Tag: Resistance
She Was Known As “The Woman With The Limp”
by admin on Nov.18, 2009, under Historical Heroes
I found this account over at the website DamnInteresting.com. And the website does live up to its name. But first, I’d like you to check out the story of Virginia Hall, a woman born in Maryland in 1906.
Long story short, when Virginia was only 26, she went on a hunting trip in Turkey and accidentally shot herself in the leg. Sadly, the injury was so extensive that the doctors couldn’t save the limb and had to amputate.
But that didn’t stop her from making history. She ended up as a clerk in France and was trapped when Nazi Germany invaded in 1940. She snuck out of the country and joined the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in Britain. SEO was created by Winston Churchill and was an effort to wage war in ways that didn’t involve direct military engagement. Known as the “Baker Street Irregulars,” they engaged in spreading propaganda and spying.
Virginia was sent to German occupied France to spy. The Nazis were aware of her presence, but not who she was. She was known to them only as “the woman with the limp”. Virginia spent 15 months on her first tour – most spies only spent three. She spent most of that time in France assisting the Resistance, helping them receive supply drops from the Allies.
In 1942 she was forced to flee over the Pyrenees Mountains into Spain when German troops were moving forcefully through France.
When she returned to London, Virginia signed on with the American intelligence office, the Office of Strategic Service. They sent her back to France in 1944 disguised as an elderly woman. This time she operated in a much more guerrilla fashion – destroying bridges, sabotaging trains, and causing overall havoc for the German forces.
Keep in mind that she only had one leg – and she managed all this.
Virginia Hall was the only woman during World War II to receive the US Distinguished Service Cross. I believe that she more than deserved that honor.
