10 Facts About Churchill’s Favorite WWII Spy

During World War II, Sir Winston Churchill regarded Polish Countess Maria Skarbek, later known as Christine Granville, as his favorite spy. This recognition stemmed from her exceptional bravery and accomplishments as a secret agent in Nazi-occupied Poland and France. Despite the severe consequences, including execution and torture for spies, Skarbek remarkably survived the war, unlike many other Allied intelligence operatives.

Skarbek’s life is like an espionage adventure novel, and she is believed to be the inspiration for Vesper Lynd in Ian Fleming’s first James Bond novel, Casino Royale. Let’s explore ten extraordinary facts about Skarbek’s contribution to the Allied cause and why Churchill admired her so much.

10. Wild Child

Born in Warsaw in 1908, Maria Krystyna Janina Skarbek was the daughter of Count Jerzy Skarbek and Stefania, a Jewish woman from a wealthy banking family. She grew up on a large estate, enjoying a privileged upbringing. Biographer Claire Mulley noted that Skarbek was raised with freedom and adoration, learning to ride horses and shoot.

Skarbek was a spirited child, to say the least. She was expelled from a convent school for setting fire to a priest’s cassock during Mass. However, her privileged life ended when her father’s finances failed, leading to the sale of their estate before his death in 1930. Forced to find work, she became a clerk at an automobile business, a job she detested.

9. Marriages and the Invasion of Poland

The tedious job was also dangerous, as car fumes affected Skarbek’s lungs, leaving scars that would later save her life. Doctors recommended mountain air, so Skarbek spent time at Zakopane, a ski resort in the Carpathian Mountains. There, she became close to Gustav Gettlich, whom she married, though the marriage lasted only a few years.

Skarbek met her second husband, Jerzy Giżycki, a diplomat, in Zakopane, and they married in 1938, despite his being almost 30 years older. While in Johannesburg, South Africa, they learned of the Nazi invasion of Poland in September 1939, followed by the Soviets seizing the eastern part of the country. Both fiercely patriotic, they returned to Europe, sailing to England. Giżycki joined the Allies in France, but Granville had her own ideas about serving Poland.

8. Becoming a Spy

Mulley described Skarbek’s actions upon reaching London: “She storms off to what’s meant to be the secret headquarters of MI6 [British Military Intelligence]. She doesn’t so much volunteer as demand to be taken on.” MI6 was initially shocked, having never recruited a female agent. However, they were impressed by her language skills and daring spirit.

An MI6 officer described her as “a very smart-looking girl, simply dressed and aristocratic…absolutely fearless.” Eager for information from Poland, the British found her ideal. Skarbek was willing to risk her life to gather intelligence from within Poland.

7. Across the Carpathian Mountains

Skarbek began her espionage work in December 1939, traveling to Hungary, which was neutral but friendly to the Nazis. In Budapest, she met Andrzej Kowerski, an old friend who had lost a leg fighting in the Polish Army. Together, they crossed Slovakia and the Carpathian Mountains into Poland. Kowerski helped downed British airmen return to Britain, while Skarbek gathered intelligence.

Skarbek obtained a crucial microfilm revealing troop and equipment build-up on the border between German-occupied Poland and the Soviet sector, indicating Hitler’s plan to invade Russia. This film reached Winston Churchill, prompting him to call Skarbek his “favorite spy,” according to his daughter, Sarah Oliver. Churchill was pleased because a German attack on Russia would bring the Soviets into the war on Britain’s side.

6. Fake Tuberculosis

By January 1941, Hungary was aligned with the Nazis, and the Gestapo targeted Skarbek and Kowerski in Budapest. Hungarian police arrested them and handed them over to the Gestapo. Skarbek devised a plan to secure their release, using the lung scars from her previous job.

Skarbek bit her tongue until it bled, then coughed, claiming the blood was a symptom of tuberculosis, a disease that terrified people in the 1940s. A chest X-ray revealed her old scars, seemingly confirming the diagnosis. The Germans, fearing the disease, released them.

5. Escape from Hungary

The British spymasters arranged for Skarbek and Kowerski to leave Hungary immediately, providing them with British passports. Krystyna Skarbek became Christine Granville, the name she used for the rest of her life, also shaving seven years off her age. Skarbek and Kowerski, now Andrew Kennedy, were smuggled out of Hungary and arrived in Cairo, British-occupied Egypt.

They were met with suspicion in Egypt, with some British officials suspecting them of being double agents. However, by 1943, MI6 dismissed these suspicions, and after extensive training, Skarbek parachuted into German-occupied France in May 1944. She joined a French Resistance unit led by Francis Cammaerts on the Vercors Plateau. Shortly after her arrival, the Nazis attacked Vercors, and Cammaerts and Skarbek narrowly escaped.

4. High in the Alps

Operating near the French-Italian border, Skarbek executed one of her most significant operations against the Nazis. At Col de Larche, a fortified base in the Alps was manned by Polish conscripts and a few German officers. Skarbek, learning of this, devised another daring plan.

After trekking for two days through the mountains, Granville reached the remote Col de Larche. She approached the fort and contacted the Polish soldiers, explaining in their language that the Allies had landed in northern France, with another landing in the south imminent. She assured them that the Nazis would soon be defeated.

3. A Polish Mutiny

Using her charm and persuasive skills, Skarbek convinced the Polish soldiers to mutiny against the Nazis. They deserted their posts, taking their weapons, and joined the French Resistance. Encouraged by Skarbek, the Poles blew up the road through the Col de Larche pass, preventing the Germans from sending reinforcements against Operation Dragoon, the Allied landing on the southern coast of France.

However, Cammaerts and two agents of the British SOE (Special Operations Executive) were arrested at a German roadblock as they drove through France. The Germans found a large sum of money and correctly identified them as Resistance members. They were imprisoned at the Gestapo HQ in Digne and sentenced to death.

2. An Audacious Rescue

Upon hearing this news, Skarbek planned to free Cammaerts and the SOE agents from the Gestapo prison. She initially tried to persuade other Resistance fighters to storm the prison, but they refused, deeming it impossible. So, Skarbek decided to persuade the Germans to release them.

Reaching Digne on her bicycle, Skarbek contacted the Gestapo. She claimed to be Cammaerts’ wife and the niece of Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery. She admitted that the prisoners were senior British agents but warned that harming them would result in severe consequences when the British and Americans arrived. Astonishingly, all three men were released.

1. After the War

With the end of WWII in Europe in May 1945, Skarbek chose not to return to Poland, which was now under a Soviet-supported Communist regime. Despite awarding her the George Medal, the British authorities largely abandoned Skarbek, forcing her to take menial jobs as a waitress, telephonist, and shop worker.

In 1950, she became a stewardess on a cruise ship and met Dennis Muldowney. Skarbek, divorced from George Giżycki, began a relationship with him but soon grew tired of him and asked him to leave her alone.

In June 1952, Granville was living at the Shelbourne Hotel in London when Muldowney visited her despite her rejection. Skarbek met him in the lobby, where Muldowney stabbed her in the heart, killing her at age 44. It was a tragic end for this heroic woman, Churchill’s favorite spy. Muldowney was convicted of murder and executed.