octave Chanteraine.{{sfn|Foot|1976|page=172}} Cowburn, Trotobas, and Gerson would become important SOE agents.

:'''19/20 September'''
::SOE agent [[Francis Basin]] arrived in France by clandestine boat and set up operations in [[Cannes]] on the [[French Riviera]].  He came into contact with an organization called [[Carte network|Carte]] headed by an artist named [[André Girard (1901–1968)|André Girard]] who claimed to have organized a large group of resisters to German control. Basin's reports on Carte gave SOE hope that it could be used as the spearhead of a large resistance movement to the Germans.{{sfn|Cookridge|1967|pages=89-92}}

===October 1941===
:'''20 October'''
::In what was called the "mousetrap," Vichy Police learned of a [[Marseille]] [[safehouse]] called the Villa des Bois and arrested about 10 SOE agents who visited the Villa.<ref name="campx">{{cite web |title=SOE archives |url=https://www.campx.ca/georges-begue/archives.html |website=campx |access-date=5 Oct 2020}}</ref>

:'''24 October'''
::As part of the "mousetrap," Georges Bégué was arrested in Marseille and in an unrelated action, a routine document check, Michael Trotabas was arrested in Chateauroux. The arrests left Virginia Hall in [[Lyon]] as nearly the only SOE agent remaining at large in Vichy France and she had no wireless operator for communication with SOE headquarters.{{sfn|Cookridge|1967|page=70}}

===November 1941===
:'''17 November'''
::In Paris Nazi spy catcher Sergeant [[Hugo Bleicher]] led German police in arresting members of a Franco-Polish resistance group, Interallié. Among those arrested was [[Mathilde Carré]], nicknamed "the Cat." In exchange for money and freedom, Carré agreed to work for Bleicher and helped him arrest additional members of the group. Interallié was destroyed.{{sfn|Cookridge|1967|pages=76-77}}

===December 1941===
:'''26 December'''
::His wireless operator having been arrested, Pierre de Vomécourt had no means of communicating with SOE headquarters in London. In Paris he was introduced to Mathilde Carré who, unknown to him, had become a double agent, working for the Germans.  She told him she had access to a wireless. The wireless was controlled by the Germans and they began transmitting, receiving, and reading Vomécourt's messages.{{sfn|Foot|1976|pages=175-176}}