The Following is a brief excerpt from the book: "Bodyguard of Lies" by Anthony Cave Brown. Courtesy: Fitzhenry & Whiteside Limited, Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg and Vancouver. P.1975
Noor arrived in Paris at a dangerous time. The Prosper network had begun to collapse, and she was forced to find new lodgings, but she did keep her wireless post in the rue de la Faisanderie, even after learning of the arrests of Prosper and his lieutenants, and reported the 'ratissage' to London. London responded by telling her to lie low. This she did for a week or so; but then her inexperience and carelessness showed themselves again.
Wearing a navy blue scarf wrapped around her head like a turban, which emphasized her Indian features, she went on a sentimental journey to her home of the 1930's, visiting school friends on the way. Bodington of "F" Section, who flew to Paris to investigate the extent of the Prosper disaster, saw her briefly during this period-August 1943-and heard enough to recommend to London that she be brought home. She should have gone out on the night of August 15, 1943, but although everyone else went, Noor remained behind; she refused to obey her order to leave until a replacement operator had arrived. Almost incredibly, Noor survived in Paris for another two months, although the SD knew of her existance.
Noor was arrested in her Paris apartment on or about October 13, and within minutes found herself at Gestapo Headquarters. It was another grave loss for "F" Section, for she was the last "F" Section wireless operator in the Paris area. Princess Noor was calm when taken and calm when interrogated. Her SD inquisitor, H. J. Kieffer (the chief of the SD's counterespionage service in Paris), came to admire her and spared her much. He soon lost patience with her, however, for she made not one but two escape bids while at SD headquarters on the Avenue Foch. Both times she got only as far as the street before she was recaptured; but she was becoming a nuisance, and so soon found herself at Badenweiler concentration camp where she spent many months, most of them in chains and solitary confinement.
Noor was made of sterner stuff than her SOE instructors had realized, but she had once again been careless. For when she was arrested, her wireless, her ciphers and all her back traffic with London were also seized-everything, in fact, that Josef Goetz, the SD's wireless expert, needed to play a convincing "Funkspiele" with London. Noor had recorded all her back traffic in a child's exercise book, which the SD found on her bedside table. And with this invaluable background information, Goetz, impersonating Noor, reopened the circuit and began transmissions to London.
London responded but cautiously, for her messages did not quite ring true. Goetz needed Noor's help to ensure the success of his game, but she consistently refused to give it and the game was played without her. At Christmas the British were still suspicious; the style of "Noor's" transmissions suggested that she was being impersonated. But Goetz pressed the game forward. Whatever the case, Goetz's "Funkspiele" now took a tragic turn-for the agents involved.
Still apparently unaware that Noor was being impersonated, the British began to send in agents-seven in all-to the false circuit. On the night of February 7/8, 1944, the first four-all of them so inexperienced and ill-trained that their mission seemed to be sacrificial-were dropped together near Poitiers.
They were R.E.J. Alexandre, a twenty-two year old French aircraft fitter; an American, Robert Bennett Byerly who was his wireless operator; a Canadian, Fran¨ois Adolphe Deniset, who was to have been Noor's replacement; and Jacques Paul Henri Ledoux, an Anglo-Frenchman who was to have established a new circuit. All were immediately captured.
This hard-cover book is sadly out of print but you may find a paperback edition @ Amazon.com or at your local library.