Peter Churchill Peter Morland Churchill DSO Croix de Guerre ( 1909 – 1972 ) was an SOE Officer in France during World War II . He was a brother of Group Captain Walter Churchill DSO DFC and Major Oliver Churchill DSO MC , who was also an SOE Officer during World War II . Biography . His father was William Algernon Churchill ( 1865 – 1947 ) a British Consul who served in Mozambique , Amsterdam , Pará , in Brazil , Stockholm , Milan , and Algiers . His father was also an art connoisseur , and author of what is still the standard reference work on early European paper and papermaking , " Watermarks in Paper " , and his mother Violet ( née Myers ) . Peter was born in Amsterdam on 14 January 1909 . He was educated at Malvern School and read Modern Languages at Caius College , Cambridge . In addition to his native English , he was bilingual in French and fluent in Spanish , Italian and German . He also excelled in sports - he was Captain of the Cambridge University Ice Hockey Club in 1932 and won 15 international caps , was proficient at exhibition diving , was a first - class skier , and played golf off a six handicap . Wartime activities . After the outbreak of World War II , Captain Peter Churchill and three colleagues embarked upon HMS Unbroken ( on April 11 , 1941 ) and were dropped off by folboats in the Bay of Antibes on the 20th of April . That same night he returned to the submarine with François d ' Astier de La Vigerie ( Baron d ′ Astier de la Vigerie ) who went by the name of Bernard . He continued his work as an Intelligence Officer and joined the Special Operations Executive in June 1941 , assigned to the French Section . His code names were " Michel " , “ Raoul ” and " Pierre Olivier " . He was infiltrated into France four times , twice by submarine and twice by aircraft . On 1 January 1942 , he was landed at Miramar in France by submarine to supply and evaluate the " Carte " circuit of the Maquis and French Resistance , returning to England through Spain on 14 February . After he returned he was promoted to Captain . On 1 March 1942 , he landed in the south of France by submarine to deliver four other people . On 27 August 1942 , he was parachuted into the south of France and went to Cannes to organise and coordinate the SOE F Section " Spindle " Network . He developed a close relationship with his French courier Odette Sansom . The Spindle Network directed the delivery of supplies to support Carte . After Churchill ' s unsuccessful attempts to arrange for an aircraft to pick up himself and members of the Carte network , he relocated the Spindle network to Annecy . He returned to the UK on 23 March 1943 . Eventually the Abwehr infiltrated Spindle . Churchill went to England on 23 – 24 March 1943 and on 15 April parachuted back into the mountains above Saint - Jorioz on the banks of Lake Annecy . However , he and Sansom were arrested two days later in St . Jorioz by Hugo Bleicher of Abwehr . Churchill and Sansom claimed they were a married couple and related to Winston Churchill to make themselves seem more valuable prisoners and less likely to be executed as spies . They were sent to different concentration camps , where they were tortured and sentenced to death , but both escaped execution . Churchill was initially taken to the German barracks in Annecy , then to Fresnes , where he remained until 13 February 1944 , when he was transferred to Berlin for questioning . On 2 May , he was sent to Sonderlager “ A ” Sachsenhausen , where he was held in solitary confinement for 318 days out of 11 months . On 1 April 1945 , he was moved by train to Flossenbürg , 50 miles south - east of Bayreuth , where he was held for 3 – 4 days before being taken by truck and Black Maria on a 30 - hour trip to Dachau where , rather than being taken to the notorious concentration camp , he was lodged in a brothel along with other officers , and there made the acquaintance of Gen . Garibaldi and his Chief of Staff Col . Ferraro . As an officer he was given better treatment than most of the 22 , 000 inmates of Flossenburg , who were forcibly evacuated on the 220 km death march to Dachau concentration camp , during which one third died . The next day , as the Americans were approaching Dachau , he and 30 other officers were taken by bus to Innsbruck , where he was held in the Straflager . They were joined by 140 other notable prisoners , including former Austrian Chancellor , Dr . Kurt Schuschnigg . On 24 April 1945 , Churchill was taken from Dachau over the Brenner Pass to Villabassa ( Niederdorf in the Tyrol ) , together with many other prominent concentration camp inmates from different countries , where the SS left the prisoners behind as American forces were approaching . On 27 April , he was taken 15 miles to the south to Wildsee , where on 4 May he was liberated by the Fifth U . S . Army . He was taken to Naples for debriefing by officers from the Crimes Investigations Departments and testified against his former captors , and on 12 May 1945 was flown back to England in the private plane of Air - Marshall Garrow . Odette was sent to Ravensbrück , where she endured terrible torture but revealed nothing to her captors . Post war . Peter Churchill and Odette Sansom were married in 1947 but divorced in 1956 . Peter continued to live in France after the war , settling in Le Rouret near Cannes , where he worked in real estate , and lived there until his death in 1972 .