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World War Two's Darling Spy
Odette Brailly entered the nation's consciousness in the 1950s when her remarkable - and romantic - exploits as an SOE agent first came to light. She had been the first woman to be awarded the GC, as well as the Legion d'Honneur, and in 1950 the release of a film about her life made her the darling of the British popular press. But others openly questioned Odette's personal and professional integrity, even claiming that she had a clandestine affair with her supervisor Capt. Peter Churchill, with whom she had worked undercover in France. Soon she became as controversial as she was celebrated.
In the first full biography of this incredible woman for nearly sixty years, historian Penny Starn delves into recently opened SOE personnel files to reveal the true story of this wartime heroine and the officer who posed as her husband. From her life as a French housewife living in Britain and her work undercover with the French Resistance, to her arrest, torture and unlikely survival in Ravensbruck concentration camp, Starns reveals for the first time the truth of Odette's mission and the heart-breaking identity of her real betrayer.
18th April, 2019 in Military
In the summer of 1940 Churchill created the SOE on the edges of the Intelligence Service with the mission ‘to set Europe ablaze’. For obscure reasons, the official account of its activities was forbidden from being translated into French for fifty years after the war. And, due to…
13th March, 2017 in Biography & Memoir, Military, Women in History
Born in Amiens as Odette Marie Celine Brailly she assumed a variety of names during the course of her war service. Yet she was universally known to both the British and French public in the post-war years simply as Odette. At a time when it was rare for a woman to step out of the…
23rd January, 2017 in Military
Each night the Luftwaffe’s incessant bombs fell on London, from the East End to the junction of Caxton Street and Broadway, only yards from St Ermin’s Hotel. Staff of the various intelligence agencies who occupied the hotel would have been working night shifts to maintain SOE’s p…
10th November, 2016 in Military
The world of espionage is shrouded in mystery, secrecy and lies. Author Tania Szabó breaks down the truth behind espionage and how things have changed in the industry over the years. What is espionage? Espionage (from the French word ‘espion’ meaning ‘spy’) can be defined as…
9th November, 2016 in Military, Women in History
Forget the abundant spy fiction, espionage is not just a boys’ game. In occupied Belgium and northern France 1914-18 there were several thousand women actively working against the Kaiser’s troops. In the Second World War, women of many nations fought the Nazis, risking the firing…
16th September, 2016 in Biography & Memoir, Military, Women in History
Peter Hore is the author of Lindell’s List, which tells the moving story of Mary Lindell’s heroic leadership and the endurance of a group of women who defied the Nazis in the Second World War. We asked him about the inspiration behind the book, conducting research and w…
15th December, 2015 in Biography & Memoir, Military, Women in History
Why, after more than 70 years, are we still so fascinated by the wartime women agents of the Special Operations Executive (SOE)? Probably because they were so exceptional. By convention women were never used in combat roles. Even the doughty ATS women working on anti-aircraft gun…
