Dear Gman,
re: “Virginia Hall was perhaps the most famous OSS spy of them all.”
What about Julia Child? (France) Hayden Sterling? (Czechslovakia)
Yul Brynner? (Free French Radio Broadcaster)
“What about Julia Child? (France) Hayden Sterling? (Czechslovakia)
Yul Brynner? (Free French Radio Broadcaster)”
They were all worthy, but not at the same level as Virginia Hall: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Hall
She, as an American, served in the British SOE from 1940 - 1944 because her own Country’s diplomatic corp. had little use at the time for a one-legged female. She later joined the newly formed OSS where she served from 1944 - 1945, and then at the CIA from 1951 - 1966. While with the SOE and OSS, she served undercover, on the ground, deep in Vichy, France, where she set up safe houses; organized and coordinated the resistance forces; orchestrated sabotage attacks on the Nazis; coordinated and actively participated in night-time supply drops; planned and coordinated prison escapes; provided radio transmissions back to London; and the list goes on. The “limping lady” was on the Gestapo’s and the SS’s most wanted list, and she barely escaped capture on several occasions.
The British made her a member of the Order of the British Empire; and General Donovan personally awarded her the Distinguished Service Cross when she turned down a public ceremony with President Truman (she didn’t want to blow her cover for future missions).