🧵 #OnThisDay, 23 Aug 1941, American Virginia Hall arrives in France to work for the British Special Operations Executive.
Hall ended up on the German's “most wanted” list as 'the limping lady'.
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In 1933, Hall was a European language graduate working as a clerk at the American Embassy in Smyrna, Türkiye. She went on a hunting expedition, tripped on a fence and shot herself in her left foot.
The injury turned gangrenous,: to save her life her leg was amputated below the knee.
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She was fitted with a wooden prosthetic, which she nicknamed Cuthbert. Cuthbert meant she limped.
She continued her career as a consulate clerk. Her multiple requests to become a diplomat were turned down due to a rule against hiring people with disabilities.
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When Germany invaded France, Hall became an ambulance driver for the French army.
When France fell, she fled to Spain where a chance meeting sent her to the newly formed Special Operations Executive in London. The British SOE supported the work of the French resistance.
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Hall, with her knowledge of languages and of Europe, was recruited.
She returned to France by boat, with a cover story that she was working for the New York Post. She was only the second woman they sent into the field. The SOE would eventually send 41 women to France, of whom 26 survived.
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Based in Lyon in Vichy France, as well as the usual SOE agent tasks of gathering information and distributing equipment, Hall also ran an escape line for downed Allied airmen, getting them across the Pyrenees and into neutral Spain.
In November 1942, Germany began to occupy Vichy France ahead of the Allied North African campaign. Hall decided it was time to run.
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