They also served

Whether in factories, the fields or in uniform in a multitude of roles previously reserved for men, historian HELEN FRY doubts we'd have enjoyed victory in the Second World War without the help of women

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They are the women in intelligence and the female spies who undertook clandestine roles about which they could never talk because they had signed the Official Secrets Act.

For decades there has been an unconscious belief amongst historians and in the public that if women’s roles are not evidenced, they can’t have been important.

In my recent book, Women in Intelligence, I highlight how this could not be further from the truth. Women operated as heads of spy networks, couriers and ran escape lines. They displayed extraordinary bravery and resilience in running spy networks and gaining intelligence for the Allies, often at great personal risk.

They moved invisibly across occupied territories in delivering messages in invisible ink, gathering intelligence on German troop movements and Hitler’s secret weapon programme, and escorting Allied airmen and soldiers down the escape lines to safety, as well as smuggling out information.