Remembering the Humble Heroics of Odette Hallowes
Within hours of learning France had capitulated to Hitler’s Germany, in the summer of 1940, British Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, ordered the creation of a new unit with an unequivocal objective:
“Set Europe ablaze!”
Although no fewer than 3,000 women served in the ranks of Sir Winston’s Special Operations Executive, self-described “Anglo-French patriot”, Odette Hallowes, was one of less than 50 selected to serve as one of its undercover field operatives.
Born the daughter of a French military hero, on this day in 1912, Odette began her service with the SOE in 1942, when, on passing the rigorous selection process for its now famous “F-Section”, she was deployed under the codename, “Lise”, to Vichy-controlled southern France.
From there, she was meant to make her way to the German-occupied city of Auxerre, where, as per her mission briefing, she was to establish a safe house for fellow SOE agents passing through the area.
Owing to, however, the subsequent German invasion of Vichy, she soon found herself working in an altogether different capacity…
Chosen by her commanding officer — Captain Peter Churchill — to work as his personal courier in Cannes, it was there, she joined him and his SOE circuit — “SPINDLE” — ferrying not just vital intelligence to allied circuits, but also, newly arrived weapons and operators parachuted in from England.
For many months, Odette braved the ever-watchful eyes of the Gestapo and their informants to keep the supply of weaponry and manpower flowing; until a fierce and sudden crackdown on SOE-led resistance, forced her to relocate to the remote safety of an Alpine village.
Upon arrival in Saint-Jorioz, she was approached by “a well-dressed man”, who, introducing himself as “Henri”, proceeded to tell her that he was “a disaffected colonel in the German Army…”
Relaying his desire to “defect to the Brits, and depose the National Socialists”, Odette thus had no reason to suspect that “Henri” was, in reality, Sergeant Hugo Bleicher of the German Abwehr.
Subsequently apprehended by Bleicher, and incarcerated within the horrific confines of Fresnes Prison, she was held and interrogated for more than a year, before ultimately being transferred to the horrors of Ravensbrück…
There, the never-ending torture she endured at Fresnes was expanded to include flogging, starvation, and mock executions; and yet, much to the surprise and chagrin of her torturers, Odette never broke her silence.
Eventually liberated in April 1945, Odette’s “great courage” was well-deservedly recognized, first, with the George Cross, in 1946, and then, with the highest award of her mother country, the Légion d’honneur, in 1950.
Despite being hailed as “a heroine of the Republic” at the time, Odette was forever humble in her reply…
“There were many more”, she said, “who did far more than I…”
“Unlike myself,” she added, “most of them made the ultimate sacrifice.”
- Addendum 1: -
Sergeant Hugo Bleicher of the German Abwehr.
Although disinterested in politics, Bleicher did have a passion for languages which, in turn, led to his recruitment by German Military Intelligence.
Utilizing his polyglottic skills to infiltrate and destroy the Polish-led “Interallié” resistance organization, he was then tasked to do the same with the SOE circuit Odette belonged to — “SPINDLE”.
Portraying himself as a disaffected German Army colonel wanting to defect to the British, he asked Odette to arrange safe passage to England.
When she then wired her superiors in London to relay his request, they didn’t just tell her to sever all contact with “Colonel Henri” but, they were insistent that she and her commanding officer — Captain Peter Churchill — go immediately into hiding.
Unfortunately for them, however, they were unable to move fast enough — hence how Bleicher and his Italian guards managed to arrest them.
Following a short stint of imprisonment at the war’s end, Bleicher ultimately returned to his hometown of Tettnang in Germany.
There, he opened a tobacco shop and, prior to his passing, aged 83, published his memoir titled: “Colonel Henri’s Story.”
- Addendum 2: -
Upon arrival at Ravensbrück concentration camp, Odette was met by this man — SS-Sturmbannführer Fritz Suhren.
In his position as commandant, Suhren not only “perfected” the “Vernichtung durch Arbeit” (Extermination through labor) policy of Hitler’s Reich but, he also introduced his own barbaric scheme…
Knowing that the Wehrmacht was making extensive use of so-called “comfort women” on the frontline, Suhren offered to replace their dwindling numbers with the ever-increasing number of female inmates.
With Odette having convinced him and his Gestapo counterparts that she was a relation of Sir Winston Churchill — by way of her imagined marriage to Captain Peter Churchill — she was thus deemed too “high value” to be used as a “comfort woman.”
Indeed, so valuable she was, Suhren believed that he could later use her as collateral to save himself…
Driving her to American-held lines, in April 1945, he told the US Army that he’d “saved” a close relative of the esteemed Prime Minster, and so, was “deserving of clemency.”
When Odette, however, revealed her true identity, and “kindly asked” the Americans to “make him a prisoner”, the unrepentant Major was eventually put on trial, before being executed for crimes against humanity.
- Addendum 3: -
A sweeping view of Ravensbrück concentration camp taken by its longest-serving commandant, SS-Sturmbannführer (Major) Fritz Suhren.
Established as a “model camp” for women, the first mass convoy of female prisoners arrived in Ravensbrück on May 18th, 1939.
Comprising a transport of nearly 900 women, their number would grow to over 130,000 by the war’s end.
Of those 130,000, no fewer than 90,000 died through disease, starvation, and slave labor.
Thousands more, however, were murdered not just by beatings, bullets, and other acts of unspeakable sadism, but also, by asphyxiation in the gas chambers.
- Addendum 4: -
For almost the entirety of her incarceration at Ravensbrück concentration camp, Odette was held within the horrific confines of its “Bestrafungsblock”.
Seen here in a recent photograph, the “Punishment Block” consisted of 78 cells and a “bunker”, which, as Odette soon discovered, was used by her female guards as a torture chamber.
All inmates not only endured the beatings and floggings that took place within that chamber but, many were medically experimented on.
While Odette, fortunately, survived her ordeal, sadly, the same cannot be said for most of her fellow inmates…
Indeed, given their “lowly status” in the eyes of camp commandant, SS-Sturmbannführer (Major) Fritz Suhren, most were ruthlessly murdered before the camp’s liberation.
- Addendum 5: -
Eagerly awaiting the imminent arrival of their Reichsführer-SS, Heinrich Himmler, this photograph shows some of the female SS sadists who guarded Odette and her fellow prisoners at Ravensbrück.
All told, more than 3,000 of them volunteered to facilitate the daily suffering, torture, and murder of concentration camp detainees.
Of those 3,000, only 77 were brought to trial.
- Addendum 6: -
An imposing aerial shot of Fresnes prison, where Odette was held and interrogated, before being transported to the horrors of Ravensbrück.
When she was asked in a post-war interview how she managed to maintain her silence under the horrific torture she endured at Fresnes, Odette replied by saying:
“It’s very difficult to answer such a thing without sounding so terribly sure that one is brave and courageous… I’m not brave or courageous… I felt it was a duty. I was brought up all my life with a sense of duty. I had been trained with a sense of duty. I was a woman with a sense of duty.”
- Addendum 7: -
A recent photograph showing the Hotel de la Poste, in the remote alpine village of Saint-Jorioz, where Odette was forced to relocate, and later arrested, with her commanding officer, Captain Peter Churchill, in April 1943.
Then occupied by the Royal Italian Army, the latter provided their hunter and eventual captor — Sergeant Hugo Bleicher of the German Abwehr — with the manpower he needed to apprehend them.
- Addendum 8: -
Here, “panzertruppen” of the II SS Panzer Corps can be seen in front of one of the 77 vessels scuttled by the Marine Nationale during “Case Anton” — the German invasion of Vichy France.
Launched in response to the Allied landings in Vichy French North Africa, in November 1942, Operation Anton saw the German and Italian armies pour into the remaining unoccupied Vichy-controlled territory in southern France, and partition it into what came to be known as the “Zone Sud”.
In so doing, Adolf Hitler believed that the presence of his troops would secure a potentially exposed flank on the French Mediterranean against any planned Anglo-American invasion, which, he feared, Vichy French forces lacked the will to resolve.
While those forces did indeed lack the will to resist both the invading Wehrmacht and the Regio Esercito, they did not lack the initiative to prevent their fleet from following into the hands of the Axis…
Destroying almost all of the French Navy’s remaining auxiliary and battleships; cruisers and destroyers; patrol and torpedo boats; sloops, and submarines; they thus prevented those vessels from being used by their German and Italian counterparts against the Royal and American Navies.
- Addendum 9: -
The man who recruited Odette into the Special Operations Executive — Colonel Maurice Buckmaster.
Appointed head of SOE’s “French Section” in September 1941, Odette caught the then-Major’s attention in the spring of 1942, when, following an appeal by the Admiralty for photographs of the French coastline, she sent her own with an accompanying letter to the War Office by mistake.
That letter left a “profound impression” on Maurice, who, in turn, invited Odette for an interview.
Although she came across as being “impulsive and hasty in her judgments” during the subsequent SOE evaluation, Maurice was “deeply impressed” by her “keenness to do something for France; and so, decided to give the “French patriot a chance.”
In recognition of his war-winning contribution, building and co-ordinating the circuits that comprised his now-famous “F-Section”, Maurice was awarded a combination of military and civilian accolades.
Indeed, in 1945, he was appointed an Officer of the British Empire; shortly thereafter, he was bestowed the Croix de Guerre, Médaille de la Résistance, and the Legion d’honneur by General Charles de Gaulle; and, in 1947, Maurice was honored with an American Legion of Merit by then-US President — Harry S. Truman.
- Addendum 10: -
Odette with her second husband — Captain Peter Churchill DSO.
Commissioned into the British Army’s Intelligence Corps in 1940, Peter’s service with the “Special Operations Executive” began in the spring of 1941.
Assigned to its now-famous “F-Section”, he embarked upon his first mission in January 1942, when, after infiltrating France by submarine, he set to work as a liaison for an SOE circuit known as “URHCIN”.
Then tasked with building his own circuit — “SPINDLE” — Peter “adopted” two SOE agents to assist him — namely, an accomplished Russian-Jewish wireless operator called Adolfe Rabinovitch, and a recently arrived Odette.
Arrested alongside Odette, on April 16th, 1943, they were both transported to the horrors of Fresnes prison, where, posing as husband and wife, they convinced their Gestapo interrogators that Peter was Sir Winston Churchill’s nephew.
Although the ruse didn’t spare them from torture, it did save them from immediate execution.
Reunited with Odette at the war’s end, Peter married her in 1947.
Sadly, however, their marriage was not to last, for, in 1955, it ended in divorce.
Living the rest of his days in the French commune of Le Rouret, it was there, Peter passed away from cancer, aged 63, in 1972.
- Addendum 11: -
Odette and Peter’s accomplished Russian-Jewish wireless operator — Captain Adolfe Rabinovitch.
Born during the height of the Russian civil war, in May 1918, Adolfe’s parents moved him and his family, first to Egypt, where they raised him, and then to the French capital of Paris, where he completed his education.
From there, he emigrated to the United States, where he rose to become a renowned boxing and wrestling champion.
Volunteering for the French Foreign Legion in 1939, Adolfe was captured during the ill-fated Battle of France in the summer of 1940; but escaped after three months of captivity.
Subsequently recruited by the SOE, he remarkably evaded arrest when Odette and Peter were betrayed in April 1943; only then to be apprehended while attempting to complete another dangerous assignment in March 1944.
On discovering his Jewish faith, the Germans transported Adolfe to the horrors of Gross-Rosen concentration camp, in Poland, where, following many months of tortuous slave labor, the “Jewish giant” was selected to be murdered in the gas chambers.
- Addendum 12: -
Odette with her third husband — Captain Geoffrey MacLeod Hallowes.
Narrowly escaping the ill-fated defense of Malaya and Singapore, in early 1942, Geoffrey and his surviving Gordon Highlanders ultimately found their way to Padang, Indonesia, from where, they were rescued by a lone Royal Navy destroyer.
Subsequently flown to Bombay, India, it was there, he volunteered for the Special Operations Executive, which, in turn, later assigned him to one of its newly-formed, three-man “Jedburgh” teams.
With Geoffrey in command, both he and his fellow “Jedburghers” were parachuted into German-occupied France, where they embarked upon a campaign of subversion and sabotage.
Shipped back to England in September 1944, he was then sent to work first, with SOE’s “Special Planning Unit 22”, assessing the viability of infiltrating German-speaking defectors into Hitler’s Germany, and then, with the British 21st Army Group in an intelligence gathering capacity.
Awarded the French Croix de Guerre for his clandestine resistance activities, and mentioned in dispatches for his “conspicuous gallantry”, Geoffrey married Odette in 1956.
Together, they enjoyed nearly four decades of marriage, before Odette’s passing, in 1995, aged 82.
- Addendum 13: -
Like most females who were chosen to work as SOE field operatives, Odette was enrolled in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, which not only served as a cover for their clandestine role as agents, but also provided the organization itself with a wealth of administrative, logistical, and technical support.
Appointed vice-president of the “FANY” in 1967, this photograph shows Odette with her fellow “FANYs” during one of the many fundraisers she facilitated both during and prior to her vice-presidency.
- Addendum 14: -
Odette pictured with her beloved daughters and then-husband — Captain Peter Churchill DSO — shortly after being bestowed her Geoge Cross at Buckingham Palace.
Of the more than 400 George Cross recipients, Odette was the first female — albeit, one of whom was very nearly denied her richly-deserved accolade…
Indeed, owing to the fact that she was “unable to prove” the horrific torture she endured within the confines of Fresnes and Ravensbrück, there were some in the British establishment who attempted to block her nomination.
Thanks to, however, the eyewitness testimony that was sourced and provided by her superiors, the latter ultimately succeeded in getting Odette the recognition she was owed.
- Addendum 15: -
Odette’s complete set of richly deserved medals. From left to right, her impressive array of accolades comprises the George Cross; Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE); 1939–1945 Star; Defence Medal; War Medal 1939–1945; Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal; Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal; and the Légion d’Honneur.
Tragically stolen during a home invasion, in 1951, they were remarkably returned when, following an appeal launched by Odette’s elderly mother, imploring the degenerate who stole them to “do the right and honorable thing”, he not only took heed but, even wrote a letter of apology:
“You, Madame”, he wrote, “appear to be a dear old lady. God bless you and your children.
Thank you for having faith in me. I’m not really all that bad — it’s just circumstances etc., and I can’t help it.
Your little dog really loved me. I gave him a nice pat and left him a piece of meat — out of the fridge.
Sincerely yours,
‘A Bad Egg.’
P.S. I promise I’ll not give you a second call.”
- Addendum 16: -
Odette with her three beloved daughters, Marianne Odette (left), Lily Marie (centre), and Françoise Edith (right), at their family home in Somerset.
Born the daughters of Odette’s first husband, Roy Sansom, the latter she met and fell in love with while living in the French city of Boulogne.
From there, Odette and Roy emigrated to his native England, where, in 1931, they married.
Upon the outbreak of the Second World War, in September 1939, Roy moved Odette and his three daughters to the safe and sheltered backwater of Red Ball in Somerset, before bidding them farewell to enlist in the British Army.
There, he became a non-commissioned officer, and served, with distinction, for the duration of the conflict.
Although reunited at the war’s end, they found, sadly, that their love for one another had diminished…
Thus resulting in their divorce, in 1946, Odette then married the man she grew close to during her service with the Special Operations Executive — Captain Peter Churchill of the “SPINDLE” circuit.
- Addendum 17: -
Odette in her later years with one of her fellow Second World War heroes — Air Vice Marshal Sir Laurence Sinclair — laying a wreath of remembrance at the King George VI statue in Carlton Gardens, London. There, as George Cross recipients, they led a memorial service commemorating the 50th anniversary of the medal’s founding in September 1940.
