August 18, 2016 Hello ,
It was great to hear from so many of you who were inspired by Cornelia Fort, as I was. Thank you for taking time to
write.
I appreciated this wisdom from Karen, "I’m grateful for the reminder to act intentionally, it does feel like things are often out of my control. But I can act or not in the areas where I do have control. The rest is acceptance. I find that a quick run through of things I am grateful for helps get me centered again."
This week's
story is about a WWII-era woman with an incredible ability to focus on the positive and overcome obstacles.
Barred from the U.S. foreign service due to an amputated leg, Virginia Hall joined the French ambulance corps in the fight against the Nazis. When France fell, she fled to London, trained with the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) and returned to France as a
spy.
Most Wanted: The Limping Lady |
The Nazis were hunting a woman with a limp. A radio transmission went out from Gestapo headquarters in occupied France.
"She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. We must find and destroy her."
Beginning in 1941, Virginia Hall worked undercover in Lyons for fourteen months. Using the code name Germaine, she coordinated air drops of money and weapons, organized and
trained resistance fighters, hid downed allied pilots, recruited agents and hustled up fake ID papers.
She did all this while posing as an American journalist, waking every morning with the grim knowledge that if she were caught by the Germans, she'd be shot.
Virginia was different from most
American girls from the beginning. Born to a wealthy Baltimore family in 1906, she decided at age fourteen, she wanted to become a foreign ambassador and work to help nations co-exist peacefully.
Her father told Virginia there were no women ambassadors. She said she'd become the first. By the looks of it, Virginia could have been a much sought after debutante, married a wealthy husband and lived a carefree life.
She chose to study hard, learn four languages
and in 1931, took a low-level job in the American Embassy in Poland.
Two years later, working as a clerk in the diplomatic corps in Symrna, Turkey, she went out with friends for an afternoon of snipe hunting.
Though she was knowledgeable and experienced with guns, she slipped on muddy ground and accidentally discharged her twelve gauge shotgun, shooting her
foot.
Virginia's badly mangled foot quickly became infected, and in 1933, there were no antibiotics. To save her life, the doctor amputated her leg below the knee, and she went home to her family land in Maryland, Box Horn Farm, to recover.
Virginia spent months recuperating, first gaining the strength and skill to get around with crutches, and then to walk
with a wooden foot and lower leg that attached with straps around her thigh and waist.
Virginia refused to let the loss of a limb thwart her dream, and reapplied for work with the U.S. State Department. While waiting for a reply, Virginia tried again to master a skill she had previously failed.
She succeeded in learning
to milk a cow. Never knowing this lowly chore would one day provide her cover when the Nazis came hunting.
In 1934, Virginia went back to work, this time in the American consulate in Venice, Italy. Her heart remained fixed on becoming an ambassador., but in 1940 when she applied to work in the foreign service, she was turned down.
The letter explained, "any amputation...of a limb...is cause for rejection in the diplomatic career field."
This logic so angered Virginia, she quit. She was missing half a leg, not a brain! She moved to Paris to consider her options and a shot time later when Germany attacked, Virginia believed she was in a perfect position to become a foreign agent.
She wrote
to the State Department, explaining that she knew the country and the language, she wasn't afraid. She'd take any assignment no matter how difficult or dangerous.
Officials wrote back. No. She could not work for the foreign service because she was a woman and because she had only one leg.
Virginia decided, if her own country did not want her courage, her
skill, her determination—she would give her all to France.
She volunteered to drive an ambulance carrying wounded French soldiers from the battlefield, and when France fell, she escaped to London, staying just long enough to train as a British spy.
"Germaine" and her cohort was extremely effective, but the Gestapo infiltrated her organization and many
of her contacts were arrested. She barely escaped with her life, scaling the Pyrenees Mountains in winter, on foot ,with an artificial leg. Below: an undated photo of Virginia Hall in France during WWII.
After escaping to Spain, Virginia asked the Brits to send her back to France, but they thought it was too dangerous for her, and assigned her attend parties in Madrid and try to glean information form Axis sympathizers.
"I thought
I could help in Spain, but I’m not doing a job," Hall wrote, "I am living pleasantly and wasting time. It isn’t worthwhile and after all, my neck is my own. If I am willing to get a crick in it, I think that’s my prerogative."
She convinced the SEO to return her to London, and in early 1944 Virginia got her wish to return to France, where she put her cow-milking skill to good use.
Because she was known to the Gestapo,
Virginia hid her limp by walking with a shuffle and pretending to be an elderly peasant woman. She dyed her brown hair gray and added girth to her figure with layers of over-sized woolen clothes. Hiring out as a milkmaid, Virginia drove cows to pasture each day and scouted sites for air drops of men, weapons, explosives, and money. At night she tapped out messages to
the British OSS office on a radio she kept hidden in a barn. Espionage activity became even more important after D-day, as Virginia and the Resistance fighters she worked with tracked German troop movements, blew up bridges and, once, even captured 500 German soldiers.
At right, Virginia Hall, finally
working for the Americans, is pictured at Le Chambon sur Lignon in 1944. After the war, she married an American agent Paul Goillot, shown on the far right.
After the war, Virginia Hall became the first civilian and the first woman to be awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the U.S. Army's highest military decoration after the Medal of Honor.
She said it was ridiculous to receive a medal for doing one's
job!
Virginia did not become America's first woman ambassador, but she was one of the bravest and most valued Allied spies in WWII. Until next week... Have you read a great book? Tell me about it. Have a burning question? Let me know. If you know someone who might enjoy
my newsletter or books, please forward this e-mail. I will never spam you or sell your email address, you can unsubscribe below anytime with a single mouse click. To find out more about my books, how I help students, teacher and librarians, visit my website at www.MaryCronkFarrell.com. My best, Mary
Questions? Comments? Contact me at MaryCronkFarrell@gmail.com. Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. |
|
