This is the story, compiled and abstracted from scores of historical documents, of Virginia Hall, the only woman to have earned her own section in the CIA Museum catalog (the other four being men who became directors of the CIA). Her role in supporting and mobilizing the French resistance over the years of Nazi occupation resulting in the successful liberation of France was eventually hailed with accolades from high and low … many, many years later. However, during her lifetime she spent most of her time wanting to be useful and consistently relegated to low level desk jobs despite her incredible success as an agent on the ground.
I’m not much of a history buff, but I found this story deeply compelling, both in terms of the actual work she did (described at a whole new level of detail than anything I had read before about this particular time and place) and the mechanics and psychology of war work and the place of women in it at the time. The narrative covers the truly incompetent beginnings of the British SOE and American OSS; the turmoil brought to experienced military types having to succumb to “modern” warfare, including the “immoral” use of spies; the creative ways the resistance engaged in harassment and sabotage and rescue operations; the various factions working against each other, rather than against the nazis when liberation drew near, to the brave and somewhat crazy Maquis; and the innate nastiness of more of the French people than I would expected — I guess severe deprivation and fear can bring out the worst in people.
Virginia was really like the James Bond of the WWII French Theater (minus the womanizing, obviously, although the number of male agents who caused great damage through casual pillow talk was horrifying). I had trouble at times keeping track of who was who but it kind of didn’t matter as long as you could easily keep track of her role. An impressive piece of work that neither undersold, nor oversold, her story. Highly recommended.
Books to look forward to ... 