Arrivals and Departures by Moonlight

Noor Inayat Khan in uniform

The Tiger Claw is a novel about the life and fate of Noor Inayat Khan, codename ‘Madeleine’, one of many operatives behind enemy lines during World War II. She and other agents of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) were often delivered by Westland Lysander aircraft into improvised landing strips in darkness, the pilots landing with the brief guidance of small lights illuminated to mark the edges of the arrival field.

Noor Khan was an ethnic Indian woman born in Moscow who had also lived in France before World War II.  She returned to the country after its occupation as part of an SOE team as its radio operator.  In addition to this insightful novel, much factual information is known about this courageous woman; details of the operation Noor Khan was part of and her team members, one of whom subsequently betrayed her and others, leading to Khan's imprisonment, torture and eventual transfer to Dachau Concentration Camp.  There she was badly beaten and executed. 

More about Noor Khan can be found in other books, or at the web site of Nigel Perrin and at other sites. 

On the night of her delivery she probably had high hopes and natural fears for the work ahead. That took place on 16 June 1943 as a part of a two-Lysander drop by pilots F/L Vaughan-Fowler & McCairns of RAF Squadron 161.  We know this from a remarkable document called Infiltrations at a web site dedicated to clandestine preparations for the Invasion of France called www.plan-sussex-1944.net. The full title of the document is ‘Tentative (of) History of In/Exfiltrations into/from France during WWII from 1941 to 1945 (Parachutes, Plane & Sea Landings); not exactly a name a marketing guru would love, I admit, but nevertheless it is a fascinating summary of not only these Lysander drops and collections, but other aerial and naval ‘behind the lines’ missions to France.

What is also remarkable is that Noor Kahn’s delivery is one line item in a 105 page document of similar deliveries and collections made during World War II, with most pages having between 15-20 similar entries.  Some of these I recognize, but not too many.  There are a lot more people listed there, I suspect, who would benefit from a flag on the internet for others to find in the future.