Екінші дүниежүзілік соғыстағы "Роза" коди атты британ тыңшысы

Eileen Mary "Didi" Nearne MBE, Croix de Guerre (15 March 1921 – 2 September 2010 (date body found)) was a member of the UK's Special Operations Executive (SOE) in France during World War II. The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in countries occupied by Nazi Germany and other Axis powers. SOE agents allied themselves with resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England. Nearne served as a radio operator under the codename "Rose." (French Resistance operative Andrée Peel was also known as Agent Rose.) She was captured by the Germans and imprisoned in Ravensbrück concentration camp, but survived the war.

Born in 1921 in London to an English father, John Nearne, and Spanish mother, Marie de Plazoala, she was the youngest of four children. Her elder sister, Jacqueline Nearne, and one of her two brothers, Francis, would also become SOE operatives. In 1923, the family moved to France, where Nearne became fluent in French. After the German invasion in 1940, the two young women made their way to London via Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon, Gibraltar and Glasgow, while the rest of the family remained in Grenoble. On her arrival in England she was offered service in the WAAF working on barrage balloons, but turned this down and was recruited by the SOE. Enrolled into the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry FANY, Nearne worked as a home based signals operator, receiving secret messages from agents in the field, usually written with invisible ink on the back of typewritten letters. Her sister Jacqueline was sent to France to work as a courier. The sisters were supposed to keep their roles secret from one another, but were unsuccessful. She was flown by a Westland Lysander aircraft to a field near Les Lagnys, Saint Valentin in Indre, France, in the late hours of 2 March and the early hours of 3 March 1944 with Jean Savy to work as a wireless operator for the Wizard network as part of Operation Mitchel. Her cover story was that she was Mademoiselle du Tort (also using the aliases Jacqueline Duterte and Alice Wood). Nearne "survived, in silence, the full revolting treatment of the baignoire" in the torture chamber of the Paris headquarters of the Gestapo on the Rue des Saussaies. She reportedly managed to convince her captors, under torture, that she had been sending messages for a businessman, unaware that he was British. On 15 August 1944, she was sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp where she refused to do prison work. Her head was shaved and she was told she would be shot if she continued to refuse. She was then transferred to a forced labour camp in Silesia. While in one of these prisons she was reportedly tortured. On 13 April 1945 she escaped with two French girls from a work gang by hiding in the forest, later travelling through Markkleeberg, where they were arrested by the S. S. but released after fooling their captors and reportedly hidden by a priest in Leipzig until the arrival of United States troops. On 19 February 1946 she was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) by King George VI for "services in France during the enemy occupation". and her wartime activities were not generally known. She died alone from a heart attack in her seaside flat. Her body is thought to have remained undiscovered for some time until found on 2 September 2010; she was 89 years old. It was only when her flat was being searched by council workers to try to establish her next of kin that medals and other papers related to her war service were found. Her next of kin, a niece, was located living in Italy and has said she was upset that Nearne had been portrayed as being "alone or unloved", adding, "Although I don't live in the UK, I was very close to Aunt Eileen and visited her often. I only saw her six months ago. She was always cherished by the family." Nearne's funeral, which was provided free of charge by the Torbay & District Funeral Service of Torquay, was held on 21 September 2010 at Our Lady Help of Christians and St Denis Roman Catholic Church, Torquay. Her body was cremated, and her ashes scattered at sea, according to her wishes. Nearne died intestate and her estate of around £13,000 went to her niece in Tuscany, Italy, according to BBC One's programme Heir Hunters; series 6, episode 1.