007 with a Difference

The world has witnessed two world wars and remembers the war heroes. What they forget are the war heroines who played a similarly important role. They were unthinkably brave and have done things which most of us would not even dare to think of.  These women have served their allegiances with as much efficacy as their male counterparts in espionage. Their line of attack ranges from slaying and sabotage all the way up to seduction and stripping. Here is a look at the top quality women spies during the battles.

Mata Hari

She has been cited as the top female spy; Born into a wealthy Dutch family, Margaretha Geertruida Zelle arrived in Paris as a recent divorcee and soon became the most popular exotic dancer of the city. Her popular act toured other European cities, where she became the courtesan of powerful men in government and the military. When World War I broke out, the French suspected her of spying for the Germans, even though she was also likely doing so for the French.

Despite her defense that she was a double agent and loyal to the French, they arrested her in 1917 and executed her.
 

Elizabeth Bentley

Bentley began her career in espionage thinking she was spying for the Communist Party of the US, when in reality she was working for the Soviet secret police.

During World War II, she flourished as a Soviet spy in the US, passing her Soviet handlers secret military information about the Nazis. Following the death of her lover, she inherited a vastly bigger network but was unable to cope with the loss. This led to conflicts with the Soviet. In 1945, she defected, giving the FBI the names of around 150 Soviet spies, including dozens of US government employees.
 

Noor Inayat Khan

Noor was the enemy of the Reich. An Allied SOE Agent during the Second World War, she was posthumously awarded the George Cross, the highest civilian decoration in the UK and other Commonwealth nations. Also known as “Nora Baker”, “Madeleine”, and “Jeanne-Marie Rennier,” she was of Indian origin.

She became the first female radio operator to be sent from Britain into occupied France to aid the French Resistance. She was sent to Pforzheim prison in Germany where she was kept in chains and in solitary confinement. Despite repeated torture, she refused to reveal any information.
 

Virginia Hall

Virginia Hall was an American spy with the British Special Operations Executive during WWII and later with the American Office of Strategic Services and the Special Activities Division of the Central Intelligence Agency. She was known by many aliases, including “Marie Monin”, “Germaine”, “Diane”, “Marie of Lyon”, “Camille”, and “Nicolas”. The Germans gave her the nickname Artemis. She was considered to be “the most dangerous of all Allied spies”.

As an agent of Britain’s Special Operations Executive, Virginia Hall executed countless missions in support of the French Resistance, earning a reputation for being able to elude even the tightest Nazi dragnets.

Hall’s incredible heroics as a spy are made even more impressive by the fact that she’d lost part of her leg in the 1930s, and walked on a wooden prosthesis.
 

Nancy Wake

Nancy Wake was a journalist in France when WWII broke out. She quickly volunteered to be a courier for the French Resistance and before long had established a spy network so extensive and effective that By 1943, Wake was the Gestapo’s most wanted person. 

She saved over two hundred downed Allied pilots from falling into the clutches of the Nazi penal system, blew up a couple German supply depots.

Her skills in espionage were matched only by her physical dexterity; she is alleged to have killed a German soldier with her bare hands. After the war, no fewer than five countries honored her with their highest civilian awards, making her among the most decorated female spies of World War I.
 

Krystyna Skarbek

Krystyna was a Polish agent of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the Second World War. She became celebrated especially for her daring exploits in intelligence and irregular-warfare missions in Nazi-occupied Poland and France.

She was one of the longest-serving of all Britain’s wartime women agents. Her resourcefulness and success have been credited with influencing the organization’s policy of recruiting increasing numbers of women.  

She earned her last glory when she saved the lives of two SOE agents about to be executed by the Gestapo by passing herself off as the well-connected niece of a member of the British High Command.

 

Elizabeth Van Lew

Elizabeth Van Lew aka Crazy Bet was a prominent Union spy during the American Civil War.

While working undercover she gave the impression that she was mentally ill, which earned her the tag of Crazy Bet. When the Libby prison was opened up in Richmond, Virginia, she was permitted to bring food and clothing to the soldiers who were imprisoned there.

She not only helped them escape but also carried crucial information on the troop movements which she later passed on to the Union’s commanders.