03047cam a2200421 i 4500 1232329991 TxAuBib 20240413120000.0 190531s2019||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 2019022676 9781432869991 large print 143286999X large print (OCoLC)1104909629 TxAuBib rda Purnell, Sonia, author. A woman of no importance : the untold story of the American spy who helped win World War II / Sonia Purnell. Large print edition. Waterville, Maine : Thorndike Press, a part of Gale, a Cengage Company, 2019. 625 pages (large print) ; 23 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier Thorndike Press large print nonfiction Thorndike Press large print nonfiction series Includes bibliographical references. "In 1942, the Gestapo sent out an urgent transmission: "She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. We must find and destroy her." The target in their sights was Virginia Hall, a Baltimore socialite who talked her way into Special Operations Executive, the spy organization dubbed Winston Churchill's "Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare." She became the first Allied woman deployed behind enemy lines and--despite her prosthetic leg--helped to light the flame of the French Resistance, revolutionizing secret warfare as we know it. Virginia established vast spy networks throughout France, called weapons and explosives down from the skies, and became a linchpin for the Resistance. Even as her face covered wanted posters and a bounty was placed on her head, Virginia refused order after order to evacuate. She finally escaped through a death-defying hike over the Pyrenees into Spain, her cover blown. But she plunged back in, adamant that she had more lives to save, and led a victorious guerilla campaign, liberating swathes of France from the Nazis after D-Day. Based on new and extensive research, Sonia Purnell has for the first time uncovered the full secret life of Virginia Hall--an astounding and inspiring story of heroism, spycraft, resistance, and personal triumph over shocking adversity. A Woman of No Importance is the breathtaking story of how one woman's fierce persistence helped win the war"-- Provided by publisher. 20240413. Goillot, Virginia, 1906-1982. Women spies United States Biography. Spies United States Biography. Intelligence officers United States Biography. World War, 1939-1945 Secret service United States. World War, 1939-1945 Underground movements France. Nonfiction. Large print books. lcgft Thorndike Press large print nonfiction. Thorndike Press large print nonfiction series.