Once the war began, Borrel left Paris and took a crash course in nursing with the Red Cross. The German military defeated France in June 1940, but many French citizens took up arms in a resistance to Adolf Hitler and his troops. In the spring of 1942, the SOE recruited her. Moving between Paris and the countryside, she coordinated aerial supply drops and recruited, armed, and trained Resistance members. She was in the SOE's first training class for female agents, where she learned skills from hand-to-hand combat to Morse code.

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Persons: Borrel, Adolf Hitler, Pat O'Leary, Prosper Organizations: France, German Army, French Resistance, British Royal Air Force, SOE, Nazi, Allies Locations: Paris, France, Spain, Lisbon, Portugal, London, Nazi, Europe