Finished reading
A woman of No Importance
This video gives a quick overview of the woman covered in the book.
A bit more on Hall:
-She quit working at US Embassy Office in Venice to drive ambulances in France when the Nazis invaded.
-She fled to Spain when the Germans took over Northern France. A British intel officer met her and was so astonished by her "desire to return and fight Nazis" that he gave her the number for SOE.
-Her SOE network is one of the main reasons Klaus Barbie set up shop in Lyon.
-They mentioned in the video the old lady disguise; that included filing down her teeth so she better resembled a peasant woman.
-In addition to a DSC, she received a MBE and a Croix de Gaurre. One of the resistance leaders under her during her OSS resented the "bossy woman", but had a change of heart after the war and worked to get her a Légion d'Honneur; unfortunately, she had passed away by the time he collected enough information (and her real name) to support the nomination.
If you like WW2 history, spycraft, or just biographies of interesting people who may have been overlooked in their time, I highly reccomend this book.