Speaker 1: Diversion audio. A note this episode contains descriptions of violence
Speaker 1: that may be disturbing for some audiences. Please take care
Speaker 1: in listening. This series is based on historical characters and
Speaker 1: real events. Some dialogue has been imagined for dramatic purposes
Speaker 1: when no primary source material is available. No I know.
Speaker 1: The first time Virginia Hall met Vera Atkins in February,
Speaker 1: she believed the woman was nothing more than another airheaded socialite.
Speaker 1: Vera had been hosting a party, decked out in lavish clothes,
Speaker 1: relaxing on expensive furniture, and doing her best to entertain
Speaker 1: her guests. But now, two weeks after the party, as
Speaker 1: Virginia sat across from Vera in a high end restaurant
Speaker 1: in central London, the woman's demeanor seemed very different. The
Speaker 1: day before, she'd asked Virginia to meet her in a
Speaker 1: phone call with hushed tones. She carried with her a
Speaker 1: sense of urgency. Virginia didn't associate with the airy, lavish
Speaker 1: lifestyles of the ridge. Vera. I don't want to give
Speaker 1: you the wrong idea, but there's no way I'll be
Speaker 1: able to afford anything on this menu. I know it
Speaker 1: will be taken care of you made quite a scene
Speaker 1: at my policy, Virginia. Suddenly, Virginia remembered her appearance at
Speaker 1: Vera's home. After a few too many glasses of wine.
Speaker 1: She granted loudly about her distaste for the Nazis, without
Speaker 1: considering that somebody at the party might have been sympathetic
Speaker 1: to the Germans. Ah, I'm sorry, I just think be
Speaker 1: I'm merely curious. How far are you willing to go?
Speaker 1: Virginia Bristle did this, not entirely sure what Vera meant,
Speaker 1: but annoyed nevertheless at the obvious challenge. But as Vera continued,
Speaker 1: Virginia couldn't help but be fascinated by what she was
Speaker 1: telling her. Vera explained that she was an intelligence officer
Speaker 1: with a Special Operations Executive, the s o E. The
Speaker 1: year before, in Winston Churchill became Britain's Prime Minister and
Speaker 1: months later created the s o E for the purpose
Speaker 1: of surveying overseas operations and coordinating action against agents who
Speaker 1: meant harm to British interests. So they have an intelligence service,
Speaker 1: the equivalent to the CIA that existed pre World War Two.
Speaker 1: It was called the Secret Intelligence Service or m I six.
Speaker 1: That's Chris Costa from previous episodes. He's the executive director
Speaker 1: of the International Spy Museum m I six ran agents,
Speaker 1: meaning they recruited, as I said, individuals that could provide intelligence.
Speaker 1: But that wasn't good enough for Churchill when Britain went
Speaker 1: to war, so he said. Churchill said, we need somebody
Speaker 1: to set Europe ablaze, and that was the mandate of
Speaker 1: this Special Operations executive. Churchill wanted somebody to wreak havoc
Speaker 1: on the battlefield. So sabotage plus a little espionage paramilitary
Speaker 1: operations make things blow up. Apparently, the s OE needed
Speaker 1: feet on the ground in France who could facilitate British
Speaker 1: operatives with safe houses, information and escape routes out of
Speaker 1: the country. You're offering me a post. I don't exactly
Speaker 1: have an elegant hiring history with intelligence agencies. Virginia was
Speaker 1: referring to her ten years in various American embassies, where
Speaker 1: all her efforts for promotion were rejected by her various superiors,
Speaker 1: all of them men. Of course, what do we need
Speaker 1: our passionate, intelligent agents, people who know France, the country
Speaker 1: and the language. According to our research, you have knowledge
Speaker 1: of both and we need more young people. A lot
Speaker 1: of our current connections are a bit mature, shall we say.
Speaker 1: You could hear her taking a drag and her cigarette,
Speaker 1: but she was extremely shrewd. That's Judith Pearson, who wrote
Speaker 1: the first biography of Virginia Hall, The Wolves at the Door.
Speaker 1: She's describing Vera Atkins. She was extremely well thought of
Speaker 1: by the s o E, and they were desperate for
Speaker 1: people who could speak French, who knew their way around France,
Speaker 1: who had a bit of an attitude, and Virginia had
Speaker 1: all those. The job would be difficult and Virginia's responsibilities numerous.
Speaker 1: She wouldn't only shelter multiple spies in various safe houses
Speaker 1: at any given time, but would be subject to the
Speaker 1: gestapos interrogations at any moment. If any Virginia's compatriots found
Speaker 1: themselves with their covers blown or sought out by the Nazis,
Speaker 1: it would be her responsibility to keep them hidden in
Speaker 1: the safe houses and navigate their way out of the
Speaker 1: country and back to London. Virginia did have one key
Speaker 1: advantage the s OE could leverage. She was American and
Speaker 1: in the USA was still ostensibly neutral in World War Two.
Speaker 1: As FDR said in late ninety there is no amm
Speaker 1: forss sending an American expeditionary FOSS outside our border. There
Speaker 1: is no intentiontion by and a member of your government
Speaker 1: who send such a thought. At the time, Americans like
Speaker 1: Virginia still had the latitude to live freely in France.
Speaker 1: She would be tasked with transmitting German intelligence back to
Speaker 1: the UK through wire transmissions and secret radio broadcasts, as
Speaker 1: well as coordinating the pickup of pilots and weaponry that
Speaker 1: fell out of British planes. All of this information over
Speaker 1: single dinner could have been overwhelming. You know about my
Speaker 1: leg If it doesn't bother you, it doesn't bother us.
Speaker 1: Virginia couldn't deny how much the job seemed too good
Speaker 1: to be true. For nearly a decade, she had been
Speaker 1: rejected from promotions and positions of authority in the American government.
Speaker 1: She'd wanted to serve all this time, and yet was
Speaker 1: dismissed for every reason under the sun. She was a
Speaker 1: one it, she was handicapped, she didn't have the right attitude,
Speaker 1: and suddenly here she was in the presence of a
Speaker 1: real life spy offering her responsibilities. She had only ever
Speaker 1: dreamed of. Her response was succinct. When do I start,
Speaker 1: I'm Stephen Talty and from diversion, this is good Assassin's
Speaker 1: Season two. Being killed would be the easy part. Being
Speaker 1: tortured would be the hard part. Our intel suggests she
Speaker 1: is behind many of the prison bricks all over the country.
Speaker 1: She's dangerous, so sabotage plus a little espionage paramilitary operations
Speaker 1: make things blow up. The message for Captain Bobby and
Speaker 1: I believe I have found the nest of the limb
Speaker 1: being Lady Episode four Spy Games. All right, man much.
Speaker 1: When Virginia arrived in Guildford in the UK in March
Speaker 1: of for s o E training, she was given a nickname. Really,
Speaker 1: the nickname was meant for her prosthetic leg. It was
Speaker 1: dubbed Cuthbert as some of the other recruits joked she
Speaker 1: could use the limb as a sword in a pinch.
Speaker 1: They confused the word with cutlass, but Virginia felt like
Speaker 1: correcting them would give her a reputation as a know
Speaker 1: it all. It was a cross introduction, but Virginia knew
Speaker 1: she'd have to expect worse from the Nazis. She never
Speaker 1: told anybody that's Brad Catling, Virginia's great nephew. Apparently Virginia
Speaker 1: never told the family this story, and in fact Katling
Speaker 1: has a different theory on why Virginia culture pathetic. Cuthbert
Speaker 1: Cuthbert was St. Cuthbert who lived in the eight hundreds,
Speaker 1: and he lived on the northeastern coast of England, right
Speaker 1: on the coast. But today if you go there, it's
Speaker 1: a bird sanctuary and you know they're gazillion nesting birds
Speaker 1: that are there all the time. But St. Cuthbert was
Speaker 1: actually given credit for saving all of these birds or
Speaker 1: protecting all of these birds. And he also had an
Speaker 1: injured knee that had given him trouble, but it ended
Speaker 1: up being cured through a miracle. That's the story anyway.
Speaker 1: So Cuthbert fits on a number of different levels. First
Speaker 1: of all, in Turkey, she was hunting for birds, and
Speaker 1: so if St. Cuthbert is the protector of the birds,
Speaker 1: then he saved the bird that she was trying to shoot.
Speaker 1: And choosing Cuthbert is also aspirational for her because he
Speaker 1: was eventually healed, the next few weeks would test her metal.
Speaker 1: She didn't have to worry about oral examinations or office politics. Anymore. Instead,
Speaker 1: she was training for combat, demolition, and survival. Keep your
Speaker 1: aunts up, Cuthbert, heads up, for you'll get knocked down.
Speaker 1: The camp was full of volunteers. Trainees were dropping like flies,
Speaker 1: getting cut for different reasons. Some were too slow, others
Speaker 1: were too hockey. Some couldn't keep their mouth shut and
Speaker 1: were deemed incapable of protecting valuable intel. The s O
Speaker 1: couldn't risk their agents cracking, and the Nazis were brutal interrogators.
Speaker 1: Virginia's reality began to set in when she noticed the
Speaker 1: number of her compatriots was whittling down every day. The
Speaker 1: exercises were merciless. She was put through hours and hours
Speaker 1: of mock interrogations that involved splashing cold water over her
Speaker 1: head until her lips turned blue. Her memory was challenged.
Speaker 1: Could she walk into a room with fifteen people and then,
Speaker 1: after twenty seconds, accurately described the facial features, clothing, and
Speaker 1: demeanor of every person. Virginia was trained in Morse code
Speaker 1: and tasks with transmitting it over a secret radio. The
Speaker 1: volunteers deemed not up to snuff were sent up north
Speaker 1: to an isolated estate, where they were kept for a
Speaker 1: few weeks until the intel they were already privy to
Speaker 1: was no longer of use to the British or the enemy.
Speaker 1: The prospect of being sent up North began to haunt
Speaker 1: Virginia's nightmares. She had come this far and now she
Speaker 1: was terrified of failing. Virginia, wake up, what you're moving on?
Speaker 1: Moving on? Wait? Please don't hand me up North North.
Speaker 1: We're not sending you up North? Is your next session?
Speaker 1: Performance training? Get dressed. After she had proven herself physically,
Speaker 1: Virginia was placed in the next tier manners. As the
Speaker 1: Bridge saw it, Virginia was a shoot from the hip, outspoken,
Speaker 1: highly opinionated, independent woman. She would stick out like a
Speaker 1: sore thumb in France and attract lots of unnecessary attention.
Speaker 1: They'd have to change her, train her to hide her
Speaker 1: American accent, to not look around like a tourist, to
Speaker 1: blend in without suspicion, and that was easier said than done.
Speaker 1: As her three week training session began to wind down,
Speaker 1: she left behind etiquette and leveled up to the final
Speaker 1: tier of weapons training. Here she received a tip she
Speaker 1: didn't expect. Her weapons instructor informed her that have given
Speaker 1: a choice between wounding and Nazi and killing him. She
Speaker 1: should always wound him. If you kill him, they'll just
Speaker 1: leave the body behind. If you put him in the
Speaker 1: infirm right, his higher ups get paperwack. Keep them busy
Speaker 1: and distracted. The best Nazi is a dead Nazi. But
Speaker 1: let's win the war first, shall I. Following eight weeks
Speaker 1: of lifestyle training and then mastery of weapons and close
Speaker 1: combat tactics, Virginia was left with a final trial, to
Speaker 1: be dropped off in the nearby village of wine Borough
Speaker 1: and given a list of duties she had to complete
Speaker 1: in one week. She had a fine safe house, receive
Speaker 1: and transmit sensitive information via Morse code, and then ship
Speaker 1: a package out of town. All of this had to
Speaker 1: be done while several other volunteers sought her out. If
Speaker 1: she was discovered or if any of her information confiscated,
Speaker 1: she'd have to start her entire training process over, and
Speaker 1: she failed twice, she would in fact be sent up north.
Speaker 1: At the end of the week, Virginia had successfully evaded
Speaker 1: her searchers and completed all of her tasks. The sa
Speaker 1: we decided she was ready. So what Virginia Hall, what
Speaker 1: have learned is how to set up a safe house,
Speaker 1: how to recruit support agents, meaning people to be a
Speaker 1: part of her network to collect intelligence. That's Chris Costa again.
Speaker 1: She would have learned how to shoot, she would have
Speaker 1: learned hand to hand combat. She would have gone through
Speaker 1: various obstacle courses. You learn about dead drops. Some people
Speaker 1: in paramilitary operations special operations learn how to set up
Speaker 1: pickup zones for aircraft or drop zones for night parachute operations.
Speaker 1: So all of those combinations of skills gave Virginia Hall
Speaker 1: a suite of tools that she can use. But it
Speaker 1: was all iterative. It She never was fully prepared to
Speaker 1: execute all the possible tasks that she could get to
Speaker 1: survive on the battlefield. So that's where she relied on
Speaker 1: her senses and her instincts and just her acumen. Uh,
Speaker 1: you wanted to see me. You're shipping out, Custbert. We've
Speaker 1: got a fly by in a month. But seeing as
Speaker 1: how that leg of yours would kill you in a jump,
Speaker 1: we're not parachuting you in. By the grace of God,
Speaker 1: you were born an American, so you'll enter the country
Speaker 1: legally and your cover will be that of an American journalist.
Speaker 1: Sound good, I can make the jump, sir, and I
Speaker 1: could make a soufle, but I wouldn't serve it to Churchill.
Speaker 1: You'll go in legally. Where in France will I be stationed,
Speaker 1: Sir Leon in the East. It's the Free Zone. It's
Speaker 1: a strategic location for us. We've begun planting the seeds
Speaker 1: of the resistance there, but it's also becoming a hotspot
Speaker 1: for German activity. You'll be very busy both aiding our
Speaker 1: men and gathering intel from the Nazis. Virginia heads into
Speaker 1: the field after the break. Virginia Hall landed in Leone,
Speaker 1: near France's eastern border, in August. Now she was on
Speaker 1: her own. Her public alias was Brigitte le Contra, a
Speaker 1: name picked out by Vera Atkins would become something of
Speaker 1: a friend and her unofficial handler and the special operations
Speaker 1: executive for the British government. Virginia's code name was to
Speaker 1: be German. Now she had to get used to responding
Speaker 1: to Brigitte, which was easier said than done. She found
Speaker 1: cheap boarding in Leone, but needed her cover. She called
Speaker 1: on an old family friend who worked at the New
Speaker 1: York Post newspaper, and pitched herself as a culture and
Speaker 1: politics reporter stationed in France. Weeks of interrogation training made
Speaker 1: the job interview fly by well, Michel. If you can
Speaker 1: do the job safely, it's yours. Virginia was employed by
Speaker 1: the New York Post, so she had her cover and
Speaker 1: was ready for action. Now she'd have to bury all
Speaker 1: her s OE training under the guise of an American
Speaker 1: leading a normal expatriate life in France, she had to
Speaker 1: blend in. It didn't take long for Virginia to hook
Speaker 1: into the resistance network and leone. The s O had
Speaker 1: given her a number of British and French contacts she
Speaker 1: could lean on in the pinch, and under the guise
Speaker 1: of a neutral American reporting lifestyle pieces, she was able
Speaker 1: to travel the region with relative ease. Her first article
Speaker 1: for the Post, dated September four, detail the reality of
Speaker 1: living under German food rations. The country's food was prioritized
Speaker 1: for the Germans, a flexive power that matched with the
Speaker 1: Statute des Wife, a law passed in v She, France
Speaker 1: the previous year in October ninety that had to aired
Speaker 1: all Jews second class citizens and strip them of their
Speaker 1: human rights. Virginia had to be careful about her writing
Speaker 1: as it pertained to choose. Even if it was published
Speaker 1: across the ocean in America, the word could get back
Speaker 1: to France and compromise her position. She was critical of
Speaker 1: the Nazi occupation, but always wrote in a way where
Speaker 1: she could maintain plausible deniability. She had a right facts
Speaker 1: not commentary. OUI. I was told to me that doctor
Speaker 1: Roussett here, have you treated the cats on the roof? Yes?
Speaker 1: But they won't take Brandy. It is wonderful to meet you, Brigitte.
Speaker 1: If we are still calling you that until I come
Speaker 1: up with something catchy. After a few weeks exploring the
Speaker 1: city of Leon, Virginia, was introduced to doctor Jean Bussey,
Speaker 1: a gynecologist and major support system for the resistance. So
Speaker 1: you are the newest addition to the resistance. I was curious,
Speaker 1: when we get a woman. That's not going to be
Speaker 1: a problem, is it not. If you can shoot straight
Speaker 1: and run a mile, just give me something to shoot
Speaker 1: and a place to go, we are going to get
Speaker 1: on just fine. Now to business. There is a pilot
Speaker 1: who's playing was shut down last week. He has been
Speaker 1: holed up in a safe house and claims to a
Speaker 1: valuable information. We need you to get him out of
Speaker 1: the country and back to London. Just like that. This
Speaker 1: job doesn't come with a lot of preamble. You're hoping
Speaker 1: to do some good, aren't you? So yes, just like that? Okay,
Speaker 1: then tell me where he is. Virginia's instructions were simple.
Speaker 1: At the edge of town, she left a letter in
Speaker 1: the mailbox of a small farmhouse and returned home to
Speaker 1: a layman's eye. The note described happy birthday wishes, but
Speaker 1: actually functioned as code. The down British pilot inside the
Speaker 1: farmhouse was to meet her in a nearby cafe the
Speaker 1: next evening. There the two would discuss his escape road.
Speaker 1: The pilot was a nervous wreck. He detailed his harrowing
Speaker 1: mission to Virginia anxiously forgetting they were in public. A
Speaker 1: week earlier, during an aerial dog fight somewhere in the
Speaker 1: skies above southern France, a barrage of Nazi gunfire blew
Speaker 1: through his left wing, and he had bailed later than
Speaker 1: he would have liked. The first thing to realize is
Speaker 1: that this is World War two. Nobody can eject that's
Speaker 1: a modern concept that requires an adjective seat, a rocket
Speaker 1: powered seat that shoots out of the plane. They don't
Speaker 1: have those in World War Two aircraft. That's Andrew or
Speaker 1: the professor of military history from Kansas State University. You've
Speaker 1: heard him in earlier episodes. If your plane is damaged,
Speaker 1: there are two ways to escape. One is to crash,
Speaker 1: land the plane right, to find an open place and
Speaker 1: land the land your damage plane. The other option is
Speaker 1: to bail out. You have to hold the plane steady,
Speaker 1: open a door if it's a big plane, or open
Speaker 1: the canopy and manually if it's a small plane, and
Speaker 1: climb out of the airplane at speed. It's a heroine
Speaker 1: and very dangerous experience. As the pilot floated to Earth,
Speaker 1: he assumed the enemy plane would fire through his parachute.
Speaker 1: It was only by the grace of God, he said
Speaker 1: that the German didn't come back and finish the job.
Speaker 1: But landing safely wasn't the end of his problems. When
Speaker 1: you hit the ground, you're in a lot of trouble
Speaker 1: because the enemy knows about your aircraft. They know it
Speaker 1: got shot down because they did the shooting. They've already
Speaker 1: alerted local security forces. Eventually, you're gonna need food, you're
Speaker 1: gonna need help. You usually end up knocking on a
Speaker 1: door or approaching somebody when they're by themselves, and it
Speaker 1: has to be by themselves because the more people who
Speaker 1: see you, the more likely one of them is loyal
Speaker 1: to v she and will turn you in. So you're
Speaker 1: basically playing Russian roulette. You're gambling that the person you
Speaker 1: find will be sympathetic and hook you up with the Resistance,
Speaker 1: or at least feed you and not rack you out
Speaker 1: to the Germans. Dog fights above Leone have become commonplace
Speaker 1: since the Nazis realized the British will dropping valuable weapons, food,
Speaker 1: and medicine to specific drop zones in the countryside. It
Speaker 1: was a fast and easy way for the s o
Speaker 1: E to supply the resistance. Fighter planes dog fight to
Speaker 1: try and stop German aircraft from attacking the larger, slower
Speaker 1: bulk transports. So German fighters didn't want to dog fight
Speaker 1: British or later American fighter planes. They wanted to get
Speaker 1: at the transport planes, which were easy killed full of agents,
Speaker 1: knock them down and win or described with These dog
Speaker 1: fights looked like and a World War two. Fighter planes
Speaker 1: could only shoot an enemy in front of them, so
Speaker 1: getting behind or to the side of an enemy, but
Speaker 1: with your plane facing your enemy was how you won
Speaker 1: and also how you survived, because most of the time,
Speaker 1: if a pilot could see and shoot at his end,
Speaker 1: to me, that enemy couldn't shoot at him because of
Speaker 1: the way physics worked. And so you had these fairly
Speaker 1: compact battles, those which really almost looked like a ball
Speaker 1: of string, with multiple aircraft turning and turning repeatedly trying
Speaker 1: to get an enemy to lose its line of fire
Speaker 1: on them while they bring another enemy into their own
Speaker 1: line of fire. Unique the pilot's tale rattled Virginia. He
Speaker 1: quickly realized this wasn't training anymore. This was a man
Speaker 1: would come shockingly close to death in the most dramatic way,
Speaker 1: and he couldn't help it, wear it on his face.
Speaker 1: Virginia got the impression that if he was this shaken,
Speaker 1: he would attract attention, and she urged him to settle
Speaker 1: down and accompany her out of the cafe. But the
Speaker 1: pilot was adamant on remaining in public. For all he
Speaker 1: knew Virginia could be a double agent and going somewhere
Speaker 1: alone with her could be dangerous. Virginia tried to make
Speaker 1: sense of this. Why meet with her at all? If
Speaker 1: there was a possibility. She wasn't who she said she was.
Speaker 1: She chalked it up to paranoia, and paranoia made sense.
Speaker 1: Virginia was so lost in thought she almost didn't notice
Speaker 1: a waiter approached their table. Bonjou, What would you like?
Speaker 1: Just the water would be fine. I'd like a beer. Ok,
Speaker 1: we don't sell beer water. He's just come from America.
Speaker 1: It's his first time back in a while. Just t waters,
Speaker 1: I will be back. The pilot had made a bad mistake.
Speaker 1: Beer was no longer served in the occupied country, and
Speaker 1: this would be something anyone who had been a citizen
Speaker 1: of France for the past two years would know. The
Speaker 1: entire restaurant was staring at them, but if they left,
Speaker 1: it would be obvious they were hiding something. This was
Speaker 1: the kind of thing that had tripped up Virginia in
Speaker 1: her training. Now she was responsible for another agent's mistake.
Speaker 1: That's when Virginia noticed them, two men dressed almost entirely
Speaker 1: in black, getting up from their table and walking towards them.
Speaker 1: They smirked with cold, dead eyes. There was no mistaking them. Gestapo,
Speaker 1: good evening, Hello, gentlemen, I enjoy beer as fed. May
Speaker 1: we see your papers? And that's a good place to
Speaker 1: take a quick break stay with us. Virginia was sweating.
Speaker 1: The Gestapo officer's hand was outstretched to her, beckoning for
Speaker 1: their identification. She knew that hers would pass a smell test,
Speaker 1: but she worried about the pilots. It was likely that
Speaker 1: his was a rushed job, as the Brits needed men
Speaker 1: in planes, and they didn't give much thought to the
Speaker 1: likelihood of their survival if they were shot down. Their
Speaker 1: thought process was understandable. Why make fake I das for
Speaker 1: dead men? Uh, surely here you are m hmm, grigit
Speaker 1: leucum American Huh on his he left them at home?
Speaker 1: At home. Virginia had to think fast. Her lie was
Speaker 1: the same one that everybody used, and it was clear
Speaker 1: it wasn't playing with the Nazis. Uh. He's been forgetful
Speaker 1: ever since he got back. He suffered an injury in
Speaker 1: the States, and he hasn't been old there since. His
Speaker 1: family is taking him to the doctor next week. An injury.
Speaker 1: They couldn't take care of him overseas. It's not like
Speaker 1: American doctors are busy. Then the answer came to Virginia.
Speaker 1: She was sharp and quick, and these talents would prove
Speaker 1: valuable in her career as a spy. That's exactly what
Speaker 1: I am interviewing him about. Interviewing him you can see
Speaker 1: in my paper some a reporter for the New York Post.
Speaker 1: It's an American paper. I'm interviewing him to understand why
Speaker 1: he would come back to France Fouquier instead of staying
Speaker 1: over there. So tell me, I don't cost the Americans.
Speaker 1: You don't trust them. The smartest things they've done in
Speaker 1: Ages is stay out of this war. Let's the Germans
Speaker 1: get a job done, get Europe back in shape. The
Speaker 1: pilot's acting was good, but Virginia couldn't help but WinCE
Speaker 1: at any ground given to the Nazis, even if it
Speaker 1: was going to save their lives. Virginia was watching the
Speaker 1: Germans closely. Their faces had relaxed. These were men of ego,
Speaker 1: and seeing there as appropriately stroked meant they could drop
Speaker 1: their guard I hope to read this interview soon. Hopefully
Speaker 1: it will make its surrounds here. If it is apploading
Speaker 1: our efforts here in Europe, I'll see that it does
Speaker 1: hail Hitler. Before leaving, the Germans made a quick note
Speaker 1: of their encounter. Brigitte Le contres. French was excellent, but
Speaker 1: her accent was difficult to place. It seemed more Canadian
Speaker 1: than American. They couldn't quite shake the idea that the
Speaker 1: woman didn't totally fit the picture before them, but for
Speaker 1: reasons we don't know, they decided not to interrogate her further.
Speaker 1: The pilot must have sensed this hesitation as he asked
Speaker 1: Virginia permission to leave the cafe, but she thought it
Speaker 1: would signal they had something to hide, so they waited
Speaker 1: another hour, eating bread and drinking water before heading out.
Speaker 1: The next evening, Virginia forged travel papers for the pilot
Speaker 1: and got him on a train out of France. She
Speaker 1: had been given the necessary tools by Dr. Rous Say,
Speaker 1: and as long as the pilot didn't draw any suspicion,
Speaker 1: there was no real reason my border agents would look
Speaker 1: too hard at his paperwork. As he set off, Virginia relaxed.
Speaker 1: She successfully saved her first operative, and it was the
Speaker 1: first of many. As the months rolled on to the
Speaker 1: fall of Virginia, Spear headed numerous campaigns. His sabotaged Nazi machinery,
Speaker 1: as well as giving fugitives and Allied spies scape routes
Speaker 1: to Spain in Britain, including an infamous prison break at Mozac.
Speaker 1: She deciphered and transmitted code via radio that helped the
Speaker 1: resistance circumvent Nazi plots, and slowly she began making a
Speaker 1: name for herself. It was a name bored on at
Speaker 1: the fact that on that first night at the cafe
Speaker 1: with the pilot, the Gestapo officers noticed something. As Virginia
Speaker 1: and the pilot finally left the cafe, a small hobble
Speaker 1: in her left leg gave them pause. She has a lymph. Yeah,
Speaker 1: interesting indeed, and limp And so the legend of the
Speaker 1: Limping Lady was born, and Virginia quickly disregarded her alias
Speaker 1: as Brigitte le Contra. The Nazis had put that name
Speaker 1: to her face and she couldn't do her job. She
Speaker 1: was noticed in any way. After years of rejection, she
Speaker 1: must have felt a sense of pride. She had been
Speaker 1: hired as a spy and saved a man's life, and
Speaker 1: she was good at it. But the waltz around her
Speaker 1: were beginning to push in. The US, which had remained
Speaker 1: neutral in the war up to this point, was making
Speaker 1: broader shows of support for the Allies, and while that
Speaker 1: may have been good for the war effort, it meant
Speaker 1: that Virginia Hall would soon lose her open status as
Speaker 1: an American working in France. After that first close encounter
Speaker 1: with the Nazis, Virginia moved out of her first home
Speaker 1: and into another and continued her undercover work for the
Speaker 1: s Oe and Leone, not yet realizing the priest Robert
Speaker 1: Alesh was on her trail coming up on the next
Speaker 1: episode of Good Assassins. The people of Europe who are
Speaker 1: defending themselves do not ask us. They don't laugh fighting
Speaker 1: A message for Captain Bobby and I believe I have
Speaker 1: found the nest of the limping Lady. Confirm her location,
Speaker 1: and then return to us. I've seen many terrible sites
Speaker 1: in the last five years, but nothing, nothing approaching the
Speaker 1: dreadful interior of this hot at Belson. The dead and
Speaker 1: the dye lay close together. If you have any questions
Speaker 1: for us about Good Assassins, if you're curious about some
Speaker 1: aspect of Virginia hall story, or have any comments on
Speaker 1: the podcast, we'd love to hear from you. Please email
Speaker 1: us at Good Assassins at Diversion audio dot com. Make
Speaker 1: sure you spell assassins correctly again. That's good Assassins At
Speaker 1: diversion Audio dot com. We'll try to answer your questions
Speaker 1: on a future episode. Find us on Twitter, Facebook and
Speaker 1: Instagram at Diversion Pots. Good Assassins is a production of
Speaker 1: Diversion Audio in a social creation with iHeart Podcasts. This
Speaker 1: season is hosted by Steven Talti and written by C. D. Carpenter,
Speaker 1: Produced and directed by Kevin Thompson for Real Jet Packs Productions.
Speaker 1: Story editing by Jacob Bronstein, with editorial direction from Scott Waxman.
Speaker 1: Additional research and reporting by Sophie McNulty. Theme music by
Speaker 1: Tyler Cash featuring the voices of mikayla Is Caerdo, Raphael
Speaker 1: cork Kill, Lenna Klingerman, John pier Case, Andrew polk or Lock,
Speaker 1: Cassidy Manoel Falciano, Sean Gormley, Matthew Amant and Steve Raupman.
Speaker 1: Sound design, mixing and mastering by Paul Goodrich. Sound editing
Speaker 1: by Justin Kilpatrick. Executive producers Jacob Bronstein, Mark Francis and
Speaker 1: Scott Waxman. For Diversion Audio see Secord Diversion Audio