12. Fleeing From Nazi Dogs
Odette was nearly undone in late 1942, when a French Resistance contact, tasked with finding an out-of-the-way landing area, bungled the job. The site was supposed to be suitable for the night time landing of a modified Hudson bomber, that was to whisk an SOE operative and four French generals back to Britain. Unfortunately, the contact ineptly chose an airfield located about 1000 yards from a German antiaircraft battery.
A new landing site was selected, this one an abandoned airfield about 500 miles away. After dodging German and collaborationist Vichy police, Odette and her party made it to the airfield, only to discover that the control tower and a nearby barracks were occupied by German troops. It was a trap, and the party was forced to scatter, with Germans hot on their tail. Odette crashed into bushes, with German dogs nearly snapping at her heels, plunged into an icy stream, and battled the freezing current to the other side, where she finally shook off the pursuit.