Text copyright © 2025 by Claudia Friddell

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The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2024017678

ISBN: 978-1-6626-8059-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6626-8060-1 (eBook)

First edition

Design by Red Herring Design

The text is set in Rockwell.

The titles are set in Aku & Kamu.

FOREWORD

Please note before I begin that Virginia Hall’s family and friends called her by her nickname, “Dindy,” and I invite you to do the same.

As a kid in the ’70s, I remember the blank expression on my friend’s face when I told him about my great-aunt Dindy. “She was a spy with a wooden leg who shot herself in the foot while hunting birds in a Turkish swamp, and she dressed up like an old maid in World War II, and sold cheese to the Germans soldiers, and stole their secrets because they didn’t know she spoke German and …” No response. I think I could have told him that my great-aunt was an octopus, and his reaction would have been the same. In a way, Dindy was a conversation-stopper back then, but now I understand why. She was simply the first of her kind.

Dindy somehow managed to live the equivalent of twenty regular-size lives and spent most of it trying to save the world from, as she put it, “the usual enemies of the civilized world.” And somehow, author Claudia Friddell has managed to tell Dindy’s massive life story in photographs and a crystal-clear voice that sets each scene precisely and makes the reader feel like they are there. For most of the book, I felt like a fly on the wall in a wartime French café.

Fortunately for us, Dindy was not the last of her kind. Over the years, I have had the pleasure to meet several dozen retired female CIA agents at events honoring my great-aunt. They all knew Dindy’s story backward and forward, and every one of them had that same eagle-like fire in their eyes, and no doubt each was perfectly capable of winning a car chase and a bar fight, any day of the week. Just like Dindy.

Early in Claudia’s book, I found myself saying “Wow!” after nearly every page. How was this possible? I have heard (and told) Dindy’s story hundreds of times, but this book made the story feel fresh and new. After I finished The Mysterious Virginia Hall, I realized that I had been taken on a worldwide, magic carpet-like journey with a hundred mind-boggling stops along the way. My advice, dear reader, is to board this magic carpet but to fly it slowly. There is so much to see, and you won’t want to miss a thing!

Finally, I would like to congratulate Claudia, a Baltimore girl, just like Dindy. The Mysterious Virginia Hall is a truly wonderful book. I am also thankful for the care and respect Claudia gave to Dindy’s niece, my mother, Lorna Catling, whose eyes always sparkle with excitement and pride whenever she tells Dindy’s story and shares her album of black-and-white photos, many of which you will enjoy in the coming pages.

Bradford D. S. Catling

Virginia Hall’s great-nephew

DINDY

Virginia Hall

might have been the name

on her birth certificate,

but thanks to a nickname

from her brother, John,

Dindy was the name that stuck.

Most young girls

of Baltimore society a century ago

were expected to follow

in their mothers’ ladylike footsteps—

but Dindy made

a path of her own.

1911. Dindy and her older brother, John, had a happy, active childhood together at Boxhorn Farm in Maryland. She called him “Johnny” and he gave his sister the nickname “Dindy” by mispronouncing her original nickname “Ginger.”

Never one to mind

getting her hands dirty,

her feet wet,

or her body bruised,

Dindy was happiest

riding horses and hunting

with her father and brother

at Boxhorn Farm—

the Halls’ country estate

outside Baltimore.

When Dindy’s father, Ned,

wasn’t leading the way

in outdoor adventures

on the family farm,

he was busy providing

indoor adventures

at his movie theaters—

magical places

where reels of film

brought the outside world

to Baltimore.

1916. Dindy jumps off the Boxhorn barn roof in a photo titled, The Champion High Jumper of Boxhorn. Dindy earned her reputation as a fearless adventurer at an erly age.

For generations

the Halls had been

fascinated by cultures

vastly different and worlds away

from Maryland shores.

At the age of nine,

Dindy’s grandfather stowed away

on his sea captain father’s clipper ship,

and later captained a ship of his own

that brought Asian goods to America.

While many of their friends

crossed the Chesapeake Bay

for seaside vacations,

Dindy’s family

crossed the Atlantic Ocean

for European adventures.

From her very first

transatlantic voyage

at the age of four,

Dindy stowed away

a love for Europe.

1910. Four-year-old Dindy looks upward from a ship’s deck on her first of many voyages to Europe. The Halls were headed for the Brussels International Exposition. Their love for intercontinental travel no doubt influenced Dindy’s determination to become a US ambassador.

When Dindy wasn’t chasing

after her brother

at Boxhorn Farm,

or exploring foreign countries

with her family,

she was blazing

her own unique trail

at Roland Park Country School—

an all-girls school in Baltimore.

Never once

in twelve years at RPCS

did she hear—

You can’t do that, you’re a girl!

Because, unlike in the outside world,

every club and team

at Dindy’s school

was not only made up of girls—

they were all led by girls.

Nicknamed the Fighting Blade

by her ninth-grade classmates,

Dindy was a natural leader

in sports, student government,

and school activities.

She was often

her own harshest critic,

but her devoted classmates

gave her an endearing tribute

on her yearbook senior page:

She is, by her own confession,

cantankerous and capricious,

but in spite of it all

we would not do without her;

for she is our class-president,

the editor-in-chief of this book,

and one of the mainstays

of the basket-ball and hockey teams.

She has been acclaimed

the most original of our class,

and she lives up

to her reputation

at all times.

The one thing to expect from Dind

is the unexpected.

It was certainly unexpected

the day Dindy

surprised her classmates

by wearing a favorite

new bracelet to school—

a live, slithering garter snake

coiled around her wrist.

Dindy, inspired by Shakespeare’s play,

As You Like It, made it clear

on her senior page

just how much

she valued her independence

when she stated

I must have liberty, withal as large a charter as I please.

1924. Dindy, on right, loved theater and often played male parts in her all-girls school plays. A hint of her indomitable spirit is reflected on her Roland Park Country School senior page: “Though professing to hold Man in contempt, Dindy is yet his closest counterpart—in costume.”

Dindy had no way

of knowing then

of the bold sacrifices

she would later make

to prove her own independence—

or the extraordinary risks

she would take

to defend and preserve

liberty for so many others.

Mr. Hall encouraged his daughter’s

independent nature,

and while Mrs. Hall

accepted Dindy’s free spirit,

she still expected

her beautiful, bright,

and accomplished daughter

to join the path

of other young ladies

of Baltimore society

by marrying a worthy husband

and starting a family nearby.

But in 1920, when Dindy was fourteen,

a family visit to London’s American embassy

dashed Barbara Hall’s dreams for her daughter

and steered Dindy toward a different path—

one that didn’t include

a husband, a family, or a home in Maryland.

Once she learned

American ambassadors

represented the United States

in foreign countries,

Dindy decided this was her destiny.

She wasn’t the least bit discouraged

when her father explained

there were no female ambassadors—

it only fueled Dindy’s determination.

After all, being a girl

had never gotten in the way

of her dreams before.

A maverick at home and at school,

Dindy was ready

to take her first step

toward a future

most women didn’t want

and couldn’t get

in the 1920s—

an overseas job in the United States Foreign Service.

With her father’s blessing,

and her mother’s disapproval,

Roland Park’s most original student

set off on a most unexpected journey,

leaving her hometown

and her nickname behind.

VIRGINIA

If Virginia was going to be an ambassador,

she had a lot to learn.

Virginia attended Radcliffe and Barnard,

two of America’s top colleges

available to women,

but she had become frustrated

by what she described as

a lot of uninteresting required courses.

After a year at each school

she craved more worldly opportunities.

So in 1926, at the age of twenty,

Virginia crossed the Atlantic—

this time without her family—

to study languages

and economics in Paris

at the École Libre des Sciences Politiques.

1926. American-born Josephine Baker—Black singer, dancer, and actress during the Jazz Age. Like Virginia, the famous entertainer became a spy to aid her beloved France in fighting fascism during World War II. She gathered intelligence, smuggled documents, and hid Jewish refugees, resistance fighters, and weapons.

What a remarkable time

for a young, independent-minded

woman like Virginia to live in Paris—

a city bursting with the creative energy

of innovative artists, writers, and entertainers

like Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, and Josephine Baker.

The 1920s in France

was a decade so rich in culture,

an era so full of free expression,

it was called Les Années Folles—the Crazy Years.

Living on her own,

free to dress as she liked

and act as she pleased,

Virginia found

her independence in France—

the place she now called

her second homeland.

From Paris

Virginia headed to Vienna, Austria,

where she continued her studies

in languages and economics

at the Consular Academy.

Virginia strengthened her French language skills

and expanded her knowledge

of French culture and geography

by taking summer courses in Toulouse,

Grenoble, and Strasbourg.

She never perfected her French accent,

but her love for France and its people grew.

1928. After studying in Paris, 22-year-old Virginia, seated in the middle, enjoyed Vienna where she earned her college degree at the Consular Academy.

After three years of adventures in Europe,

Virginia returned to America

with a college degree

from the Consular Academy.

Focused on preparing herself

for a career as a foreign service officer

in the US State Department,

Virginia started a year of graduate studies

in French and economics

at George Washington University

in the nation’s capital.

But Virginia’s focus was jolted

when the stock market crashed

in the fall of 1929.

The Great Depression followed,

devastating the entire country.

Jobs were lost, bank accounts were emptied,

and food became scarce.

Along with millions of Americans,

the Halls’ way of life changed forever.

Virginia’s brother lost his job,

and her father scrambled to keep

his businesses in operation.

Despite the hardships

caused by the Depression,

Virginia completed her graduate studies

and was ready to take the next step

toward a future in diplomacy.

Even though only six of the fifteen hundred

foreign service officers at that time were women,

Virginia was confident

that with her extensive education,

travel experience, and language skills,

she would easily pass

the Foreign Service entrance exam.

But Virginia misjudged its difficulty.

Her perfect oral foreign language proficiency score

did not make up for her poor performance

on the more subjective oral portion

and the challenging written test.

In December 1929, Virginia failed the exam.

Rejected but not defeated,

Virginia was determined to prove

she was just as capable as any man

to serve as a diplomat,

so she retook the exam

the following July.

Despite an improvement

on her written tests,

She had failed again.

Virginia told a friend her only path

to a job in the Foreign Service

was through the back door.

That meant she would need to apply

to the State Department

for consular clerk positions—

secretarial jobs—

in foreign embassies.

Unfortunately, tragic circumstances

would put a hold on her diplomatic dreams.

Virginia was raised

to shrug off discomfort

and tackle challenges head on—

but she and her family

reeled from shock

when her beloved father

died of a heart attack

in the winter of 1931.

Virginia couldn’t imagine

a world without her father—

her biggest fan.

He had always been there to encourage

his spirited daughter

to explore her own interests

and follow her own dreams.

Virginia and her brother rallied together

to help their mother

adjust to a new life

without her loving husband.

Once John moved his family

into Boxhorn Farm

to help with expenses,

Virginia was ready

to renew her pursuit

of a future in the Foreign Service.

While most of her friends

were getting married

and starting families in Baltimore,

Virginia was applying

for clerk positions

in foreign embassies.

In the summer of 1931,

twenty-five-year-old Virginia

received her first job offer,

which she accepted without hesitation.

Ready to embark on a new adventure,

Virginia headed to the American embassy

in Warsaw, Poland.

1931. After helping her family adjust after the Depression and her father’s death, Virginia took her first post as a consular clerk at the American embassy in Warsaw, Poland. Although she found the secretarial work boring, she did learn the valuable spy skill of coding and decoding telegrams.

Starting at the bottom

of the State Department ladder

was not in Virginia’s plans,

but if doing secretarial tasks

was her only path to promotion

in the Foreign Service,

she was ready to get to work—

no matter how tedious

the work might be.

Living in Warsaw, however,

was far from dull.

Poland was in a precarious position

pressed between the Soviet Union and Germany—

two countries ruled by dictators

plotting to overthrow peaceful democracies.

Adolf Hitler in Germany

and Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union

were busy building armies,

spreading propaganda,

and stoking violent mobs

to incite fear among the masses

while they prepared

to invade neighboring countries.

Virginia saw firsthand

how the Polish people suffered

as turmoil spread

throughout the country.

She desperately wanted to help,

but there was little she could do as a clerk.

So in September of 1932,

Virginia completed the written

portion of the Foreign Service exam

and then waited for weeks

for the oral questions

to come in the mail.

They never arrived.

Frustrated by another missed chance

to join the Foreign Service,

and eager for a more challenging job,

Virginia applied for a transfer.

In the spring of 1933, Virginia arrived

at the American consulate in Izmir, Turkey,

hoping for more responsibility as a clerk.

While disappointed that her job

was more of the same

tedious secretarial tasks,

Virginia was at least happy

to find herself

near the salt marshes

of the Gediz Peninsula—

a bird hunter’s paradise.

1923. Seventeen-year-old Dindy holds a shotgun in one hand and a dove in the other after hunting at Boxhorn Farm. She carried a hunting license in most of the countries she visited before the war.

One clear December morning,

with four friends by her side

and her father’s shotgun in hand,

Virginia set out

for a day of snipe hunting.

She had missed hunting

at Boxhorn Farm

and was ready for the challenge

of pursuing this small,

elusive marsh bird—

but nothing prepared Virginia

for a fateful climb over a wire fence.

It all happened in an instant.

Her foot slipped.

Her gun dropped.

Virginia reached for it, and

BANG!

Her shotgun accidentally fired,

blasting an explosion of lead pellets

into her foot.

Bones shattered and blood flowed

as Virginia fell to the ground.

Her faithful friends

tightened tourniquets

to stop the bleeding

and whispered support

to ward off shock.

With a stretcher made from hunting jackets

draped over shotguns,

they rushed Virginia through the muddy marsh

to the nearest hospital.

The doctors in Izmir acted just as quickly,

and it seemed she would be back on her feet again soon.

But Virginia’s left foot

turned from blue to black.

She couldn’t shake

the deadly infection of gangrene.

Dr. Lorrin Shepard,

the head of the American Hospital in Istanbul,

rushed to Virginia’s rescue.

Penicillin—the antibiotic

that could stop the infection

from spreading throughout her body—

had been discovered,

but it was not yet available for patient use.

There was only one option

to save Virginia’s life.

December 25, 1933. On Christmas day, the spread of Virginia Hall’s gangrene required the amputation of her left leg below the knee to save her life.

1908. Dindy adored her father who had indulged her adventurous spirit and love for male-oriented activities. She rarely spoke of the suffering she endured due to her hunting accident, and was not particularly religious, but she did share with her family vivid memories of her deceased father appearing at her hospital bedside after her amputation, urging her to hang on to life.

On Christmas Day in 1933,

Dr. Shepard amputated

Virginia’s left leg

just below her knee.

Until now Virginia’s greatest loss

had been her beloved father.

Delirious from the unbearable pain

and the loss of blood,

Virginia dreamed

of his arms wrapped around her.

She dreamed of him

rocking her in his lap,

whispering that she needed

to be strong for her mother.

Dindy’s father promised

he would come back for her

if the pain was too much.

But he also knew she was a fighter,

and he hoped she would stay

and keep up the fight.

Virginia may have lost her leg that day,

but she held tight to that dream

for the rest of her life.

VIRGINIA AND CUTHBERT

After she gained enough strength,

Virginia returned home to Boxhorn Farm.

At the same place

she ran free as a child,

Virginia recovered

from painful leg surgeries

to prevent infection.

At the same place

she learned to hunt, fish,

and ride a horse,

she learned to walk all over again—

this time dragging along

seven pounds of wood, leather, and metal.

Every day Virginia strapped on

her prosthetic leg,

a new constant companion

she named Cuthbert.

She attached the wooden leg

to a leather corset,

which she then strapped

to a belt wrapped around her waist.

To protect her skin

from the endless rubbing

against Cuthbert,

Virginia fitted a woolen sock

around her stump.

Virginia not only enjoyed idyllic childhood summers riding horses, hunting, raising animals, and exploring the 110-acres of Boxhorn Farm—she also returned to her family home after her amputation to regain her strength and relearn to walk with a prothesis, which she named Cuthbert.

At the bottom

of Virginia’s wooden leg

was a flexible joint

that connected to a rubber-soled metal foot

she called her aluminum puppy.

While the metal joint

gave her the flexibility of an ankle,

without nerve endings

she couldn’t feel

the ground beneath her.

So, with practice,

Virginia learned to move her leg

with a slight swing of her hip.

Used to vigorous sporting challenges growing up,

Virginia remained disciplined

with her recovery routines

to regain strength and balance.

After months of surgeries and therapy,

Virginia no longer needed crutches or cane.

She and Cuthbert

were ready to step back into the world.

In 1934, less than a year after her accident,

Virginia was not only steady on her feet,

she was heading back to Europe—

this time as a clerk

at the American consulate in Venice, Italy.

Often working seven days a week,

Virginia proved she could handle

greater responsibilities

than secretarial jobs.

The vice consul even trusted her

to fill in when he was out of town.

1936. With the guidance of her rowing coach, Virginia braces herself with her prosthetic left leg for stability as she learns to steer her own gondola through the canals of Venice, Italy. The inscription on the back of the photo reads, Angelo is beginning to be proud of my rowing but what a backache!

Virginia faced greater physical challenges

outside the consulate while navigating

the bumpy cobblestone streets,

steep steps, and bridges of Venice.

Always the problem solver,

Virginia found the perfect solution

to ease the burden on Cuthbert—

she bought a gondola

and hired a boatman named Angelo

to coach her through Venice’s canals.

While she gained responsibility

at the consulate in Venice,

Virginia grew increasingly concerned

by the political turmoil in Europe.

America wasn’t the only country

devastated by the stock market crash in 1929.

Throughout the 1930s,

European countries that had depended

on US economic support

to rebuild from the destruction

of the First World War

suffered a catastrophic depression

of their own.

Vicious dictators seized on the hopelessness

of millions of unemployed and starving Europeans

by promising them jobs and a brighter future.

In Italy, Virginia was disgusted

by the rising popularity

of Benito Mussolini—

a brutal dictator whose fascist ideology

of Italian superiority

and authoritarian control

encouraged military violence

against anyone who opposed his oppressive laws.

Italians weren’t the only Europeans

losing their individual freedoms

to fascist dictators.

Millions of unemployed and hungry Germans

were clinging desperately

to the promises and lies

of another rising dictator, Adolf Hitler,

the leader of the fascist Nazi Party.

Hitler declared that the Germanic Aryans,

whom Nazis believed to be the master race,

were superior to all others.

1940. Adolf Hitler poses in front of the Eiffel Tower on his only visit to Paris after the city surrendered to Germany in June.

This laid the foundation

for placing the blame

and naming scapegoats

for Germany’s unemployment and poverty.

With the guise of national pride and patriotism,

Hitler promoted fear and hate

toward anyone who was not German

and anyone he considered

different or dangerous.

Hitler led a reign of terror

ordering his Nazi soldiers

to lock up, torture, and kill

homosexuals, the disabled,

and all those who disagreed

with his political beliefs.

But no group was in more danger

from his maniacal hatred than Jews—

his scapegoats for Germany’s problems.

Virginia was horrified by the growing abuses

against her Jewish friends and neighbors.

She knew there was little she could do as a clerk

to help freedom prevail,

so she made plans once again

to take the entrance exam.

Because she had worked

in the Foreign Service

for more than five years,

she was no longer required

to take the written tests.

She now only needed to pass

the oral interview.

Confident that this time she would succeed,

Virginia mailed in her application.

She never dreamed that this time,

Cuthbert would be the one

to stand in her way.

DENIED!

Virginia was shocked and confused

when she read her rejection

from the State Department—

The regulation governing physical examinations

to the Foreign Services prescribe that

amputation of any portion of a limb,

except fingers or toes …

is a cause for rejection,

and it would not be possible for Miss Hall

to qualify for entry into the Service

under these regulations.

Hadn’t she proven

to everyone who knew her

that a mere amputation

hadn’t gotten in her way?

Virginia sent back an appeal.

A family friend even wrote a letter

to President Franklin D. Roosevelt

on her behalf.

Hadn’t President Roosevelt shown the world

that crippling polio didn’t get in his way?

1924. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was diagnosed with crippling polio in 1921 at the age of thirty-nine. Undeterred by the resulting paralysis in his legs, Roosevelt was elected governor of the state of New York in 1928 and President of the United States in 1932. He served two extra terms to lead the country during World War II. Despite President Roosevelt’s advocacy for Virginia Hall and other applicants with disabilities for the State Department, she was denied promotion.

Surely the president

would admire her gumption

and welcome her services.

As it turned out,

Roosevelt did share his disapproval

of Virginia’s rejection

based on her disability

with his secretary of state, Cordell Hull—

Why, Oh, Why do the regulations

governing entrance into the career service

prescribe that amputation of any portion of a limb,

except fingers or toes, disqualify the applicant?

… It seems to me that a regulation of this kind is a great mistake

because it might exclude a first-class applicant …

I have known many people with wooden legs

who dance just as well as many diplomats do who have natural legs.

Perhaps Hull was annoyed

by Virginia’s campaign to fight his decision.

In his response to President Roosevelt,

Hull said that, in addition to Virginia’s disability,

she wasn’t qualified for the position—

despite the praise she received

from her bosses at the Venice consulate.

The president could not argue with that.

The fight was over,

and Virginia’s rejection was final.

In the summer of 1938,

after a year of unsuccessful appeals,

Virginia was transferred

to a new remote post

at the consulate in Tallinn, Estonia.

After another frustrating year as a clerk,

Virginia finally faced the facts—

there was no hope for promotion,

no path to a future in the Foreign Service.

In late May of 1939,

after a decade of honing

her government and language skills

to become a diplomat for democracy,

Virginia resigned from the State Department

and returned to Paris.

But Virginia would not leave Europe.

she would not desert the countries

she had grown to love,

most especially France,

while tyrants trampled their citizens’ freedoms.

1939. Seven years after Virginia first witnesses abuses toward the Poles, German troops invade and conquer Poland.

On September 1, 1939,

German troops invaded Poland,

igniting World War II.

Two days later,

Britain and France

declared war on Germany.

Still recovering

from the devastating toll

of World War I

and the Great Depression,

the United States could not afford

to enter a war

clear across the Atlantic.

America’s inaction

in fighting against the spread

of fascism in Europe

while Hitler’s troops advanced

on France and Britain,

infuriated Virginia.

In October, 1939,

she headed to London,

hoping to join the new women’s branch

of the British Army—

the Auxiliary Territorial Service.

1938. This World War II poster urges British women to join the ATS—Auxiliary Territorial Service. Formed in 1938 as “a woman’s army” to free male soldiers to serve on the front, the ATS denied Virginia Hall entry due to her American citizenship.

But when she tried to enlist,

Virginia received a

familiar response—

DENIED!

This time it wasn’t a disability

that stood in her way.

It was her passport.

Only British women were

accepted for service.

Virginia returned to Paris

where she met refugees

who had fled their countries

for the safety of France.

They described atrocities

Jews were suffering from Nazi abuses.

Virginia’s disgust fueled a fury inside her.

Cuthbert may have stopped her

from getting a job as an ambassador,

and her US citizenship

may have prevented her from

wearing a British uniform,

but Virginia would find a way

to help freedom prevail—

one that did not require

the approval of the State Department.

1939. Virginia sent this postcard to her family at Boxhorn Farm on September 3rd, the day WWII was declared in Europe. It reads:

And so the catastrophe has begun. I can’t begin to express the horror I feel at this useless slaughter, being embarked upon, caused by the usual enemies of the civilized world. Everything here is quiet. Love to all, Virginia.

In February, 1940,

Virginia found a way

to join the fight against the Germans

in her beloved France.

Without telling her family,

thirty-four-year-old Virginia

signed on as an ambulance driver

with France’s Ninth Artillery Regiment.

After training,

Virginia headed for duty

in northeastern France

outside of Metz

where German troops

were penetrating the French border.

Without hesitation

Virginia drove into the fray,

loaded up wounded French warriors,

and carried them to safety.

Back and forth, day and night, in and out of war zones—

it was back-breaking, heartbreaking, dangerous work,

but for Virginia the risks were worth it.

Driving an army ambulance was much more rewarding

than answering letters and filing reports

in a consulate office.

While Virginia transported injured soldiers

near the Maginot Line—

a series of French concrete fortifications

built along the French and German border

to prevent a German invasion—

Hitler’s troops

conquered country after country.

In April, Germany had invaded Denmark and Norway.

The following month,

Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Belgium

all surrendered to Hitler.

Now that Hitler controlled Belgium,

a country that borders both France and Germany,

the Nazi army executed a plan that the French

assumed was impossible.

They sent a fleet of German tanks

to plow through

Belgium’s dense Ardennes forests

to invade France.

The German invasion escalated the fighting

on the eastern border of France

where Virginia worked nonstop,

battling exhaustion and discomfort.

Racing across bumpy roads and fields

relentlessly pushing a clutch with her left leg

caused Cuthbert to rub her stump raw.

Dealing with Cuthbert was a constant burden,

but Virginia kept complaints

of any pain or suffering to herself.

She was grateful

to be in the thick of the fight

against the Germans—

making a difference and saving lives.

Virginia didn’t fear the hardships and hazards

of driving in and out of war zones,

but she hated to worry her mother

back at Boxhorn Farm.

So in letters home,

Virginia told her mother she was

well taken care of … with plenty of good food,

hoping to put a positive spin

on her battlefield adventures.

Her mother wasn’t fooled.

Mrs. Hall told a Baltimore Sun reporter

that her daughter’s

carefully chosen words were

well intentioned, but they afford me little consolation,

for in her characteristic manner

she is trying to make things sound better for me.

Mrs. Hall knew

her daring Dindy

would never share details

of the true dangers she faced.

On June 14th, 1940,

only a month after Germany invaded France,

Paris surrendered.

This devastating defeat

ended Virginia’s heroics

as an ambulance driver

and further fueled

her passion to defend France.

She was disgusted

when the new French leader, Philippe Pétain,

signed an armistice with Hitler—

an agreement giving Germany occupational control

of the north and west regions of France,

known as the occupied zone.

Pétain, once a celebrated WWI general

revered as the lion of Verdun,

was now a Nazi puppet

who controlled the southern two-fifths of France

called the unoccupied or free zone.

But the region was free in name only.

Pétain, a close collaborator with Hitler,

was now the leader of his own authoritarian regime

based in Vichy, France.

Virginia later recalled,

at the time of defeat

we all felt nothing but fury.

She refused to accept

that her beloved France—

the country that had aided America

in its War of Independence—

had given up its own fight.

She was ready to stand with

the French patriots

who still believed in their country’s motto

from the French Revolution—

“Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.”

Once Pétain took control,

he replaced it with the new Vichy slogan—

“Work, Family, Fatherland.”

Virginia hated to see

the horrific transformation of Paris.

The city that was once a beacon

of tolerance and free expression

was now the occupied zone headquarters

for the oppressive Nazi regime.

Virginia felt helpless

as her friends and neighbors

suffered food shortages and curfews.

And she was enraged by the

Germans’ random arrests and attacks

on the French Jews.

In August 1940,

Virginia decided to return to Britain.

Maybe there,

in the only country left

standing up to Germany,

Virginia could find

another way to help

France regain its independence.

Little did Virginia know that,

on her journey to London,

a chance meeting

with a stranger on a train

would change her life forever.

George Bellows introduced himself

as a salesman

when he first met Virginia.

He didn’t know her well enough

to reveal his true occupation.

Virginia had a good sense

of whom to trust,

and she felt comfortable

sharing with Bellows

her background and her passion

for defending France’s freedom.

After listening to Virginia describe

her European experiences

as a consular clerk and

a French ambulance driver,

Bellows was impressed by Virginia’s

bravery, her keen observations,

and her devotion to the liberation of France.

Virginia had no idea that

Bellows was an agent for the SOE—

Britain’s new Special Operations Executive spy agency.

She had no idea

he was thinking

that even though the SOE

was not yet recruiting female spies,

Virginia Hall might be just

the recruit they needed.

All Virginia knew

was that she trusted this man

when he slipped a phone number

into her hand as they parted.

When Virginia arrived in London,

she did not call Bellows’s contact,

but she did take his advice

to check in at the American embassy.

Her experiences as an ambulance driver

in the thick of Nazi-occupied territory

impressed the Foreign Service officers.

She was immediately offered a job

in the US military attaché’s office.

Virginia’s uneventful days

as a code clerk

were overshadowed

by the terror of the Blitz—

Germany’s relentless

nightly aerial bombing raids

that began in September, 1940

just two weeks after Virginia

arrived in London.

They would continue to ravage London

and other British towns and cities for eight months.

With hundreds of thousands of other civilians,

Virginia endured citywide blackouts

that darkened the Nazi targets.

Piercing sirens sent masses of residents

scampering for cover in their basements

and to underground air-raid shelters.

Virginia felt committed to joining

the fight against the Nazis,

but she also felt a pull toward home.

She decided to appease her worried mother

and make arrangements

to return to Boxhorn Farm for Christmas.

But fate would change her plans once again.

Virginia would not be home for the holidays after all.

In January, 1941,

Virginia received the news

that her passage home had only been valid

for one year after her resignation

from the State Department—

a year and a half earlier.

Without a ticket home,

Virginia decided to stay in London

and find a way to get back to France.

1940. People pack into a London underground station used as an air-raid shelter during the Blitz. Virginia lived in London during the most intensive barrage of German bombings beginning September 7, 1940.

Mighty forces against democracies

were spreading around the world

now that Italy and Japan had joined Germany

to form the Axis alliance.

The world needed Britain to hang on,

and Britain needed allies to join the fight.

Far from home,

and alone in a war zone,

Virginia decided to call the number

Bellows had given her on the train.

It belonged to Nicolas Bodington.

Soon after the New Year of 1941,

Virginia was invited

to a party at Bodington’s home.

Virginia had no idea

her host was the general staff officer

of SOE’s F Section—

the British spy agency’s French networks.

After hearing Virginia’s detailed description

of her ambulance exploits,

Bodington was intrigued.

And after learning

of Virginia’s devotion to France

and her fluency in French and German,

he had a hunch that this confident American woman

had extraordinary potential as a spy.

Of course Bodington also knew that a tall,

elegant woman with a wooden leg

was not at all what Winston Churchill,

the British prime minister,

had in mind when he ordered

his new spy agency to set Europe ablaze.

Churchill expected the SOE

to do much more than gather enemy intelligence.

He directed them to recruit, organize, and train

the French Resistance—

groups of French locals

dedicated to fighting

the Nazi occupation in France.

Trained volunteers would be needed

to sabotage and disrupt the Germans

with brutal surprise tactics, raids, and ambushes—

a guerrilla style of combat that Churchill called

a most “ungentlemanly”

new form of undercover warfare.

Virginia didn’t have a French passport

or a strong French accent,

but she exuded confidence, common sense,

and courage—qualities the SOE desperately needed.

On January 15, 1941,

The day after Bodington met Virginia

he wrote this memo:

Miss Virginia Hall who works at the American U.S. Embassy

… talked in my house last night

of wanting to go for about a month to France.…

It strikes me that this lady,

a native of Baltimore,

might well be used for a mission.

Once the extensive background checks

were complete and Virginia

was given official clearance,

Bodington invited her

to join the SOE’s F Section.

After numerous rejections

for being disabled,

being American,

and being a woman,

Virginia had been offered

the chance to return to France

to fight for its freedom.

Prepared for a future

full of danger and hardship,

Virginia accepted Bodington’s offer.

This wasn’t the path

Virginia had dreamed of as a child—

but neither had she dreamed

of losing her father or her leg.

Adapting to new circumstances

and overcoming overwhelming obstacles—

these were proving to be

Virginia’s hallmark qualities.

All her experiences and sacrifices

were finally coming together.

In the summer of 1941,

Virginia Hall and Cuthbert

would head back to France—

this time as a British spy.

GERMAINE

While Britain strengthened its army,

the SOE—also known as “Churchill’s Secret Army”

and the “Baker Street Irregulars”—

was busy training spies.

Virginia, however, did not receive

the same extensive sabotage training

in irregular warfare tactics

that the other recruits received.

SOE was in urgent need

of her services as a liaison—

the point person for SOE agents—

and an intelligence agent—

someone to gather enemy secrets

and communicate them

back to Baker Street headquarters.

1937. This photo of Virginia was most likely taken in Italy, her first post after her amputation recovery. Her mother accompanied Virginia to Venice and stayed with her for six months.

Virginia made the most of her brief training

before leaving for France.

She learned to conceal spy secrets

inside her belongings, her clothes,

and even inside Cuthbert’s aluminum foot—

though she preferred keeping

intelligence in her head,

in case of capture.

Virginia learned to pick locks,

search desks, and tell lies—

all without being noticed.

Recognizing and evading

enemy spies on her trail

were skills she would need

to master to stay alive,

but it wouldn’t be easy

for a tall American beauty

to blend in and disappear.

Fortunately, Virginia’s experiences

on the stage and behind the curtain

in school theater productions came in handy.

She would need to alter her looks

by changing her mannerisms,

makeup, and hairstyles

as effortlessly as changing her clothes.

Virginia received instruction

in how to withstand interrogations and torture,

and, if necessary,

sacrifice her own life

to protect the identity of other agents.

Living in Nazi-controlled France,

working in consulates,

driving army ambulances—

all these experiences

gave Virginia a firm foundation

for her spy training.

But running wild at Boxhorn Farm

had certainly provided her

with invaluable physical training.

Even with Cuthbert, Virginia could canoe, ride a horse, and shoot a gun.

She could swim, ski, ride a bicycle,

and climb a mountain

just as well as most men.

Virginia wasn’t concerned

about physical hardships. As an American woman,

she knew her biggest challenge

would be gaining the trust of French locals

and the respect of male British agents.

On April 1, 1941,

Virginia was given her SOE identity—

Germaine, Agent 3844—

making her SOE’s first female F Section agent.

She was directed to set up a base in Vichy,

the capital of Pétain’s puppet government.

It would be difficult to navigate

this small city crawling with Nazis

to gather German intelligence.

Virginia knew that once she arrived in Vichy,

she would be on her own

without protection or backup.

She understood that captured females

did not have the same

prisoner of war protections as males.

Even her SOE superiors in London

thought she only had

a fifty-fifty chance

of surviving this dangerous mission.

The thirty-five-year-old

American woman with a wooden leg

was determined to prove them wrong.

GERMAINE A.K.A. BRIGITTE

In August 1941

a red-haired Agent Germaine

entered France with a most convenient cover.

Her papers and passport

identified her as Virginia Hall,

a stringer—freelance journalist—

for the New York Post.

It was Virginia’s clever idea

to use the cover

of an American journalist.

This would take care of any doubts

about her French accent

and would provide her a reason

to travel and ask questions.

George Backer,

the publisher of the Post,

was thrilled to have

an American correspondent inside France

to report on local war conditions.

He acted as if he wasn’t aware

that Virginia’s work as a reporter

was only a cover for spy activities.

Virginia quickly adjusted

to her new roles and slipped

in and out of her identities with ease.

As Virginia the reporter,

she detailed

for American readers

the hardships of French life

under growing Nazi pressure.

As Germaine the spy,

Virginia secretly gathered and relayed

German intelligence

for her Baker Street bosses.

But French locals

knew her as Brigitte LeContre.

With her natural charm

and obvious love for France,

Virginia earned the trust

of those who were suspicious of foreigners.

1941. This Vichy ID, using her real name, allowed Virginia a degree of freedom in France as an American journalist while she used a variety of code names for her spy activities.

She even befriended

policemen and officials

who provided her

with German intelligence

and added security.

A historian wrote,

She seems to have totally bewitched

everybody who knew her.

One of Virginia’s most helpful contacts

and trusted friends, Suzanne Bertillon,

was the local foreign press censor

who reviewed and approved

Virginia’s New York Post articles.

The SOE depended on Virginia’s articles

to provide them with essential news

of food rations, curfews, and restrictions

that French locals suffered.

As a neutral American journalist,

Virginia could ask questions

and report valuable intelligence to London

by detailing the increasing hardships

imposed on the French by the Germans.

At times Virginia used sarcasm

to describe the appalling food shortages in France:

France would be a paradise

for vegetarians

if there were plenty of milk and cheese and butter,

but I haven’t yet seen any butter

and there is little milk.

Virginia never hesitated

to paint a realistic portrait

of the toll the German restrictions

had taken on the French:

Many families are divided brutally …

And many sons, brothers, fathers and fiances

are still prisoners in Germany.

Naturally, people who are separated

from those they love,

whose relatives are still prisoners,

are living under constant mental strain,

which reacts upon their physical condition.

Suzanne, Virginia’s unofficial Vichy correspondent,

provided much more than clearance

for Virginia’s articles.

She connected Agent Germaine

with over ninety resistance informants

throughout France.

Virginia earned the trust

of farmers, laborers, businessmen, and politicians,

who risked their lives

to divulge top-secret intelligence

of German troop movements,

weapons production,

and military base locations.

Thanks to her new contacts,

Virginia was able to report the secret location

of a German submarine base in Marseilles, France,

which the British would later bomb.

Much to the surprise and delight

of the SOE back in London,

Virginia was proving to be

one of their most productive spies in France.

But it was becoming increasingly difficult

for her to safely function

from a base

where Pétain’s government officials

and Vichy police

worked in sync with the Nazis.

After a month

of collecting intelligence

about the Vichy government

without being discovered,

Agent Germaine decided to move

to a safer location.

Virginia set up a new base in Lyon, France—

a larger city, tucked between two rivers

and close to neutral Switzerland’s border.

Lyon’s maze-like streets

and surrounding floodplains

offered better cover for SOE spies,

more fields for parachute supply drops,

and easier escape routes

for downed pilots and agents.

While Vichy was the

capital of Pétain’s unoccupied zone,

Lyon was the center of the French Resistance.

Virginia was anxious

to set up a base there,

but finding a place to rent in town

was impossible.

Thousands of refugees

who had escaped Nazi persecution

in other countries had already flooded Lyon.

Unable to find a hotel room,

Virginia discovered a most unusual

safe haven among nuns

in the Sainte-Élisabeth convent,

just outside of town.

Now with dyed light brown hair

pulled back in a bun,

Virginia bicycled back and forth

between town and convent—

between reporter and spy.

The nuns at Sainte-Élisabeth

not only sympathized

with Virginia’s mission,

they offered their convent

as a trusted safe house—

a hiding place

for her agents and escapees.

But Virginia needed

a more centrally located base

where she could meet her secret contacts.

So, as soon as a room was available,

Virginia used forged papers

to check into the Grand Hotel

with her French name, Brigitte LeContre.

Virginia’s street-side room

gave her a view

of the comings and goings in town.

The hotel’s many exits,

as well as its easy access

to the tram and the American consulate,

gave Virginia just the security and flexibility

she needed for a quick escape.

But living in a hotel

for long periods of time

was risky for a spy,

so Virginia set up a new base

in a nearby apartment

where she quickly proved to be

a most dependable liaison—

the point person for almost every agent

sneaking in or out of France.

She amazed fellow agents

by her efficient and compassionate assistance

in providing them with money, food,

shelter, papers, and maps.

A grateful British agent described

the impact Virginia had on SOE agents—

If you sit in [her] kitchen long enough

you will see most people pass through

with one sort of trouble or another

which [she] promptly deals with.

It wasn’t long before Virginia

earned a new trusted contact—

George Whittinghill.

As the American vice consul of Lyon,

Whittinghill was free

from the routine searches of Nazi guards

that French travelers had to endure.

No one knew that Virginia’s intelligence reports

were tucked into the diplomatic pouch

that Whittinghill carried

to the American embassy

in Bern, Switzerland.

And no one knew that

after Virginia’s spy secrets

were transported from Bern

to the Baker Street headquarters in London,

SOE messages and money

made their way safely back to Virginia

hidden in Whittinghill’s pouch.

MARIE

A master at juggling multiple identities

and responsibilities,

Virginia organized her own spy network

called Heckler.

Now known by her spy contacts as Marie Monin,

Virginia arranged SOE parachute drops

of food, weapons, and money

for British agents and French Resistance fighters.

She recruited local couriers

to deliver supplies and spy secrets.

She provided forged papers,

medical assistance, and safe houses

for agents and SOE pilots

who had been shot down

and escaped capture.

Virginia faced dangers

and obstacles every day

as Heckler’s leader,

but her greatest challenge was getting

skilled wireless radio operators.

The radios, code-named pianos,

provided the only direct line of communication

between SOE headquarters in London

and field agents in France.

Without skilled pianists—

wireless operators—

news of German movements

couldn’t be reported,

parachute drops of supplies

couldn’t be arranged,

and plans for downed pilots and escapees

couldn’t be made.

As a field agent,

Virginia didn’t have her own radio.

Radio operators were specially trained

and had to stay constantly on the move

to avoid capture.

The radios were cleverly hidden

inside suitcases,

but when in use

their wireless signals

were easily traced

by radio detection devices

of the Gestapo,

the Nazi secret police.

Because pianists were often captured

with evidence in hand—

a suitcase radio—

they faced the almost certain fate

of torture, prison, and death.

Despite not having

a wireless operator

to report her intelligence

back to London,

Virginia had more than proven

her worthiness to the SOE.

One of her comrades reported that

practically every F Section agent

sent to France during this period

was in touch with her,

and she helped them in every possible way,

providing papers, cover, etc.

and looking after them when in difficulties.

Word traveled quickly

throughout the French underground

that Marie Monin—

also known as

la dame qui boite,

the lady who limps—

was now running

the largest F Section spy network

in the free zone of France.

The Gestapo and Vichy police

intensified their search

for the elusive leader and her network.

In October the luck of F Section spies turned sour

when the Vichy police

captured a British radio operator

just after his parachute

landed off course in Lyon.

In his pocket they found

a map of an SOE safe house

called Villa des Bois.

The Vichy police,

aligned with the Gestapo

and every bit as brutal,

cleverly sent SOE agents

a phony invitation

for a gathering at the villa

to take place on October 24, 1941.

Although Virginia enjoyed

the company of her fellow agents,

she was wary of group gatherings.

Trusting her own instincts,

she stayed home that night.

Unfortunately,

almost all the F Section agents

and the two radio operators in the free zone

walked right into the Vichy police trap

when they entered the Villa des Bois.

Every essential agent and radio operator

in the entire area

were captured in one night’s bust.

All were jailed and tortured.

Fiercely loyal to her comrades,

Virginia was determined to find a way

to break them free.

The SOE was devastated

by the loss of these invaluable men.

The new F Section chief, Maurice Buckmaster,

now depended on Virginia

to hold the French spy networks together.

Without radio operators,

she was the only agent left in France

who could communicate with Baker Street—

thanks to Whittinghill’s diplomatic pouch.

The successful Villa des Bois bust

made life in Lyon more dangerous

for anyone who even appeared sympathetic

to the French Resistance—

especially Virginia.

The Gestapo and Vichy police

weren’t the only ones

searching for Heckler’s leader.

The Milice—the French paramilitary—

and Abwehr—the German intelligence agency

similar to the SOE—

also had orders to hunt down

Marie of Lyon and all her contacts.

With traitors and trackers everywhere,

Virginia cautiously chose her confidants.

Two Lyon assistants proved to be

among her most trustworthy.

Dr. Jean Rousset,

code name Pépin,

earned Virginia’s highest praise—

she called him

her very most valuable assistant.

The doctor used his office

as a letter box—

a post for dropping

and picking up spy messages—

to avoid personal contact.

Not only did Rousset secretly treat

injured and ill resistance fighters,

he even converted a floor

above his office

into a fake insane asylum—

the perfect safe house

for Heckler agents and downed pilots.

Madame Germaine Guérin,

a fearless local Frenchwoman,

also contributed greatly

to Heckler’s successes.

She provided food, fuel,

clothing, and safe houses

for Virginia’s escapees.

Rousset and Guérin

sent valuable contacts Virginia’s way.

A new steady stream

of resistance fighters

in need of assistance

passed through Virginia’s door

and Rousset’s office.

Secret signals and pass phrases

were frequently changed

to avert the unwelcome threat

of a double agent—

a spy pretending to work for one side

while spying for the other.

Despite the discomforts, disappointments,

and dangers, Virginia never let down her guard.

She knew that a careless mistake

could end in disaster for herself

and her Heckler contacts.

Virginia was shocked,

along with the rest of the world,

by the news on December 7, 1941,

that Japanese forces bombed Pearl Harbor—

the US naval base in Hawaii.

The following day,

The United States declared war on Japan

And entered World War II.

Three days later,

Japan’s allies,

Germany and Italy,

declared war on the United States.

The Axis powers

of Germany, Italy, and Japan

were united in expanding their control

across the globe.

US troops were needed

on opposite sides of the world.

They headed to the Pacific

to fight the Japanese,

and across the Atlantic

to fight Germany and Italy.

1941. Japan’s two-hour surprise attack on Pearl Harbor resulted in 2,403 deaths and the destruction of nineteen US Navy ships. The USS West Virginia and USS Tennessee in this photo on the left were destroyed. The USS Arizona on the right sunk.

Now that America

had joined the Allied fight

against the Germans,

Virginia could no longer

count on her cover

as an American journalist

to keep her safe in France—

she was considered the enemy.

Because of the extreme danger

and likelihood of being captured there,

SOE agents were generally ordered

to return to the safety of London

after three months in the field.

But when Baker Street

directed Virginia to return,

she insisted on staying.

Her job had been to assist

the safe passage of agents

and French sympathizers.

As long as F Section agents

were still in harm’s way,

she wasn’t about to leave them behind.

Bold but never careless,

Virginia agreed to move

to a new location.

In June 1942, after ten months in Lyon,

Virginia had proven to be an expert

at slipping in and out

of her various identities.

Depending on who she was meeting,

Virginia would change her name, her voice,

her hair, her makeup, and her clothes

as easily as she changed her location.

Her caution and cleverness

managed to keep Virginia

just out of the reach of Nazi spy hunters.

Virginia not only refused

to leave behind agents and downed pilots,

she was determined

to free Clan Cameron—

the code name for the group of SOE agents

and radio operators who had been arrested

at the Villa des Bois bust

and were now facing execution

in Mauzac prison.

Every Gestapo agent in Lyon

was looking for Agent Marie.

It was far too dangerous

for her to visit the prisoners,

even in disguise.

So Virginia was thrilled

when Gaby Bloch,

the wife of one of the prisoners,

volunteered to help her

break the Clan Cameron

out of jail.

Under Virginia’s direction,

this fearless Jewish Frenchwoman

proved to be a better spy

than many trained SOE agents.

On her regular trips

to visit her husband, Jean Pierre-Bloch,

Gaby snuck escape tools

hidden inside laundry,

books, and food deliveries

past the prison guards.

If caught smuggling,

Gaby would most certainly

be tortured and jailed,

but she never hesitated

or showed fear when searched

on her way in and out of Mauzac.

Virginia coached Gaby

to recruit prison guards

to assist in the escape,

and she provided money

so Gaby could bribe them.

Virginia also arranged

the escapees’ false ID papers,

train tickets, and safe houses

to aid their secure return to London.

To ensure a flawless escape,

the Clan Cameron prisoners

needed a wireless radio

to relay immediate messages.

Of course, Gaby could never

smuggle something as large

as a radio into the prison.

So Virginia devised a plan

that fooled the guards—

and even surprised the prisoners.

No one suspected

that the seventy-year-old priest

making pastoral visits

to the Clan Cameron

had snuck a wireless radio

into the prison barracks.

Confined to a wheelchair

after losing both legs

in World War I,

the priest breezed past security

hiding a wireless radio under his robe.

Soon the prisoners were

sending coded messages

directly to Baker Street in London

from their barracks.

Virginia’s meticulous planning

and these invaluable deliveries

prepared Clan Cameron

for their escape.

It was up to the eleven prisoners—

and one helpful guard—

to make the break

without being caught.

In twelve well-planned minutes,

twelve well-trained escapees

snuck out of their barracks

in the middle of a dark July night

using a key that had been crafted

from the lid of a sardine can.

They hopped

from shadow to shadow

beneath the brightly lit watchtowers

to cross the prison yard.

And then, in total darkness,

they crawled through

a pre-cut section of

the barbed wire fencing—

their stomachs protected

by a piece of carpet.

Thanks to Virginia’s arrangements,

Gaby’s courageous contributions,

a flawless escape,

and a lot of luck,

every one of the Clan Cameron

made it safely back to London.

News of Virginia’s jailbreak success

thrilled the SOE—

and enraged the Nazis.

Commanded by Hitler,

hundreds of new Gestapo agents

flooded the free zone with the urgent order

to capture and arrest the Heckler leader

code-named Marie.

Hitler’s brutal Gestapo chief,

Klaus Barbie—known as the Butcher of Lyon

for his torture and killing

of thousands of captured Jews

and resistance fighters—

was obsessed with capturing

la dame qui boite, the lady who limps.

Barbie had no idea

of Marie’s real identity

when one of his agents reported him saying

he would give anything to get his hands on that Canadian.

Barbie was also unaware that Abwehr agents

were very close to catching the “Limping Lady.”

Just as Virginia had recruited nuns and a priest

to fight against the Nazis,

Abwehr sent its own “priest”

to break through Heckler’s tight network.

From the first time

she met Abbé Robert Alesch

at Dr. Rousset’s office

in the summer of 1942,

Virginia had an uneasy feeling about him—

particularly his German accent.

The abbé—French priest—

explained his accent

by claiming to be from the Alsace region

of France on the border of Germany.

He was known for his sermons

supporting the French Resistance—

but that was just a cover.

His faith was not with the church

or with the resistance.

The double agent

had more selfish plans.

Driven by greed,

Alesch aimed to get rich

by pretending to be a courier

for the resistance

while he sold their secrets to the Nazis.

Virginia mistrusted the pushy priest,

who had insisted on meeting her face to face

and had asked for the names of Heckler agents.

But Alesch impressed Rousset

with all the right passwords

and secret code names.

The abbé’s deliveries of

German intelligence, maps, and photographs

persuaded Virginia

to push her suspicions aside

and give Alesch money and his own wireless radio.

Virginia should have trusted her gut.

Maurice Buckmaster, leader of Britain’s SOE spy agency, relays Virginia’s distrust of Abbé Alesch, a double agent for the Nazis.

Because of Alesch’s deceptions,

the Abwehr got just what they needed

from Heckler communications

to identify and capture SOE agents

in another French spy circuit in Paris.

With a radio and codes,

they secretly intercepted

Baker Street messages

and sent false information

back to SOE in London.

Virginia made the mistake

of meeting with Alesch twice,

giving him the opportunity

to make a description

of her appearance.

Suspicious of Alesch’s loyalties,

Virginia never trusted him

enough to share her name or her address.

She radioed her concerns

about him to Baker Street,

and while she waited for their response,

she cut off all contact with him.

MARIE A.K.A. PHILOMENE

Fortunately for Virginia,

Abwehr hadn’t yet

passed along the names

of her Heckler contacts

to the Gestapo.

They were waiting to

intercept more intelligence

before hunting down and arresting

the Heckler circuit.

Writing back to London as Philomene on September 9, 1942,

Virginia shared her concern

the enemy was closing in on her:

My address has been given to Vichy,

although not my name,

but it wouldn’t be hard to guess …

I think my time is about up.

Virginia’s SOE superiors

and her New York Post boss

pressured her again to return

to the safety of London.

But after thirteen months in France,

Virginia was still able to convince them

that she needed to stay,

despite the danger.

She was set on organizing

another prison break—

this time for two captured agents

code-named Alex and Fabian.

Knowing that Virginia

was every agent’s best hope

for a safe journey in or out of France,

SOE officials gave in to Virginia’s pleadings

to remain in Lyon—

and her promise to once again

move to a safer location in town.

In November 1942

Virginia abruptly changed her mind

about staying in Lyon

when she learned

of Operation Torch—

the US and British

invasion of French North Africa.

Threatened by this successful Allied attack,

Hitler decided to tighten his grip on Europe

and take complete control of France.

There was no longer a free zone,

and all the borders were closing.

To make matters even worse,

Klaus Barbie was doubling down

on his efforts to capture Marie Monin.

He was enraged that

the mysterious Heckler leader

was still on the loose.

He put the Limping Lady

at the top of the Gestapo’s most wanted list.

A sketch of Virginia was posted

throughout the area with Barbie’s directive—

The woman who limps is one of the most dangerous

Allied agents in France.

We must find and destroy her.

This sketch of Virginia was drawn by Henri Laussucq, also known as Henri Lassot. This professional artist and elderly SOE and OSS agent accompanied her to France on her second mission. The Germans had no photographs of Virginia (Marie Monin), the mysterious female spy who the Gestapo and Abwehr nicknamed Artemis, a Canadian or English woman with a limp—la dame qui boite. Lorna Catling, Virginia’s niece described Dindy as having a slight swing in her stride, not a limp.

Virginia, now using the code name Philomene,

hated to leave without alerting

her Heckler team,

but the risk was too great,

and there was too little time

to contact them.

The only question now was,

did Virginia have enough time

to make her own escape?

Virginia headed south for Perpignan—

a French town

near the Spanish border.

Border troops and mountain patrols

were flooding the area

in search of escapees

on their way to neutral Spain.

Avoiding capture

at train stations and checkpoints

kept Virginia on high alert,

but these initial obstacles

would prove to be the easiest part

of her journey to safety.

To reach Spain—and freedom—

the Limping Lady would have to cross

the snow-packed Pyrenees Mountains.

Traversing the perilous peaks in the summer

would challenge the most experienced hiker.

Virginia knew that a woman with a wooden leg

crossing them in November

had little chance of survival.

As the Nazis closed in on Perpignan,

Virginia put her faith, and her life,

in the hands of a passeur—

a French mountain guide.

She was lucky to find one

willing to lead a woman

up an eight-thousand-foot icy peak—

more than a mile and a half high.

There was no way

Virginia was going to

tell him about Cuthbert.

Virginia requested

an immediate departure,

but the passeur

wasn’t ready to leave.

He was waiting

for three other escapees—

two Frenchmen and a Belgian captain—

to come up with the steep fare of twenty thousand francs

for their crossing.

With each passing hour,

Virginia’s chances of escape grew slimmer

as Nazi troops swarmed the borders.

The escapees could not afford to pay,

and Virginia could not afford to wait.

She paid their passage

and the group disappeared

into the white.

Deep snow,

steep cliffs,

freezing temperatures,

and biting winds—

nothing, not even being hunted

by the Gestapo, the Abwehr, and the Milice,

could match the terror and the pain

Virginia experienced

crossing the Pyrenees.

Yet Virginia did not complain.

She knew passeurs

were often ruthless,

willing to leave the weak behind.

She would not ask for help

or stop to tend to

her blistered and bloody stump.

Once again

Virginia would need to depend

on her strength and her will

to survive the journey.

With echoes of

her father’s dreamlike whisper

telling her to fight on,

Virginia dragged Cuthbert

across the snow-packed peaks.

Virginia kept up with the men—

and kept Cuthbert a secret.

Once they climbed six thousand feet

to Mantet Pass,

the passeur guided them

to the shelter of a shepherd’s hut.

After Virginia managed to

privately tend to her raw stump

and change her bloody sock,

she sent a brief message

back to London on a wireless radio

found inside the hut.

She tapped out that she was safe, and added—

CUTHBERT IS BEING TIRESOME, BUT I CAN COPE

If Virginia hadn’t been in so much pain,

she might have laughed

at the response

from the receiving agent in London,

who was neither aware of her disability

nor the name of her wooden leg—

IF CUTHBERT TIRESOME, HAVE HIM ELIMINATED

The remaining day and night

without rest or shelter

proved to be torturous.

The guide’s warnings

of bear and wolf attacks

kept them alert

as they navigated their difficult decline.

It was nearly impossible

for Virginia to find firm footing

as she struggled to keep her balance

on a metal foot she could not feel.

Struggling to see and breathe

in the thin icy air,

Virginia wondered

for the first time in her life

if she had met a challenge

she could not survive.

At last, after three days

of torturous conditions,

the escapees finally reached

the Spanish border town

of San Juan de las Abadesas.

Nearly delirious

from the most terrifying experience of her life,

Virginia and her hiking companions

snuck to the train station

in the pre-dawn darkness.

With less than an hour to wait

for safe passage

to the American consulate in Barcelona,

the exhausted escapees were cornered

by the Spanish police.

The spy who eluded the Abwehr

and outsmarted the Gestapo

was arrested with her companions

for illegally crossing the border

as undocumented and destitute refugees.

For the first time in her life,

Virginia was stuck behind bars.

Separated from

her three companions,

who had been sent

to a Spanish prison camp,

Virginia spent her days

plotting her own jailbreak

while forming a close bond

with one of her cellmates.

Virginia had no doubt

that the American consulate in Barcelona

would arrange for her release,

but her jailers ignored

her pleas to contact them.

Fortunately, Virginia’s cellmate

was happy to offer her assistance.

Immediately after her release,

she delivered a message

from Virginia to the consulate.

After six weeks in prison,

Virginia was finally free.

A lot had happened

since Virginia narrowly escaped

her post in Lyon.

She had no way of knowing

that she had been right all along

about Abbé Alesch—

he was not what he had preached.

Alesch had made a fortune

as a double agent.

The SOE paid him

to be a resistance courier

while the Germans paid him

for the names and locations

of Virginia’s Heckler agents.

The uncertain fate of her comrades

haunted Virginia.

She needed to return to France

as soon as possible

to find them and rejoin the fight.

While she had been away,

the resistance circuits

she had helped build

inside the free zone

had grown and strengthened.

Using guerrilla warfare tactics,

French fighters were successfully sabotaging German troops

by attacking trains, roads, planes, and factories.

Virginia couldn’t stand being removed

from the missions she had helped organize.

No one had greater respect

for Virginia’s accomplishments

than the SOE F Section chief, Maurice Buckmaster.

And no one had a better understanding

of Klaus Barbie’s obsession with capturing her.

Buckmaster firmly refused Virginia’s request

to return to France—

You are really too well-known in the country

and it would be wishful thinking believing that you could

escape detection

for more than a few days …

We do not want to give him [Barbie] even half a chance

by sending in anyone as remarkable as yourself.

Disappointed, Virginia reluctantly headed

to a new post in Madrid, Spain, in May 1943.

Arrangements were again made

for her to use the cover

of an American journalist—

this time for the Chicago Times.

Her instructions were to set up

escape routes and safe houses

for resistance fighters passing through Spain.

While Spain’s dictator, Francisco Franco,

was aligned with the Axis powers,

he kept peace with his European neighbors

by remaining neutral in the war.

Spain was filled with German spies,

and Virginia still needed

to guard her identity

while she assisted

resistance efforts there.

But after leading

one of the most successful spy networks

in Nazi-occupied France,

Virginia felt useless in Madrid,

so far from the action.

She requested a transfer

after only four months

and didn’t hesitate

to express her disappointment

to Buckmaster—

When I came out here

I thought that I would be able

to help F section people,

but I don’t and can’t.

I am not doing a job.

I am simply

living pleasantly and wasting time.

It isn’t worthwhile, and after all,

my neck is my own, and if I am willing to get a crick in it

because there is a war on,

I do think... well, anyhow,

I put it up to you.

When Virginia returned to London

she tried, once again,

to persuade Buckmaster

to send her back to France.

She knew the resistance

had grown quite a bit

after Germany passed a law

that sent Frenchmen between the ages

of twenty and thirty-four

to Nazi labor camps.

To avoid capture, many of these men

fled to the mountains and hid out in forests

where they formed small bands

of local French Resistance fighters

called Maquis.

Virginia knew that the untrained warriors

needed instruction in guerrilla warfare.

These more ungentlemanly

warfare tactics were needed

to sabotage the Nazis

while the Allied armies

prepared for D-Day—

a massive surprise Allied invasion

that would provide the military might

France would need to stop the Nazis.

Virginia also knew the Maquis

needed trained radio operators

to keep communications open

with the SOE which would support them.

So in January 1944,

Virginia began her wireless radio training.

She had hoped that

once she was a qualified radio operator

Buckmaster would change his mind.

Unfortunately he remained steadfast,

reminding her that she was still at the top

of Barbie’s most wanted list.

He would not send her back.

Used to navigating dead ends,

Virginia decided it was time to make a change.

Just as Virginia was looking for a way

to return to France to support the resistance,

America’s new spy agency—

the Office of Strategic Services—

was looking for experienced agents and radio operators

to help Maquis fighters prepare for D-Day.

These local resistance groups

were proving to be most helpful

in gathering German intelligence

and sabotaging German troops.

When Virginia learned

that the risk-taking OSS director, Wild Bill Donovan,

was willing to send her back

into Nazi-occupied France

as a radio operator,

she decided she wanted to transfer.

Proud to represent her own country,

Virginia was disappointed

that she could not convince the OSS

to send her back without a male commander.

Female agents—

even the legendary Heckler leader—

could not lead a mission.

So, on a moonless March night in 1944,

Virginia crossed the English Channel to France

in a torpedo boat with Henri Lassot,

a much older and less experienced agent,

code-named Aramis.

This time Virginia would sneak

back into France

as Agent Diane,

carrying her own suitcase radio

and wearing a disguise

that would fool even her mother.

1944. Virginia sent countless secret messages back to London on this Type 3, Mark II suitcase radio on her second trip to occupied France. The new US spy agency, the OSS, was in desperate need of wireless radio operators who bravely shouldered the important responsibility of transmitting communications. They also carried the highest risk. If captured, a wireless operator would most likely be tortured and killed. When the SOE refused to send her back to occupied France, Virginia got her wireless radio training and switched to the OSS. Virginia’s suitcase radio is on permanent display at the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC.

DIANE A.K.A. MARCELLE MONTAGNE

With dyed gray hair,

bulky peasant clothes,

and a shuffle to disguise her limp,

secret agent Diane

arrived safely in Paris

with Aramis by her side.

Meticulous about her disguise

in case of capture,

Virginia even had a dentist

give her French fillings

to avoid recognition

as an American.

While Virginia pretended

to be old and slow,

her partner proved to be slower.

This is Virginia’s forged French birth certificate used in her second mission to France as an OSS agent.

After twisting his knee

upon their arrival,

Aramis struggled to walk

and carry bags.

She understood

that traveling together

as an old peasant couple

meant they were less likely

to be stopped by Nazi soldiers

at train stations and checkpoints.

But Aramis’s complaints,

poor judgment, and big mouth

made her uneasy.

She needed to get away

from her careless partner

and out of Gestapo-infested Paris.

Virginia felt much safer

once she established her base

in a tiny village in La Creuse,

and Aramis returned to his base in Paris.

In a tiny shack without water or electricity,

Virginia began her new mission

with the cover of an old French milkmaid

named Marcelle Montagne.

Growing up with farm animals

on Boxhorn Farm

proved to be helpful training

for her spy work in rural France.

Thanks to Virginia’s expert disguise,

skilled acting, and sharp instincts,

no one suspected that the milkmaid

who cooked meals and tended cows

for a local dairy farmer and his family

was Artemis—

the Nazi’s code name for Virginia—

their most wanted spy.

And no one noticed

that when she took

the farmer’s cows to pasture,

Virginia was scouting

remote fields for parachute drops

of weapons and supplies.

While she sold milk and cheese in the village,

Virginia not only secretly recruited

villagers and farmers to join the resistance,

she also eavesdropped on Nazi officers.

Fearless and fluent in German,

Virginia understood their every word—

and radioed the overheard Nazi military plans

back to OSS headquarters

from the farmer’s attic.

Every radio operator’s greatest fear

was a surprise raid by the Nazis.

One day while Virginia

was tapping out intelligence

in the farmer’s attic,

she was startled by the sound

of a truck pulling up outside.

Virginia quickly hid her radio

and hurried downstairs.

She stayed cool

as German soldiers

were ordered to search inside.

She plotted possible escapes

as she heard the loud crashes

of overturned furniture.

Surely they had discovered her radio.

But when the soldiers came outside,

they weren’t carrying her suitcase radio—

only cheese!

One of the soldiers

recognized her as the village cheesemaker.

He gave his thanks for the cheese,

threw coins at her feet, and drove away—

leaving behind a very relieved Virginia.

Virginia had narrowly escaped capture,

but some of her neighbors weren’t so lucky.

A few days after the farmhouse raid,

she was horrified to see

the grotesque bodies of murdered villagers

left in the street by Nazis—

a stark warning for resistance sympathizers.

Virginia had too many unanswered questions.

What did the Nazis know?

Did they detect the radio signals

coming from the farmer’s attic?

Were they suspicious of her visits from Aramis?

Deciding it was only a matter of time

before her peasant charade

and her unusual accent

would be discovered,

Virginia sent the OSS

an urgent wireless warning—

WOLVES ARE AT THE DOOR. STOP.

WILL BE IN CONTACT SOON. STOP.

Then she packed up her radio suitcase and disappeared.

In the late spring of 1944,

Virginia began moving

throughout central France,

still in peasant clothing,

to help organize

Maquis’ sabotage missions

to delay and derail the Germans.

Virginia helped train fighters

and arrange supply drops

when she wasn’t herding goats.

For three years

Virginia had sacrificed

and fought for the day

Allied armies would

return to France

to take back the country.

Finally on June 6, 1944,

that day had come.

The D-Day invasion

poured nearly 160,000 Allied troops

onto five beaches

in Normandy, France.

After the largest seaborne invasion

in history,

thousands of French locals

rushed to join Maquis groups

to fight the ruthless Germans

who were wreaking a path of destruction

on their way home.

1944. On June 6, 1944, the long-awaited D-Day arrived. This operation, code named Overlord, spilled nearly 160,000 Allied troops onto the beaches of Normandy, France, to unleash the largest amphibious invasion in history. Virginia was focused on assisting the French Resistance in sabotaging the Germans to enable the Allies to advance more quickly.

Now more than ever,

Maquis were needed

to cut off German transports

and communications.

Virginia helped train

the French freedom fighters

to poke holes in gas tanks

of Nazi cars and trucks.

They knocked down telephone wires,

blocked railroad tracks,

and blew up bridges.

They changed road signs

to set the Germans

in the wrong direction,

and they hid explosives

in piles of horse dung on the roads.

After organizing and training

hundreds of volunteers,

Virginia had proven she was

a remarkably successful guerrilla leader.

So it pained her

to not be given command

of a Maquis group of her own.

And because she was still at the top

of the Gestapo’s most wanted list,

she was not allowed to join her men

on the secret sabotage missions

she helped plan.

It was essential for Virginia

to keep moving to avoid capture.

She received new orders

and headed south

in the Haute-Loire region.

A plateau in the hills

of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon

would provide the perfect landing fields

for the weapons and supply parachute drops

the local Maquis desperately needed.

LA MADONE

Virginia discovered

that the Chambon Maquis

offered their own set of obstacles.

Though united in their fight against the Germans,

the Maquis leaders

often disagreed on how to organize,

and many were bewildered

by the arrival of Agent Diane—

an American woman

with a terrible French accent,

who clearly had more experience

than all of them.

The Maquis leader, Pierre Fayol,

made it clear that while he expected Virginia

to arrange parachute deliveries

and provide money and supplies,

he would not be following her orders.

Virginia was used to proving

she was as capable as a man.

Now dressed in khakis and an army jacket,

she made it clear

that she expected the Maquis

to take her instruction

if they expected her

to arrange supply deliveries.

Fayol may have resented her leadership,

but Virginia built trusting relationships

with many of the other freedom fighters.

She bought bicycles

for herself and a small crew of loyal fighters

to aid in finding parachute drop locations.

Securing and relaying messages about safe sites

for parachute drops in the mountain region

was one of the most difficult

and important parts of her mission.

In four weeks’ time

she would send thirty-seven

messages to London without being traced.

A devoted admirer even found a way

to use a bicycle and a car battery

to power Virginia’s radio.

One of her bicycle messages

signaled a parachute delivery—

Les marguerites fleuriront ce soir

—the daisies will bloom tonight.

This Jeffrey Bass painting, Les Marguerites Fleuriront ce Soir (“the daisies will bloom tonight”), named for one of the codes that signaled an Allied airdrop, shows Virginia transmitting a wireless message back to London in 1944 from Leá Lebrat’s farmhouse above the village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in the Haute-Loire. Leá’s relative and Virginia’s resistance comrade, Edmond Lebrat, pedals an adapted bicycle beside her, providing power from a car battery for Virginia’s radio. In 2006, this painting was unveiled at a special ceremony at the French Ambassador’s residence in Washington, DC, and is now in the CIA Fine Arts Collection.

Virginia more than lived up

to the promises she made

to the Chambon Maquis.

Night after moon-filled night,

metal cannisters dropped from the sky,

filled with not only the weapons and ammunition

needed to perform their missions—

but also money, clothes, boots,

and sweet treats like cookies and chocolate.

Virginia even received

her own personal cannisters

filled with her favorite tea,

letters from her mother,

and much-needed socks for Cuthbert.

Like clockwork, Virginia’s men

raced to carry out her carefully planned

air drop recovery routine

to secure the secret shipments

in under fifteen minutes.

Teams split up to simultaneously

stamp out the small fires

that lit the makeshift runway,

cut the ropes from the metal cannisters,

fold the parachutes into bags,

load the heavy, metal cannisters

into ox-drawn carts,

and, without a thread of evidence left behind,

transport them to safe houses.

Amazed by her miraculous deliveries

of twenty-two parachute drops in all,

these Maquis fighters

would forever call Virginia

La Madone—

the Madonna of the Mountains.

Word spread about the successes

organized and led

by this mysterious woman.

Soon a small band of thirty fighters

grew to five companies

of over four hundred trained

Maquis soldiers.

Fayol and some of the other leaders

were happy to accept

the money and weapon deliveries,

but they still would only take orders

from their French superiors.

Virginia stayed focused on her mission.

She reported to the OSS—

as long as Gévolde and Fayol

were willing to do

sabotage and guerrilla work

I did not care about the fact

that they would not cooperate with me.

Thanks to Virginia’s leadership

and supply drops,

the Chambon Maquis

executed a steady stream

of successful sabotage missions

over the summer of 1944.

In August, Virginia

directed guerrilla fighters

in the successful ambushes

of Nazi convoys

with courage and grit.

After a bold five-day attack

on a German convoy,

and without the aid

of official Allied troops,

Virginia and the Chambon Maquis

defeated the Nazis

in the area,

freeing the people

in the Haute-Loire region.

1944. B-17 Flying Fortresses drop supplies to the Maquis fighters in the Vercors region, only a few hours away from Virginia’s location on the Haute-Loire plateau.

Stories of La Madone’s heroics

became legendary.

Even Pierre Fayol,

once Virginia’s greatest critic,

became her most devoted fan.

After the war

his appreciation for her grew—

We know perfectly well

just how much we owe her.

Virginia’s spirit soared above the plateau,

and for those who knew her from those days

she was forever “La Madone.”

DIANE’S IRREGULARS

On August 25, 1944,

soon after Virginia helped free

the Haute-Loire from Nazi control,

the Germans surrendered Paris

to Allied troops.

While Paris may have been liberated,

Virginia knew the war

was far from over

where she was in central France.

Maquis missions were still needed

to combat the defeated and enraged Germans

as they continued their paths of destruction

across the French countryside.

Virginia was determined

to continue organizing

French Resistance missions

as Agent Diane,

but she needed more backup

from the OSS.

Thankfully, they agreed.

Finally, after years of organizing missions

without full authority,

Virginia had gotten what she wanted

from her superiors—

permission to recruit and command

her own Maquis.

1944. Virginia was excited to finally have command of her own Maquis unit of nineteen volunteers and permission to join the fight. Her loyal new backup agents, Lieutenant Henry Riley (on ground holding pup) and her future husband, Lieutenant Paul Goillot (on far right), helped train the young, rough local fighters in guerrilla warfare tactics to sabotage, harass, and ambush the retreating Germans. Her loyal group of scrappy fighters became known as the Diane Irregulars as a tribute to their leader, known only by her code name, Diane.

In early September,

Virginia prepared

for the midnight parachute drop

of two French American agents

sent to help her new mission.

She waited all night

for a plane that never arrived.

After landing way off target

in treetops over twenty miles away,

Paul Goillot and Henry Riley

untangled their parachutes,

gathered their supplies,

and made their way to Agent Diane.

While Paul and Henry

were at first hesitant

to follow the orders of a woman,

it didn’t take long for them to see

that Virginia was a remarkably skilled

and courageous commander.

Under Virginia’s direction,

Paul and Henry helped recruit and train

a new group of Maquis fighters

to continue sabotage missions

against the retreating Germans.

Virginia’s new guerrilla recruits

called themselves the Diane Irregulars,

proving their devotion

to their courageous leader.

After years of planning missions

without being able to participate,

Virginia couldn’t wait to join the fight

with her well-trained team.

But she would never have the chance.

The Allied armies had taken hold of France

more quickly than planned.

New orders were given—

the services of French Maquis

were no longer needed.

There would be no missions for Virginia

and her Diane Irregulars.

1944. Virginia is surrounded by her parachute reception committee. Her command of the Diane Irregulars was short-lived as the war in Europe ended shortly after their training began. After spending much of her OSS service disguised as an old French peasant, Virginia traded in her long skirts for combat wear in the Haute-Loire.

It was time for Virginia

to say farewell

to her loyal comrades—

all except Paul.

Virginia had formed

many friendships during the war,

but she had never

let herself fall in love.

The constant threat

of danger and death

kept Virginia’s focus

on her missions and her own safety.

But Paul was different from anyone

she had ever met.

Aside from being a loyal combat partner,

Paul’s humor and charm provided Virginia

much needed comfort and distraction

from the horrors of war.

Virginia didn’t mind

that Paul was six inches shorter

and eight years younger—

he could cook meals, make repairs,

and solve problems with a wink and a smile.

Paul had not only earned Virginia’s trust—

he had won her heart.

DIANA

While the Germans had lost

their hold on France,

they were still hanging on

in neighboring countries.

Revered as the most

capable of all American agents,

Virginia was handpicked by

Director Donovan

to command an important

OSS secret mission in Austria

in the fall of 1944.

With the assurance

that Paul would be on her team,

Virginia, code-named Diana,

prepared for another dangerous mission

in the mountains.

But, after many months of frustrating delays,

their secret operation was brought

to a sudden halt before it even began.

While British and American troops

took control of France,

their Soviet allies captured Berlin,

the capital of Germany.

Unwilling to face defeat,

Hitler killed himself on April 30, 1945.

One week later, on May 8,

the German Army surrendered.

World War II in Europe was finally over.

1944. Thousands of French citizens line the Champs-Élysées on August 26 to celebrate the liberation of Paris from the Germans. Here they cheer Allied tanks and the French Second Armored Division as they pass through the Arc de Triomphe.

VIRGINIA

Virginia and Paul celebrated

the end of the war in Paris—

Paul’s birthplace and Virginia’s favorite city.

But it was far from the end

of Virginia’s secret service.

While she focused

on getting back to the business

of defending freedom,

Virginia was surprised by the news

that President Harry S. Truman

wished to honor her

with the Distinguished Service Cross for

extraordinary heroism in connection

with military operations against

an armed enemy.

Virginia was not a fan of awards or praise.

As she told a friend in France—

I don’t want people to hear about what I did.

All I did was for love of France,

my second homeland.

Besides, Virginia made it clear

that the less said

about her heroics the better,

when she explained—Too many of my friends were killed because they talked too much.

Wanting to protect her future as a spy,

Virginia declined a public ceremony

with President Truman.

Virginia—the only civilian woman in World War II

to have received this prestigious award—

agreed to accept her award

from her devoted director, Wild Bill Donovan,

in a private presentation.

1945. William Donovan, the director of the OSS, awards Virginia the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against the enemy. The only civilian female to receive the DSC for service during WWII, Virginia declined President Truman’s invitation to award her publicly. Instead, to preserve her secret identity as a spy, she received her award privately with only her mother in attendance.

DINDY

Dindy, the once cantankerous

and capricious schoolgirl,

had certainly lived

a most original life.

And, as in most things

Dindy set out to do,

she had exceeded expectations,

even her own,

when she proclaimed

as a high school senior—

I must have liberty, withal as large a charter as I please.

Just as clever at skirting praise

as avoiding capture,

the adult Dindy—

the mysterious Virginia Hall—

shrugged off her extraordinary heroics

in helping to liberate France

with her characteristic humility—

Not bad for a girl from Baltimore

This is an undated photo of Virginia looking into a mirror. Throughout the war, Virginia remains true to herself and her convictions despite her ever-changing identities.

AFTERWORD: VIRGINIA HALL GOILLOT

Once the war was over, Virginia focused her energies on returning to Lyon to track down her loyal Heckler team. Virginia was devastated to learn that Abbé Alesch was responsible for the arrests of most all her Heckler comrades. Distraught that some of her brave volunteers had not survived, Virginia was relieved to find and reunite with Germaine Guérin and Dr. Jean Rousset. Sadly, she found her dear Pépin to be almost unrecognizable. After surviving eighteen grueling months at the Buchenwald concentration camp by serving as a prison doctor, Rousset’s body and spirits were ravaged.

While Germaine was one of the few to live through the tortures of the Ravensbrück concentration camp, she was not only shattered from the horrors she had witnessed and endured, but she was also left penniless. Thanks to Virginia’s persistent appeals to the British government, Germaine was granted compensation for her patriotic sacrifices.

Virginia tracked down and advocated for the compensation and recognition of many other surviving freedom fighters as well, but her most relentless pursuit was of the phony priest, Alesch. With the help of detailed accounts that she, Rousset, and Guérin offered French authorities, Alesch was finally arrested and put on trial in Paris on May 25, 1948. This time no one was fooled by his lies. After a three-day trial for conspiring with the enemy, Alesch was found guilty and sentenced to death. On February 25, 1949, he was executed by firing squad.

After the war, Virginia continued her espionage work with the Central Intelligence Group, and when it was renamed the Central Intelligence Agency in 1947, she was their first female paramilitary officer and would become the CIA’s first tenured female. After years of devoted service, Virginia remained loyal to the CIA until her mandatory retirement at age sixty.

Spy partners in war, Virginia and Paul remained devoted partners for life. Paul followed his dream of owning his own restaurant in Washington, DC, before devoting himself to caring for Virginia and their farm in Barnesville, Maryland. For the rest of her life, Virginia quietly suffered from relentless pain and discomfort due to Cuthbert, but that didn’t keep her from enjoying retirement with Paul. Virginia found well-earned peace in gardening, making cheese, weaving, tending to her goats, entertaining guests, and spoiling her pack of adoring standard French poodles. The stoic spy was even known to feed them with a silver spoon.

Never one to talk about her heroic adventures, the mysterious Virginia Hall—the limping lady, Marie of Lyon, the Madonna of the Mountains—kept her spy secrets and her accolades to herself.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: AUNT DINDY

Having researched and written books about heroic spies and hometown heroes, I was intrigued to learn about Virginia Hall, the legendary World War II spy and Baltimore native. What I didn’t expect to learn was that the woman known as the Limping Lady, the Gestapo’s most wanted spy, had attended Roland Park Country School for twelve years—the same school my daughter attended nearly ninety years later. I was equally excited to learn that Virginia Hall, who passed away in 1982, still had family in Baltimore. It is a rare privilege to meet the relatives of my historical subjects, so I was thrilled to connect with Lorna Catling, Dindy’s niece. What a surprise to discover that we live in the same neighborhood. I often describe my job of researching and sharing real-life stories as treasure hunting. I really struck gold finding Lorna, a real-life treasure, who so graciously and generously shared with me her memories and photographs of her extraordinary Aunt Dindy.

1945. Shortly after her return to Boxhorn Farm after World War II, Virginia enjoys the company of lambs, a turkey, and a French poodle in the barn. Later that year, she returned to Europe to continue her work in intelligence before joining the newly formed Central Intelligence Group in 1946, which would become the CIA a year later.

VIRGINIA HALL’S AWARDS AND HONORS

Congratulatory telegram for Virginia from SOE superiors on receiving MBE—“Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire”—for her courageous work as a spy and liaison for the Resistance in France in 1941–1942. She kept her award secret so she could continue her work as an undercover agent.

1943: King George VI honors Virginia as an honorary Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

1945: President Harry Truman wants to present the Distinguished Service Cross to Hall in a special ceremony, but Hall declines a public presentation to protect her anonymity as an active agent.

September 1945: In a private ceremony, Virginia’s former OSS boss, General Donovan, presents the Distinguished Service Cross to Virginia—the only civilian woman to receive this honor in World War II—with only her mother in attendance.

March 16, 1946: France privately awards Virginia the high honor of the Croix de Guerre with palm for heroism in combat. Hall requested that the recognition be kept secret so she could continue her intelligence work. She keeps this illustrious honor a secret for the rest of her life. A 1973 fire in the French archives destroyed documentation of the award, but another source was recently uncovered.

1988: Virginia Hall is inducted into the inaugural class of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame.

December 2006: French and British ambassadors honor her heroics at the French ambassador’s home in Washington, DC, on the hundredth anniversary of her birth. Her niece, Lorna Catling, was presented with her aunt’s award and accolades as a “true hero of the French Resistance.”

2016: The Virginia Hall Expeditionary Center opens as a CIA field agent training facility at CIA headquarters. Virginia Hall is featured at a CIA museum exhibit representing Service, one of six pillars of the organization. She is the only woman to be recognized.

2019: Virginia Hall is inducted into the Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame.

1928. Virginia’s passport

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Iam forever grateful to Lorna Catling and her son, Brad, for their invaluable contributions and insights about their Aunt Dindy. They so generously shared family stories, memories, and photographs that brought Dindy to life for me, and hopefully for my readers. I would like to thank Sara Lichterman, Randy Burkett, and Janelle Neises at the CIA; Missie Mack and Abbey Pulcinella at Roland Park Country School; Debra Elfenbein, the special collections librarian at the Enock Pratt Free Library; and Christian Belena at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum. I am grateful for the contributions of the renowned portraitist, Jeffrey Bass, and the acclaimed documentary filmmaker, Pierre Sauvage.

Special thanks to my brother, Charley, who sparked my interest in Virginia Hall years ago when he forwarded an article about the Baltimore spy who attended my daughter’s school. I would also like to thank my first-round readers, Marcia Benshoof and my mother Coleen Davis, for their careful reviews and thoughtful insights. Thanks to my husband, Winn, for his limitless patience and encouragement and to Ann Matzke and my Camp Carolyn writing comrades for their support and companionship on this long and often lonely road. I am so grateful for the care and guidance I receive from my agent, Rachel Orr, who is the most enthusiastic and supportive advocate any writer could hope for. And finally, eternal thanks to the whole team at Calkins Creek, most especially my amazing editor, Carolyn Yoder, and associate editor Thalia Leaf.

Undated photo. Virginia learned to ride horses as a child, and as an adult she rode every chance she got in the US and overseas.

SOURCE NOTES

The source of each quotation in this book is found below. The citation indicates the first words of the quotation and its document source. The document sources are listed in the bibliography.

DINDY (page 10)

“Fighting Blade”: Mugele, p. 4.

“She is, by her own confession, …”: Quid Nunc, p. 12.

“I must have liberty, …”: Ibid. Quote based on Shakespeare’s play As You Like It, Act II, Scene 7, Lines 48–49.

“most original”: Quid Nunc, p.12.

VIRGINIA (page 19)

“a lot of uninteresting required courses”: VH letter to Rossiter, Feb 2, 1978, Women in the Resistance Papers, Box 3, University of Michigan Special Collection, quoted in Mitchell, p. 7.

VIRGINIA AND CUTHBERT (page 32)

“amputation of a portion of a limb …”: Letter from Sumner Welles to Francis R. Stewart, Sept 29, 1936, Virginia Hall State Department File, State Department General Records, RG 59/Box 526/Folder 123, NARA, quoted in Haines, p. 250.

“Why, Oh, Why do the regulations …”: Memo for Secretary of State, FDR Presidential Library, Hyde Park, New York. Feb. 9, 1938.

“well taken care of” and “plenty of good food”: Baltimore Sun, June 12, 1940.

“well intentioned, but they …”: Ibid.

“at the time of defeat …”: From C.R.I., Feb. 2, 1943, Virginia Hall SOE Personnel File, HS 9/647/4, British National Archives, quoted in Mitchell, p. 23.

“set Europe ablaze”: Winston Churchill quoted in The Second World War

Diary of Hugh Dalton 1940–1945, entry Monday, 22 July 1940. London: Jonathan Cape, p. 62.

“a most ‘ungentlemanly’ new form of undercover warfare”: Purnell, “Virginia Hall,” and Dalton, p.1.

“Miss Virginia Hall …”: memo from Bodington to Marriott, SOE HS 9-674-4, Virginia Hall Personnel File, Jan. 15, 1941, quoted in Demetrios, p. 77.

GERMAINE (page 61)

“irregular warfare …”: British SOE, How to become a Spy: The World War II SOE Training Manual. New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2015, p. 4-5.

Carlomagno, “Women in a Man’s War,” p. 54.

GERMAINE A.K.A BRIGITTE (page 65)

“She seems to have totally …”: Grose, p. 63.

“France would be a paradise …”: Hall, “Vichy Exclusive.”

“Many families are divided brutally …”: Hall, “France’s Rabbits on Strike.”

“If you sit in [her] kitchen long enough …”: Ben Cowburn’s Personnel File, SOE HS6-568, quoted in Purnell, A Woman of No Importance, p. 93.

MARIE (page 74)

“Practically every F Section agent …”: commendation, Virginia Hall Personnel File HS 9/647/4703284, Nov. 21, 1944, British Archives.

“very most valuable assistant”: Report sent to SOE by ‘Marie,’ Sept. 6, 1942, Hall SOE Personnel File, HS 9/674/4.

“He would give anything …” quoted in Ian Dear, Sabotage and Subversion: The SOE and OSS at War. Cheltenham, UK: The History Press, 2010, p. 164. Henry Newton Personnel File HS 9/1091/1, quoted in Vigurs, p. 42.

MARIE A.K.A. PHILOMENE (page 91)

“My address has been given …”: Message from Philomene, Virginia Hall Personnel File HS 9/647/4703284, Sept. 21, 1942, British Archives.

“The woman who limps is …”: Fayol, Le Chambon-sur-Lignon sous l’Occupation, quoted in McIntosh, p. 147.

“Cuthbert is being tiresome …”: Ibid., p. 118.

“If Cuthbert tiresome …”: Ibid.

“You are really too well-known …”: Buckmaster message to Virginia Hall, Oct. 6, 1943, Hall SOE Personnel File, HS 9/674/4, British Archives.

“When I came out here …”: Virginia Hall letter to Buckmaster, SOE Hall Personnel File, HS 9/674/4, British Archives.

DIANE A.K.A. MARCELLE MONTAGNE (page 110)

“WOLVES ARE AT …”: Pearson, Judith L. The Wolves at the Door: The True Story of America’s Greatest Female Spy. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2005. p. 188.

LA MADONE (page 120)

“Les marguerites fleuriront ce soir …”: CIA.

“As long as Gévolde and Fayol were willing to do …”: Virginia Hall OSS Activity Report, NARA, RG, 226, quoted in Purnell, p. 247.

“We know perfectly well just how much we owe her.”: Fayol, Le Chambon-sur-Lignon sous l’Occupation, quoted in Fayol in rhapsodyinwords.com, Nov 20, 2019, “Remarkable Women.”

VIRGINIA (page 134)

“extraordinary heroism in connection …”: Distinguished Service Cross citation, The Hall of Valor Project.

“I don’t want people to hear …”: quoted by Hubert Petiet in Vincent Nouzille, L’espionne: Virginia Hall, une Américaine dans la guerre. Paris: Artheme Fayard, 2007, p. 14, quoted in Demetrios, p. 275.

“too many friends were killed because they talked too much.”: Lorna Catling interview, Dec. 15, 2018 and Nouzille, L’espionne: Virginia Hall, une Américaine dans la guerre. Paris: Artheme Fayard, 2007, p. 5667.

DINDY (page 137)

“most original”: Quid Nunc, p. 12, Mugele, p. 4.

“I must have liberty, …”: Quid Nunc, p. 12. Quote based on Shakespeare’s play As You Like It, Act II, Scene 7, Lines 48–49.

“Not bad for a girl from Baltimore”: Lorna Catling interview, Dec. 15, 2018, Not Bad for a Girl from Baltimore: The Story of Virginia Hall, ee.usembassy.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/207/Not-Bad-for-a-Girl-from-Baltimore.pdf.

Original Maurice Buckmaster report recommending Virginia for her first mission in France as an SOE agent.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Baltimore Sun. “Maryland Woman Is Driving Ambulance for French Army: Miss Virginia Hall Joined Allies Last February without Telling Family of Intentions,” June 12, 1940.

________. “Virginia Goillot of French resistance, dies,” July 13, 1982.

Barnard Archives and Special Collections. “Virginia Hall.” Aug. 13, 2010. barnardarchives.wordpress.com/2010/08/13/virginia-hall/.

Binney, Marcus. The Women Who Lived for Danger: The Women Agents of SOE in the Second World War. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2002.

British SOE. How to Become a Spy: The World War II SOE Training Manual. New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2015.

Buckmaster, Maurice. They Fought Alone: The Story of British Agents in France. London: Odhams Press, 1958.

Burkett, Randy P. “Virginia Hall: OSS Hero, CIA Paramilitary Officer—Not a Victim.” Intelligencer: Journal of U.S. Intelligence Studies, Summer–Fall 2019.

Carlomagno, Cameron. “Women in a Man’s War: The Employment of Female Agents in the Special Operations Executive, 1940–1946.” Master’s thesis, Chapman University, 2019. doi.org/10.36837/chapman.000075.

Catling, Lorna. Interviewed by the author. Dec. 15, 2018; July 21, 2019; and June 2020.

Central Intelligence Agency. “The Debrief: Behind the Artifact—Virginia Hall.” YouTube. Oct. 7, 2020. Video, 1:58. youtube.com/watch?v=t8qpwDUDz-c.

________. “Les Marguerites Fleuriront ce Soir.” CIA. 2006. Video, 2:23. cia.gov/legacy/museum/artifact/les-marguerites-fleuriront-ce-soir/.

Churchill, Peter. Duel of Wits. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1953.

________. Of Their Own Choice. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1952.

Cobb, Matthew. The Resistance: The French Fight Against the Nazis. London: Simon & Schuster UK, 2009.

Cowburn, Benjamin. No Cloak, No Dagger. London: Jarrolds, 1960.

Dalton, Hugh. The Second World War Diary of Hugh Dalton 1940–1945. London: Jonathan Cape, 1986.

Dear, Ian. Sabotage and Subversion: The SOE and OSS at War. London: Cassell Military Paperbacks, 1999.

de Vomécourt, Philippe. An Army of Amateurs. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1961.

________. Who Lived to See the Day: France in Arms 1940–1945. London: Hutchinson, 1961.

Demetrios, Heather. Code Name Badass: The True Story of Virginia Hall. New York: Atheneum, 2021.

Escott, Beryl E. The Heroines of SOE: F Section: Britain’s Secret Women in France. Stroud, UK: History Press, 2014.

Fayol, Pierre. Le Chambon-sur-Lignon sous l’occupation: Les résistances locales, l’aide interalliée, l’action de Virginia Hall (O.S.S.). Paris: L’Harmattan, 1990.

________. “Remarkable Women: The Life and Times of Virginia Hall (Part 2).” Rhap.so.dy in Words (blog). Nov. 20, 2019. rhapsodyinwords.com/tag/pierre-fayol/.

Foot, M. R. D. SOE: An Outline History of the Special Operations Executive, 1940–1946. London: BBC, 1984.

________. SOE in France. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1966.

________. SOE in France: An Account of the Work of the British Special Operations Executive in France, 1940–1944. New York: Frank Cass Publishers, 2004.

Gordon, Bertram M., ed. Historical Dictionary of WW II France: The Occupation, Vichy, and the Resistance, 1938–1946. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998.

Gralley, Craig. “A Climb to Freedom: A Personal Journey in Virginia Hall’s Steps.” Studies in Intelligence 61, no.1 (Mar. 2017).

________. Hall of Mirrors: Virginia Hall: America’s Greatest Spy of World War II. Pisgah Forest, NC: Chrysalis Books, 2019.

Grose, Peter. A Good Place to Hide. Boston: Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2016.

Haines, Gerald K. “Virginia Hall Goillot: Career Intelligence Officer.” Prologue: Quarterly Journal of the National Archives, Winter 1994.

Hall, Virginia. “France’s Rabbits on Strike.” New York Post, Jan. 22, 1942.

________. “Lyon—Odd Bits.” New York Post, Jan. 13, 2018.

________. ”Vichy Bars Stock to Jews: Further Economic Bans expected.” New York Post, Nov. 24, 1941.

________. “Vichy Exclusive: Bathroom Offices in Vichy: Reporter Finds Capital Crowded. Frenchmen Now Smoke Leaves.” New York Post, Sept. 4, 1941.

Hall of Valor Project, The. “Virginia Hall.” valor.militarytimes.com/hero/22199.

Into the Dark. Directed by Genevieve Simms. Imperial War Museum Short Film Festival, 2005. Video, 16:35. vimeo.com/33965059.

Laneri, Raquel. “She was a Post columnist—and a heroic WWII spy.” New York Post, Jan. 13, 2018. nypost.com/2018/01/13/she-was-a-post-columnist-and-a-heroic-wwii-spy/.

Langelaan, George. Knights of the Floating Silk. London: Hutchinson, 1959.

Mackenzie, William. The Secret History of the SOE: The Special Operations Executive 1940–1945. London: St Ermin’s Press, 2002.

McIntosh, Elizabeth P. Sisterhood of Spies: The Women of the OSS. New York: Dell Publishing, 1998.

Mitchell, Don. The Lady Is a Spy: Virginia Hall, World War II Hero of the French Resistance. New York: Scholastic, 2019.

Moorehead, Caroline. Village of Secrets: Defying the Nazis in Vichy France. New York: Harper, 2014.

Mugele, Nancy. “The Lady Who Limps.” Connections (Roland Park Country School Alumnae Magazine), Spring 2007.

Pearson, Judith L. The Wolves at the Door: The True Story of America’s Greatest Female Spy. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2005.

Purnell, Sonia. A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II. New York: Viking, 2019.

________. “Virginia Hall Was America’s Most Successful Female WWII Spy. But She Was Almost Kept from Serving.” Time, April 9, 2019. time.com/5566062/virginia-hall/.ff.

Quid Nunc, Graduating Class of 1924 Yearbook, Roland Park Country School Archives.

Richards, Sir Brooks. “SOE and Sea Communications.” In Special Operations Executive: A New Instrument of War, edited by Mark Seaman.London and New York: Routledge, 2006.

Rosbottom, Ronald C. When Paris Went Dark: The City of Light Under German Occupation, 1940–1944. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2014.

Rossiter, Margaret. Women in the Resistance. New York: Praeger, 1986.

Ruby, Marcel. F Section, SOE: The Buckmaster Networks. London: Leo Cooper, 1988.

Simpson, William. I Burned My Fingers. London: Putnam, 1955.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Women in World War II: The Spies They Never Saw Coming. Facebook Live Series. Mar. 10, 2021. Video, 45:00. facebook.com/holocaustmuseum/videos/women-in-world-war-ii-the-spies-they-never-saw-coming/292493155623874.

Vigurs, Kate. Mission France: The True History of the Women of SOE. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2021.

PICTURE CREDITS

Shutterstock: 5; Catling family: 10, 11, 13, 16, 22, 25, 28, 30 (background), 33, 35, 45, 60, 67, 109, 136, 141, 145, 146; National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institute, Lucien Waléry, 1926: 20; Virginia Hall SOE file: 30 (foreground), 143, 152; National Archives: Heinrich Hoffman Collection: 540180: 37; Jerome R. Lilienthal Stereographic Collection: 559369: 43; Franklin D. Roosevelt Library Public Domain Photographs: 195768: 54, 196243: 81; Records of the Office of Strategic Services: 595660: 94, 595150: 134-5, 595152: 142; Records of the US Coast Guard: 12003973: 116-7; FDR Library: 40; National Archives (UK): Thomas Cantrell Dugdale: 44; 89; Yogi Black / Alamy Stock Photo: 111; Jeffrey Bass: 122; Warfarehistorynetwork.com: 125; Pierre Fayol via Pierre Sauvage, Chambon Foundation: 128; 130; Library of Congress: LC-USW36-1 A: 133.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Claudia Friddell, the author of 8 narrative nonfiction books, loves writing true stories that highlight extraordinary people and events from America’s past. She most especially loves writing books about heroic women like Virginia Hall who are timeless role models for readers of all ages, including Grace Banker and Her Hello Girls Answer the Call and To the Front! Clara Barton Braves the Battle of Antietam. A former teacher, Claudia is inspired by the students, educators, history buffs, and avid readers who she meets at author events across the country. She and her husband have two grown children and live in Maryland. Visit her and some of her favorite Americans at claudiafriddell.com.

MEET CLAUDIA FRIDDELL’S
OTHER WARTIME HEROES

Eureka Silver Honor Award, California Reading Association

NCSS Notable Trade Book

Kansas NEA Reading Circle Recommended Title

Texas Topaz Nonfiction Reading list

Septima Clark Women in Literature Honor Award

NCSS Notable Trade Book

Bank Street Best Books List (Outstanding Merit)

ALA Rise: A Feminist Book Project List