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This Housewife Became World War II’s Highly Decorated Spy

Khalid Elhassan June 12, 2019 24 min

Odette Hallowes - World War II — Odette Sansom and her daughters. Code Name Lise

10. She Was Smuggled Into France by Boat

Odette was supposed to get airdropped into occupied France, so she was sent for parachute training. There, however, she made a bad landing during one of her jumps, and ended up smashing face first into some matting. She hurt her knee and ankle, which was badly sprained, and got a concussion, as well as a cracked metatarsal. She spent time in a hospital for those injuries, and required specialist ophthalmic care for an eye that was closed shut amidst a badly swollen face.

After recovering from her injuries, she expressed willingness – if lukewarm – to resume parachute training, but made it clear that she would prefer an alternative means for getting to France. Insertion via submarine was discussed as an option, before it was finally decided to smuggle her in by boat. On September 14^th, 1942, she was given false identity papers for an “Odette Metayer” – a widow from Boulogne, who had been born and raised in Dunkirk. She was then dispatched to Gibraltar, from whence a small boat would smuggle her into southern France.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.