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

I am half way through this book and cannot put it down. Each page is full of suspense and all this from a woman who had lost part of a leg. Her accomplishments are well worth reading and the author did an excellent job telling this story. A great read, highly recommend.

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.

Sonia Purnell, kudos to you for taking on the story of Virginia Hall. The story is fascinating, and I am in awe of the amount of research it took to write this book. There is always so much more to learn about WWII. I feel guilty giving this book only 3 stars but here is why: it is just too many people, too many places, somewhat dry, too much detail and it kind of rambles. I found it hard to follow and by 30% started skimming the chapters. I would have enjoyed knowing more about her life once she returned home.

If I were Sonia, or her publisher, I would take the same terrific body of information and turn it in to a really interesting biography. Slim it down, make it a story and more people will love it. I felt the same way about David McCullough’s Path Between the Seas about the Panama Canal. It is a great wealth of information but just too much. I felt like I had a PhD in Panama Canal when I was done. It was more than I really wanted or needed to know. Just my humble opinion.

This is a great read for anyone interested in WWII, German cruelty in WWII and the fortitude needed to assemble a results oriented working group in the most challenging times of a nation and its people.

This true story of an American WW2 heroin tugs at the old heartstrings at times. Hopefully people still read books like this to remind us of the barbarity of the Nazi regime and the bravery of those that opposed it. One can’t help thinking, as ever with such courageous women, that if she had been a man her name would be much more well-known. Thoroughly recommended.

I love the no nonsense way this American Woman `s sacrifice and total commitment to defeating the Germans was portrayed. Not perfect but brilliant and brave. I wonder if the early and current CIA has learned anything? It should be required reading for all CIA recruits and managers.