Master Spy Virginia Hall - The Most Dangerous of All Spies

Master Spy Virginia Hall

Hi everyone, this episode of Duty & Valor is a bit different than our previous ones.  This story isn’t about a military member, rather it’s about an American spy who would be instrumental in helping the Allies defeat the Germans in WWII.  In this show, I’ll tell you the story of a woman who would work undercover for years behind enemy lines.  A woman who wouldn’t let a physical disability keep her from wreaking havoc on the Nazis.  A woman who the Germans would name the most dangerous of all spies.  This is the story of Virginia Hall.    

Born on April 6th 1906 in Baltimore, MD to parents Barbara and Edwin Hall, Virginia was an extremely intelligent child with a free spirit.  Upon graduating Roland Park Country School, where she was the class president and the editor of the student paper, she would go on to Radcliffe and Barnard Colleges.  She would study French, German, and Italian.  She would then attend George Washington University where she focused on French and Economics.  She always wanted to work overseas in the US Foreign Service as a diplomat, so she felt that traveling to Europe would get her one step closer to this goal.  She would travel Europe while studying in Germany, Austria, and France, before taking a job as a Consular Service clerk in,1931, at the American Embassy in Warsaw, Poland.  Shortly thereafter, she would be transferred to Turkey.  In 1933, while still in Turkey, she went on a bird hunt, which was a favorite recreation of hers, and she was accidently shot in her left foot.  The wound didn’t heal properly and gangrene would set in.  This would eventually lead to her having to have her left leg amputated just below the knee.  

Hall wouldn’t let this derail her spirits or her career goals.  In fact, she would affectionately name her wooden prosthetic leg, Cuthbert.  She would be assigned as a Consular Clerk in Venice and Estonia.  Though her amputation wasn’t a hindrance to her career, the US Foreign Service would deny her any promotions, as was typical of anyone with visible disabilities at the time.  

Once the beginning of WWII commenced, Virginia wanted to do something to fight the Nazis.  As it was well anticipated that the Germans would move East following their victories in Poland, she would join the French 9th Infantry Regiment as an ambulance driver.  She would remain in that role until the German blitzkrieg made quick work of the French and Allied forces.  After the fall of France in June of 1940, she was forced to escape on a train bound to neutral Spain.

On that train, Virginia would meet George Bellows.  Bellows was impressed with her intellect and knowledge of France, so he gave her the phone number of a friend in London.  Expecting to receive a job offer, possibly as an ambulance driver, Virginia would call this friend named Nicolas Bodington.  What she didn’t know was that Bellows and Bodington actually worked for the SOE, the British CIA equivalent.  Bodington knew that she would be the perfect asset and he would recruit her into the service in April 1941.

By August 1941, following her training, Hall, known as agent 3844, was sent to Lyon in Vichy France.  Vichy France was the semi-autonomous portion of France that wasn’t in direct control of the Nazis, but was run by those who chose to collaborate with the Nazis and employ most of their policies.  

Hall’s background as an American with foreign language skills helped shape her cover as a New York Post reporter.  As a reporter she was able to engage people in conversations and ask a lot of questions.  This inquisitiveness would be a red flag if she hadn’t been believed to be a reporter.  She was able to gain intelligence that would be communicated back to London where military planners would utilize her work to shape military operations.  

While posing as a journalist, she would employ her ability to change disguises and work to build a network of assets around Lyon.  This network would be known as Heckler.  Under her command, Heckler would set up a network of contacts, bribe officials, identify safehouses, as well as other clandestine operations.   Among others, the Heckler group would receive intel from a brothel owner whose girls would gather intelligence by overhearing German officers speaking to each other while at the brothel, and they would pass information onto Hall and the Heckler group.  She would pass information to London through covert radio signals, as well as in the diplomatic communications from an American diplomat in Lyon.  

Throughout her time in France, Hall was instrumental in aiding Allied airmen that were downed over Vichy France.  She set up a network that would get them the medical aid they needed before sneaking them over the Pyrennes into Spain.  Allied airmen who were able to make it to Lyon, were told to visit the American embassy there and ask for Olivier.  Olivier was actually one of the codenames for Virginia.  They would then receive care, were fed, and then were led to Spain where they would eventually be returned to their units in England.   

One of the keys to Hall’s success to this point and throughout the war was that she would employ a suspicious nature when dealing with others.  She would work under the SOE motto of “doubt, therefore I survive”.  This way of thinking had her knowing something didn’t feel right about a meeting that was called for all SOE agents in Marseille in Oct. 1941.  This meeting was actually a ruse to identify and capture SOE agents operating in France.  She chose not to attend, but unfortunately many other agents did.  Some were able to escape when the meeting was raided by the French police, but a dozen agents were captured.       

Hall would later learn that the 12 men captured were imprisoned at a prison near Bergerac.  Letters would be smuggled out of the prison where they would eventually make it to Hall.  She then devised the plan to use the wife of one of the jailed men to sneak in material that they could use to help in their escape.  She would sneak in hidden tools and tins of sardines, which would be used to craft keys to the doors of the prison.  There was also a priest that was able to sneak in a radio which gave the men the ability to communicate directly with London.  While the items were being smuggled in and communications smuggled out, Hall was busy planning the support of the escape.  She would set up safehouses, place vehicles, and identify a group of people that would get them to safety.  

The men would eventually make their escape in July of 1942.  They would hide in the nearby woods while an intense manhunt was underway to find them.  By August, they had made contact with Hall where their escape to Spain, and return to England began.

By the time of the jailbreak, the Nazis had begun losing faith in the abilities of the French Police.  They would send 500 agents to Vichy France in an effort to identify SOE agents as well as those in the resistance.  With this new focus on resistance operations around Lyon, Hall lost her contacts within the police of the area.

Around this time, Hall had agreed to pass along messages to London from the Paris based French resistance group named the Gloria Network.  By August, the network had been compromised by the infiltration of the group by a Roman Catholic priest named Robert Alesch.  He was a double agent for the German counterintelligence in France.  Alesch would make contact with Hall claiming to be a member of the Gloria Network and having sensitive intelligence.  Hall, as well as the SOE back in London, mistook his intentions as he was considered reliable, even though they knew that the Gloria Network had been destroyed by this time.  He was able to identify contacts in the Heckler group and he would capture wireless operators of the network where he would send false reports back to London posing as Hall.

Following the Allied invasion of Africa in November 1942, the Germans decided to occupy all of France.  Hall knew that the Germans would be more focused and effective in their pursuit of SOE agents, so she knew that she had to make her escape while there was still a chance.  The Germans referred to her as Artemis, but most of them knew her as “the most dangerous of all spies”.  So it was no surprise that they made a big effort to identify and capture her.

Utilizing some of the same network that she used to sneak Allied airmen into Spain, she would take a train to the Southernmost France.  From there she had a guide take her over the Pyrenees mountains to Spain.  This would be a challenging trek for any able bodied person, let alone someone with a prosthetic leg.  In a radio signal sent to the SOE, Hall would say that she hoped Cuthbert would not trouble her.  The SOE didn’t know what she was referencing and responded saying, “if Cuthbert troublesome, eliminate him”.   It was reported that she was able to travel 50 miles over two days, while in extreme discomfort.  

Soon after making the crossing, the Spanish police would arrest her for illegally crossing the border.  She was imprisoned for six weeks before her release was secured by the US Embassy.  She continued her work for the SOE in Spain until her return to England in July 1943.  She was then made a Member of the Order of the British Empire. 

Hall would leave the SOE after they refused to return her to her work in France, as they felt she was compromised.  This led her to join the ranks of the American Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the CIA.  She would return to France in March of 1944.  As her prosthetic kept her from parachuting into France, she would arrive on the Britany coast on a British gunboat.  With false documents identifying her as Marcelle Montagne, she took on the persona of a woman much older than her actual age.  She would dye her hair gray and file down her teeth to make her look more like an elderly French peasant.  She would also employ the shuffle of an elderly woman which hid her limp perfectly.  

Hall’s mission at this point changed from what she had done in the past.  This time she would take on a direct role in supplying and training the French Resistance fighters known as the Maquis.  Though she offered the resources and training that the Maquis were sorely needing, it was a struggle to get the men to follow a woman.  Things would eventually change as she was able to deliver supplies and intelligence that aided them in their operations.  

By the summer of 1944 she was tasked with traveling to Southern France to guide the Maquis in the harassment of the Germans prior to the anticipated invasion of Southern France under Operation Dragoon.  She was instrumental in helping plan and support the operations undertaken by 1,500 resistance fighters in the area.  Their sabotage operations would damage railways, derail multiple trains, bridges were destroyed, telephone lines were all cut, and they were able to inflict heavy losses on German soldiers.  The Germans would soon head North to join other retreating German units.

By Sept. of 1944, the Allied advance had caught up to her operational area and her work was no longer needed.  Following the end of the war she would return to Lyon to find out the fate of those who helped her.  Some were safe, even those who were captured and sent to concentration camps, but most did not survive.   Robert Alesch, the priest who was an agent for the Nazis, was captured and executed by the French.

In addition to being recognized as a Member of the Order of the British Empire, she was also awarded the Cross of War by the French, and she was the only civilian woman to be awarded the Distinguished Service Cross during WWII. 

Hall would join the newly formed CIA in 1947 but would resign due to being given a desk job that was not utilizing her talents.  In 1950 she would then return to the CIA where she would stay until 1966, when she reached the mandatory retirement age of 60.  It was also in 1950 when she married her husband,  Paul Gaillot, a fellow spy.

Virginia Hall passed away on July 8th, 1982.  She is buried in the Druid Ridge Cemetery in Pikesville Maryland.  

Thank you for listening, and if you enjoyed this week's show, we kindly ask that you follow us and leave a review and 5 star rating.  Sources for today's show can be found in the show notes.  And join us next week where we’ll tell you the story of another true American hero.