A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II

Purnell's deeply researched biography reads like a thriller. At last, Virginia Hall has gotten the credit she so richly deserves.

Sydney M. Williams “A Woman of No Importance,” Sonia Purnell February 6, 2021 “‘There are endless nightmares of uncertainty,’ explained one. ‘The tensions, the nerve strain and fatigue, the all-demanding alertness of living a lie, these are [the agent’s]to meet, accept and control. They are never really conquered.’” Quote from a former member of the SOE in war-time France Sonia Purnell A Woman of No Importance, 2019 Besides being a gripping tale of the Resistance in France during the Second World War, this is the story of Virginia Hall, an American woman, with an artificial leg, who operated behind enemy lines at a time when being a female in a combat zone was unusual, let alone one who was disabled. “If caught,” Ms. Purnell writes, “women were…subjected to the worst forms of torture the depraved Nazi mind-set could devise.” Virginia Hall was the daughter of a wealthy Baltimore banker and a social-climbing mother. She was born in 1906 and like her mother was ambitious but directed her ambition “toward a career and exploring the world rather than bagging a feckless husband.” At age twenty, after one year at Radcliffe and one at Barnard, she moved to Paris and enrolled in the École Libre des Sciences Politiques. She spent three years in Europe, becoming fluent in French, German, Spanish and Italian. She came home and joined the State Department as a clerk. In 1931, she returned to Europe, working for State in Poland and Turkey. An accident in the fall of 1933, while on a hunting trip near the Aegean Sea, caused her to shoot herself in her left foot. Fearful of gangrene, doctors in Turkey amputated the leg below the knee. In the spring of 1934, she was back in Maryland. Two years later, she rejoined the State Department and returned to Europe. With the Continent spinning toward war, she worked in Vienna. “Pigeonholed as a disabled woman of no importance, she resigned from the State Department in March 1939.” In February 1940, she joined the French 9th Artillery Regiment as an ambulance driver. In June 1941, when France was overrun, she returned to London and enlisted in the newly formed SOE (Special Operations Executive). By early September 1941 she was a spy in Lyon, France. She had found her métier. The story of her exploits in France, especially in Lyons and later in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon are told in excruciating detail. All agents are scared and most suffered from insomnia. “Everyone experienced loneliness and an urge to share their thoughts and fears, but survival meant holding back.” Yet, for Virginia: “For all the grinding fear, she had never been so happy. For all the frustration, she had never been so fulfilled.” Nevertheless, “the Gestapo considered her the most dangerous of all Allied spies.” The three and a half years she spent with the Resistance demonstrated her bravery, coolness, competence and selflessness. The collapse of the Vichy government, in late 1942, necessitated a recall to London, which meant a fifty-mile hike across the Pyrenees in winter, difficult for anyone, but Ms. Hall had to do it on a wooden leg, while carrying a suitcase. After a debriefing, she returned to France in May 1943, now working for the OSS and based on the Haute-Loire plateau, where she became known as the “Madonna of the Mountains.” Two years later, the War was over. In September 1945 she returned to the United States. Virginia Hall was awarded medals from three countries – an MBE, the Croix de Guerre and the DSC (Distinguished Service Cross). In 1957 she married Lieutenant Paul Goillot, whom she had met in September 1944 when he parachuted into France and became one of her “irregulars.” While she became one of the first officers, of the newly formed CIA, it was “in fighting for the liberty of another nation, she had found freedom for herself.” The only criticism I had with the book is that it has too much detail: the frequent moves she had to make, the naivete of some of her comrades and the savgery of her enemies. One winces as one reads. Her survival, as it was for any member of the Resistance, was a miracle – a function of navigating between tens of thousands of French collaborators and those few who never let despair or the brutality of the Nazi occupiers dictate their behavior. Ms. Hall died in 1982 at age 76. In June 1988, her name was added to the Military Intelligence Corps Hall of Fame. On the Haute-Loire plateau, she remains a legend.

I was running out of World War 2 era books to read, so this was a nice break from the more country or formal service related books. I thought it started out a bit slow, or maybe disjointed, I'm not sure. I even put it on the shelf for a few weeks. Once I took it back down and started reading again, it really started gathering momentum. Now it's turned into a fantastic deep dive into a woman who made James Bond look like child's play. As her operation grew, along with her risks, I was absolutely dumbfounded at some of the missions/events the OSE executed. Now it's hard to put it down, with stories of prison escapes using stale break to mold a key from a lock, clandestine radio operations from prison that involved laying transmission wire IN THE PRISON with no one noticing, the ferrying of people in and out of the Lyon area of France at the height of Germans cracking down on French resistance and foreign interference of any kind. The pacing reached a perfect tempo, and the stories became more unbelievable as I got further into the book, even though they are from real OSE archives and other sources. Very happy to have picked this book to dive into.

A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win WWII was written by Sonia Purnell. This book was impossible to put down once you were into it. This is the story of how one woman stood up to be counted and made a difference to the history of the world. Virginia wanted to protect rather than destroy; to restore liberty rather than destroy it. She neither pursued fame or glory, nor was she really granted it She defied stereotyping and served in the American and British Secret Service. Barbara Hall had raised her only daughter (youngest child) to make an advantageous marriage. She wanted Virginia to live as the highest social circle did; but didn’t have the money. Ned was inept at business and failed to keep the family fortune; but not even to raise it. Virginia’s duty was to haul the family fortune back to where it was supposed to be by marrying money. Virginia was outgoing, a pleasure to be around, young men flocked to her, and she defied convention. She rode, shot, hunted, etc. like the boys and yet knew how to act as a young lady. They saw her as a natural leader. Her classmates voted her president of her class, editor in chief, ‘captain of sports, and “Class Prophet”. She was a true “original”. Her brother followed the plan set forth for him in following in his father’s business. She seemed to follow her Mother’s plans when at nineteen, she became engaged to a suitable young man. However, unlike other young ladies of her time, she strenuously objected to his cheating on her. It was the Flapper Era and women showed their independence, Virginia dropped her fiancé for his cheating and left him in her dust. Virginia began looking for a career instead. Limits on what women could do were lifted and she w anted to follow that life. Set on proving she was equal to men in her chosen field. She decided she would do better in school if she did it in Paris. She became a free spirit there and coasted through her classes. Became engaged again; but this time her Father objected and she obeyed him. Heartbroken, she returned home. Returned favoring Women’s emancipation, loved the idea of freedom for everyone and an abiding love for France. She knew five language fluently and the politics of Europe. Witnessed the rise of Hitler and Mussolini. Wall Street crash wiped out family fortune. She tested to enter the State Department but was rejected. She determined to enter by the “back door” Father’s death caused family fortunes to completely collapse and she applied for and obtained a secretarial position in the American Embassy in Warsaw. She was in but definitely by the back door. She did her job with a flair and did it well. Also got a glimpse of the intelligence world. Retook the exams to be in the diplomatic corps but missed the oral exam application deadline. Transferred to Turkey which had even fewer chances to advance. Then tragedy struck. On an organized snipe hunt, she was distracted and failed to keep her gun on safety. She fell and the resulting bullet hit her foot. Unfortunately, gangrene entered her wound and the ultimate result was the amputation of her left leg below the knee. Then sepsis attacked the knee and she once again fought for her life. She dreamed her Father came to her and told her “it was her duty to survive”. Eventually, she was fitted with a prosthetic. She taught herself to walk again and eventually returned to her duties at the embassy, although not back in Turkey; but in Venice. She asked for no favors due to her handicap. She just devised ways to get around as easily as possible and continued her work. She also entertained as her place in society required. She continued to do her duties well and even stepped in for the vice counsel when he was away. She impressed her superiors with her dedication to their work. She tried once more to gain a spot in the diplomatic corps; but was denied due to her leg and an obscure law against amputees being in the corps. She returned to Venice but others took her cause to President Roosevelt. He consulted with Hull and despite his own paralysis and the glowing reports of others on her behalf, he refused to change Hull’s mind. As a result, she was sent from Venice to Estonia. Her replacement in Venice got a promotion and a raise. Her request to stop in Paris for repair on her prosthetic was denied, so she had to pay for the detour herself. In Paris, she made contacts with her friends before going on to Estonia. Here, she was back to mundane work which was beneath her capabilities. There was now no hope of promotion or a raise (not having one in seven years) so she resigned from the State Department. She tried joining the British but couldn’t as she wasn’t British. She did join the French Ambulance service and drove ambulances in some of the worst conditions possible. She was caught in France when the Nazis took over. She found her being an American helped her get fuel needed for the ambulances to bring wounded to Paris for treatment. She noted how she received preferential treatment. However, she decided to return to Britain and looked for some way to help. On her way to Britain, she ran into George Bellows, an undercover British agent. They talked and she told him what was going on in France as she saw it. He saw a passionate and extremely brave young lady. He wired a friend in London telling him of this young lady. His friend was with the newly set up of the SOE. They were having problems finding men to take the positions they offered. Bellows believed Virginia could easily do the job. Meanwhile, she was having problems finding a position since she had quit once. Her Mother finally persuaded her to come home; but it was too late to get a safe ticket home. It was then that she contacted the name Bellows gave her. He invited her for dinner and unknown to her began his interview of her. They quickly decided she was what they needed and grabbed her up. The pay wasn’t any more than the State Department had given her; but the adventure and the fact that she would be helping the French made this offer attractive to her. Thus, Virginia became the first female F Section agent and the first liaison officer of either sex of the SOE. However, obstacles were put in her way by the State Department since she was an American and had resigned from them. In addition, Churchill had in place that women were not to be on front-line service of any kind. Old-fashioned attitudes of women were still in existence. As an American, could she be trusted? For once, her disability did not come into question at all. Eventually, things were approved and she was sent to training, her first step. When she finally started on her first mission, she was given a fifty-fifty chance of survival. This was a blind step for everyone concerned. No one had done this before. She was the first and no one knew what problems would arise. Her cover as a journalist enabled her to send articles on everyday life in France. This enabled the SOE to make sure their agents were well informed about the customs and rules the French had to follow. This enabled future agents to avoid dead giveaways. Since the United States was not at war at this time, she received no help from the US ambassador although some of his staff helped her without his knowledge.

This book came to me from a friend who thought that I would find it interesting. I did! This is the story of a woman who posessed grit, determination, and fortitude. As a young girl, she would have been my hero, my role model - if I had only known her story! This book grabbed me from the beginning and was a mix of heroism and espionage throughout. At times it was hard to believe that this was a true account because of the subtrefuge, adventure, and daily adapting to new challenges. If there is one book you should read - this is it!

This book offers a powerful and deeply moving portrayal of real-life experiences during wartime. Through vivid storytelling and authentic accounts, it immerses the reader in the harsh realities and emotional depths of life during conflict. The writing is so compelling that you find yourself eagerly turning the pages, not wanting the story to end. What makes this work especially meaningful is its focus on individuals who chose to live selflessly—driven not by recognition or reward, but by a profound sense of duty to humanity. Their courage, compassion, and resilience serve as a timeless reminder of the human spirit’s capacity for good, even in the darkest of times. Reading this book is not only an emotional journey but also a necessary one. It brings to light the lives of truly admirable people whose stories deserve to be remembered and honored. It’s a testament to the power of empathy and the importance of preserving history through personal narratives.

An American of privileged birth, Virginia Hall, a name few of us learned in school, was not only there at the birth of the British secret service and the CIA, but helped to shape them in ways that endure yet today. And she did so despite a prosthetic foot and the fact that she was a woman, a gender initially considered by both organizations as unfit for both battle and intelligence fieldwork. She proved both institutions and the men who ran them wrong, becoming one of the most successful spies of World War II. Starting as an ambulance driver who charged through the throngs of French refugees fleeing the German invasion in order to recover injured French soldiers, she went on to become a key player in the development of the French Resistance that played such a critical role in the Allied success following the invasion of Normandy. She played many roles. She recruited; distributed supplies, money, and weapons; she organized escape routes for compromised spies and downed pilots; she provided critical intelligence to the RAF and American Army Air Force; provided intelligence on enemy troop strength and movement to Allied headquarters; and ultimately organized and carried out sabotage missions and outright military assaults, commanding the resistance troops that were the first to liberate areas of France outside of Normandy. Perhaps her greatest strength and contribution, however, was her ability to gain the confidence and trust of an army of potentially helpful people, from prostitutes to police chiefs. And, as time went on, her ability to avoid capture. She was resourceful to be sure. And brave. And relentlessly focused and hard working. And, it appears, she focused not just on proving that a woman could fulfill a role they were previously excluded from, but her love of France, an attraction to thrill and danger, and an unyielding desire to contribute. It would be perhaps misleading to say that she was a pioneer for gender equality since today, more than half a century later, gender equality is far from a completed reality. Any more than racial equality has been truly realized. Unfortunately, as the world has gotten smaller, new forms of wealth inequality and ethnic discrimination have emerged. What has also emerged, however, is the recognition, for those willing to see, that discrimination of every kind, whether it’s racial, ethnic, or economic, is structural and institutional, not just attitudinal. She earned the trust and admiration of many male colleagues who came to know her. But individual attitudes and judgments are only the tip of the iceberg of discrimination. Discrimination of every stripe is ultimately built upon a foundation of structural institutional bias. It is an institutional bias built by prejudiced individuals, of course, but changing the individual does not automatically alter the institution. Power, once gained, is almost impossible to dislodge by individuals, however well meaning, unless the institutions that sustain their power are likewise altered. But I digress. Virginia, it seems, was not out to change institutions so much as she was out to save the France she loved, make a contribution, and achieve relevance. And she never let anything, including the patriarchal social structure of the era, stand in her way. But however you feel about equality, or the lack thereof, this is a splendid book, thoroughly researched, well written, and filled with suspense and jaw-dropping awe and inspiration.

This was a good story about an important and largely unknown pioneering female spy in WWII. That said, the book suffered from lack of editing. Basically the author did not do a very good job of telling what basically was an edge of your seat story. Virtually everyone in my book club thought the story was difficult to get through due to the author's disjointed writing style.

The book keeps you in the edge like a spy thriller movie more than that it is the characteristic of Virginia which I found very interesting and not many people live like that..the inner quest, her courage, her command over others......She is truly a Wonder Woman...

This is the amazing and true story of one of the heroines of the French Resistance in WWII. Virginia Hall was an American lady of impeccable lineage who didn't want to be a society hostess with all that title suggests, no husband or children and certainly no tea parties with suitable friends. She wanted to travel and be of use, so she did. Her incredible exploits were instrumental in shortening the war by coordinating resistance efforts across France, culminating in stopping reinforcements on their way to the Channel as D-Day got under way. I'm lost for the words to say how much I admire her, and really you must read this book for yourself. It is brilliant. Highly recommended.

Good biography of an incredible women in difficult times

Extremely well-researched story that reads like a really good novel. This could easily be a TV movie. Virginia Hall fought blatant sexism and a serious wound to run probably the most successful Allied spy ring, certainly in southern France, in all of World War II. Her staggering bravery, wit, loyalty and professionalism saved many, many prisoners - at the daily risk of arrest, torture and murder by the Gestapo official who knew of her and was actively hunting her. Her efforts were only partly recognized with serious medals from the British, the French, and the Distinguished Service Cross (our nation's 2nd highest award for valor) given by General William "Wild Bill" Donovan and President Harry S. Truman at the White House. To use some now ancient slang, this is a ripping yarn!

Foremost a story about an extraordinary heroine but the book also tells the story about the birth of the western intelligence agencies SOE and OAS