We welcome your reviews of books that • were published within the past three years • do not advocate for a political party or politician • do address issues supported by the League, and • intrigued you enough that you want to share them. Please submit your review at any time to Margan and Thad Zajdowicz (Margan.Zajdowicz [at] gmail.com).
A Woman of No Importance
By Sonia Purnell
Who was World War II’s most dangerous spy that you have never heard of? A woman, and a one-legged American woman, no less. I’ll wager most of you have never heard of Virginia Hall, but you should have, and if you read this thrilling book, you will be in awe of her bravery, persistence, and steely nerve.
Hall was born in 1906 in Baltimore, Maryland, to a well-to-do family. The youngest child and only daughter, she was expected to marry well and lead a conventional life as a wealthy wife and mother. Hall was having none of that. Wild and adventurous, she abandoned Radcliffe and Barnard Colleges sans degree and went to Europe to savor the blandishments of the European Continent and to improve her skills at French, German, and Italian. Reluctant to return to America and a boring future, she landed a job as a consular clerk at the American Embassy in Warsaw, Poland, had a brief affair with a dashing young Polish officer, and kept searching for adventure.
Months later, she was transferred to Smyrna, Turkey, where she was assigned to another boring clerical job at the American Embassy. Always restless, she organized a bird-hunting trip with her friends, reminiscent of her hunting exploits in America, toting the rifle that her father had given her. She fell while climbing over a fence and accidentally shot herself in the left foot. After she received care in Turkey, her foot became gangrenous and she developed sepsis. The only way to save her was to amputate her leg just below the knee, and even then she barely survived.
After months of recovery, she remained undaunted and applied multiple times to the United States Foreign Service, only to be turned down again and again because she was a woman and, even worse, disabled. In 1941, she became an ambulance driver for the Army of France. After the fall of France to the Germans, she made her way to Spain, where she met a British intelligence officer and ultimately joined the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), the newly formed British spy agency. She was sent as an undercover spy to Vichy France.
Through incredible cunning and amazing organizational skills, Hall quickly became the most wanted spy in World War II. Known as the “limping lady,” she was hunted throughout Europe by the Germans, who were determined to put an end to her sabotage, resistance, and skill at rescuing prisoners of war and downed airmen.
After operating undercover with the SOE for several years, she returned to London when the German determination to annihilate her became too intense. There, in 1944, she joined the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS), returning to occupied France by motor gunboat, as her artificial leg precluded her parachuting in.
Hall’s career was filled with adventure, chilling risk, close calls, and phenomenal bravery. It was also filled with sadness and disgusting misogyny. You will be on the edge of your seat as you read this book. Don’t let anyone tell you women don’t have what it takes.
—Margan Zajdowicz, Co-editor, Book Corner
