Editing Violette Szabo (section)

===First mission===
Due to the ankle injury, Szabo's first deployment was delayed, but it was during her second course at Ringway that she first met [[SOE F Section networks#Salesman|Philippe Liewer]] (d. c. 1948). While in London, she also socialised with [[Bob Maloubier]], so SOE decided she would work as a courier for Liewer's Salesman circuit. However, the mission was postponed when F Section received a signal from [[Harry Peulevé]]'s (codename Jean) Author circuit warning that several members of the Rouen-Dieppe group had been arrested, including [[Claude Malraux]] (codename Cicero; brother of novelist [[Andre Malraux]]) and radio operator Isidore Newman.{{sfn|Ottaway|2003|pp=77–79}} This extra time meant Szabo could be sent for a refresher course in wireless operation in London, and it was then that Leo Marks, SOE's [[Cryptography|cryptographer]], seeing her struggle with her original French nursery rhyme, gave Szabo his own composition, ''[[The Life That I Have]]'' as her code poem.{{sfn|Ottaway|2003|pp=80–81}}

On the night of 5/6 April 1944, Szabo and Liewer were flown from [[RAF Tempsford]] in [[Bedfordshire]] in a [[Westland Lysander]] aircraft and landed in German-occupied France, near the village of [[Azay-le-Rideau]] in the heart of the [[Loire Valley]].{{sfn|Vigurs|2021|page=125}} Her cover was that she was a commercial secretary named Corinne Reine Leroy (the latter two names being her mother's first and maiden names), who was born on 26 June 1921 (her real birthdate) in [[Bailleul, Nord|Bailleul]], and who was a resident of [[Le Havre]], which gave her reason to travel to the Restricted Zone of German occupation on the coast.{{sfn|Ottaway|2003|p=82}}

Under the code name "Louise", which happened to be her nickname (she was also nicknamed "La P'tite Anglaise", as she stood only 5'3" tall),{{sfn|Binney|2002|p=220}}<ref>{{cite ODNB |last=Foot |first=M. R. D. |chapter-url=http://oxforddnb.com/view/article/38046 |chapter=Szabo, Violette Reine Elizabeth (1921–1945) |edition=rev. online |title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |year=2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/38046 }}</ref> she and SOE colleague Philippe Liewer (under the name "Major Charles Staunton"), organiser of the Salesman circuit, tried to assess the damage made by the German arrests, with Szabo travelling to [[Rouen]], where Liewer could not go as a wanted man (both he and Maloubier were on wanted posters with their codenames), and to Dieppe to gather intelligence and carry out reconnaissance. It soon became clear that the circuit, which originally involved over 120 members (80 in Rouen and 40 on the coast) had been exposed beyond repair. Szabo returned to Paris to brief Liewer, and in the two days, before they were due to depart, she bought a dress for Tania, three frocks and a yellow sweater for herself, and perfume for her mother and herself.{{sfn|Ottaway|2003|pp=84–94}} While the destruction of Salesman was a heavy blow to SOE, her reports on the local factories producing war materials for the Germans were important in establishing Allied bombing targets.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}

[[File:Westland Lysander-B-MA.jpg|thumb|Westland Lysander MkIII (SD)]]
She returned to England by [[Westland Lysander|Lysander]], piloted by [[Bob Large]], [[Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom)|DFC]], of the RAF, on 30 April 1944, landing after a stressful flight in which the plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire over Chateaudun, and Szabo was thrown about the body of the plane. Large had turned off the intercom when attacked and did not turn it back on for the rest of the flight, so when the plane landed heavily due to a burst tyre, and he went to get Szabo out, she (thinking they had been shot down and not having seen her blond pilot) let Large have a volley of abuse in French, mistaking him for a German. When she realised what had really happened, he was rewarded with a kiss.{{sfn|Ottaway|2003|pp=92–93}}<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/12104267/Flight-Lieutenant-Bob-Large-obituary.html |title=Flight Lieutenant Bob Large – obituary |work=Daily Telegraph |date=17 January 2016 |access-date=18 January 2016}}</ref> Philippe Liewer returned at the same time in another Lysander. On 24 May 1944 Szabo was promoted to [[Ensign (rank)|Ensign]] in the [[First Aid Nursing Yeomanry#Second World War|FANY]].{{sfn|Ottaway|2003|p=95}}