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The Wolves at the Door: The True Story
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The Wolves at the Door: The True Story
of America's Greatest Female Spy;
by
Judith L. Pearson.
The title is intriguing enough, but the story is a punch after punch, so impressive is the woman it's about - in an era when women were mostly homebodies, not merely due to restrictions but just as often because they, when from well to do circles, expected to be taken care of and were, and had only to worry about dressing and hosting events, this woman, born in 1906, chose education and career in a steadfast manner, and nothing safe or cosy either.
"This is no time for ease and comfort.
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The title is intriguing enough, but the story is a punch after punch, so impressive is the woman it's about - in an era when women were mostly homebodies, not merely due to restrictions but just as often because they, when from well to do circles, expected to be taken care of and were, and had only to worry about dressing and hosting events, this woman, born in 1906, chose education and career in a steadfast manner, and nothing safe or cosy either.
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"This is no time for ease and comfort.
It is the time to dare and endure."
"—Winston Churchill."
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"The old woman did not feel fear. Rather, the ravages of war that had destroyed the city repulsed her. The farther she and the old man trudged, the more that repulsion festered into anger and determination. She drew her shabby valise closer in an unconscious effort to guard its precious contents.
"The old woman did not feel fear. Rather, the ravages of war that had destroyed the city repulsed her. The farther she and the old man trudged, the more that repulsion festered into anger and determination. She drew her shabby valise closer in an unconscious effort to guard its precious contents.
"Despite their appearances, the feeble, elderly couple’s true identities couldn’t have been further removed from their current personae. He was Henry Laussucq, code-named Aramis, a sixty-two-year-old American agent of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). She was Virginia Hall, code-named Diane, the accomplished, thirty-eight-year-old spy who had built a reputation among colleagues and enemies alike while working with the British Special Operations Executive (SOE). Now also a member of the OSS, Hall was returning to France despite a price on her head and a Nazi pledge to “find and destroy her.” Together with other OSS agents, they were to assist the newly formed French Forces of the Interior in coordinating Resistance efforts."
They went to Crozant, where she remained to do her work, and he returned to do his.
"The suitcase she had carried since landing in Brittany contained a Type 3 Mark II transceiver. Hall used the set to transmit messages to the London OSS office, giving coordinates of large fields she had located during the day while moving Lopinat’s cows to and from pasture. The fields were to serve as parachute drops for agents and supplies in support of the French Resistance. The work carried high risks. Hall had to be vigilant of Nazi direction finders, instruments used to zero in on radio transmissions. She would need to relocate quickly if it became apparent that the Gestapo was moving in."
"The suitcase she had carried since landing in Brittany contained a Type 3 Mark II transceiver. Hall used the set to transmit messages to the London OSS office, giving coordinates of large fields she had located during the day while moving Lopinat’s cows to and from pasture. The fields were to serve as parachute drops for agents and supplies in support of the French Resistance. The work carried high risks. Hall had to be vigilant of Nazi direction finders, instruments used to zero in on radio transmissions. She would need to relocate quickly if it became apparent that the Gestapo was moving in."
"Hall’s feeling of security came to an abrupt end. Making her way through town to the Lopinat farmhouse one morning, she saw a small crowd gathered. Curious, she shuffled toward them until an appalling tableau came into view. Three men and a woman, all dead, hung from iron fence posts, spiked through the neck. The Nazi soldiers who stood guard over the grisly scene held the villagers at bay with their rifles, insisting that the bodies remain as a reminder to all who dared resist the Führer.
"That night, Hall sent her last message to London from the little cottage. Its meaning would be understood by the few with a need to know: “THE WOLVES ARE AT THE DOOR.”"
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"To walk the streets of Smyrna was to exploit all of the senses. ... This was Turkey—a paradise of sun, sea, mountains, and lakes; a land of historic treasures and mystery."
She had worked, arriving from Maryland, at the American Consulate in Smyrna in 1933.
"Smyrna was in remarkable contrast to the atmosphere Virginia had left in the United States. The Great Depression was raging and had been the topic of the newly elected president’s inaugural address the month before her departure. Virginia had listened on the radio, along with some sixty million other Americans, as Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke to the rain-soaked crowd at the Capitol.
"So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory."
"They had been grim days. One of every four American workers was unemployed, thirteen million in all, and almost every bank was closed. And since the United States had never before faced such a disaster, there were no federal programs to address the needs of the populace.
"Roosevelt intrigued Virginia. He had been raised in a world of privilege and wealth, with the patina and optimism of his class. It was a world not unlike the one Edwin Hall had provided for his family. Yet Roosevelt was able to sympathize with the downtrodden and meant to put the full force of his executive powers into smashing their economic despair. He gave Virginia the impression that he would be a man of action, something his predecessor, Herbert Hoover, had not been."
On a hunting trip with co-workers and friends while in Smyrna, she slipped slightly and was shot in foot by her own shotgun; her leg was amputated as a result.
"Amputation of limbs was a form of surgery that had been performed routinely on the battlefields of World War I. With no means for reconstruction and only sulfa drugs available as an antibiotic (penicillin was not put into general use until 1941), amputation was frequently a doctor’s only choice to save his patient. Military medical books at the time state that although immediate amputation is not indicated in traumas caused by bullets, it is certainly necessary in cases of confirmed gangrene. It is also necessary when a limb is completely smashed or torn off by a large projectile or fragment. Virginia’s injuries included both of these dim scenarios.
"Because of the gun’s proximity to her body, the shotgun pellets destroyed Virginia’s foot. It caused extensive soft-tissue and bone damage. In addition, the wound had been badly contaminated by environmental material— fragments from her boot, the grass she fell on, the clothing her friends had used to cover her. By the time the very shaken group arrived at the hospital in Smyrna, more than an hour had passed since the accident, and infection had already begun to set in.
"Although the utmost was done to treat Virginia’s wound, there was no way to adequately manage the infection. Evidence of gangrene appeared and Dr. Lorrin Shepard, head of the Istanbul American Hospital, was rushed to Smyrna. He determined that a BK amputation, the removal of her leg below the knee, was the only course of action possible to save Virginia’s life. As she was unconscious, Dr. Shepard was unable to discuss the situation with her. Nor was he willing to risk waiting for her to come to."
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"It was her torturous pain, a red-hot burning that spread from her left hip to the tips of her now absent left toes. A different position in the bed might have alleviated the torment, but her body was so weakened from the surgery she was unable to gather the strength to move. Dr. Shepard was attempting to manage Virginia’s pain with a steady dose of morphine and this brought another complication: the vivid dreams and delusions common to those on the powerful drug. The combination of excruciating agony and morphine-induced hallucinations even led Virginia to absurd thoughts of freedom from the misery through death."
"On the second night after surgery, a most unusual event unfolded in Virginia’s hospital room. She lay alone in a semiconscious state, when she had the sense that someone had approached the side of her bed. Standing there was her father, Edwin Hall. Virginia was flabbergasted. Her father had died in Baltimore two years earlier. She had watched the coffin containing his body being lowered into the ground. Yet there he was, smiling down at her, wearing a dapper gray business suit just as he had done almost every day of his life.
"The next thing Virginia was aware of was her father lifting her out of the hospital bed. She floated in his arms to a nearby chair where they sat down together, with her on his lap as if she were a small child."
"“Can you be strong, Dindy? Your mother needs you very much. She’s terribly upset by the news of your accident. If you don’t survive, dear little Dindy, she’ll be heartbroken.
"“But if, Dindy, it’s more than you can bear, I’ll return for you tomorrow night to take you away from the pain.”"
She asked the nurses next morning. No visitors were allowed at that hour, she was told. There had been no one.
"Her father had asked her to fight and that was exactly what she intended to do. Marshaling the same kind of resolute spirit he and her grandfather had been known for, she became determined to survive and to live as normal a life as anyone else. After all, President Roosevelt had overcome his handicap; there was no reason why she couldn’t do the same. And her dream of a Foreign Service career would merely be delayed."
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She'd travelled through Europe at the age of three, and again while on vacation in school, with her family.
She'd travelled through Europe at the age of three, and again while on vacation in school, with her family.
"So while her friends were planning marriages and families, Virginia was planning for college and a career. She went first to Radcliff and then Barnard College, but the classes held no spark for her. What was lacking, she decided, was the romance and intensity of an education in Europe.
"Edwin Hall and his wife, Barbara, were very modern thinkers. Sending their young, single, unchaperoned daughter to Europe to pursue her studies was not at all exceptional to their way of thinking, even if, in 1926, it was to others. So later that year, Virginia arrived in France and enrolled at the Sorbonne and the Ecole des Services Politiques in Paris. A year later, she was accepted at the Konsular Akademie in Vienna, where she graduated in 1929. And while the idea of becoming involved in Foreign Service had been a small glimmer back in high school, Virginia was now equipped with skills she hoped the State Department would find useful.
"She first applied for a consular position in October of 1929 at the age of twenty-three, while a graduate student at American University in Washington, DC. She listed herself as being in perfect physical condition and fluent in French and German, with a fair knowledge of Italian. The ensuing months merged into years as the wheels of government churned slowly. Every aspect of Virginia’s life was carefully researched. She provided reference letters from attorneys and bankers, business associates of her father’s. Even the Halls’ neighbors were interviewed, giving Mrs. Hall cause to wonder if the job her daughter was applying for was more dangerous than she had previously thought.
"Finally, on July 27, 1931, Virginia began her first job with the State Department at the American Embassy in Warsaw, Poland. ... "
She fell in love, but Emil later told her that whenever he mentioned "the American" his mother would be bedridden for days with heart problem. Virginia asked for another post and was able to go to Smyrna in April 1933.
"By mid-January 1934, Dr. Shepard felt Virginia was well enough to be transferred to the American Hospital in Istanbul. And she was pronounced fit for travel back to the United States in late February."
The doctor in Turkey had mailed measurements to those in Baltimore, and she was fitted with a prosthetic leg.
"By early fall of 1934, she wrote a letter to the secretary of state’s executive assistant, Hugh Cumming, requesting to be reinstated to her former position at an embassy or consulate.
"“Any post in Spain, preferably Malaga or Seville, would be my choice,” her letter read. “I want the opportunity of learning Spanish and am interested in the economic future of Spain.”
"The civil unrest in Spain at the time was not a concern to Virginia. As a matter of fact, she viewed it as an incredibly interesting time to be posted there. Her letter continued, “Second choice of post, Estonia; third choice, Peru.”
"Cumming responded soon afterward that they would be pleased to have Virginia back at work. She could be transferred to Venice, which, he said, should meet her “requirements from the standpoint of climate, etc. Unfortunately,” Cumming continued, “there is at the moment no vacancy in Spain, Estonia or Peru, but I am having a note made of [your] preference for a post in one of those countries.”
"Virginia left Box Horn Farm soon after, bound for Venice, where she would begin work at the American Consulate on December 10. With no doubts in her mind, she was enthusiastic about picking up the career that had been so dramatically interrupted. But she could not have guessed what challenges lay ahead for the continent of Europe. Nor could she know that the ghastly accident she had just recovered from would lead her to a job far afield from her Foreign Service goal but with much greater rewards."
Her boss was more than happy with her, but she was outspoken about Italy and Germany, and a review by another bureaucrat was negative due to this. She'd been attempting the foreign service examinations since 1929, but was now rejected due to rules involving amputation, her sympathetic boss informed her.
" ...Her leg had nothing to do with the decision, and she knew it. Of some fifteen hundred career Foreign Service officers, only six were women. Obviously she and others of her gender were not wanted or welcome, particularly if they refused to be wall flowers and preferred instead to hold and express their own opinions. Virginia’s intellectual self told her that perhaps it was because of the economic hardships suffered by most American households. The Depression had made jobs scarce. Giving a woman a position meant that a male breadwinner with a family to support would not be hired. But her emotional self told her that the position had been put out of her reach because she was part of a gender often viewed as incapable of handling diplomacy and decision making."
"In June 1938, Virginia transferred to the consulate in Tallin, Estonia, hoping that a change of venue might restimulate her interest in her work. ... She submitted her resignation in May 1939."
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Virginia went to Paris, now being flooded with refugees from countries occupied by Germany, and stories about persecution of Jews were heard through refugees and those with Jewish relatives in Germany. Then on September 1, German blitzkrieg against Poland began war.
Virginia enlisted in "Services Sanitaires de l’Armée" after war started, and after basic medical training was assigned to driving ambulance, and sent to Metz when war went from “la drôle de guerre,” (which in English translates to funny but is generally called phony,) to active, in spring of 1940. She worked hard and was happy she was needed, despite the grim and gory work. Then Germany went around the Maginot line through the low countries, which had no alternative to surrender other than annihilation, and armies of France and Britain were trapped. Virginia's work became more grim, with catching naps as and when and where possible, laundry out of question and washing in river.
"France had once been a model of religious tolerance, repealing anti–Semitic laws in 1790, shortly after the Revolution and well before any other Western country. In the ensuing 150 years, the French had been true to their priceless heritage, liberté, égalité, fraternité. Liberty, equality, and fraternity were what the country offered the oppressed of other, less tolerant, European nations. But unemployment, poverty, and dismal living conditions gave rise to resentment against the three million immigrants living on French soil at the time. Throughout the late 1930s, Nazi-inspired prejudices grew in neighboring countries, and the immigrants’ numbers in France, many of them Jewish, increased as thousands fled to escape Nazi cruelty.
"Resentment and rumors soon became news stories in French papers. “Only Jews want conflict in Europe,” they reported. “German Jews clutter up French streets, telling us to fight on their behalf.” Soon all Jews, even those whose families had been French for generations, as Claire’s had been, were regarded suspiciously."
"All ambulance drivers were responsible for finding fuel for their own vehicles. Occasionally Virginia and Claire stumbled upon a small surplus an army unit might have saved. But for the most part, they were forced to plead their case to farmers and villagers who had remained in their homes, keeping their last drops of gasoline in the event they needed to make a quick escape. When lack of fuel precluded driving, the two women willingly rolled up their sleeves and helped the doctors and medics treat the wounded in the field."
"On June 10, the French government left Paris for Tours, 140 miles southwest of the capital. Winston Churchill, who had become the British prime minister on May 10, the same day that Hitler began his attack on Belgium and Holland, met French Premier Paul Reynaud in Tours on the June 11. Churchill was perhaps the greatest friend France had among the Britons. He urged Reynaud to continue to resist the Germans, and he took General de Gaulle, now the French undersecretary for war, back to London. There, de Gaulle was to act as Churchill’s ally against the peace party in his cabinet."
French government fled South and surrendered on June 19th.
"Virginia looked around her at the wounded men. They lay on straw beds, with little in the way of blankets. The bandages covering their wounds were rags, often having been made from the clothing of another soldier who had died. Their splints were tree limbs and little beyond water and bread was available to sustain them. There were no drugs to ease their pain or stave off their infections. The medic had been right: these men had made enormous sacrifices for their country. And now they were being asked by that same country to live under a tyrannical dictatorship, driven by a madman whose goal appeared to be global domination.
"This was not the French spirit Virginia loved. The French she knew were outspoken, proud, and resolute against the dilution of their culture by any outside force."
" ... About two hundred thousand Frenchmen had died in an effort to keep the country free. ... "
" ... Virginia decided to join Claire, who was headed south to her family home in Cahors, a small town north of Toulouse. The city lay within the borders of Vichy France."
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"Stories abounded of Germans living the high life in France’s large cities. But they weren’t alone. Some French police officers had taken possession of prime apartments in the occupied zone as well. They weren’t required to use the newly issued ration cards and didn’t have to stand in food lines. They ate at the expensive restaurants alongside the Germans, restaurants where there were never any food shortages.
"Stories abounded of Germans living the high life in France’s large cities. But they weren’t alone. Some French police officers had taken possession of prime apartments in the occupied zone as well. They weren’t required to use the newly issued ration cards and didn’t have to stand in food lines. They ate at the expensive restaurants alongside the Germans, restaurants where there were never any food shortages.
"If they were nothing else, the Germans were organized. They divided the country into twelve regions, each with its own prison camps. A total of eighty of them opened, their purpose supposedly to house the thousands of prisoners hauled off to Germany during the fighting who were now being returned to France. But it wasn’t just prisoners who were filling the camps. Suddenly, Jews from Alsace were being sent to the camps in the Pyrénées. This news was disconcerting and the topic of conversations at the de la Tour residence centered around the Germans’ treatment of France’s Jewish population.
"First, there was the “surrender on demand” clause in the armistice that dictated that the Vichy government must assist the Nazis in tracking down “undesirable” people and deporting them to other “more suitable” areas of the country. Next came the “Laws of Exception and Exclusion,” which revoked rights Jewish citizens had enjoyed for generations.
"Virginia knew that French Jews had never been completely integrated into society. She’d read more than one newspaper editorial with an anti-Semitic slant. And she knew that the friendship she and Claire shared, one between a Gentile and a Jew, was rare. Most Jewish families were close only to other Jews and had very few Gentiles they could turn to in time of need. This was definitely becoming a time of need.
"Virginia encouraged her friends to consider relocating, but the de la Tours were not interested. Jews had been discriminated against for centuries, M. de la Tour told Virginia. It was not new and certainly nothing to uproot the family over. Furthermore, the Nazis couldn’t possibly round up all the Jews in the country.
"But the Germans accelerated their anti-Jewish movement. The Law of July 17 forbade anyone not born of French fathers from becoming a civil servant. This affected the great number of Jews who had come from other countries in the previous decades, as well as those fleeing Nazi Germany. Regardless of who had become a French citizen, bloodlines were considered before citizenship.
"A short time later, Pétain repealed the Marchandeau Law, which outlawed racial libel. Vichy journalists, heavily influenced by the Nazis, were now able to express their venomous judgment regarding the Jews.
"“Every French citizen should be aware,” one writer penned, “that since the Jews were in such high number in the previous government, and as such were directly responsible for this country’s supplies, it is their poor planning that has caused the gross shortages we face today. And can we be completely certain that they, in the greed for which they are so well known, did not stockpile food and clothing for themselves in order to create such an atmosphere of want?”
"Another wrote: “Why should we, the citizens of France, be responsible for the dirty Jews of other countries? They flocked here like noisy geese and now we must give them food and shelter, already in such short demand. We are taking bread out of our children’s mouths to feed theirs.”"
Cĺaire persuaded her family to move to their farm, and they left for Carcassonne the day Virginia left towards Paris to again drive an ambulance. She noticed that factory workers were drafted for war elsewhere and men she'd driven to healthcare were replacing them.
"By the time her ambulance work was completed at the end of August, Virginia had decided that Great Britain would be the best place to launch some kind of work against the Nazi regime."
As an American she was free to leave, and decided to go to London via Spain. She met George Bellows on the train.
"Bellows went on to tell her a story that had unfolded at a Renault automobile factory near Paris that was now being used to manufacture Nazi war materials. The workers had complained to their new bosses that their working conditions were simply insupportable. The Germans suggested that perhaps they would like to form a delegation to discuss the problem further. When the delegation presented itself, the Germans lined them up against a factory wall and shot them all. It was a horrific mental image."
He gave her names and addresses of some people in London he said she might like to contact, and after she'd crossed into Spain, recommended a hotel and invited her to dinner with friends. She went to London next, and presented herself at the U.S. embassy after settling in a boarding house. When they heard she'd been in France, she became a celebrity, whisked off and asked all about France and war.
"Virginia told them that all of France, occupied or not, was facing an enormous food shortage, as most of it was being diverted to the German army. It was worse in unoccupied France, she explained, and catastrophic in the eastern regions like Alsace."
"Asked how the French felt about the Germans, she responded that her observation was that the Germans were attempting to ingratiate themselves with French society, thus far with only marginal success. Her opinion was that a good many of the French were ready to revolt, particularly those in what was called the “nono”—the unoccupied zone.
"Virginia’s debriefing lasted about an hour, after which she was offered a position in the office of the embassy’s military attaché. While another embassy job wasn’t exactly what Virginia had planned on, being an underclerk meant a paycheck of $1,260 a year; more than enough for a single woman living in London in September 1940. And being close to governmental affairs might give her a better chance at finding the anti-Nazi work she was really interested in."
British had been preparing for the war expected with nazi occupation of Europe gradually taking place, and most men were conscripted, children sent to countryside and severe rationing of food, along with encouragement of growing vegetables and other eatables in gardens replacing flowers, was the norm.
" ... SEALION, had begun in July 1940 with the Luftwaffe attacking British airfields and radar stations. But rather than achieving Hitler’s goal, the attacks allowed the world to see that the Luftwaffe was poorly prepared for the conflict. And although the sheer weight of their bombardment was sometimes overwhelming, the British prevailed.
"Hitler next approved a heavy bombing offensive “for disruptive attacks on the population and air defences of major British cities, including London, by day and night.” At 4:00 PM on Saturday, September 7, just two weeks after Virginia had arrived in the capital city, 348 German bombers along with 617 fighters began blasting London and continued until 6:00 PM. Two hours later, using the fires set by the first assault as guides, a second group began another attack. The first targets were the docks and the East End, but soon the entire city fell within the Luftwaffe’s crosshairs. The blitzkrieg of London had begun. And the city’s 8.5 million people would experience a hell they had never seen before."
"The blitz continued for fifty-seven consecutive nights. The German goal was to kill and destroy as much as possible. Hitler figured that the carnage and the constant terror of the prospect of more bombing would bring the populace to its collective knees. The Luftwaffe dropped about three hundred tons of high explosive bombs on Mrs. Tipton’s borough of Westminster alone. Even the British government expected the worst. In addition to hospitals preparing to accept the wounded, they also expected patients who would be driven mad by the air raids.
"But quite the contrary occurred: the bombs tended to heal psychological maladies. Many people who were neurotic about the prospect of war were cured by its reality. They had too much to do to have time to be frightened. And they enjoyed finding themselves braver than they ever knew they could be.
"As defense against the death raining from the sky, more shelters were needed in the city. Some buildings weren’t fortunate to have sturdy basements like Mrs. Tipton’s. Those that did have basements weren’t sufficient to house all of the population. And although the Nazi raids seemed to occur only at night, it wasn’t out of the question that an attack might also come during the day. It was vital, therefore, for citizens going about their daily business, to know precisely where the closest shelter was no matter where they were in the city. The official shelters were insufficient, but the vast network of Underground stations supplied just what was needed. While the trains continued to run through most of the city, seventy-nine stations were adapted and could accommodate up to 177,000 people each. The British government boarded up the tracks and equipped the stations with running water. An entire city burgeoned beneath London’s surface."
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"Virginia had made contact with most of the people whose names George Bellows had given her. They, as well as several other clerks at the embassy, had become great chums and she saw them frequently at parties and gatherings, such as the one held at the home of Vera Atkins on January 14, 1941. Another of Bellows’s friends, Larry Pulver, had suggested Virginia accompany him to Vera’s soirée."
Vera invited her to lunch next day, asked her more about her work in France, and said there were many possibilities of her being able to help British war effort.
"The British government had been considering such operations when it developed Section D in 1938 under the authority of the Foreign Office. The organization’s purpose was as nebulous as its name. Its employees were “to investigate every possibility of attacking potential enemies by means other than the operations of military forces.”"
" ... On July 16, 1940, Churchill invited then Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton to take charge of subversion, and the Special Operations Executive—the SOE— was born.
"SOE’s purpose was, in the words of its founding charter, “to co-ordinate all action, by way of subversion and sabotage, against the enemy overseas.” Simply put, Hitler had presented the world with a very unorthodox war. It was necessary to create an unorthodox organization to fight such an enemy. Once SOE had been officially created, Churchill gave Dalton a simple directive: “And now set Europe ablaze.”"
"Sections were organized within the SOE to handle different areas of work and different parts of the world. Since the newly fallen France was geographically the closest Nazi territory to Britain, it appeared logical that operations should begin there as quickly as possible. Thus F Section came into being at the same time that SOE was formed. Leslie Humphreys was the original head of the section. The leadership then passed to H. R. Marriott in December of 1940, and finally to Maurice Buckmaster, who retained the position until the end of the war. Into their capable hands fell the task of recruiting French-speaking individuals who could infiltrate the country behind enemy lines.
"The RF section was formed in the spring of 1941 when de Gaulle insisted on having a section that would be manned only with French and would answer directly to him. F Section was prohibited from recruiting any Frenchmen or Frenchwomen, although to do so seemed the most logical step. The DF section handled escapees from France, primarily through Spain. The EU/P section acted as liaison between the Polish government in exile in London and SOE and dealt with the large number of Poles living outside of Poland, half a million of them in central France. The section dubbed AMF was based in Algiers and worked in the southern areas of France. In addition there were country sections for the Middle East, the Balkans, and Scandinavia."
Vera talked to her during lunch, asking questions, and asked to meet her next day at Northumberland Hotel.
"She began promptly by telling Virginia that she was not really with the War Office, but with another organization looking for people who might consider going to France.
"Before Virginia had a chance to respond, the room door opened and a very tall, handsome man near Virginia’s age strode in. He nodded at Vera who said in French, “Je voudrais vous présenter Mlle Virginia Hall.” Upon hearing herself introduced, Virginia held out her hand. The man took it and smiled warmly, responding, “Bonjour, Mlle Hall. Le capitaine Jacques de Guélis.”"
They spoke about her experiences, and he questioned her commitment. She stood up to him.
"He and Vera believed, he said, that women agents would be able to move more freely and would be less suspect than male agents. Virginia had been highly spoken of. She had the wit, courage, and attention to detail that they believed would be the hallmarks of a good agent. And it was obvious, he said, that she didn’t step down from a challenge.
"Her familiarity with the country and the language was an enormous asset. Plus, as an American, and therefore a noncombatant, she would have complete freedom to move about. Finally the question Virginia had anticipated came. Would she be willing to go back to France working undercover for the British government?
"Virginia was elated. For ten years she had struggled to get a job in the Foreign Service of her own country. The response had essentially been that women weren’t right for the job, that she wasn’t right for the job, and that amputees weren’t up to the challenge. Now, suddenly, a foreign government saw something in her that her own government had not. She was indeed mentally and physically capable—in some ways more so than those who currently held even loftier governmental positions—and she cared very deeply about Europe’s position in the world community and its very survival. In short, the British government saw her as a valuable asset.
"Virginia needed no time to think over her answer."
She resigned but kept her room, saying she was going into training for FANY, the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, and went to Guildford, for training at Wanborough Manor, for the job. Her fellow recruits' proficiency at French was reassuring. They learned Morse code, demolition, and how to behave as French do including table etiquette.
"“Never kill a German,” Leslie told them a few days later. “Put him in the hospital for six months instead. He’s more bother to his commander alive than dead. A wounded soldier has to be looked after. A dead soldier is buried and forgotten.” The class stood silently considering this comment. “You’re truthfully better off not being caught with anything that could be used against you in a fight. Furthermore, it’s not easy explaining away a weapon—those Nazis are highly suspicious of anyone who has one.”"
"Instructors routinely stormed into recruits’ rooms banging pans and flashing on the lights. Recruits had been told repeatedly they couldn’t jump up and scream, “Bloody hell!” The correct response was “Nom de Dieu!” And once they’d taken the Lord’s name in vain, they had to be able to answer questions."
She passed and was sent for further training.
" ... Twelve women had arrived at Wanborough three weeks earlier and now there were only four of them left who arrived at their destination, Arisaig, near Inverness.
"This phase of training was to last four weeks. “Group A,” as it was called, consisted of a variety of country houses, scattered throughout the wild and beautiful Scottish countryside. The activities were much stiffer, dealing with in-depth paramilitary training: more knife work, pistol and submachine-gun training on British and enemy weapons, map reading, and advanced raiding tactics. Some days they worked through the night, executing railway demolitions with plastic explosives and a great deal of cross-country hiking."
This stage came to a close.
" ... Only she and Delphine remained of the four who had come to Scotland together.
"Delphine was headed next to Ringway Airfield, near Manchester in central England, for parachute training. But Virginia broke from the normal regimen. She wouldn’t have to drop into France, nor would she have been able to with her wooden leg. She would be entering legally as an American citizen. So she was off to the Group B schools near Beaulieu, an estate very near the English Channel. She and Delphine wished one another Godspeed and went their separate ways."
"As the days passed, Virginia decided that her training at Beaulieu was the most rigorous of all. It was no longer about physical agility, but mental agility, which culminated in a rough mock interrogation. The recruits had had a single message burned into their heads on the subject of arrest and interrogation. “If you are arrested, particularly by the Gestapo,” they were told, “do not assume that all is lost. The Gestapo’s reputation has been built upon ruthlessness and terrorism, not intelligence. They will always pretend to know more than they do and may even make a good guess. But remember that it is a guess; otherwise they would not be interrogating you.”"
She had a session with interrogation, as close to what she may expect at the least, as they could humanely make it.
" ... She later learned via the Beaulieu grapevine that professional interrogators, policemen, and ex-policemen, had volunteered to come in for these exercises. They were good, Virginia thought. Damn good."
................................................................................................
"First they came for the Jews and
I did not speak out
— because I was not a Jew
Then they came for the communists and
I did not speak out
— because I was not a communist
Then they came for the trade unionists and
I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for me and
there was no one left
to speak for me."
— (Pastor Niemoeller, Victim of the Nazis in Germany)
................................................................................................
"“Hitler begins war on Russia, with Armies on March from Arctic to the Black Sea,” the June 22, 1941, New York Times headline screamed."
"Much to Virginia’s surprise, the invasion of Russia delivered two unexpected benefits. One to the morale of the British: they were no longer alone in the battle against Nazi Germany. The second benefit was to the SOE, which Virginia learned about from Vera. The Communists in France had remained neutral since the country’s fall a year earlier. It was assumed in Britain that they would have no interest in resistance or collaboration. But this changed drastically with the new Nazi assault. According to agents already in the field, the Communists, who named themselves Francs-tireurs et partisans (FTP) were now eagerly seeking Resistance groups as allies. A clandestine existence was familiar to them, which would make them naturals as underground participants. Although relationships between them and other French political parties were strained by years of mutual unfamiliarity, the additional manpower would indeed be a comfort to both sides. After all, their goal was the same: to obliterate the Nazi regime."
................................................................................................
She was sent to Lyon after being established in her new identity, a French American writer for New York Post named Brigitte LeContre, at Vichy. She was to build a network and her reports were to be similar to the articles for New York Post, abou state of things in France.
She was sent to Lyon after being established in her new identity, a French American writer for New York Post named Brigitte LeContre, at Vichy. She was to build a network and her reports were to be similar to the articles for New York Post, abou state of things in France.
"Her job, he said, was not to fight the Germans, but to organize a Resistance network that would fight the Germans by any means possible."
"Brigitte LeContre, code-named Germaine, arrived in Vichy, France, on Saturday, August 23, 1941. She was the first woman field agent the SOE had sent into France."
"Virginia’s first stop was the office of Ambassador William Leahy at the American Embassy.
"The embassy was created almost immediately after the government had formed in Vichy. This act recognizing Vichy as a neutral, sovereign entity by the United States government mollified the majority of Americans who wanted to remain out of the war, continue to provide aid to Great Britain, and refrain from appeasing Hitler. But in addition to these political reasons, there was also the underlying feeling in America that France had been defeated because of her internal weaknesses. By recognizing Vichy—and allowing Gaston Henry-Haye to take up residence in Washington as Vichy ambassador—America sent a message of reproach to France."
" ... Pétain and his vice premier, Pierre Laval, believed that collaboration with Germany would ensure France a better place in Europe, the new German Europe, once Britain fell and the war ended. They hoped that it would bring a rapid return of the 1.6 million French prisoners of war taken to Germany, who were now really being held as hostages; that it would decrease the indemnity France was required to pay for the German army’s upkeep—four hundred million francs per day, the equivalent of nine million dollars. And finally they hoped that it would ensure the sovereignty of the occupied and unoccupied zones.
"But the French people weren’t sure what to think. A sarcastic new slogan circulated in hushed voices across France, “Donne-moi ta montre, je te dirai l’heure” (Give me your watch, I’ll tell you the time.) ... "
" ... The Statute des Juifs, which had passed on October 3, 1940, pronounced Jews to be second-class citizens and limited all of their rights. It was a classic reaction."
" ... For some, the promise of position and wealth after so many years of economic depression was too great a temptation. Renouncing a Jew or a Resistance member was such a small service to exchange for so much. And thus collaboration arrived in the homes of the common man and woman."
................................................................................................
"Virginia’s hotel on Rue Jardet was small but cozy and her room faced the street exactly as de Guélis had suggested. From her third-floor window, she was able to see quite a distance up and down the street and beyond. ... "
Her investigation revealed the subject on mind of everyone was food, or shortage thereof - most of produce was taken by Germans. French were under severe rationing.
"“Back in May there was plenty of butter on the Swiss border, much more than people could use or buy with their ration cards. But exportation was forbidden,” a man in a café confided in her. “Women were to be given an extra ration of sugar in June to preserve strawberries, but it didn’t arrive until July, long after the berries were gone. The wine growers needed chemicals to fight bugs in the vineyards, but the chemicals were so delayed that by the time they arrived, the bugs had spread and the grapes were ruined. Transportation and distribution has been as troublesome as the food shortages. If we continue down this road, what shortages are in store for us next year?”"
There was a black market, charging ten times normal street price if things were available openly, but anyone carrying parcel was checked and punished if without proof of purchase or carrying over rationing limit.
" ... So the black market profiteers have gotten clever—they’re using school children, hollowing out their books and moving their contraband that way.” ... "
"Shortly after she sent her article off to New York, Jacques de Guélis contacted Virginia and asked her to join him at a Vichy café. He told her he was returning to chez nous soon. Agents never mentioned the word England, but simply referred to it in French as “our place.” Virginia handed de Guélis a sealed envelope, which, once decoded in London, would reveal her observations about the Vichy government, the police activity, and the overall climate regarding resistance.
"They discussed in guarded language what they both agreed was great potential for the Resistance, as well as what appeared to be a new French attitude toward the British. Those who embraced the British were saying, “If only the English win,” while those who still weren’t fans were saying, “If only the goddamned English would win.”"
................................................................................................
"One of the earliest organized groups in Paris grew from a group of scientists and lawyers. They called themselves the Musée de l’Homme (Museum of Mankind). These brave men published an anti-Nazi newspaper, helped downed RAF pilots, and were even able to make contact with the SOE in London. But mere months after development, their ranks were infiltrated by a Vichy agent. The entire group was arrested and most were executed by firing squad. As he was about to die, one of the resisters screamed at his Vichy executioners, “Imbeciles, it’s for you, too, that I die!”
"One of the earliest organized groups in Paris grew from a group of scientists and lawyers. They called themselves the Musée de l’Homme (Museum of Mankind). These brave men published an anti-Nazi newspaper, helped downed RAF pilots, and were even able to make contact with the SOE in London. But mere months after development, their ranks were infiltrated by a Vichy agent. The entire group was arrested and most were executed by firing squad. As he was about to die, one of the resisters screamed at his Vichy executioners, “Imbeciles, it’s for you, too, that I die!”
"In the zone libre, organized resistance took root in Lyon. ... In 1940, Henri Frenay, a former French army officer, organized the Libération Nationale in Lyon and oversaw the publication of two papers, Les Petites Ailes (Little Wings) and Vérité (Truth) in early 1941.
"At the same time, Émmanuel d’Astier formed a group of left-wing saboteurs in Lyon that became known as the Libération-sud (Liberation South). The publication of the group’s paper, Libération, debuted in July 1941. A third Resistance newspaper appeared in Lyon as well, titled Franc-Tireur (Sniper), which was published by Jewish lawyer Jean-Pierre Lévy.
"The publishers all had to beg, borrow, or steal ink, paper, and presses to create their newspapers. Once they were printed, they were sealed in plain envelopes and hand-delivered to sympathetic individuals, especially those who would be in contact with the public, such as doctors and priests. And, of course, being caught in possession of one of these periodicals was considered an absolute crime. The guilty were hustled off to jail, where they were first beaten in an effort to gain information about other Resistance members, then sent to a prison camp."
"With Virginia’s arrival in Lyon signaling the promise of Allied help for their cause, those who were willing to risk all came gladly out of the shadows. And, as a cavalcade of agents arrived from Baker Street, bringing with them cash, radio transmitters, and training, the French Resistance became a self-assured force to be reckoned with."
Someone showed Virginia an announcement in newspaper about punishment to anyone aiding landing of an enemy aircraft or a paratrooper, and reward to those helping catch one.
"Gradually, the positive Jewish presence was removed from the public eye. Jewish actors’ and directors’ names were erased from the credits of French films. Most pre-Nazi films were melted down, the remains made into nail polish and shoe polish. Replacing them in the cinemas were overt, anti-Jewish propaganda films, some made solely by the Nazis and others a collaboration of the Germans and Vichy. Such was the case of the documentary The Jewish Peril. “The Jew is like a rat,” the film proclaimed. “He is sly and cruel. He feels the irresistible need to destroy. The Jews’ power lies in their superior numbers and, like proliferating rats, they are a danger to human health.”"
"Dr. Rousset’s office was being used regularly as a letter box where agents and Resistance members could drop off and pick up communiqués to one another. Mme Guérin’s promise of money, food, and clothing had proven to be better than Virginia expected. The woman still had not asked her about the destination of the donations, although she had made numerous comments regarding the Resistance to which Virginia would simply smile. And the information that her “girls” gleaned from their clients kept them all aware of Vichy surveillance of particular areas and persons. With the help of Le Provost’s friends in the printing offices, Virginia was not only able to supply papers to those in need in France, she was also able to send out current samples of ration books and cartes d’identité (identity cards) with agents returning to England. The appearance of these documents changed regularly and it was crucial that incoming agents have exact forgeries."
"Parachute drops had become quite commonplace for SOE and the Resistance. ... "
"Flights to France occurred during the fuller phases of the moon, its light being the only one pilots had available. They navigated using landmarks like rivers, as well as dead reckoning. Initially, agents were dropped in blind, with no one to meet them. But once the Resistance and agent population grew, reception committees were commonplace. The circuit leader chose a landing strip and its coordinates were determined by placing a clear plastic device on a map of the area. The device had numbered grids on it, and it was the chosen grid number, rather than a city name, that was transmitted to London as the drop location."
When after Pearl Harbour U.S. was finally at war, Virginia was in a delicate position. She could be taken and tortured by Gestapo, and was very aware of it.
"On January 12, 1942, a new agent arrived in Lyon. His name was Peter Churchill, no relation to the British prime minister, but equally gregarious. His code name was Michel. He was to deliver cash and orders to SOE agents as well as to supply and evaluate the CARTE réseau, led by Frenchman André Girard, who promised London an army of a quarter million men. Churchill landed on the French Mediterranean shore about twelve miles west of Cannes on January 9, having been brought to within eight hundred yards by a submarine. His family had vacationed in the area when he was young and he knew it intimately. He paddled a canoe to land and made his way to his first contact and then on to Lyon."
Apart from INTREPID and another one, this might be one incorporated in Lanny Budd character and exploits by Upton Sinclair in his World's End series.
Virginia and her colleagues almost got caught in a random raid in Marseille where she went to help Peter Churchill, but were able to escape.
................................................................................................
Virginia was contacted about the Corsicans in German controlled prisons who were in abominable conditions, and she met with the U.S. ambassador Leahy to get help. This meeting was taking place at the same time Heydrich held a conference at Wannsee and talked of "final solution", extermination of six million Jews of Europe, which made some of the diehard nazis too flinch, hearing of it.
"In Paris, Pierre de Vomécourt had continued to build his GARDENER réseau as well as help develop others. At dinner one winter night in 1942 in Paris, he met a beguiling woman named Mathilde Carré. ... "
She told him she was resistance, but later revealed she was a double agent. He persuaded her to turn, and she managed to convince Germans she should go to London to do spying for them. They were sent in a torpedo boat and she sang like a canary.
Virginia had her nerves jangled later, hearing Pierre de Vomécourt and his brother were in hands of Gestapo after Pierre de Vomécourt had returned to France.
" ... In October 1941, in an effort to save resources, the Germans had released nine hundred sick and dying interns, figuring they it would be more cost effective for them to expire on the streets. Shortly after the prisoners’ release, an observer noted in a Paris underground newspaper: “I have met several living skeletons who can hardly stand. They are the Jews freed from Drancy.”"
"The one bright spot on the personal front in the spring of 1942 was the arrival of a new pair of shoes, thanks to the message Gerard took back to London. They arrived in a parachute drop that Labourier had gone to fetch in late May. They weren’t really new—just new to Virginia. Sporting a pair of spanking fresh oxfords when most French were having a hard time finding enough food would have caught the attention of too many people. Rather they were a pair that had been procured from some refugee newly arrived from France. Baker Street gave all incoming expatriates new clothing in exchange for their old ones, which were then issued to outbound agents. It was crucial that all agents appear no different from any other Frenchmen, right down to the label in their skivvies."
Vera Atkins kept her family informed of her well being with regular short missives, as with other agents.
................................................................................................
Virginia and Marie managed to help Corsicans escape after they'd been transferred to an open prison.
Virginia and Marie managed to help Corsicans escape after they'd been transferred to an open prison.
"It would be months before Virginia learned of the horror that was taking place in Paris at the same time the Corsicans escaped. While other countries in Europe had fallen to the Germans, France was the only one that also rounded up Jews to hand over to them. Members of Pétain’s government told one another that if they aided the Nazis in this way, the Germans might be inclined to keep Vichy’s sovereignty intact. The collaborating French even exceeded the human quotas requested by the Nazis, using collection methods as horrific as the occupiers.
"During the days of July 16 and 17, 1942, a rafle occurred in Paris. Gendarmes arrested twelve thousand Jewish men, women, and children. This mass of humanity was deposited in a sports stadium known as the Vélodrome d’Hiver, where nothing had been prepared for them. They had not been allowed to bring much with them, and were given only minimal food and no water by their captives. ... "
"After existing for five days in unspeakable squalor, their sojourn in this hell came to an end. The adults were separated from the children and shipped to transit camps for deportation to Auschwitz. The Germans had only been interested in the French gathering Jews over the age of sixteen, which left the French with 4,051 motherless children. The children were terrified, some so young they were unable even to give their names to the ever-present government record keeper. At the request of the Vichy president, a day later the children were also bound for Auschwitz.
"The man who gave the order for this heartless roundup was Vichy President Pierre Laval. ... "
Virginia sent her reports with agents returning to London.
"The unrest in the south amongst the peasantry is growing. Continued interference by the government in their private affairs is getting them down. The fact that they cannot keep seed for plantings but must ask the ravataillement [sic] [Food Control Office)] for seed, and in order to get it, must promise from 50 to 99 percent of the harvest to the ravataillement, again has soured them considerably. Many are not planting wheat this year because they have to give it all back. The country folk are turning more and more against the government and more and more toward the English whom they don’t like, fundamentally. And of course, the wine situation is unbearable, the latest aggravation being that no wine can be served in the south, Marseille and Avignon, etc., with dinner in the evening. It is all flowing north."
"Since early 1942, a French courier by the code name of Étienne had come each week from Paris with information to transmit to London. ... Étienne told Virginia he wouldn’t be able to make the trip to Lyon any longer, but another man would take his place. ... "
................................................................................................
"Since early 1942, a French courier by the code name of Étienne had come each week from Paris with information to transmit to London. ... Étienne told Virginia he wouldn’t be able to make the trip to Lyon any longer, but another man would take his place. ... "
"It wasn’t until August 25 that the courier reappeared at Dr. Rousset’s door and asked to see “Marie.” When Virginia arrived, she scrutinized the man carefully. He was about five foot seven, the same height as she was, and just as slender. He had a receding hairline and bright blue eyes. But his hands were what she found most interesting. They were very delicate, the skin on the backs looked thin and soft, almost like the hands of a woman.
"He was very cordial and introduced himself as Abbé Ackuin, code-named Bishop. The abbé’s French was perfect, but his accent was decidedly German. ... "
"Virginia commented on his interesting accent, and the abbé explained that he had grown up in Alsace, near the German border. ... "
"Virginia’s instincts told her there was something not quite right about the abbé and she shared her thoughts with Rousset. She would ask London about him, perhaps they would have some useful information.
"But Rousset thought her concerns were unfounded. He had heard that the abbé preached anti-Nazi sermons and he had seen him handing out pictures of de Gaulle after he left Rousset’s office on his previous visit. A German sympathizer would never do that, Rousset told her."
"Virginia’s concerns were heightened when she learned four days later that others in the Parisian group had been arrested. The arrests had occurred on August 15 and 16, ten days before the abbé’s visit. He couldn’t possibly have been unaware of them. But why hadn’t he said anything? What was he up to?"
"When the abbé arrived the next day, Virginia had a long list of questions she wanted answers to. ... He insisted that he needed the names of other contacts in Lyon in case Virginia should disappear overnight like the others had."
" ... She told him to go back to Paris and trace the people who had disappeared. He was to try to reorganize the group and return to Lyon on September 20 with his report. He would receive further instructions then.
"Abbé Ackuin did not return to Lyon, however. Instead, he went to Puy-de-Dôme where he was able to work his way into GREEN HEART, the local SOE réseau that included the Newton brothers. Everyone in SOE referred to them as “the twins,” even though Alfred was nine years older than Henry. The abbé put them completely at ease with all he knew about the Resistance. They believed him to be a loyal French patriot who was familiar with other SOE agents. Through the relationship the abbé formed with the GREEN HEART members, he learned Virginia’s radio code name, as well as the code names of others in the HECKLER circuit."
"Abbé Ackuin was the pseudonym used by Robert Alesh. Born in Luxembourg in 1906, his studies took him from there to Fribourg in Switzerland. After finishing at the university, he completed seminary training and worked in a variety of parishes in the area surrounding Paris. When the Nazis occupied northern France, a group within his current parish organized themselves into a Resistance group. Alesh aided them in their anti-Nazi activities. He handed out literature and photos of General de Gaulle, and helped in spiriting away local Jews."
But he'd agreed to be a double agent when asked, and helped Germans capture resistance agents. Virginia had done good work, lauded in London, and noticed by Gestapo. Alesh was told to go to Lyon.
"Several months earlier, in June of 1942, a new man arrived in the city of Dijon and went to work at the Sicherheitsdienst, the intelligence service of the SS. Dijon was one hundred miles due north of Lyon, about twenty-five miles into the occupied zone. The new arrival, Klaus Barbie, had been an ardent Nazi for nine years, dedicated to all the party stood for, including contempt for those who didn’t meet the racial standards. Barbie was stationed in Holland after the Germans arrived and it was there that his gruesome appetite for torture developed."
Now Barbie was on Virginia's trail.
................................................................................................
"When the United States entered the war, the U-boats began cruising American waters. In the first four months of 1942, eighty-seven ships leaving East Coast shipyards were sunk in the Atlantic, including one just fifteen miles off the New Jersey shore. The U-boats then moved to the Gulf of Mexico to attack ships coming out of the yards there. In May 1942 alone they sank another forty-one."
Now Ike was in Britain, in preparation for TORCH.
"Resistance members were publicly tortured as well, and some were even executed in plain view. ... "
"News of these atrocities and others reached Virginia via escaping agents and Resistance members. Some of them had only witnessed the tortures, others had been victims. The stories sickened and fretted her, to be sure. But they did nothing to deter her. It was vital to achieve a Nazi-free Europe. Anything else was just not acceptable.
"On Saturday, November 7, 1942, Virginia received word from Lyon’s American Consulate, at the request of the embassy in Vichy, that an invasion of North Africa was imminent. She was told she had better make plans to leave Lyon if she didn’t want to stay in “forced residence” for the duration of the war. ... "
Day after TORCH began Virginia was told Germans would arrive in Lyon at midnight. She finally decided to leave, and took a train to Perpignon. It looked quiet but was a hotbed of intrigue and activity with resistance looking for guides, Gestapo and Vichy on the lookout.
"At 7:00AM on Wednesday, November 11, 1942, German troops crossed the demarcation line. There was no longer any zone libre in France, as the Axis powers now controlled the entire country. And the date was symbolic since it was the date the First World War armistice had forced Germany to her knees. Hitler never failed to incorporate irony into his strategic planning."
In Vichy, Petain became a virtual prisoner.
................................................................................................
"The night was clear and cold. A heavy blanket of snow covered the ground. Virginia looked up at the imposing mountains in front of her, a luminous bluish white in the moonlight. The Pyrénées’ highest peak was around eleven thousand feet. She guessed they were already at four or five thousand. The last line of Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” came to mind: “and miles to go before I sleep.”"
"The night was clear and cold. A heavy blanket of snow covered the ground. Virginia looked up at the imposing mountains in front of her, a luminous bluish white in the moonlight. The Pyrénées’ highest peak was around eleven thousand feet. She guessed they were already at four or five thousand. The last line of Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” came to mind: “and miles to go before I sleep.”"
Virginia and a handful of other resistance guys were taken up into the mountains with the steep climb taxing her as much as the snow.
" ... When they finally arrived at a pass between the mountains, Juan wrote “2,460 metres” in the snow. Virginia assumed it was their altitude. She did some quick math and guessed they were somewhere around 7,900 feet.
"No wonder they were all struggling. At an altitude like that, breathing is difficult. In addition, the wind had picked up. Several times she thought it might lift her up, had her feet not been packed so far down in the snow. The terrain was growing trickier. The gradient was now steeper and there were very few handholds to help them along. For the first time, Virginia labored to suppress her fears. No longer was being arrested her primary concern. Now it was survival.
"They began to descend a little from the pass and less than an hour later, Virginia could see the outline of an ice-covered lake in the distance.
"It was the Lac des Bouillouses, Juan told them."
He took them to a hut with cots and blankets and told them to rest. They proceeded on after rest, and had another rest in a young couple's home before crossing into Spain. They had separate addresses to go to, and met next day at the train station to leave for Barcelona, but were picked up before they could board and thrown in jail. While that happened, in Lyon Barbie had arrived, they interrogated Dr Rousset about Virginia, while Alesh talked to the maid. Through her he got to other resistance members, everyone assuming he was one of them. Virginia and her group was taken to Figueras and thrown, separate, in another jail.
"After she’d been in prison for a week, Virginia awoke one morning to find Elena trembling from chills and burning with fever, complaining about a knifelike pain in her chest. Virginia got the attention of the guards and demanded that they send in the doctor. A dirty little man who called himself a physician arrived an hour later. He identified Elena’s problem as pleurisy, and began to leave the cell. Virginia was horrified, and insisted, as Elena’s illness was obviously serious, even life threatening, that the doctor not leave before giving her something.
"The doctor was not moved, saying that Spain was a poor country without enough medicine for the citizens, let alone enough to share with the prisoners. Elena would either survive or not. By the sheer will of both Virginia and Elena, the young woman survived to her release day three weeks later. The first thing she would do, she swore to Virginia, would be to mail the letter Virginia had written to the American consul in Barcelona.
"On December 2, after twenty days of incarceration, Virginia was finally released to a representative of the American consulate. And twenty-three days after that, she was having Christmas dinner with Vera Atkins and a group of friends in London."
Afterwards, when Vera congratulated her, Virginia said it was only a stopover and she was in a hurry to get back. Vera attempted to dissuade her. She was still hot in France.
Alesh vanished after finding out everything about her group, and Barbie had them all caught, tortured and sent to concentration camps. Few got away. No one told on her except Dr Rousset who said she was a patient with several problems and he knew nothing else.
................................................................................................
Virginia was sent to Madrid instead, instructed to establish herself as a reporter for Chicago Tribune and not begin activities for SOE until after two or three months. She found Madrid crawling with nazi agents.
"Spain was under the leadership of the Fascist Generalissimo Francisco Franco, who had come to power in 1936 during Spain’s Civil War by squelching the Republicans who had earlier exiled him. He had been approached by Hitler to join the Axis on several occasions, but refused. In meetings with the Nazi leader, Franco frequently rambled with self-importance. But his underlying reason for refusal was that his country was still recovering from its own war. Plus he was not anxious to elicit bomber attacks from Great Britain. Their joint meetings were so unproductive that when Hitler finally stormed out of the last one, he said he would rather visit the dentist to have his teeth removed than have another meeting with Franco.
Virginia was sent to Madrid instead, instructed to establish herself as a reporter for Chicago Tribune and not begin activities for SOE until after two or three months. She found Madrid crawling with nazi agents.
"Spain was under the leadership of the Fascist Generalissimo Francisco Franco, who had come to power in 1936 during Spain’s Civil War by squelching the Republicans who had earlier exiled him. He had been approached by Hitler to join the Axis on several occasions, but refused. In meetings with the Nazi leader, Franco frequently rambled with self-importance. But his underlying reason for refusal was that his country was still recovering from its own war. Plus he was not anxious to elicit bomber attacks from Great Britain. Their joint meetings were so unproductive that when Hitler finally stormed out of the last one, he said he would rather visit the dentist to have his teeth removed than have another meeting with Franco.
"The fact that these tête-à-têtes did not go smoothly boded well for the Allies. If Franco decided to throw in with Hitler, it could mean the closure of the Straits of Gibraltar to Allied ships. Furthermore, using Spain as a new base, German bombers would be able to fly farther south and west in their attacks against those ships. And with Spain as an Axis country, dreams of an Allied invasion of southern France would fade."
Moulin was picked up by Gestapo after he returned to France, having met De Gaulle and informed him about his extensive information about French ready for any work for resistance, so he was sent to build the network; he was tortured and died, and resistance was shocked but found a point to rally around fiercely. Virginia was fed up in Madrid but not allowed to return to France and instead invited to work in Britain at training and debriefing. She was awarded MBE but declined meeting the king, since being unknown publicly was essential to her work. She heard about OSS and its head, Donovan, who was in London.
................................................................................................
"Franklin Roosevelt first met William Joseph Donovan when they opposed one another in the 1928 New York gubernatorial election. Despite the fact that Roosevelt won the election, a lifelong friendship developed between the two men."
................................................................................................
"Franklin Roosevelt first met William Joseph Donovan when they opposed one another in the 1928 New York gubernatorial election. Despite the fact that Roosevelt won the election, a lifelong friendship developed between the two men."
" ... he had been the commander of the sixty-ninth “Fighting Irish” regiment of New York in the First World War. His fearless charges earned him the nickname “Wild Bill.” In one such attack against an overwhelming number of Germans, he reportedly shouted to his troops, “What’s the matter? You want to live forever?” He was the only individual from that war to receive the Distinguished Service Medal, the Distinguished Service Cross, and the Congressional Medal of Honor, miraculously surviving the war to receive them all personally."
"Initially, Donovan manned the OSS with people from his circle of friends and acquaintances—Ivy league graduates and other wealthy individuals with well-known names like Mellon, Morgan, Vanderbilt, and du Pont. He recruited actors and writers and even a major league baseball player. This cast of characters quickly earned the OSS nicknames from its detractors, names like “Oh, So Secret,” “Oh, So Silly,” and “Oh, So Social.”
"Future James Bond creator, Ian Fleming, then a ranking officer in British Naval Intelligence, suggested to Donovan that he seek out men of “absolute discretion, sobriety, devotion to duty, languages, and wide experience,” who were aged somewhere between forty and fifty. Donovan’s preference lay in the opposite direction—180 degrees. He sought out young people who were “calculatingly reckless” with “disciplined daring” and who were “trained for aggressive action.” And he began adding new members to his cast of characters: former thieves, safecrackers, forgers, circus performers, and Communists."
OSS had successfully diverted German forces to Dakar while allies landed at Algiers, and subsequently stopped advances of Rommel by leaving explosives dressed up as camel dung which was everywhere, so tanks driving over were damaged.
"Wild Bill" and OSS were ready to take on nazis in Europe, and since OSS were partners of SOE, Virginia asked to transfer and got it.
................................................................................................
"In Paris, the Nazis murdered fifty people a day for five days after German government officials were gunned down. The murders stopped only after the Nazis were satisfied they had the culprits in custody, the latter having been ratted out by “helpful” collaborators. ... "
"In Paris, the Nazis murdered fifty people a day for five days after German government officials were gunned down. The murders stopped only after the Nazis were satisfied they had the culprits in custody, the latter having been ratted out by “helpful” collaborators. ... "
Similar atrocities were perpetrated in other cities and towns too. And there was Milice.
" ... The Milice was really a Fascist gang, half fanatics, half thugs. ..."
Virginia arrived at Portsmouth, and at the office of joint British and American intelligence, was introduced to Aramis, her partner in going into France.
"Virginia was concerned about Aramis immediately. It wasn’t his age or his inexperience; it was his willingness to open up so completely with a relative stranger. ... "
SOE training emphasised on secrecy, and his candour was against not only rules but basic requirements.
"Virginia was not willing to put herself or their mission in jeopardy by saying anything more than was absolutely necessary. She told Aramis that she had done a significant amount of wireless training at the SOE classes in London, avoiding any mention that she, herself, had been an SOE agent. Their circuit would be a joint operation with the Brits, who would call it SAINT. The Americans would refer to their circuit as HECKLER. She would be the wireless operator. It was her understanding, she said, that their objective was to gather as much information as possible about German troop installations and movements in central France, and to locate potential reception fields for parachute drops. In addition, she had been told that Aramis would spend most of his time working in Paris, developing safe houses there, and that he should have any necessary outgoing messages couriered to her. She would transmit them along with her own findings."
After dinner she changed into an old, stout French woman.
"Both the British and American governments wanted to make sure everything about the people they infiltrated into occupied territories was authentic, so they developed a wardrobe department that would rival any in Hollywood. And as other agents had done, Virginia had also spent several days the previous week in a dentist’s chair, having her fillings changed to resemble those done by French dentists."
Next, they filled out questionnaires about their new identities' life history and made sure about papers.
" ... The Germans were obsessed with organization and categorizing. Consequently, they had instituted separate cards for every facet of life. There was a carte d’identité, carte d’alimentation (food ration card), fiches de mobilisation (military papers), carte de textiles (clothing ration card), permis de conduire (driver’s license), certificat de recensement (census card), carte de tabac (tobacco ration card), extrait de naissance (birth certificate), certificat médical (medical certificate), certificat de travail (work permit), and certificat de domicile (proof of residence)."
Virginia was exempt from the normal training due to her experience.
"When Virginia reappeared in Lieutenant Williams’s office after her transformation, neither Aramis nor the lieutenant recognized her at first."
They set off soon.
"OSS instructions for Virginia and Aramis’s mission were divided into three parts. First, they were to establish themselves in an “accessible place not more than 100 kilometers to the south or southeast of Paris.” Second, they were to “proceed to find three safe houses, one in Paris, the second in a small town within easy reach of Paris, and the third somewhere in the country.” The final stage of their mission was to consist of “setting up in each of these three houses one large and one small wireless set, ready to operate as quickly as possible should a wireless operator arrive.”
"They were also both carrying cash. Virginia had five hundred thousand francs and Aramis had a million francs."
Paris wasn't as badly damaged as London and other cities of Europe.
" ... German street signs had been posted everywhere directing drivers and pedestrians to Nazi military establishments. And to keep the Parisians up to date on news, the German-controlled newspapers posted clippings on buildings for those passing by on the sidewalks of major thoroughfares.
"The French men and women Virginia saw were a sorry lot. Their hollow eyes stared straight ahead, yet didn’t seem to see. They especially avoided eye contact with the Germans, who had begun calling Paris “la ville sans regard” (the city that never looks at you). Some Parisians sat dejectedly on the sidewalk, begging for food with outstretched hands, but not speaking. Others tried to sell anything they could find for a few francs, from broken pieces of furniture to shoelaces. ... "
They came to Crozant where Aramis left her, and she settled into work. For gathering information, she sold cheese from the farm to Germans. Aramis remained a problem. One day she had Germans at her door, and she was badly shaken as they inspected the cottage, but they found cheese and recognised her, and left. After she saw some villagers hanged by the Germans, and Aramis came saying his radio operator was missing, she messaged London at the scheduled time “THE WOLVES ARE AT THE DOOR. STOP. WILL BE IN CONTACT SOON. STOP.” and left for Paris with Aramis.
" ... Virginia liked Mme Rabut immediately and felt at ease with her and confident in her. Three days later, when Virginia was ready to depart for her new location, she asked Mme Rabut to accompany her. She envied those agents whose accents were as perfect as native French people. But she couldn’t take chances. She had decided never to travel without a French chaperone, someone who would reduce her need to speak.
"The two women took the morning train to Cosne, a city about five hours southeast of Paris. Virginia went directly to the home of Colonel Vessereau, chief of police for the department of Creuse. His position made him a valuable member of the Resistance, and Virginia had been apprised of his work by OSS in London. The colonel and his wife were expecting Virginia and couldn’t have been more accommodating. They had a room for her and told her that their attic would be perfect for transmitting. Mme Rabut stayed the night and before she left the next day, Virginia asked her to keep her new location in Cosne a secret. And if Aramis had any messages for her, Virginia suggested, perhaps Mme Rabut could bring them to her. Mme Rabut was thrilled to play an even greater role in the Resistance.
"Colonel Vessereau was anxious to introduce Virginia to the Resistance group he’d been building. He had developed ties with several local gendarmes who were military men, seen action before the armistice, and hated the Nazis. They, in turn, knew of a group of about a hundred men who were ready for action. The men were members of the Maquis.
"In February of 1943, the Third Reich had instituted the Service du travail obligatoire in France. Since the earlier program that exchanged workers for POWs had not been successful, this new law decreed that all young men between the ages of twenty and thirty-four must go to Germany for obligatory work service. They were to replace Germany’s workforce, which was made up either of casualty figures or those embroiled in the fight. Hitler’s goal was to import 1.5 million Frenchmen. In response, thousands fled to the country, living in the woods and hiding among the hills. They organized into militia groups, and borrowed an expression from Corsican bandits, calling themselves “men of the underbrush,” the Maquis. It was only natural that as the Resistance sabotage became known, they would try to offer their services."
"Over time, the Maquis grew to include a variety of refugees from justice, including German deserters, anti-Franco Spaniards, and urban resisters. Whenever possible, the peasantry provided the Maquis with food, shelter, and clothing. Their guerrilla tactics against the German military became widely known, and the citizens of occupied France silently applauded these anonymous freedom fighters. But what they lacked was arms. An Allied spy like Virginia was someone they were anxious to meet."
She arranged for parachute drops of what they needed, which was arms and ammunition to carry out sabotage. Her first one came off well.
"By this time, Virginia had actually left the home of the colonel and was living in the nearby town of Sury-près-Léré, in the garret of a farmhouse owned by Jules Juttry. It was best for her to move around so as not to jeopardize herself, or her hosts, by transmitting from the same location all the time. M. Juttry was elderly; Virginia guessed him to be in his mideighties. He was not at all pleased to have Virginia living in his house, and suspected she was a German spy. His widowed daughter, Estelle Bertrand, had made the arrangements.
"Estelle was nearing fifty and had come to live with her father after her husband was killed during the fighting in 1940. She had been a part of the Resistance for several years and was inspired by the fact that an American would give up so much for the cause of France. She had accompanied Virginia to that night’s parachute drop, having learned the reception procedures, and would be setting them up once Virginia moved on to her next destination.
"On Tuesday, May 23, Virginia received a radio message from OSS headquarters in London:
"HAPPY TO HAVE RECEIVED YOUR CONTACT OF THE 25TH. STOP. PERIOD OF ACTIVITY IS COMMENCING. STOP. PLEASE COMMUNICATE BEFORE NEXT FRIDAY ALL INFORMATION GATHERED SINCE YOUR ARRIVAL CONCERNING LARGE MOVEMENTS BY TRAIN OR ROAD. STOP.
"Virginia pondered the words “period of activity” and wondered what that might be. But her job was to report, not to question. For whatever reason, headquarters needed this information before Friday, June 2, 1944."
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"The Germans knew the Allies were coming because they had been bombarding the western coastline at Calais all spring long, “softening up” the area. It was a likely assault location, as only twenty-seven miles separated France from England at that point. But Hitler believed that when the invasion did come, his Atlantic Wall would hold back the Allies.
"Making Europe “an impregnable fortress” had been the Führer’s dream since the fall of 1941. It was a ridiculous plan. The coastline he intended to reinforce stretched about three thousand miles, from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Bay of Biscay in the south. Construction of the wall had been moving at a snail’s pace until a commando raid on Dieppe, France, in August of 1942. It was the Allies “test tube” raid, to give them an idea of the strength of the German defenses along the channel. The 5,000 commandos were almost all Canadian, and they suffered heavy casualties—almost 600 killed, 1,900 captured, 590 wounded, and 287 missing. Those surviving were rescued by ships and returned to England."
"Rommel was commander in chief of Army Group B, the most powerful of the German armies in the west. He didn’t believe for a minute that Hitler’s fortress would hold back the Allies. He had faced them in North Africa, and although he had been defeated there, he knew how they fought. His plan for the defense of France and the rest of Europe was simple. Draw the enemy in, allow them to land, and then attack the beaches. To that end, he had half a million men standing guard on the Atlantic between Holland and Brittany, with the bulk of his Fifteenth Army stationed at Pas de Calais. Millions of mines were laid, both on the shore and in the water. Armaments of all sorts were trained on the beaches. When the Allies arrived, and they certainly would, Rommel’s army would mow them down before they got ten meters inland.
"When April became May, and May slid into June, Rommel determined that the invasion was being held up so that a simultaneous attack could occur with the Russian Red Army in the east. The summer offensive could not begin there until after the thaw in Poland, sometime in mid-June. And thus, the Third Reich relaxed ever so slightly."
Virginia kept moving, and meanwhile worked delivering milk, perfect cover for meeting resistance members and communications, and delivery of articles from parachute dropped supplies.
"She and the members of HECKLER, like other combined SOE and OSS circuits throughout France, had been directed to follow a well laid-out plan, code-named PLAN VERT. For the last month, while they continued to recruit and train new members, they also gradually increased their acts of sabotage. Armed with the supplies from London, they had made attacks against local Nazi headquarters and vehicles. They had taken out essential roads and telephone stations, and had successfully removed German explosives from bridges the Allies would need in their advance across France.
"When the invasion did occur, Virginia told her circuit members, their advance work would prove to be invaluable to the Allies. And she assured them that they were not alone. Groups such as theirs were being trained all over France, all ready to aid the Allies."
"Once the second half of the message signaling the invasion had been broadcast, myriad other messages were sent to circuits and Resistance groups across France. These prearranged code phrases notified the groups that it was time to put into action all of their preplanned acts of sabotage. Like other circuit heads, Virginia had been told to attack roads, railways, and telecommunications, and harass occupation troops by whatever means she and her circuit could. The Allies were certain that the first thing the Germans would do at the onset of the invasion would be to flood Normandy with additional men and supplies. The rail lines were the Nazis’ lifeline and had to be taken out.
"Virginia had organized small groups within HECKLER that would be ready to leap into action once the invasion was announced. Their job was to lay the explosives on the rail lines around Cosne. Under cover of darkness, the groups went to work on the night of June 6."
"Altogether in those first days after the Normandy landings, 571 rail targets were sabotaged. In addition, Resistance members with ties to the Syndicat de la société nationale des chemins de fer, the train workers union, urged their friends to be as uncooperative as possible. The ensuing chaos resulting from the work of the Resistance caused the Nazis disruption, disorganization, and delay."
"On June 8, OSS headquarters radioed Virginia asking her to check on a group of reliable and well-disciplined men, ready to take orders, in the province of Auvergne, seventy-five miles southwest of Lyon. ... The men in question were centered in a tiny town called Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. ... "
She went with Estelle to Chambon and found them, and they were honest and willing.
"The five thousand residents of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, and those of its surrounding area known as the Yssingeaux Plateau, were not unfamiliar with struggle. They were the descendants of the Huguenots, French Protestants who were members of the Reformed Church, which John Calvin had established in 1555. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the king persecuted them for their religious beliefs, which were in direct theological contrast with the Catholic Church. The Huguenots bore the label of heretics, and those captured were subjected to horrible tortures and death at the hands of the king and the church. The others managed to flee their homes, and a group settled on the Yssingeaux Plateau.
"It was not surprising, then, that when the armistice with Germany was signed in 1940, and France’s puppet government in Vichy began cooperating with the Nazi quest to eliminate all Jews, the inhabitants of the Yssingeaux Plateau felt as though history were repeating itself. Le Chambon’s two Protestant pastors were very vocal in their thoughts about the armistice. Resist without fear, they told their congregations, but also without pride or hatred.
"Deciding to become their brothers’ keepers was a moral choice for the people of Le Chambon, and it was one easily made. It began when they offered to hide the few Jews within their own population, then helped them escape to neutral Switzerland, 160 miles away via an underground railway.
"Word spread and Jews came from other parts of France, seeking escape or asylum for their children. Run by the Swiss, boarding schools were opened on the Yssingeaux Plateau to serve not only the Jewish children, a quarter of their total residents, but also Gentile children, whose families wanted them to be spared from the food shortages and the dangers of wartorn France. In all, seven schools, over a dozen boarding houses, and a large number of local peasant farmers came to the refugees’ aid.
"In these homes, the Jewish children were taught side by side with the Gentiles. They learned the Lord’s Prayer, Christian songs and traditions, and Bible verses. Le Chambon’s inhabitants believed that they were finally getting a chance to put into action what they had been taught all of their lives. One farmer’s wife summed it up for all of them. The war was a blessing in disguise, she said. It was making it possible for Christians to become familiar with God’s chosen people.
"As with the rest of France, however, the bucolic peace of the Yssingeaux Plateau was also threatened by the occupiers. Nazis who ventured through Le Chambon found it the perfect location to set up rehabilitation centers for those who’d spent time on the Russian front. They took over two of the town’s hotels for their purposes, one of which was across the street from the headquarters of the armed Resistance. The German presence was a physical reminder of the penalty for hiding Jews: either the hell of the concentration camps or a brutal execution.
"Miraculously, the German presence never interfered with the work being carried out by the citizens of Le Chambon. By war’s end they would have aided five thousand Jews to escape Nazi horrors. It was almost as many as the plateau’s entire population. And in the midst of all these good deeds, Virginia was planning to build a formidable Resistance circuit."
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Virginia came to stay near Chambon, on Yssingeaux plateau, to work.
"Some of the members of the Maquis found it unnerving to take orders from a woman. Having her in charge was completely foreign in their world, and they mumbled under their breath, “Who the hell are you to give orders?”
She dealt with those, by explaining they had the option to leave, but if not orders had to be followed. She trained them in dealing with parachute drops.
"Not all receptions progressed without problems, however. Sometimes Virginia and her group would hear their code phrase and then wait for hours for planes that never arrived. Worse still, some drops were so far off course that they had to tear all over the area, trying to account for the number of cylinders they guessed had been dropped. To leave one behind meant it could just as easily be found by the Germans or the Milice and lead to arrests. Incompetence infuriated Virginia, and she would spew out a chain of expletives that shocked her French compatriots. They may not have understood the words, but they certainly understood the meaning."
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"The timeline designed by the allies for troop advancements after D-Day showed that by June 15, they would be sixteen miles inland. But the plan had fallen far behind schedule. The Germans were tenacious in holding on to their conquered territory, and in addition to using their armaments to the fullest potential, they also made clever use of the French terrain. Normandy was famous for its bocages—thick hedgerows of hawthorn, brambles, vines, and trees that were practically impenetrable. The vegetation was planted on earthen mounds several feet tall, and enclosed small fields, each one resembling a little fort. Defenders who were dug in behind a hedgerow were almost untouchable, and yet were able to position snipers and machine guns that could mow down advancing Allied soldiers. The strain of this kind of fighting on already fragile nerves was enormous."
In August it took a favourable turn.
"They had begun by bombing southern France in July to “soften” it up just as they had done before the Normandy invasion. Then in the early morning hours of August 15, 396 planes of the Provisional Troop Carrier Air Division dropped more than five thousand American and British paratroopers along the Mediterranean coast. At dawn, while the paratroopers were involved in intense fighting, heavy and medium bombers and fighter-bombers swept over the invasion area and destroyed underwater obstacles, beach defenses, and coastal guns.
"Next the American Seventh Army hit the beaches, joined by fifty thousand members of the Maquis. In a matter of a few hours, they had gained a wide beachhead and driven eight miles inland. Cannes and Nice fell, and then Marseille on August 28."
"Large bodies of the American forces were also thrusting eastward into the heart of France. They freed town after town to the ecstatic screams of the long-oppressed citizens. The forces fanned out in every direction, and the French competed with one another to be among the first to feed and house their liberators.
"Large bodies of the American forces were also thrusting eastward into the heart of France. They freed town after town to the ecstatic screams of the long-oppressed citizens. The forces fanned out in every direction, and the French competed with one another to be among the first to feed and house their liberators.
"Parisians knew the Allies were coming. The news had been spreading via SOE and OSS agents and Resistance members since the beginning of August. Enterprising black marketers began selling seats along the probable route of the liberators’ entry into the city. The City of Lights was finally going to witness the rout of their invidious captors. Allied flags flew and people dared to sing the “Marseillaise,” whose rousing melody hadn’t been heard for more than four years."
"Paris Resistance was putting the finishing touches on its plan for the city to liberate itself. At noon on August 15, a police strike commenced. All but three hundred of the city’s twenty thousand officers went off duty. The strikers returned during the night three days later, dressed in civilian clothes and armed. They stormed the Préfecture, Paris police headquarters, on the Ile-de-la-Cité in the middle of the Seine.
"Shortly afterward, vehicles of all sorts streamed into the city. Tiny sports cars, stolen German staff cars, ancient taxis, trucks, and ambulances were all loaded with armed Resistance members. They attacked the German strongholds all over Paris in a scene reminiscent of the French Revolution of 1789. Their weapon of choice was the bottle grenade, made from emptied wine bottles and an incredible cache of gasoline that had been secreted away in anticipation of this day. Mixing the fuel with sulfuric acid, the Resistance hurled their homemade weapons at the Nazis with blazing revenge.
"Following Hitler’s orders, von Choltitz had his men lay charges for the destruction of Paris’s monuments and bridges. But he had no stomach to obliterate one of the world’s most beautiful cities. From his headquarters in the Hôtel Meurice, he silently implored the Allies to hurry. Surrendering was far more preferable to the odious task Hitler had charged him with. At 9:30 AM on August 23, General de Gaulle’s troops entered the city, fighting their way to its heart. The Americans entered on the twenty-fifth and by noon the tricolore was once again flying over the Eiffel Tower.
"Von Choltitz knew that he was powerless to stop the Allies. Fighting was ensuing in the Luxembourg Gardens, in front of Les Invalides, which houses Napoleon’s tomb, around the Louvre museum, and the Notre-Dame cathedral. Shortly after 1:00 PM, he surrendered and Paris was once again free."
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On August 26, 1944, Virginia sent her Jedburgh team to Le Puy.
On August 26, 1944, Virginia sent her Jedburgh team to Le Puy.
"When they returned to Le Chambon two hours later, Virginia witnessed the most phenomenal sight she had seen yet in the war. Hallowes and one of the maquisards climbed out of the car in the company of Le Puy’s German commandant. Hallowes said he wanted to surrender the city. Virginia was incredulous, thinking he meant the entire General Staff. Hallowes told her the General Staff was nowhere to be found, but that the commandant had a sizable number of officers and enlisted men he was surrendering.
"A number of these new prisoners were Russian Tartars who had been conscripted into the German army and trained as executioners for terror raids on civilian communities. Hallowes said they had learned that the Nazi command had even discussed a possible massacre in Le Chambon. Now the Tartars were offering to change sides, claiming they’d been forced into the German army.
"Captain Guise and the other maquisard were holding the rest of the Nazi officers at their headquarters, Hallowes told Virginia. They had contacted the Maquis in Le Puy for additional help in guarding them. His plan was to put the Germans in the barracks just outside of Le Puy until the Allied forces arrived. And he was impressed with the town’s Resistance forces.
"Virginia cautioned him about singing the praises of Le Puy’s Resistance too quickly, as most of them were majors. Hallowes didn’t understand so Virginia explained. They were called “majors” because they were major pains in the ass. Most of them hadn’t so much as breathed a word of Resistance since the debacle of 1940. Now that the Allies had made good on their promises, these people were taking their uniforms out of mothballs and claiming they had been part of the Resistance all along.
"It was a situation repeating itself all over France. Suddenly the Resistance ranks were swelling to ten times what they had been, and the growth was timed to coincide with the Allies’ sweep across the country. Some of these people had actually been overt collaborators. The rest had collaborated in the sense that they had stood by and done nothing as their country was ravaged and their fellow citizens were beaten and killed.
"The French were dealing with their traitors without mercy. Those men whose collaboration had been witnessed were being handled by the Maquis, mostly in the form of executions. In addition, the Maquis, along with the townsfolk, spat upon, stoned, and sometimes tarred and feathered the female collaborators. Even moving to another locale where their actions might not have been known was useless, as all of them were publicly sheared of their hair. Their bald heads were a visible testament of their treacherous activities, one that begged for mistreatment by all who had fought against the Nazis, rather than lie down with them."
Virginia sent a team to reconnaissance at Saint-Étienne, and they reported it was heavily guarded, but they managed to return with two teams to fool them and stole fuel for vehicles. Later they returned to steal vehicles at night.
"After that, the tasks of the Resistance in the Yssingeaux Plateau would become a little easier. The groups went to work stopping fresh German troops advancing to the western front, as well as those retreating to their homeland. The German retreat was an ironic twist of fate, as the Nazis were now withdrawing in the same manner they had forced the French to flee in 1940. The retreating Germans had no vehicles, so they commandeered bicycles, prams, and carts of all sorts from French citizens to move their supplies. The scene of these retreats was made all the more macabre by the decaying carcasses of German cavalry horses that had either died in the fighting or been ridden to death and were now clogging the Germans’ paths. Meanwhile the Resistance continued to take the Germans prisoner wherever it could. For all intents and purposes, the Yssingeaux Plateau, indeed the entire department, was liberated from its vile occupiers.
"Virginia was looking ahead as her work in France was drawing to a close. Between July 14 and August 14, she had transmitted thirty-seven messages to London with vital information. She had organized and received twenty-two parachute drops and directed innumerable acts of sabotage. Her group was responsible for killing over 170 Germans and capturing 800 more. And she had laid the groundwork for the JED team, which was now able to take her Maquis to other areas in need of assistance. All in all, it had been a tidy operation."
Virginia decided to move to Alsace with a small team, since Yssingeaux plateau was now completely in control of Maquis, but she was told to stay, and finally asked to go to Bourges. But there was nothing to do for them. Most chose to either join regular army or return to Yssingeaux plateau. Virginia proceeded to Paris with Goillot.
"When they arrived on Thursday, September 22, Virginia saw that Paris had once again changed. While there was still evidence that the city had been at war, the Parisians had come out of their cocoons like butterflies. The sidewalk cafés were overflowing and people laughed as they strolled the streets. Almost all of the reminders that the Nazis had made the city their own for four years were gone."
They reported to allied headquarters and were given accomodations in hotels.
"On September 25, Virginia, Goillot, and Riley went together to headquarters. Waiting for them was a memorandum listing nineteen officers, including Goillot and Riley, seven enlisted men and two civilians, including Virginia. They were all ordered back to London, where they would be issued further orders. In light of his family situation, Goillot requested and was granted an additional week’s leave. The next morning, Virginia and Riley boarded a military aircraft bound for London. Goillot would join them on October 1."
She was transferred to central Europe section in December. She asked for Goillot and they left for Naples to enter Austria. Their job was to organise Austrian underground, and they'd be based at Innsbrück.
Virginia and Goillot went via Marseille and Lyon to Swiss border; she was to cross and proceed to Austria and Goillot to parachute to join her. But plans changed, she was sent to Annecy and offered a different mission. They moved to Zürich in April. They were again held back, and returned to Paris to find war was over.
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Meanwhile General Wolff met Allen Dulles and offered his cohorts along with thousands of anticommunists to fight spread of communism in exchange for freedom and keeping the stolen booty, which was accepted.
" ... After espionage training at a camp called Oberammergau, the army of spies would cover Europe, undertaking a covert battle against Communism. This secret war would come to be known as the “Cold War.”"
So ratlines were established with help of Red Cross providing identity papers while Vatican helped nazis by hiding them and more, until they either fled South across Atlantic as hundreds did including the infamous ones such as Adolf Eichmann, Josef Mengele, Klaus Barbie, Franz Stangl, Gustav Wagner and so on, or, many others lived right where they had in Germany, some with false identities, others without bothering even that much. After all, their opponents in ideology were mostly exterminated, and they vouched for one another.
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Virginia and Goillot went via Marseille and Lyon to Swiss border; she was to cross and proceed to Austria and Goillot to parachute to join her. But plans changed, she was sent to Annecy and offered a different mission. They moved to Zürich in April. They were again held back, and returned to Paris to find war was over.
She wrote up her reports, pointing out just how invaluable French help had been, and proceeded to Lyon with Goillot to find out about them.
Rousset had been sent to Buchenwald and used as doctor; he'd managed to hide and bring out 150 files as evidence of what was being done.
Virginia visited others of her resistance contacts; they'd been to various concentration camps and returned to find their flats empty, stolen clean of everything by Germans. They were in dire straits, as were most French - Germans had stolen and destroyed. Virginia urged SOE to compensate her co-workers.
Alesh had worked for Abwehr which was antagonistic to Gestapo mutually. Gestapo had picked him up at the same time they did Virginia's circle. Abwehr freed him, but he fled when Germany retreated, and was in Brussels when allies arrived. He'd made up a story about being persecuted by Germans, but was caught and handed over to French.
Virginia was awarded DSC. Again she declined a White House ceremony leading to publicity as she had with her MBE, and received it from Donovan privately with only her mother to watch.
She'd also been awarded French Croix despite des guerre avec palme. She chose to receive it in absentia.
Goillot had returned to N.Y. , but Virginia's mother didn't approve of the match. The foreign service declined her application. But Truman created CIG which hired her. Later she was hired in CIA, travelling between Europe and N.Y. where Goillot was. But again, CIA appreciated Virginia as little as had foreign service.
Virginia and Goillot married in 1950.
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May 20, 2020 - May , 2020.
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May 20, 2020 - May , 2020.
November 07, 2020 - November 17, 2020.
Diversion Books
A Division of Diversion Publishing Corp.
443 Park Avenue South, Suite 1008
New York, NY 10016
First Diversion Books edition
May 2014
ISBN: 978-1-62681-292-5
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