By . Paul Donnelley . The little-known story of a daring British teenager who risked her life to be a spy in Nazi-occupied France during the Second World War has come to light. Plucky Sonya Butt - known as Agent Blanche – was just 19 when she was parachuted into northern France to act as a go-between for Allied troops and the French Resistance ahead of D-Day. During her time with the Special Operations Executive (SOE) she met and married Guy D’Artois, a fellow spy, and the pair went on to wreak havoc on the Germans. The spy in retirement: Sonya Butt was just 19 when she was dropped into German-occupied France and began spying for the Allies against the Axis powers. Here she is enjoying her life in Canada . Sonya used her beauty to woo German soldiers for information while secretly recruiting new Resistance cells and training them in guerrilla warfare. Despite her youth, Sonya was a specialist in explosives and her expertise was much in demand in rural towns and villages in the beaten country. The intrepid youngster earned a reputation for fearlessness often sabotaging bridges and ambushing German convoys. The spy who loved me: Sonya was parachuted into German-occupied Europe (left) and with her husband Guy D'Artois, GM, DSO . Meanwhile, her husband was performing his own daring exploits several hundred miles away where he led a 600-strong army of French Resistance fighters. The combat unit disrupted the German army by destroying strategic bridges and railway lines and attacking enemy positions. Now 89 and living in Canada, Sonya, a widow, is the only female British spy from the Second World War still alive. Allo allo: The job of a wireless operator was hazardous and physically exhausting; Sonya relaxes at the Palace of Versailles . Her remarkable story has only fully emerged in a new book called The Women Who Spied for Britain. Sonya was born in Eastchurch, Kent, on May 14, 1924 but spent most of her childhood in France where she learned to speak the language. Robyn Walker, a school teacher and historian from Ontario, Canada, said: ‘The story of Sonya Butt is relatively unknown but quite amazing. ‘She was well trained in sabotage and she lived for that - she found it very exciting. ‘She liked to be part of the teams sent out to railroads and she would be right there with a gun in hand, just like the men. ‘She was up for just about anything. ‘Sonya’s incredible story is one that should never be forgotten. She was among a small number of daring women who risked their lives on the front line for the war effort. ‘What she and the others did was truly amazing. ‘I really think that celebrating our heroes or heroines is somewhat of a moral obligation that we have to the people who put their lives on the line for us. ‘To allow the sacrifices these women made to be forgotten would be to do them a grave disservice.’ When war broke out in September 1939 she returned to Britain and in 1941, aged 17, joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force in the hope of seeing action. However, to her bitter disappointment, that same year women were banned from frontline duties and she was reduced to filing paperwork. Desperate for adventure, in 1943 Sonia was recruited to the SOE, a top secret organisation set up to infiltrate occupied Europe with a network of spies. Around 13,000 people worked for the SOE, including 3,200 women. During her training she met and fell in love with Canadian recruit Guy and the pair married in Scotland prior to being dropped into France on May 28, 1944, nine days before D-Day. Her mission got off to a bumpy start when a container carrying her wardrobe was intercepted by a German patrol, alerting the Nazis to the presence of a new female agent. But Sonya refused to lie low and began work immediately, training the Resistance how to make explosives. She used her beauty to get close to the German soldiers but it almost blew her cover when one evening while in a café with an officer she dropped her bag carrying her revolver. The bag landed with a clunk revealing she was carrying a gun, but she talked the officer round by showing him a forged firearms certificate signed by the Gestapo. The only way to fly: Consolidated B24 Liberator used by the RAF . A history of the women who worked in espionage for Britain during the Second World War . She had another close run-in in June 1944 when she was arrested by German soldiers and questioned. But she managed to talk her way out of the situation thanks to a precisely-planned cover story and false papers. Following the liberation of Paris in August 1944, when she was reunited with her husband, Sonia turned down the offer to go home. Instead she teamed up with the Americans and provided vital intelligence that exposed German positions. She was then captured by French troops who had seen her cavorting with German soldiers and threatened to shave her head, a punishment meted out to collaborators. But luckily the incident was spotted by Resistance members who explained who she was and she was freed. Following the war Sonya and Guy returned to his native Canada, setting up home near Montreal where they raised six children. She became a housewife, supporting her family while Guy remained in the army. Sonya was made an MBE in recognition of her services and was also mentioned in dispatches. Guy was awarded the Distinguished Service Order, the Croix de Guerre and the George medal. He died in Canada in 1999 aged 81. British Second World War agent Violette Szabo . There were a number of female spies who operated in German-occupied Europe during the Second World War. The most famous probably was Violette Szabo, GC, the daughter of an English father and French mother born in Paris in 1921 as Violette Bushell. She worked in Woolworths in Oxford Street. In 1940 she joined the Land Army before working in an armaments factory in west London, the year she married French soldier Étienne Szabo. He was killed in action in North Africa in 1942. Violette joined the SOE and took part in two missions in France. On the second, she was captured by the Germans, interrogated and tortured. She was executed at Ravensbrück concentration camp in February 1945. She was 23. Szabo was the second woman to be awarded the George Cross, bestowed posthumously on December 17, 1946. Her story was told in the film Carve Her Name with Pride, starring Virginia Mckenna. Odette Hallowes GC, MBE was born Brailly in Amiens, France. When she was seven she contracted polio and spent a year blind and another unable to move her limbs. Responding to a request for photographs of the Continent, she joined the Special Forces of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry and was trained by the SOE. In 1942, she went to France and worked with Peter Churchill, her handler. On April 16, 1943, she and Churchill were betrayed and arrested. She was tortured with a red-hot poker but stuck to her cover story that he was Winston’s nephew and she was taking money to him. She was condemned to death in June 1943 and sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp. She survived the war, divorced her husband and married Churchill. She remains the only woman to have received the George Cross whilst alive, all other female GC awards to date being posthumous.
Sonya Butt aka Agent Blanche parachuted into France when she was 19 .
An expert in explosives, she sabotaged bridges for French Resistance .
Narrowly escaped punishment as a collaborator .
Mentioned in Dispatches, she became a housewife and mother after war .
The Women Who Spied for Britain: Female Secret Agents of the Second World War by Robyn Walker (Published by Amberley at £16.99).
By . Paul Donnelley . The little-known story of a daring British teenager who risked her life to be a spy in Nazi-occupied France during the Second World War has come to light. Plucky Sonya Butt - known as Agent Blanche – was just 19 when she was parachuted into northern France to act as a go-between for Allied troops and the French Resistance ahead of D-Day. During her time with the Special Operations Executive (SOE) she met and married Guy D’Artois, a fellow spy, and the pair went on to wreak havoc on the Germans. The spy in retirement: Sonya Butt was just 19 when she was dropped into German-occupied France and began spying for the Allies against the Axis powers. Here she is enjoying her life in Canada . Sonya used her beauty to woo German soldiers for information while secretly recruiting new Resistance cells and training them in guerrilla warfare. Despite her youth, Sonya was a specialist in explosives and her expertise was much in demand in rural towns and villages in the beaten country. The intrepid youngster earned a reputation for fearlessness often sabotaging bridges and ambushing German convoys. The spy who loved me: Sonya was parachuted into German-occupied Europe (left) and with her husband Guy D'Artois, GM, DSO . Meanwhile, her husband was performing his own daring exploits several hundred miles away where he led a 600-strong army of French Resistance fighters. The combat unit disrupted the German army by destroying strategic bridges and railway lines and attacking enemy positions. Now 89 and living in Canada, Sonya, a widow, is the only female British spy from the Second World War still alive. Allo allo: The job of a wireless operator was hazardous and physically exhausting; Sonya relaxes at the Palace of Versailles . Her remarkable story has only fully emerged in a new book called The Women Who Spied for Britain. Sonya was born in Eastchurch, Kent, on May 14, 1924 but spent most of her childhood in France where she learned to speak the language. Robyn Walker, a school teacher and historian from Ontario, Canada, said: ‘The story of Sonya Butt is relatively unknown but quite amazing. ‘She was well trained in sabotage and she lived for that - she found it very exciting. ‘She liked to be part of the teams sent out to railroads and she would be right there with a gun in hand, just like the men. ‘She was up for just about anything. ‘Sonya’s incredible story is one that should never be forgotten. She was among a small number of daring women who risked their lives on the front line for the war effort. ‘What she and the others did was truly amazing. ‘I really think that celebrating our heroes or heroines is somewhat of a moral obligation that we have to the people who put their lives on the line for us. ‘To allow the sacrifices these women made to be forgotten would be to do them a grave disservice.’ When war broke out in September 1939 she returned to Britain and in 1941, aged 17, joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force in the hope of seeing action. However, to her bitter disappointment, that same year women were banned from frontline duties and she was reduced to filing paperwork. Desperate for adventure, in 1943 Sonia was recruited to the SOE, a top secret organisation set up to infiltrate occupied Europe with a network of spies. Around 13,000 people worked for the SOE, including 3,200 women. During her training she met and fell in love with Canadian recruit Guy and the pair married in Scotland prior to being dropped into France on May 28, 1944, nine days before D-Day. Her mission got off to a bumpy start when a container carrying her wardrobe was intercepted by a German patrol, alerting the Nazis to the presence of a new female agent. But Sonya refused to lie low and began work immediately, training the Resistance how to make explosives. She used her beauty to get close to the German soldiers but it almost blew her cover when one evening while in a café with an officer she dropped her bag carrying her revolver. The bag landed with a clunk revealing she was carrying a gun, but she talked the officer round by showing him a forged firearms certificate signed by the Gestapo. The only way to fly: Consolidated B24 Liberator used by the RAF . A history of the women who worked in espionage for Britain during the Second World War . She had another close run-in in June 1944 when she was arrested by German soldiers and questioned. But she managed to talk her way out of the situation thanks to a precisely-planned cover story and false papers. Following the liberation of Paris in August 1944, when she was reunited with her husband, Sonia turned down the offer to go home. Instead she teamed up with the Americans and provided vital intelligence that exposed German positions. She was then captured by French troops who had seen her cavorting with German soldiers and threatened to shave her head, a punishment meted out to collaborators. But luckily the incident was spotted by Resistance members who explained who she was and she was freed. Following the war Sonya and Guy returned to his native Canada, setting up home near Montreal where they raised six children. She became a housewife, supporting her family while Guy remained in the army. Sonya was made an MBE in recognition of her services and was also mentioned in dispatches. Guy was awarded the Distinguished Service Order, the Croix de Guerre and the George medal. He died in Canada in 1999 aged 81. British Second World War agent Violette Szabo . There were a number of female spies who operated in German-occupied Europe during the Second World War. The most famous probably was Violette Szabo, GC, the daughter of an English father and French mother born in Paris in 1921 as Violette Bushell. She worked in Woolworths in Oxford Street. In 1940 she joined the Land Army before working in an armaments factory in west London, the year she married French soldier Étienne Szabo. He was killed in action in North Africa in 1942. Violette joined the SOE and took part in two missions in France. On the second, she was captured by the Germans, interrogated and tortured. She was executed at Ravensbrück concentration camp in February 1945. She was 23. Szabo was the second woman to be awarded the George Cross, bestowed posthumously on December 17, 1946. Her story was told in the film Carve Her Name with Pride, starring Virginia Mckenna. Odette Hallowes GC, MBE was born Brailly in Amiens, France. When she was seven she contracted polio and spent a year blind and another unable to move her limbs. Responding to a request for photographs of the Continent, she joined the Special Forces of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry and was trained by the SOE. In 1942, she went to France and worked with Peter Churchill, her handler. On April 16, 1943, she and Churchill were betrayed and arrested. She was tortured with a red-hot poker but stuck to her cover story that he was Winston’s nephew and she was taking money to him. She was condemned to death in June 1943 and sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp. She survived the war, divorced her husband and married Churchill. She remains the only woman to have received the George Cross whilst alive, all other female GC awards to date being posthumous.
known as Agent Blanche – was just 19 when she was parachuted into northern France to act as a spy in retirement: Sonya Butt was just 19 when specialist in explosives and her expertise was 600-strong army of French Resistance fighters. book called The Women Who Spied for Britain. espionage for Britain during the Second World War became a housewife, supporting her family while