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.

Decorations

 * Distinguished Service Order
 * Croix de Guerre (French)

Books by Peter Churchill

 * Of Their Own Choice (1952)
 * Duel of Wits (1953)
 * The Spirit of the Cage (1954)
 * By Moonlight (1958)
 * All About the French Riviera (1960)