Code Name

by Larry Loftis

  six members of the French: Starns, Odette, 141. See also Cookridge, Inside S.O.E., 163–64.

  “There was some trouble”: HS 9/648.4.058, UK National Archives.

  Le Journal de la Villa Isabelle: Cookridge, Inside S.O.E., 163.

  ON LANDING IN FRANCE: Ibid., 164.

  “The Baron and his wife”: Ibid.

  three scandalous assertions: Starns, Odette, 141.

  “She [Odette] pointed”: Ibid., 142, citing the Daily Telegraph, November 24, 1958.

  “We signed the document”: Ibid., 143, citing the Daily Express, November 24, 1958.

  “I have never known”: Ibid., 143, citing the Daily Telegraph, November 24, 1958.

  “It is the most amazing”: Ibid., 144, citing the Daily Express, November 24, 1958.

  letter . . . to Colonel Perkins: HS 9/648.4.017, HS 9/648.4.018, HS 9/648.4.027, and HS 9/648.4.028, UK National Archives.

  I certify that on 17th: HS 9/648.4.042, UK National Archives.

  “impeccably”: Starns, Odette, 145, citing the Daily Telegraph, November 24, 1958.

  “What Churchill did”: Ibid.

  Robert Knox . . . Sir Norman Brook . . . May 8: T 350/11.001–.002, UK National Archives.

  “There seems to be no precedent”: T 350/11.003, UK National Archives.

  “I have studied”: T 350/11.004, UK National Archives.

  “In this further letter”: T 350/11.005, UK National Archives.

  “I cannot think”: CAB 103/573.001–.002, UK National Archives. The letter, dated April 20, 1965, was sent after Buckmaster reviewed the second galley proofs.

  SOE files had been lost or destroyed by fire: Starns, Odette, 155, estimates that 85 percent of SOE files were destroyed by a fire at headquarters after the war. Foot, SOE in France, xi–xii, obliquely references the hurdle, noting in the preface of SOE in France that he had access to all relevant “surviving files of SOE.”

  to not allow key agents a prepublication review: Foot, SOE in France, preface, xii (“Since this book first appeared in April 1966 I have had further help . . . from former members of SOE.”).

  “virtually unavailable” . . . “good agents kept”: Foot, SOE in France, preface, x.

  “unpublished archives are”: Ibid., xi.

  completed his original draft . . . 1962: Ibid., x.

  invited libel actions: TS 58/1155 (generally) and TS 58/1157 (regarding Odette in particular), UK National Archives.

  discussion of . . . galley proofs with Maurice Buckmaster: Buckmaster reviewed the first set of galley proofs on January 1, 1965 (TS 58/1160.001, UK National Archives), and the second set from April 7 to April 20, 1965 (CAB 103/573.001, UK National Archives).

  “Buckmaster affirmed to have”: Correspondence of E. G. Boxshall to Treasury solicitor F. N. Charlton, June 22, 1966, at TS 58/1160.001-002, UK National Archives. Boxshall’s comment is somewhat cryptic, but suggests that Foot made the notation: “I have looked up the Notes on the Meeting with Col. Buckmaster which took place in your office on 1 January 1965 for the purpose of discussing the first edition of the galley proof. From these Notes I quote the following passage: Odette Sansom. Buckmaster affirmed to have been.”

  “Peter Churchill was here”: Buckmaster, They Fought Alone, 76.

  “Men like Peter Churchill”: Ibid., 95.

  “Peter Churchill and Odette”: Ibid., 235–36.

  Odette had made a grievous error: It appears from the postwar SOE files that Odette offered an excuse during the discussion of Foot’s book after its publication, suggesting that London instructed her to “play” Bleicher and leave the hotel on April 18. See correspondence of E. G. Boxshall to Treasury solicitor F. N. Charlton on 22 June 1966 at TS 58/1160.001–002, UK National Archives. The excuse was apparently refuted by Buckmaster and was directly contradicted by Tickell’s authorized biography, wherein Odette agrees with Peter that she should have left the Hôtel de la Poste immediately upon receiving London’s wire (Tickell, Odette, 195–96), and by Peter Churchill’s account of the events, wherein he recorded only the cable for Odette to cut contact with Bleicher. Duel of Wits, 344–45.

  “Buckmaster was deeply”: Marks, Between Silk and Cyanide, 283.

  “Odette opened the door”: Bleicher, Colonel Henri’s Story, 98.

  wherein he states that: Churchill, Duel of Wits, 362 (“[S]he took the enemy to the room of the man . . . My door was opened.”).

  “partly fictionalized”: Foot, SOE in France, 411.

  “They were to be”: HS 9/648.4.078, UK National Archives.

  “the tall thin man”: HS 9/648.4.069, UK National Archives.

  “Mrs. O. Sansom has been”: HS 9/648.4.019 and HS 9/648.4.026, UK National Archives.

  “I believe you expressed”: HS 9/648.4.024, UK National Archives.

  fears of libel claims: TS 58/1155 (generally) and TS 58/1157 (by Odette), UK National Archives.

  “I have been through”: Starns, Odette, 158; TS 58/1160, UK National Archives.

  indemnity insurance: Starns, Odette, 161.

  Goodman, Derrick and Co. . . . “The British government”: Ibid., 164; TS 58/1160, UK National Archives. See also TS 58/1157.001, TS 58/1157.002, and TS 58/1157.003–.004, UK National Archives.

  Odette was compensated £646: Starns, Odette, 168.

  met with Odette’s attorneys . . . Foot agreed to make the changes: See F. N. Charlton’s “Mrs. Odette Hallowes” memo dated 15 June 1966 at TS 58/1157.005, UK National Archives.

  “There has been one”: Starns, Odette, 170–71, citing the London Times, July 11, 1966, 13.

  his lawyers filed suit: Peter was represented by Oswald, Hickson, Collier & Co. FO 953/2431.00002, UK National Archives.

  “Luxury was as”: FO 953/2431.00004–.00005, UK National Archives.

  ordered to remove: Michael Foot, in his preface for the revised SOE in France, wrote on September 4, 1967: “I have also taken this opportunity to modify a number of passages which gave some quite unintended personal offence [sic], and to make explicit a few points misunderstood by reviewers.” SOE in France, xii.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

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