At first Hidden History stumped me. Hidden history, how would I know? Then I remembered an incredible book about the most amazing woman: a Woman of No Importance, The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II, by Sonia Purnell. No longer hidden history, there are three books and two movies in the works about the “The most highly decorated female civilian during World War II.” Her story is on display at the CIA Museum – but alas, it is off-limits to the public. There is still some hidden history about this courageous, intelligent, driven woman: Virginia Hall, and her wooden leg she called Cuthbert.
How is it a one-legged woman from Baltimore, Maryland, helped organize the French resistance, inspired, and protected so many in France, and as the most wanted spy in France, The Woman with a Limp, eluded and escaped the Nazi SS and Klaus Barbie, the Butcher of Leon?
Part of her hidden history was at her request. She was a spy. Many she had worked with were executed during the war. Her work continued state-side after the war. Spying is dangerous, and she knew the consequences too well. Success depended on secrecy. Also the effort of De Gaulle to downplay and ignore all allied participation in the French Resistance, especially the contributions of women kept her story a secret. Hidden history.
Virginia Hall was born into a wealthy Baltimore, Maryland family in 1906. Energetic, strong-willed, and longing to work and contribute, she was well, educated, attending Radcliffe, Harvard, and Barnard College of Columbia University, studying French, Italian, and German. She also studied French and Economics at George Washington University. Choosing to finish her studies abroad, she lived and studied across Europe. Despite the difficulties and biases against women in government employ, she received an assignment. A new position took her to Smyrna, Turkey. While hunting, she slipped and shot herself in the foot. Gangrene set in and her leg was amputated.
This did not deter the intrepid Miss Hall. She continued her work, and when war broke out, she became an ambulance driver for the French army. When France fell, she escaped to Spain and her new career as a spy began.
There is so much to her story working with the French Resistance, helping downed British soldiers, a jailbreak, and so much more. Every hour discovery and execution stalked her, and Cuthbert. Fear of betrayal of her or her friends and colleagues was a constant. When that finally happened, she climbed the Pyrenees Mountains, dragging Cuthbert for 50 miles in heavy snow.
I have provided links to her story, but READ THE BOOK, A Woman of No Importance, it is as page turning as her life was, and is it not a fiction thriller. It was her real life.
Fortitude, commitment, resilience, and fearlessness make her a woman of grand importance, then and now. Hidden no more. Except at the museum, hmmm?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Hall#Notes
https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/important-women-in-world-war-2-virginia-hall/
https://www.intelligence.gov/people/barrier-breakers-in-history/662-1945-virginia-hall
Anne M. Beggs writes adventure romance and family saga set in Medieval Ireland. She is a member of Paper Lantern Writers and Historical Novel Society. For about her books, mounted archery, and horses, please contact her on Facebook or Instagram @annitbella72
0 Comments