Szabó was the second woman to be awarded the George Cross, bestowed posthumously on 17 December, 1946. The citation was published in the London Gazette and read:

St. James's Palace, S.W.1. 17th December, 1946

The KING has been graciously pleased to award the GEORGE CROSS to: —

Violette, Madame SZABO (deceased), Women's Transport Service (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry).

Madame Szabó volunteered to undertake a particularly dangerous mission in France. She was parachuted into France in April, 1944, and undertook the task with enthusiasm. In her execution of the delicate researches entailed she showed great presence of mind and astuteness. She was twice arrested by the German security authorities but each time managed to get away. Eventually, however, with other members of her group, she was surrounded by the Gestapo in a house in the south west of France. Resistance appeared hopeless but Madame Szabó, seizing a Sten-gun and as much ammunition as she could carry, barricaded herself in part of the house and, exchanging shot for shot with the enemy, killed or wounded several of them. By constant movement, she avoided being cornered and fought until she dropped exhausted. She was arrested and had to undergo solitary confinement. She was then continuously and atrociously tortured but never by word or deed gave away any of her acquaintances or told the enemy anything of any value. She was ultimately executed. Madame Szabo gave a magnificent example of courage and steadfastness.

Training and first mission

After an assessment for fluency in the French language and a series of interviews, she was inducted into Special Operations Executive. She received intensive training in night and daylight navigation, escape and evasion, both Allied and German weapons, unarmed combat, demolitions, explosives, communications and cryptography. A minor accident during parachute training delayed her deployment into the field until 5 April 1944, when she was parachuted into German-occupied France, near Cherbourg.

Code-named "Louise", she reorganized a French resistance network that had been smashed by the Germans. She led the new group in sabotaging road and rail bridges. Her wireless reports to SOE headquarters on the local factories producing war materials for the Germans were extremely important in establishing Allied bombing targets. She returned to England by Lysander on 30 April, 1944, after an intense but successful first mission.

Second mission

She flew back to Limoges, France on 7 June, 1944 (immediately following D-Day) from RAF Tempsford. Immediately on arrival, she coordinated the activities of the local Maquis (led by Jacques Dufour) in sabotaging communication lines during German attempts to stem the Normandy landings.

She was a passenger in a car that raised the suspicions of German troops at an unexpected roadblock that had been set up to find Sturmbannführer Helmut Kämpfe of the Das Reich Division, who had been captured by the local resistance.^[1]

A brief gun battle ensued. Her Maquis minders escaped unscathed in the confusion. However, Szabó was captured when she ran out of ammunition, around mid-day on 10 June, 1944, near Salon-la-Tour. Her captors were most likely from the 1st Battalion of the Deutschland Regiment. In R. J. Minney's biography, she is described as putting up fierce resistance with her Sten gun. German documents of the incident record no German injuries or casualties.

Interrogation, torture, and execution

She was transferred to the custody of the SD in Limoges, where she was interrogated under torture, enduring sexual assault, rape and severe beatings. From there, she was moved, first to Fresnes Prison in Paris, then in August 1944 to Ravensbrück concentration camp, where over 92,000 women died. There, she endured hard labour and malnutrition.

Violette Szabó was executed on or about 5 February, 1945 and her body disposed of in the crematorium. She was 23 years old.