WWII history

Revealed: How a heroine member of Churchill's elite SOE spy network was executed in a concentration camp aged 29 after her colleague's heinous betrayal

The heinous betrayal of a heroic Second World War woman spy who was executed in a German concentration camp has been revealed in a new book.

Diana Rowden, an agent with the Special Operations Executive (SOE), was dropped into occupied France in June 1943 and worked for the French Resistance.

She and a fellow agent planned the destruction of the Nazi-requisitioned Peugeot factory, where tank turrets and aircraft engine parts were made.

Hunted at every turn by the Gestapo, Rowden worked tirelessly for the Allied war effort, providing the British military with vital intelligence via secret radio messages.