Maria Krystyna Janina Skarbek,, also known as Christine Granville, was a Polish agent of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the Second World War. She became celebrated for her daring exploits in intelligence and irregular-warfare missions in Nazi-occupied Poland and France. Journalist Alistair Horne, who described himself in 2012 as one of the few people still alive who had known Skarbek, called her the "bravest of the brave." Spymaster Vera Atkins of the SOE described Skarbek as "very brave, very attractive, but a loner and a law unto herself."
Journalist Frederick Voigt introduced Skarbek to SIS
Gen. Colin Gubbins, executive head of SOE from 1943
Gen. Stanisław Kopański, Chief of Staff to the Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Armed Forces in the West (1943–46)
Maquisards (Resistance fighters) in the vicinity of Savournon in the Hautes-Alpes in August 1944. SOE agents are second from right, (possibly) Skarbek, third John Roper, fourth, Robert Purvis.
Special Operations Executive
Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a British organisation formed in 1940 to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in German-occupied Europe and to aid local resistance movements during World War II.
Major General Colin McVean Gubbins, director of SOE from September 1943
SOE memorial plaque in the cloister of Beaulieu Abbey, Hampshire, unveiled by Major General Gubbins in April 1969
B MK II receiver and transmitter (also known as the B2 radio set)
Westland Lysander Mk III (SD), the type used for special missions into occupied France during World War II
