14. Recruitment Into the SOE
A week later, Odette received a reply, requesting that she stop by the War Office. There, she was asked whether she would be interested in using her French background to aid the war effort. Assuming what was on offer were translation jobs or the such, she said she would be more than happy. In a follow up interview soon thereafter, she met with a recruiter who offered her a job with the SOE’s Section F, tasked with conducting operations in France. Relatively few Britons could speak French like a native, but Odette could, and as the recruiter told her: “We think women could be very useful“.
As a matter of fact, women were extra useful for work in France. Aside from arousing less suspicion, women were not subject to the frequent roundups of French males, who were sent to Germany as forced laborers. However, with three young daughters to take care of, Odette was understandably reluctant. As she put it: “My children come first. I mean, I want to do everything I can for this country, which is my adopted country and the country which has adopted me. My children are English and I have a French family, and all my roots are in France; I have two reasons for wanting to help, but I can’t do that“. Over the following months, she struggled with the decision, before finally deciding to join the SOE.