Women who Spied for Britain

by Walker, Robyn

  Following the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) from the beaches of Dunkirk, which took place from 26 May to 3 June 1940, the British suffered several months of punishing air attacks by the German Luftwaffe, a time which became known as the Battle of Britain. Sansom and her daughters spent many terrifying nights rushing to the air-raid shelter at the end of their garden. Like many English families, the Sansoms eventually packed up and left London for safer accommodation in rural Somerset. Sansom spent the next couple of years waiting for news of her mother, Yvonne, and her brother, Louis, while tending to both her girls and her mother-in-law. Her days were filled with domestic tasks, as well as fundraising for the war effort and knitting clothing for both her own children and the fighting forces. It was during this time that the British government put out a call for citizens to hand over any personal photographs they might have of the French coastline or of French towns and cities. Since the Luftwaffe had control of the air over France, aerial reconnaissance by the Royal Air Force (RAF) was extremely difficult. The photographs provided by British citizens were invaluable for planning RAF bombing operations, and ultimately in assisting in the preparations for the Allied invasion of Europe. Sansom had numerous snapshots of the French coast and of her home town of Amiens, so she provided these photographs to the British government, mailing them, by accident, to the Navy and believing she would never see her photographs again. By sending in her pictures (which the Navy had forwarded to the Army), Sansom caught the attention of the newly formed Special Operations Executive (SOE).

  Opinions were mixed with regard to whether or not Sansom would make a suitable candidate for SOE. As the mother of three young children, some felt that her first duty should be to her family and that, if captured, she might fold very quickly before interrogators in an effort to survive for the sake of her children. Others, however, felt that she was an ideal candidate, as she was young, attractive, French-speaking and familiar with large areas of France. A decision was made to invite her for an interview. She received a letter thanking her for her photographs and asking her to attend a meeting in London. Thinking she was going to be given back her photographs, Sansom agreed to travel to London, and met with Captain Selwyn Jepson on Friday 10 July 1942 at the Hotel Victoria on Northumberland Avenue. He was favourably impressed with Sansom, writing at the bottom of her personal information sheet, ‘Direct-minded and courageous. God help the Nazis if we can get her near enough to them. S.J.’3 When Jepson asked her if she would be willing to do some work for the war effort, Sansom was hesitant. She offered to do some translating or some letter writing to French soldiers, for she truly believed she had an obligation to contribute, but she made it clear that, due to her family obligations, she could only participate in a limited way. The facts that her father had been killed by the Germans during the First World War and that her mother was, at the time, suffering under the German occupation of France played heavily on her mind, but she was determined to put her children first.

  Sansom returned home to her girls in Somerset, but over the course of the next several weeks she became more convinced that she needed to be a more active participant in the war effort. News she received from France upset her terribly – her mother had been forced from her home, friends had been arrested, and her brother had been wounded and was lying in a military hospital. In a 1986 interview Sansom recalled,

  I felt terrible … I am in England … I am in what I consider the safety of beautiful Somerset with my children, under those lovely trees … Am I going to be satisfied to accept this … that other people are going to suffer, get killed, die because of this war, and trying to get freedom for my children, let’s face it. Am I supposed to accept this sacrifice that other people are making without lifting a finger?4

  Sansom received another letter from Captain Jepson, requesting a second interview. Jepson told her they had made enquiries about her in both England and France, and had been extremely satisfied with what they had uncovered about her. Sansom at first was livid that they had been making enquiries about her, wondering what exactly about her character had compelled them to do this. Once she calmed down, Jepson explained that she had been identified as a potential candidate to be trained as an undercover agent. Sansom was horrified at the thought, protesting that she didn’t have the brains or the physical capabilities for such work. Despite her vehement protests, Jepson asked that she keep an open mind and consider the possibility. For weeks Odette thought about what had been proposed to her. Finally, she contacted Jepson and offered to complete the training course, sure that her inadequacies would be discovered and they would see that she was not suitable secret agent material. That way, she reasoned, she would know that she had at least tried, and, confident that she would be rejected, felt satisfied that the decision would be taken out of her hands. Bolstered by the support of her husband, who, although not keen to have his wife enter the service, did not try to influence her decision either way, Sansom placed her girls in a convent school in Essex, telling them that she was joining the forces and may be sent as far away as Scotland. She kissed her family goodbye and reported to SOE for training.

  Sansom joined the Female Auxiliary Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) and was sent on a training course that included physical fitness, the use of firearms, surveillance and unarmed combat. She was a capable student but not necessarily the perfect candidate for undercover work. Her finishing report, a copy of which still exists in her personnel file, reads as follows:

  Has enthusiasm and seems to have absorbed the teaching given in the course. She is, however, impulsive and hasty in her judgments and has not quite the clarity of mind which is desirable in subversive activity. She seems to have little experience of the outside world. She is excitable and temperamental, although she has a certain determination. A likeable character and gets on well with most people. Her main asset is her patriotism and keenness to do something for France; her main weakness is a complete unwillingness to admit that she could ever be wrong.5

  Interestingly, the Chief Instructor of the SOE agents, Major Oliver Brown, also doubted Sansom’s suitability, but not for the same reasons as her final report mentioned. Brown did not find her excitable and temperamental at all, stating in a 1992 interview that ‘Odette was very, very demure … in fact I wondered if Odette would ever make it actually … I thought she’d turn it in but she didn’t … she was intent, she was a very intent person in those days … I think she still is.’6 Major Buckmaster, head of SOE’s French Section, was disappointed in Sansom’s report, and met with her to discuss her instructors’ observations. Over the course of her training, Sansom had become much more confident in her abilities to perform the job of an undercover agent. Although she was still aware of her physical limitations, she felt that mentally she would be able to endure quite a lot. Her growing confidence, combined with her increasing knowledge of the desperate conditions the French were facing under German occupation, made her determined to become an undercover operative. She was devastated that her report was not wholly satisfactory, and begged for the opportunity to prove herself. Buckmaster, either impressed by Sansom’s sincerity and determination or feeling the pressure from the need to get more couriers into the field, agreed to send her into France.

  Given the operational code name Lise, a whole new identity was created for Sansom. Her new name was Odette Métayer, and she was to play the part of a widowed working-class seamstress. Deciding to send Sansom into France and actually getting her into France were two entirely different things, however. It became almost a comedy of errors, as every time a plan was made for her transportation something seemed destined to go terribly wrong. Originally, the plan was to have Odette travel to France on a submarine, but the submarine commanders refused to have a woman aboard their vessel. SOE’s next thought was to send her in by air, but this was marked by a series of mishaps. The first attempt resulted in a collision with another aircraft as Sansom taxied down the runway. The second was called off when SOE received news that her
reception committee had been captured by the Germans and executed. A third attempt, by seaplane, was turned back due to inclement weather, and the fourth try resulted in a crash due to engine failure just after take-off. Sansom and the crew were able to evacuate the plane, but Sansom was definitely getting the sense that air travel was not the best option to get her into France, stating, ‘Everytime I got on plane, something went wrong with it, and I was costing them a lot of money.’7

  Finally, in October 1942 Sansom was transported aboard a troopship to Gibraltar, where she boarded a felucca (a type of sailboat) to Antibes. Her assignment was to join a new Resistance circuit operating in the Burgundy region of France, and she was well aware of the dangers she faced. Prior to her departure, Sansom had a charcoal-grey flannel suit made, and when asked by Vera Atkins, Buckmaster’s assistant, why she had selected that particular colour Sansom replied, ‘Well, you see, when I go to prison it will be very useful because it won’t show the dirt.’8 Sansom drew some sense of security from the thought that she would be working mostly on her own as part of her new assignment. However, upon her arrival on the French Riviera, where she was to pick up the papers that would allow her to cross over the demarcation line between occupied and unoccupied France, she was commandeered to act as a courier for the SPINDLE circuit, which was headed by Peter Churchill. This alarmed Sansom, as she knew it would involve working with a large Resistance group, and the potential for security leaks would increase significantly, but she was determined not to let Buckmaster down. Churchill was fascinated by his new courier, who earned his immediate respect by demanding to be put to work virtually from the moment she arrived. Determined to test the newcomer’s mettle, Churchill ordered Sansom to Marseille to pick up a suitcase. Without hesitation, Sansom, unfamiliar with the city of Marseille but knowing that it was teeming with Germans, boarded a train to begin her mission. When she was forced to spend the evening in Marseille, her accommodation turned out to be a brothel. She endured this indignity without complaint. Upon returning to Churchill, he requested that she cycle across the region with a note for one of the group’s contacts. Sansom had never been on a bicycle before in her life, but she accepted the assignment, returning bloody and bruised from the numerous falls she had taken. Churchill was impressed by Sansom’s willingness to take on any assignment no matter how dangerous or how morally uncomfortable. He also delighted in her ladylike manner – she neither smoked nor drank and the best expletive she could muster was a resounding ‘Zut’!

  The SPINDLE circuit arranged and coordinated airdrops of arms and explosives to members of the French Resistance. The French Riviera was located in Vichy France (the unoccupied area) and, although German control of the area was more or less understood, there had been no significant German presence in the zone. One notable exception was the German Gestapo agents who tracked down radio transmitters and operators. However, shortly after Sansom’s arrival in France, the Allies launched their invasion of North Africa. The Allied troops succeeded in forcing the Germans back into Libya, and the Germans, fearing an Allied invasion of southern France, immediately called for the occupation of Vichy France. On 11 November, German and Italian forces marched into the unoccupied zone, and Churchill and Sansom found themselves on the run. Recognising the importance of maintaining their radio contact with London, the pair, along with their wireless operator Adolphe Rabinovitch (code name Arnaud), made their way to the French Alps, and set up residence in the Annecy region. From there Sansom and Churchill continued to run the SPINDLE circuit, and, from what Arnaud and others observed, fell in love. Sansom travelled widely, maintaining the important links of communication between the region’s scattered Resistance groups. Her principal route was between Annecy and Marseille. The agents in Marseille had no radio with which to contact London, so it was Sansom’s job to carry operational messages from London to the city and, in turn, to carry the intelligence that had been gathered in Marseille back to Annecy, where Arnaud could transmit it back to London. With the Germans frequently stopping and searching civilians, each journey she made might have been her last.

  Aside from arranging for munitions drops, Churchill and Sansom acted as a link between London and a French-run Resistance group known as CARTE. Unfortunately, CARTE was an extremely amateurish organisation, which was fraught with internal power struggles. When Churchill returned to London in early 1943, he was warned that the security of the CARTE organisation had been compromised, and that SPINDLE workers were to avoid all contact with CARTE members. Sansom had remained behind in France, and Churchill had left her in charge of the circuit. Along with her courier duties, she was now responsible for arranging and supervising parachute deliveries of arms and equipment. During Churchill’s absence, Sansom was approached by a German officer who indicated that he wanted to defect to the Allies. He asked for a transmitting set and a code so that he might contact London to arrange for transport out of France. Sansom was shocked at the candid nature of this request and was immediately suspicious. Her instincts were correct, as the German officer was actually Sergeant Hugo Bleicher of the Abwehr, which was the German military intelligence organisation. Bleicher was one of the Abwehr’s most effective agents. With his superb command of numerous languages, and his ingratiating manner, Bleicher had infiltrated and brought the destruction of several Resistance groups, including the PROSPER circuit. Dozens of agents were arrested and died as a result of Bleicher’s work. Tragically, one of the less security-conscious members of the CARTE organisation was not as astute as Sansom. The individual told Bleicher some of the names of the agents working in the Annecy area, including Sansom and Churchill. Sansom asked her wireless operator to radio to London and explain the German officer’s request. London radioed back that she was to disband the circuit and break off all contact with the German officer. Sansom got busy, travelling throughout the region warning as many people she could find that they needed to lie low or leave the area. One such person was a young Englishman code-named Roger, who was staying in a hotel in Saint-Jorioz. Roger left the area immediately following Sansom’s warning and was, in fact, British agent Francis Cammaerts. Later on, his life was saved by another female SOE agent, Christine Granville. Sansom continued to distribute money and orders to the couriers, and located a safe hiding place for the group’s wireless operator, Arnaud. She also arranged Churchill’s reception committee for when he parachuted back into France on 16 April 1943. Sansom met him at the drop site, and Churchill was elated to see her but dismayed that she had remained in the area. They travelled to a local hotel where Churchill explained the latest instructions from London and warned Sansom that they needed to break off contact with the CARTE group. Unfortunately, it was too late. The next evening Bleicher and a detachment of Italian troops raided the hotel where Sansom and Churchill were staying. Sansom was grabbed in the hallway, and when she refused to take them to Churchill a gun was unceremoniously jabbed into her back. Knowing the hotel was surrounded, and worried that if she screamed Churchill might try to escape through a window and be shot, Sansom calmly led the Gestapo to Churchill’s room. Churchill was dragged from his bed and arrested. In the commotion that ensued, Sansom managed to grab Churchill’s wallet, which contained several decoded messages as well as thousands of francs. She managed to hide the wallet under the seat of the car that transported the couple to the local barracks.

  The Gestapo handed Sansom and Churchill over to the Italians, who treated them quite well. Despite being kept in separate rooms, the two were able to exchange messages. After a few days in the custody of the Italians, both Sansom and Churchill were loaded on to a truck. Sansom was upset by Churchill’s physical appearance (he had been beaten following an escape attempt, sustaining a broken finger and facial abrasions) and she begged him not to take such risks. She gave him cigarettes that she had accepted from her captors, and slipped some eggs into his pack so that he might have food if his rations were withheld. Hoping that Peter Churchill’s last name (shared with the British Prime Minister) m
ight buy them some security, Sansom and Churchill concocted a cover story that they were married and that Churchill was in fact the nephew of Prime Minister Winston Churchill. They travelled together, first to Turin, then Nice, and then to Toulon, where the Italians turned them over to the Germans. A truck transported the pair to Marseille, and then they travelled by train to Paris where they were transferred to Fresnes prison. Sansom promised Churchill that, while he would always be on her mind, each night at six o’clock she would specifically turn her thoughts to him. He promised to do the same.