Tales of espionage, bravery and treachery abound in the dark corners of WWII. This week we pay tribute to heroines Virginia Hall and Noor Inayat Khan who risked their lives behind enemy lines, and we celebrate the tools of the trade from suitcase radios to the Mosquito fighters that helped topple the Nazis. Here’s looking at you, kid.
The inside story
American spymaster 'Wild Bill' Donovan set up the Office of Strategic Services in WWII but he needed a scientist to head up his Dirty Tricks Department, someone who could dream up umbrella guns, beano bombs, and exploding flour. Enter Stanley Lovell, a chemist with a diabolical streak that would rival Sherlock Holmes’ nemesis Moriarty. It was a match made in intelligence heaven.
Bombs and guns get the job done but behind enemy lines there are two vital tools that keep spies alive and operational. Former CIA officer John R. Seeger, an ex-paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne, explores two relatively mundane but absolutely essential pieces of kit for WWII spies: the suitcase radio and a solid timepiece.
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St. Ermin's Hotel in London was the lair of British and Russian spies in the ‘40s. Section D - the demolition experts - lived on the top floor where they stashed explosives. 007 author Ian Fleming occupied his regular seat in the Caxton Bar and Cambridge Five spy Kim Philby met his MI6 recruiter nearby. Traitor Guy Burgess even handed over intel to his KGB handlers in plain sight at the hotel, plotting against Britain and America as his colleagues sauntered past.
Our True Spies podcast goes behind enemy lines with America’s Virginia Hall, one of the bravest Allied heroines of WWII. As part of Churchill's Secret Army, Virginia - who lost her leg in a hunting accident - was sent into occupied France to organize resistance efforts and disrupt Nazi plans ‘by any means necessary’. As the Germans closed in, betrayal was a constant threat.
The Mosquito was a rebel, a rule-breaker, and a game-changer that helped defeat Nazi Germany - one of the most celebrated planes in history along with the Spitfire and P-51 Mustang. It was impossibly sleek, blindingly fast, and equipped with a formidable arsenal of weaponry. So when Churchill's SOE set out to destroy the Gestapo HQ in Copenhagen, there was only one machine for the op - the Mossie.
If you were to wander around Bloomsbury, London, you would find a blue circular plaque at 4 Taviton Street, the former home of British spy Noor Inayat Khan played by actress Radhika Apte in A Call to Spy. The plaque honors Noor, code name Madeleine, Britain’s first female wireless operator sent to occupied France to aid the Resistance. Her extraordinary tale encapsulates sacrifice and the triumph of the human spirit.
