Home | Veterans | Barbara O’Connell
Barbara-OConnell

A veteran interview with

Barbara O’Connell

Barbara O’ Connell worked at SOE’s secret ‘Massingham’ base in Algeria. Getting there mean’t she was at risk of U-boat attack.

Play video
Watch the interview

About Barbara O’Connell

Barbara O’Connell recalls the freedoms and responsibilities she gained as a young woman working as a volunteer FANY (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry) in World War II.

Barbara recounts her time at Fawley Court in Henley where she was trained to code by writer and expert cryptographer, Leo Marks, leader of the Codes and Ciphers team which provided the crucial communications link for Special Operations Executive agents working in occupied Europe. She was later transferred to Grendon Underwood listening station in Buckinghamshire, and recalls, with some humour, the awful sleeping arrangements and the terrible food, and how she managed to find ways around these problems.

Too excited to be scared, she tells of a journey by boat through U-boat patrolled waters to Algeria where she worked at the SOE’s secret ‘Massingham’ base at Sidi Ferruch, just outside Algiers. Promoted to cadet Ensign, she coded messages sent during operations to secure the Italian armistice. Some years later, those involved were invited to Bologna, and Barbara proudly shows the ‘amazing medal’ presented to her in recognition of the part she played.

Credits

Interviewed by:
Martyn Cox
Reviewed by:
Joan Turner

Transcripts:
Please note that transcripts and closed captions in the video player are automatically generated by Vimeo.

Copyright:
All video content, web site design, graphics, images (including submitted content), text, the selection and arrangement thereof, underlying source code, software and all other material on this Web site are the copyright of Legasee Educational Trust, and its affiliates, or their content and technology providers. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Any use of materials on this Web site – including reproduction for purposes other than those noted above, modification, distribution, or republication – without the prior written permission of Legasee Educational Trust is strictly prohibited.

Home | Veterans | Barbara O’Connell

A veteran interview with

Barbara O’Connell

Barbara-OConnell

Barbara O’ Connell worked at SOE’s secret ‘Massingham’ base in Algeria. Getting there mean’t she was at risk of U-boat attack.

Related topics & talking points

Keep on watching

More veteran stories...

Share this interview on:

https://www.legasee.org.uk/veteran/barbara-oconnell/

Cite this interview:

MLA Style:
O’Connell, Barbara. A Veteran Interview with Barbara O’Connell. Interview by Martyn Cox. Legasee, n.d. https://www.legasee.org.uk/veteran/barbara-oconnell/. Accessed 15 Jul. 2025.
APA Style:
O’Connell, B. (n.d.). A Veteran Interview with Barbara O’Connell [Interview by Martyn Cox]. Legasee. Retrieved July 15, 2025, from https://www.legasee.org.uk/veteran/barbara-oconnell/
Chicago Style:
O’Connell, Barbara. n.d.. A Veteran Interview with Barbara O’Connell. Interview by Martyn Cox. Legasee. Accessed July 15, 2025. https://www.legasee.org.uk/veteran/barbara-oconnell/
Harvard Style:
O’Connell, B. (n.d.). A Veteran Interview with Barbara O’Connell. [Interviewed by Martyn Cox]. Legasee. Available at https://www.legasee.org.uk/veteran/barbara-oconnell/ (Accessed: 15 July 2025)
Vancouver Style:
O’Connell, B. A Veteran Interview with Barbara O’Connell [Internet]. Interview by M. Cox. Legasee; n.d. [cited 2025 Jul 15]. Available from: https://www.legasee.org.uk/veteran/barbara-oconnell/
An interview with

Moyra Smiley

Moyra describes her experiences as a FANY (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry) and a woman in charge of a signals and cypher department in East Africa

Before the war Moyra Smiley worked aged fifteen as an au pair in France, Italy and Germany to learn the languages. From 1936 aged seventeen she went to a FANY (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry) camp once a year in Kenya where she grew up and learnt to drive, mend cars and shoot rifles. When the war began, she was stationed as a FANY in Kent and Dover driving ambulances with wounded soldiers who had been brought over by ship. In Spring 1940 Moyra journeyed from Marseille via the Suez Canal to the East Africa FANYs and became a Lance Corporal. She recalls being appointed as the first NCO (Non-Commissioned Officer) woman cypher worker and after two years being a Sergeant FANY in charge of a well-established signals and cypher department in East Africa, receiving and relaying messages to local and British intelligence. Moyra looks back fondly at the camaraderie between the FANYs in Kenya, when she lived in a convent outside Nairobi and how everyone pulled together. Moyra continued to use her cypher knowledge to work for M16 long after the war had ended.
Service:
Interviewed by:
Martyn Cox
An interview with

Elvira Burbeck

Elvira Burbeck’s WW2 Journey From Ministry Work to Training Secret Agents in Massingham, Algeria.

When WW2 started Elvira Burbeck was suddenly out of work and looking for something new to do, so she joined the Ministry of Labour. A friend recommended she join the FANYs (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry). However, as Alvira was in a protected job, she was rejected. She tried again, this time with help from a colleague, and was accepted, and within a month she was sent to Algiers, Algeria. When she arrived in Oran, Algeria, the danger set in, as she was told they would have to go by train to Algiers to avoid any U-boats in the area. Her group decided to fly, which was very exciting for Elvira, as it was her first time in a Mitchell Bomber aircraft. When she arrived in Massingham, Algeria, she worked for an Intelligence officer, processing intelligence coming in from France. Elvria’s role in Massingham involved getting agents ready to be sent into France. She made sure the agents were in the right clothes, and made sure the agents knew how to act when they landed. Elvira was posted there for 10 months. After this, she had several postings in: Rome, Algiers, Italy, Canada, and Sri Lanka. Whilst in Italy, she was involved in finding road and rail targets for agents to bomb. After the war she was offered a job with the Foreign Office in Rome, but she turned it down, hoping to be posted to Bangkok instead. After thinking about it, she accepted the post and the Italians get back on their feet. Overall, she remembers the niceness of everybody, and the joy of working with such nice people during a very serious time. She recalls never feeling like she was at a disadvantage, everyone was valid and everyone’s contribution mattered. Elvira remembers a funny story about a poisonous snake ending up in a lavatory whilst based at Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and the chaos that followed.
Service:
Interviewed by:
Ailsa Camm
An interview with

Noreen Riols

Noreen recalls her experiences of missions as an agent in F Section of the Special Operations Executive

Born in Malta, Noreen travelled widely due to her father being in the Royal Navy and developed a gift for languages. Noreen begins her recollections leaving the French Lycée school in London at eighteen to be interviewed at the Foreign Office and being asked to report to S.O.E. (Special Operations Executive) leader Colonel Buckmaster at Norgeby House in Baker Street. From there she met Captain Harry Ree at Montagu Mansions and was instructed to tell nobody about what she would be involved in going forward. She recalls being sent to Lord Montague’s finishing school at Beaulieu in the New Forest, training in intelligence gathering and being used as a decoy. Joining the French speaking F Section in the S.O.E. she tells riveting stories about her work as an agent, losing enemy agents in a crowd, and trying to extract information from them at various parties. She explains passing messages by dropping newspapers and speaking without moving her lips. Noreen later recalls meeting famous characters throughout WW2 including agents Kim Philby, Paul Dehn, cryptologist Leo Marks and intelligence officer Vera Atkins. She also describes the ‘drop’ when a Lysander aircraft would fly an agent into enemy territory, the heartbreak if they didn’t return, and the relationships she formed even with their shielded identities.
Service:
Interviewed by:
Martyn Cox