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Background
Educated in the Sorbonne during the 1930s Carré was living in Algeria with her husband, an army officer. While there she taught school. Her husband was killed during the beginning of the World War II so Carré volunteered to return to Paris to train as a nurse. She was only too happy to get back to metropolitan life, as she believed that Paris could not fall to the Germans. However, due to Blitzkrieg tactics the German Army and Hitler himself were soon occupying the French capital. Carré’s unit fled and established itself in Beauvais and then in Toulon. She took charge of a reception centre that had been set up to for French troops that had become separated from their units. It was here that she met a Polish officer, Roman Czerniawski and also her life as a spy!
The Resistance
Czerniawski had escaped from the German’s was determined to create an espionage and resistance cell, which was called the Interallié. As Czerniawski was known to the Germans he used Carré as a contact. She proved useful as field operative and soon the Interallié could boast of having an extensive network in both occupied and unoccupied France. It was Carré who identified and pinpointed the size and disposition of the Luftwaffe and SS Panzer divisions near Bordeaux, she also discovered that the German attack on Gibraltar had been abandoned.
At this time Colonel Paul Achard, an intelligence professional, was given the task to head up the Interallié. He was also in contact with the Free French high command under de Gaulle via the British Special operations Executive (SOE) in London. Carré’s group specialised in information reconnaissance from unwitting German officers who were impressed by Carré’s sensuous green eyes and shapely legs.
Cross Over
The recruitment of a female agent called Renée Borni was to prove fatal for the Interallié. She turned out to be a double agent working for the Abwehr (German counter intelligence). The Germans arrested Carré. Through the use of psychological pressure Carré turned double agent herself and revealed the location of almost all of her comrades with the exception of her commander Colonel Achard.
Uncovered
As the Interallié’s communications network had been severely compromised Carré, still though of as trusted member of the Interallié, was called to London. Résistance leader Pierre De Vomecourt accompanied her. The Abwehr were ecstatic as they believed they were infiltrating the SOE itself. As such they allowed Carré and Vomecourt to slip out of France. It was not to be. British counter intelligence, MI5, rumbled Carré and she was arrested in 1942. She was held in British custody until the end of the war when she faced trial in France.
Her commander, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Archard, said in her defence that, “Madame Carré performed remarkable services for the French Army. During the years she worked for us, she was able to deliver to us many of the German Army’s plans of campaign”. Nevertheless she sentenced to death.
Epilogue
Some months after her trial her sentence was commuted to life in prison by the President of the French Republic. She was released in 1954 and it believed that she passed away in 1970.
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