How a brave British spy protected the man she loved by ensuring the Nazis ...

A British spy who was tortured by Nazis lied to her captors to protect the man she loved, a book about her ordeal reveals.

Odette Sansom was a 30-year-old housewife and mother-of-three when she found herself on a boat to Nazi-occupied France in October 1942.

Just months later she had fallen for her supervisor Captain Peter Churchill and chose to lie to protect him when they were captured by the Gestapo in April 1943. 

Code Name: Lise by Larry Loftis tells the story of how her cover was blown, she endured 14 rounds of torture, manipulated her captors and survived more than three months in solitary confinement at Ravensbruck concentration camp in Germany. 

Odette Sansom was a 30-year-old housewife and mother-of-three when she found herself on a boat to Nazi-occupied France in October 1942

Odette Sansom was a 30-year-old housewife and mother-of-three when she found herself on a boat to Nazi-occupied France in October 1942

From her home in Somerset Odette, who grew up in Picardy, responded to an appeal for photographs of the French coast to help with the D-Day landings.

But she called the wrong military department and got through to the Special Operations Executive who were looking for French speaking women to join them.

'Am I going to be satisfied that other people are going to suffer, get killed, die... trying to get freedom for my own ­children?' she later said. 

She made the decision to send her children Francoise, Lili and Marianne to boarding school and was sent to France in October 1942.

She worked with Captain Peter Churchill and other SOE officers to arrange night-time parachute drops.

But, just months later, when a fake German defector reported them to the Gestapo in German-occupied France the team were caught.

Despite being married, Odette had fallen for Captain Churchill, her supervisor, and she lied to their captors to save him from punishment.

Despite being married, Odette had fallen for Captain Churchill, her supervisor, and she lied to their captors to save him from punishment. The couple pictured on their wedding day in 1947

Despite being married, Odette had fallen for Captain Churchill, her supervisor, and she lied to their captors to save him from punishment. The couple pictured on their wedding day in 1947

Not only did she tell them she was actually the brains behind the mission, but she said the pair were married and Peter was related to Winston Churcill.

This bargaining chip meant despite being the only one of six other captured SOE agents to be sentenced to death, she was the only one to survive their ordeal.   

Her granddaughters told The Mirror she got through being burnt with a scalding hot poker and having her toenails pulled out one

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