The death of Colette Escoffier-Martini was as anonymous as the story of these female soldiers who participated in the liberation of France. The one who died at the age of 101, on May 26, in Le-Fare-les-Oliviers (Bouches-du-Rhône), was one of the thousand volunteers who joined the female communications corps in 1943. They were nicknamed the “Merlinettes”.
Colette Martini was born on 1er November 1922 in Tangier, Morocco. His family cultivates a long patriotic tradition. His father, Sylvestre, is a teacher of Corsican origin, a survivor of the trenches of the First War, where he lost one leg. His record of service earned him the Legion of Honor. Her mother, Suzanne, is a military nurse at the rear, as her grandmother was during the war of 1870.
After the Allied landings in North Africa in November 1942, Colette wanted to follow their example. Then in her second year of medicine, she abandoned her studies and applied as an ambulance driver in the ranks of Combatant France. At the same time, Colonel Lucien Merlin proposed integrating women into the communications service. Posters are posted all over North Africa. The call for applications exceeds expectations.
At the heart of the action
Colette Martini is accepted. She joined a training center in Hydra, near Algiers, in 1943. She volunteered to be parachuted behind German lines and support the Resistance as a radio operator, attached to the Gaullist intelligence service. The job is high risk. The occupiers track down with particular pugnacity these men and therefore these women who establish the link between the maquis and London. Life expectancy is low. Around ten women parachuted. Six are captured. Five were shot or died in deportation.
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While she is finalizing a skydiving course before being sent to France, Colette Martini finds herself reassigned to another position, within the operational intelligence service. She is responsible for receiving information sent from the field by special agents or the Resistance. She thus finds herself the holder of many secrets. But it doesn’t take long for her to find herself, as she wished, at the heart of the action.
She participated in the liberation of Corsica in February 1944. Then she was sent to Naples, in March of the same year, within the French expeditionary force in Italy. When Rome is liberated, a military delegation is received by Pope Pius XII. Colette Martini is one of them. Pius XII did not hide his surprise when he discovered a woman in uniform.
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