A former British wartime spy will this week be recognised for her part in liberating France from Nazi occupation - 70 years after she was parachuted behind enemy lines.

Phyllis Latour Doyle spent years gathering information on German positions and risked her life to send 135 coded messages back to Britain before the country's 1944 liberation.

For decades, the 93-year-old kept her heroic actions secret - only telling her four children about her wartime service 15 years ago.

Brave: Phyllis Latour Doyle spent months gathering information on German positions and risked her life to send a total of 135 coded messages back to Britain before France's 1944 liberation

Speaking in a rare interview five years ago, she said: 'My eldest son found out by reading something on the internet, and my children insisted I send off for my medals.

She told New Zealand Army News: 'I was asked if I wanted them to be formally presented to me, and I said no, I didn't, it was my family who wanted them.'

But Mrs Doyle, who now lives quietly in New Zealand, will be publicly recognised for her service when she receives the Legion of Honour, France's highest decoration, on Tuesday.

It will be presented but the French ambassador to New Zealand as part of the commemorations for the 70th anniversary of the battle of Normandy.

Posting on Facebook, her son, Barry Doyle, who is understood to be attending the event, said that he is 'very proud'.

Reluctant: Mrs Doyle said that she spent years hiding her wartime actions and only told her children about her vital role in the liberation 15 years ago. They encouraged her to request her medals, pictured above

The daughter of an English mother and a French doctor, Mrs Doyle joined the Women Auxillary Air Force in 1941 to train as a flight mechanic.

While there, impressed secret service recruiters with her tenacity, spirit and fluency in French and was chosen to train in espionage. She became one of 40 female agents working for the Special Operations Executive (SEO).

Speaking to Army News in 2009, Mrs Doyle said that she joined the SEO 'for revenge'.

She explained that her godmother committed suicide after being taken prisoner by the Nazis and that her father was shot by the Germans.

Spy: While living in France in 1944, Mrs Doyle was known by the codename Paulette

Intensive training was crammed into a few months. As well as gruelling physical tests - including lessons in scaling buildings and wriggling across muddy fields - recruits were taught by a prolific cat burglar.

Mrs Doyle told the New Zealand Army News: 'We learnt how to get in a high window, and down drain pipes, how to climb over roofs without being caught.'

Then in her early 20s, she was required to memorise Morse code and be able to tap 24 words a minute - professional telegraphists only needed half that speed.

Agents were taught to encrypt messages, repair broken wireless sets and practised sending messages from remote locations.

She was first deployed to put her extensive training into action in August 1942. For the next year, Mrs Doyle, using the codename Genevieve, was based in Aquitaine along with Claude and Lise de Baissac, the organisers of the underground SCIENTIST network.

On May 2 1944, the young woman, then 23, parachuted out of a United States Air Force bomber over Nazi-occupied Normandy - ready once again to put months of specialist training into action.

Now identified by the codename Paulette, she assumed the identity of a poor teenage French girl to make the Germans less suspicious.

Aware that agents only had a 50 per cent chance of survival, she made sure to move around often - sleeping rough and staying with allied sympathisers.

The intelligence she sent back to London was fed into the huge Allied command machine, and used to guide bombing missions to enemy targets.

After the war, Mrs Doyle moved to Kenya and Fiji before settling in Australia. She now lives quietly in a suburb of Auckland.

The French Ambassador to New Zealand, Laurent Contini, who is presenting the Legion of Honor to Mrs Doyle, said she was a 'formidable example for younger and older generations alike.'

He said: 'I have deep admiration for her bravery and her unshakable commitment to ending the war and it will be with great honour that I present her with the award.'