Noor Inayat-Khan

A Woman of Conspicuous Courage

Chapter 3: Recruitment

How could Noor Help?

In September 1939 Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler sparked the Second World War. In May 1940, German troops invaded France.

Noor was desperate to help the war effort asking her brother Vilayat for advice, declaring “I must do something, but I don’t want to kill anyone.” Vilayat responded “we have to involve ourselves in the most dangerous positions, which would mean no killing.” Later in life, he talked of how guilty he felt for recommending this course of action.

To take part in the fight against Nazism, they would have to leave France: Noor, Vilayat, their younger sister Claire and their mother escaped to the UK in June, as France fell.

Noor joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) in November 1940 and trained as a wireless (radio) operator. Good at languages and music, she quickly learned the language of Morse, where letters are made up of long and short sounds produced by tapping a Morse key. She became an efficient operator working for RAF Bomber Command.

“If one or two [Indians] could do something in the Allied services which was very brave and which everybody admired it would help to make a bridge between English people and Indians.”

Noor to a friend

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