Part five

Lesson at a glance

Suggested inquiry questions: What was Noor Khan asked to do?

Potential activities: Explore Noor's mission documents; watch the actor in the role of Noor; make your own coded messages.

Download: Lesson pack

What was Noor Khan's mission?

What are the pupils’ first impressions about the appearance of the document? What have they noticed? You could draw their attention to the typed format and handwritten annotations in red at the top. Do they have any ideas about the type of document at this stage?


Tasks

Listen to the audio of the document:

Where has Noor been asked to go? Why is she going there and what does she need to do once she arrives?

Explain that this is Noor Khan’s mission document – it explains what her first task for SOE will be. She will be sent to France via a Lysander plane with another agent and will then travel on to Paris. There she will contact the organiser of the circuit she is joining (circuit means the group of agents that she will be working with). The contact organiser of the circuit goes by the name of ‘Cinema’.

Noor has been given a cover story and a false identity: Jeanne Marie Renier. Her codename for others in her network is ‘Madeleine’.

Now watch the video clip of the actress playing the part of Noor Khan, talking about her experiences in Paris.

Questions to consider

Where is Noor Khan when she sends this message? What is she worried about? What has happened to her network PROSPER? Will Noor return to England? Why/why not?

Explain that shortly after her arrival in Paris, the PROSPER network was discovered by the Nazis and its agents rounded up and arrested.

Noor was still in contact with London and told Buckmaster that instead of returning home, she wanted to remain in Paris to continue to receive messages to support the Allies. He reluctantly agreed, knowing that she was in a very dangerous situation.

Codes and secret messages!

The pupils could take part in a range of activities to either send coded/secret messages, or to decode messages prepared by the teacher.
E.g. Using invisible ink, see: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/families/celebrating-british-science-week/how-to-make-invisible-ink/

Create a cypher decoder using the cypher table and cypher wheel template.



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Lesson at a glance

Suggested inquiry questions: What was Noor Khan asked to do?

Potential activities: Explore Noor's mission documents; watch the actor in the role of Noor; make your own coded messages.

Download: Lesson pack