Odette Strugo Garay: SOE radio operator and courier who carried out vital work with the Resistance in the preparations for D-Day

Odette Strugo Garay was one of the last surviving female agents of the Special Operations Executive. At the age of 24 she was one of an elite band of courageous, idealistic and resolute men and women risking their lives in occupied Europe. She was eventually awarded her RAF Parachute “wings” in 2007.

The SOE, housed in Baker Street in London, was created in June 1940, shortly after France had surrendered to Germany, by the newly appointed Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who demanded that they create havoc and “set Europe ablaze”. Dropped behind enemy lines, agents helped forge the secret army of resistance fighters who prepared the way for the Allied invasion. They all knew the consequences of capture by the Gestapo – often brutal interrogation and torture, followed by execution, or grim survival in a concentration camp. The F (French) Section alone sent 39 female agents into the field, of whom 13 were executed, two were liberated from camps, one escaped and two died of natural causes.

SOE was far ahead of contemporary attitudes in its use of women. From its inception SOE began recruiting women with language skills into the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) or the Auxiliary Transport Service before sending them for specialist training.

Born in London in 1919, Odette Victoria Sar was the daughter of a French mother and a Czech father who became a naturalised British citizen in 1931, along with his family, and served as an RAF officer. By early 1944 Odette had joined FANY and was married to a Finnish RAF pilot instructor, Denis Wilen; he was killed in a flying accident. Noting Odette’s linguistic ability in French, F Section seconded her to train as a wireless operator.

Although women were first considered only as couriers or wireless operators, thanks to their ability to blend in and travel relatively freely, or as administrative staff in Britain, those sent into the field were trained to use weapons and in unarmed combat. Odette had completed four jumps, including the most formidable, from a static balloon, but not the customary fifth to qualify for her parachute “wings”.

Training with her was Pearl Witherington, who later recalled her surprise after an explosives course when Odette asked what they were supposed to be doing. Asked if she knew herself, Odette replied, “Well, no. I was recruited as a bilingual secretary.”

Her training was cut short, and on 12 April 1944 she was parachuted with another operator into France to work with the Resistance in preparation for D-Day. Codenamed Sophie, she initially joined the “Stationer” network in the Auvergne region of south-western France. Due to her inexperience it was decided that she should work as a courier for a new network, codenamed “Labourer”, being established near Chartres, south-west of Paris, along with Marcel Leccia and two others.

Within a few days she and Leccia were engaged, but Leccia and his two comrades were betrayed on a separate mission by a Nazi sympathiser; the Gestapo were waiting for them at a rendezvous in Paris. Leccia was tortured, then killed at Buchenwald concentration camp in September 1944. Hearing of the arrests, Leccia’s sister, Mimi, had rushed to the safe house where Odette was waiting and led her to safety moments before the Gestapo arrived.

She returned south and worked briefly for the “Stationer” network before returning and from there to London. Her escape included a memorable bicycle ride down the Champs d’Elysée escorted by Mimi. She crossed the Pyrenees on foot into neutral Spain before travelling to England via Gibraltar.

During the crossing she met the head of the Spanish escape network, Santiago Strugo Garay. Despite having known her for three days, when the war ended he travelled to London, traced her and married her.

Santiago having fought on the Republican side against Franco during the Spanish Civil War, the couple decided against returning to Spain and moved to Buenos Aires, where they became pillars of Anglo-Argentinian society.

Years later, Odette casually lamented to Wing Commander Simon Dowling, the Air Attaché in Argentina, that it was a shame she had not completed the requisite parachute jumps to qualify for her wings. Thanks to the fact that she had carried out a fifth jump into enemy-held territory, Air-Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy authorised the award, and in 2007 the British ambassador, Dr John Hughes, presented her wings to her, while Dowling also presented her with a silver parachute wings brooch that she wore with pride every day.

Odette Strugo Garay, Special Operations Executive agent: born London 25 April 1919; married firstly Dennis Wilen (died 1942), secondly Santiago Strugo Garay (died 1997; two children); died Buenos Aires 22 September 2015.