Merlinettes was the colloquial name given to the women of the (CFT, "Women's Signal Corps") of the

French army The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (french: Armée de Terre, ), is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces. It is responsible to the Government of France, along with the other components of the Armed Force ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. The Merlinettes took part in most campaigns of the

Liberation of France The liberation of France in the Second World War was accomplished through diplomacy, politics and the combined military efforts of the Allied Powers, Free French forces in London and Africa, as well as the French Resistance. Nazi Germany inv ...

, from the landing in Provence to the

Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine The Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine, also known as the Siegfried Line campaign, was a phase in the Western European campaign of World War II. This phase spans from the end of the Battle of Normandy, or Operation Overlord, (25 August 19 ...

as well as the Italian campaign. Their nickname was derived from Colonel Merlin, the creator of the corps who formed the unit in

French Algeria French Algeria (french: Alger to 1839, then afterwards; unofficially , ar, الجزائر المستعمرة), also known as Colonial Algeria, was the period of French colonisation of Algeria. French rule in the region began in 1830 with the ...

during the winter of 1942. In April 1944 about 1,095 women were serving in the Corps reaching a peak by the end of the war of over 2,000. They are considered the first female soldiers of the French army.

Formation history

The corps was formed on 22 November 1942, six months after the establishment of the signals arm under Colonel Lucien Merlin as part of Admiral Giraud's forces in

. Lucien Merlin, proposed to integrate women into the communications service: until then women had been forbidden by law to serve in the army. The candidates were nicknamed Merlinettes, in reference to the founder of the corps. The C.F.T. was attached to the set up within

General de Lattre Jean Joseph Marie Gabriel de Lattre de Tassigny (2 February 1889 – 11 January 1952) was a French général d'armée during World War II and the First Indochina War. He was posthumously elevated to the dignity of Marshal of France in 1952. As ...

1st French Army The First Army (french: 1re Armée) was a field army of France that fought during World War I and World War II. It was also active during the Cold War. First World War On mobilization in August 1914, General Auguste Dubail was put in the ...

and trained by the . The work of the Merlinettes included telephone operators, signals analysts, teletype and radio operators. In 1944 they became officially part of Charle de Gaulle's

Free French Forces __NOTOC__ The French Liberation Army (french: Armée française de la Libération or AFL) was the reunified French Army that arose from the merging of the Armée d'Afrique with the prior Free French Forces (french: Forces françaises libres, la ...

. They took part in most Free French campaigns including the Italian campaign, after landing in Naples as part of the French Expeditionary Corps, and the Allied landing in Provence,

Operation Dragoon Operation Dragoon (initially Operation Anvil) was the code name for the landing operation of the Allied invasion of Provence ( Southern France) on 15August 1944. Despite initially designed to be executed in conjunction with Operation Overlord, ...

, following the

. At the beginning of 1944, thirty Merlinettes were sent to London for further

commando 40_Commando.html" ;"title="Royal Marines from 40 Commando">Royal Marines from 40 Commando on patrol in the Sangin area of Afghanistan are pictured A commando is a combatant, or operative of an elite light infantry or special operations forc ...

training with the

Special Operations Executive The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its pu ...

. Eleven were subsequently sent on missions. After being parachuted into France in the spring of 1944, four of them,

Suzanne Mertzizen Suzanne Camille Mertzizen or Mertzisen (15 May 1919 – 18 January 1945) was a French heroine of World War II who served in the Special Operations Executive and was executed by the Nazi government. She was born Suzanne Boitte in Colombes, a subu ...

, Marie-Louise Cloarec, Eugénie Djendi and Pierrette Louin, were captured, interrogated and sent to the

Ravensbrück concentration camp Ravensbrück () was a German concentration camp exclusively for women from 1939 to 1945, located in northern Germany, north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück (part of Fürstenberg/Havel). The camp memorial's estimated figure o ...

where they were executed by the Germans on 18 January 1945. On 13 May 2021 the French newspaper ' published an article about the last living Merlinette, Colette Escoffier-Martini.

References

External links

French Ministry of Defence, Les Merlinettes (in French)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Merlinettes Military units and formations established in 1942 Military units and formations disestablished in 1945 French women in World War II Female resistance members of World War II

Formation history

See also

References

External links