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In this article, Sir Phoenix talks about a famous American spy.
Virginia Hall
Virginia Hall
By Sir Phoenix Robinson
By Sir Phoenix Robinson
Every March is the start of Women’s History Month. In light of that, I’ve decided to shine a light on a woman who risked everything to preserve the freedoms we enjoy today. A woman so infamous that she would top the list of the most wanted in Nazi-occupied Germany. And she did all of this while missing her leg.
Virginia Hall was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1906. According to the Defense Intelligence Agency, she attended Radcliffe University and Barnard University, the equivalents to Harvard and Columbia University for women. She learned to speak a variety of languages and also traveled internationally to study. After finishing her graduate studies, she became a clerk at the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw. Throughout her time in the Department of State, Hall would continue to apply (and get rejected) to the U.S. Foreign Service.
When the Department of State transferred Hall to Turkey, she went on a hunting trip. In 1933, while attempting to get over a fence, the Department of State reports that she accidentally shot herself in the foot with her shotgun. Her foot was shattered due to the point-blank incident. Her friends rushed her to the hospital, but gangrene had already taken hold. This gave doctors no choice but to amputate her left leg from the knee down. Virginia Hall was forced to move back to Baltimore so she could learn to walk again with her new prosthetic leg. Interestingly enough, she decided to name her prosthetic leg “Cuthbert.”
An image of Virginia Hall, credit to NPR
She made a return to the Department of State and once more applied for the U.S. Foreign Service. After being turned down for the last time, she decided to move to France and quit her job. In the following months, Germany invaded France. Hall became an ambulance driver to support the war effort. The Defense Intelligence Agency believes this is around the time when the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) recruited Hall. For the same reasons the Foreign Service rejected her applications, the SOE wanted to hire her. By being a woman and an amputee, people had an assumption that she was nothing more than some villager. By being underestimated, she had the upper hand in espionage.
While in the SOE, Hall rescued downed Allied airmen, organized and oversaw supply drops into occupied France, set up prison escapes, served as a liaison between British and French intelligence agents, and even helped the Allies in the largest naval invasion in history. Her efficiency threatened the Nazi regime, causing the German and Vichy French special police to place her at the top of the most wanted list.
An image of Virginia Hall receiving the DSC, credit to DIA
Her contributions to the British war effort led the Americans to take her in as a part of their own agency-- the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). She would do a few more important missions until the end of the war. During the war, she was also presented with the Distinguished Service Cross. The DSC is the second-highest medal that can be awarded. The only reason that her ceremony was not published is because she wanted to stay undercover. The Central Intelligence Agency confirms that she is the only civilian woman to hold such an honor.
Virginia Hall was a diligent woman born in Baltimore. Her contributions to winning World War II caught the attention of powerful men, both friend and foe. An operative of the SOE, OSS, and CIA, she continued to thrive in the intelligence business. Hall retired in 1961 and died in 1982.
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