Editing Violette Szabo (section)

==Second World War==
[[File:Manor Park Aldershot Manor.jpg|thumb|The former Register Office in [[Aldershot]] in [[Hampshire]] where the Szabos married in 1940]]
In early 1940, Bushell joined the [[Women's Land Army]] and was sent to carry out strawberry picking in [[Fareham, Hampshire]], but she soon returned to London to work in an armaments factory in [[Acton, London|Acton]].{{sfn|Ottaway|2003|p=19}} She met Étienne Szabo, a decorated non-commissioned officer in the [[French Foreign Legion]] of Hungarian descent, at the [[Bastille Day]] parade in London in 1940, where Bushell had been sent by her mother, accompanied by her friend Winnie Wilson, to bring home a homesick French soldier for dinner.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://violetteszabo.org |title=Violette Szabo and Étienne Szabo |publisher=Violetteszabo.org |date=24 October 1942 |access-date=27 February 2014}}</ref> They married at Aldershot Register Office in [[Manor Park, Aldershot|Manor Park]] on 21 August 1940 after a 42-day romance;{{sfn|Ottaway|2003|pp=22–25}} Violette was 19, Étienne was 31.{{sfn|Grehan|Mace|2012|p=}} They enjoyed a week's honeymoon before Étienne set off from [[Liverpool]] to fight in the abortive [[Free French]] attack on [[Dakar]], Senegal. From there, he went to South Africa before seeing action, again against the [[Vichy French]], in the successful Anglo-Free French campaigns in [[Eritrea]] and [[Syria]] in 1941.{{sfn|Ottaway|2003|pp=26–29}} He returned to the UK for a brief leave later in the year.

After her marriage, Szabo became a [[switchboard operator]] for the [[General Post Office]] in central London, working throughout the [[London Blitz|Blitz]]. Bored by the job, she enlisted in the [[Auxiliary Territorial Service]] (ATS) on 11 September 1941.<ref name=":0" /> She was posted to [[Leicester]] for initial training before being sent to one of the first mixed anti-aircraft batteries of the 7th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Training Regiment, [[Royal Artillery]] in [[Oswestry]], Shropshire for specialised instruction as a predictor and then to the 481st Heavy (Mixed) Anti-Aircraft Battery. After further training in [[Anglesey]], Gunner Szabo and her unit were posted to [[Frodsham]], Cheshire, near [[Warrington]], from December 1941 to February 1942. Szabo found within weeks that she was pregnant, so she left the ATS to return to London for the birth.{{sfn|Ottaway|2003|pp=31–35}}

Szabo took a flat in [[Notting Hill]], which was to be her home until she left for her second mission to France in June 1944. On 8 June 1942, she gave birth to Tania Damaris Desiree Szabo<ref name=":0" /> at [[St Mary's Hospital, London|St Mary's Hospital]] while Étienne was stationed at [[Bir Hakeim]] in North Africa. The following day, he took part in a valiant defence against the ''[[Afrika Korps]]'', escaping with his battalion from the assault of the 15th Panzer Division on 10 June.{{sfn|Ottaway|2003|p=39–40}}

Szabo sent her baby to childminders while she worked at the [[Morden|South Morden]] aircraft factory, where her father was stationed. During this period, she was informed of her husband's death in action. Étienne had died on 24 October 1942 from chest wounds received while leading his men in a diversionary attack on Qaret el Himeimat, at the beginning of the [[Second Battle of El Alamein]]; he had never seen his daughter. It was Étienne's death that made Szabo accept an offer to train as a field agent in the British [[Special Operations Executive]] (SOE) as her best way of fighting the enemy that killed her husband.{{sfn|Ottaway|2003|pp=40–43}}