9. Operation CLOTHIER
Given the code name “Lise”, Odette took a seaplane to Gibraltar, and from there boarded a boat for the French Riviera, to carry out her part in Operation CLOTHIER. She landed in the Riviera on November 2nd, 1942, and was picked up by the French Resistance. She was then taken by them to her SOE cell, headed by British Army captain Peter Morland Churchill – no relation to the Prime Minister. Her mission called for her to then move on to Burgundy, where she was to set up a safe house for other agents. However, Peter Churchill, impressed by Odette – and perhaps feeling the first stirrings of a romance that would blossom down the road – contacted SOE headquarters in London, and convinced them to scrap her orders. Odette was reassigned as a courier to Churchill’s network, known as SPINDLE.
All was not well with SPINDLE when Odette arrived, and things were destined to get worse. The network was beset by internal strife between its French Resistance main contact, Andre Girard, his deputy, and the SOE radio operator assigned to the lot, Adolphe Rabinovitch. Things went from bad to worse when Girard’s negligence and inattention to operational security led to the loss of a list that contained the names of over 200 supporters. It was recovered by the Gestapo, who made a near clean sweep of the lot.