WOMEN IN INTELLIGENCE

World War II

United Kingdom

K - Z

King, Stella. "Jacqueline": Pioneer Heroine of the Resistance. London: Arms and Armour Press, 1990.

Surveillant 1.1: Yvonne Rudellat was the "first female field agent trained by ... [SOE] during WWII." She set up a resistance unit and sabotaged rail lines and trains. Rudellat was wounded and captured, sent to Ravensbruck and on to Bergen-Belsen where she died. The book "reads like a fast-paced spy novel."

Kramer, Rita. Flames in the Field: The Story of Four SOE Agents in Occupied France. London: Michael Joseph, 1995.

According to Funk, WIR 14.4, the four women mentioned in the title were "among the thirteen female [SOE] agents who served in France but did not return.... Kramer explains who the women were, how they were trained, what their mission was, and how they were captured and executed.... Rita Kramer demonstrates exemplary competence in research." In addressing the controversy as to whether these and other agents had been sacrificed as part of Allied deception operations, Kramer "sets forth the evidence, reviews the literature, and brings her readers up-to-date on a controversy that will not be readily resolved." But she "is too conscientious a historian to reach conclusions on conjecture."

Moore, I&NS 11.1, says the book "contains little in the way of analysis which is truly original," and, therefore, "is essentially a book for the general reader." Nevertheless, "the story of these four women has been well-told."

Long, Helen. Safe Houses Are Dangerous. [UK]: Abson Books, 1989.

Surveillant 1.1: This is the "story of the evasion line; a web of safe houses spread out over occupied France, its heart in Marseille, which sheltered servicemen on the run."

Lynn, Vera. The Women Who Won the War. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1990.

Masson, Madeleine. Christine: A Search for Christine Granville. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1975.

According to Constantinides, Granville was an SOE agent in Hungary, Poland, and France. This biography, however, neglects her operational work for details of her life, leaving the reader with having learned little of her substantial accomplishments.

Miller, Gene E. [SFC/USA] "MI Corps Hall of Fame: Virginia Hall." Military Intelligence 20, no. 3 (Jul.-Sep. 1994): 44-45.

Adapted from Lawrence J. Cerri, Army Magazine (Feb. 1988). Using the pseudonym of Marcella Montagne, the "Incredible Limping Lady" served in France with SOE and the French underground and, later, in OSS' Operation Heckler preparatory to Operation Overlord. See also, Nouzille, L'espionne: Virginia Hall, une Americaine dans la guerre (2007); and Pearson, The Wolves at the Door (2005).

Miller, Joan. One Girl's War: Personal Exploits in MI5's Most Secret Station. Dublin: Brandon, 1986.

Steiner, I&NS 3.2, calls this "a delightful and entertaining account of the war-time exploits" of a young woman "who entered the secret world of intelligence and became personal assistant to Maxwell Knight,... Chief of MI5's B5 (b) section."

Minney, R.J. Carve Her Name with Pride: The Story of Violette Szabo. London: Collins, 1964.

Szabo was an SOE agent in France. Captured by the Germans on a second mission, she was murdered in the Ravensbruck concentration camp. Szabo was portrayed by Virginia McKenna in the 1958 British film "Carve Her Name with Pride." (Nash, Spies, p. 550) See also, Ottaway, Violette Szabo (2003).

Nouzille, Vincent. L'espionne: Virginia Hall, une Americaine dans la guerre. Paris, Fayard, 2007.

Foot, Studies 53.1 (Mar. 2009), says that this is an "excellent account of one of the war's most remarkable secret agents...; a translation into English would be most welcome." It "is a great improvement" over Pearson, The Wolves at the Door (2005) (see below). See also, Miller, "MI Corps Hall of Fame: Virginia Hall," Military Intelligence 20.3 (1994).

Ottaway, Susan. Violette Szabo: "The Life that I Have...." Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2003.

Szabo was an SOE agent in France. Captured by the Germans on a second mission, she was murdered in the Ravensbruck concentration camp. Szabo was portrayed by Virginia McKenna in the 1958 British film "Carve Her Name with Pride." (Nash, Spies, p. 550) Ringlesbach, IJI&C 16.4, notes that the author's research has "corrected many errors in R.J. Minney's book" [Minney, Carve Her Name with Pride (1964)]. The reviewer found the work "fascinating."

Paine, Lauran. Mathilde Carré, Double Agent. London: Hale, 1976.

Carré was actually a triple agent, working successively for the French underground, the German Abwehr, and SOE. She is best known in popular literature by one of her underground codenames, "Cat." See also, Carré, J'ai été la chatte (1959); and Young, The Cat With Two Faces (1957).

Pearson, Judith L. The Wolves at the Door: The True Story of America's Greatest Female Spy. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2005.

Clark comment: This is a biography of Virginia Hall, who served with both SOE and OSS in German-occupied France. Peake, Studies 49.4 (2005), notes that the author has worked with recently released SOE and OSS files in telling the "fascinating story" of a "genuine heroine." See also, Nouzille, L'espionne: Virginia Hall, une Americaine dans la guerre (2007); and Miller, "MI Corps Hall of Fame: Virginia Hall," Military Intelligence 20.3 (1994).

Rochester, Devereaux. Full Moon to France. New York: Harper & Row, 1977.

According to Knouse, http://home.att.net, this work is "[s]hort on technical details but [offers] a good insight to the life of a Resistance fighter in France during the course of the war. Devereaux worked with the RAF SOE units and the Maquis."

Stevenson, William. Spymistress: The Life of Vera Atkins: The Greatest Female Agent in World War II. New York: Arcade, 2007.

Troy, Studies 51.2 (2007), rips this book as "history and fiction distressingly conmingled." The reviewer hastens to note that "[t]here is no question" of the author's honesty. Rather, Troy sees Stevenson as letting his passion and imagination run rampant. That Atkins "worked in an especially dangerous wartime role ... is beyond cavil." However, this account "hardly proves her a great agent, much less 'the greatest female secret agent in World War II.'"

Just as negative a reaction to this book comes from West, IJI&C 21.3 (Fall 2008), who says that the author is "just wrong about ... almost every ... item in his book." West also uses such descriptions as "nonsensical," "fanciful," "patent invention," "invariably inaccurate or plain wrong," and "many obvious fabrications." He concludes that "Stevenson's interpretations, based on fake quotations, invented missions, and non-existent organizations, really amounts to literary fraud."

Taylor, Eric. Heroines of World War II. London: Robert Hale, 1995. [pb]

Surveillant 4.3: "Taylor shows the parts women, as nurses, spies, soldiers, WAAFS and WRENS, played in the Allied conflict."

Tickell, Jerrard. Odette: The Story of a British Agent. London: Chapman, 1949.

Clark comment: This is the story of Mrs. Odette Samson awarded a George Cross for her service with SOE in France. To Seaman, I&NS 20.1 (Mar. 2005), 30-31, this work "was a virtual hagiography." The author's opportunity to consult some SOE documents did not prevent him from "drifting into a cloying narrative."

Wake, Nancy. The White Mouse. Melbourne: Macmillan, 1985.

Nancy Wake-Fiocca ("Andreé") was an Australian national who was living in Marseilles when France fell in June 1940. She joined the Resistance and had to flee France when the escape organization with which she was working was rolled up in March 1943. She parachuted back into France as an SOE liaison with the Maquis in March 1944. Cookridge, Inside SOE, p. 355. See also, Braddon, The White Mouse (1957); and Fitzsimons, Nancy Wake (2002).

Young, George Gordon. The Cat With Two Faces: The Most Amazing Spy Story of the Second World War. New York: Coward-McCann, 1957. London: Putnam, 1957.

Constantinides: "The Cat" was Mathilde Carré, who as mistress of her Abwehr case officer, Hugo Bleicher, was involved in the destruction of the Inter-Allié Resistance network. See also, Carré, J'ai été la chatte (1959); and Paine, Mathilde Carré, Double Agent (1976).

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