No Bugles for Spies by Lt.-Col. Robert Hayden Alcorn

Author:Lt.-Col. Robert Hayden Alcorn [Alcorn, Lt.-Col. Robert Hayden]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, United States, Europe, General, Germany, Special Forces
ISBN: 9781787207103
Google: L_kwDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Published: 2017-07-19T15:56:58+00:00

All of the bravery was not confined to men within the OSS. Many young women operated for us in assignments of tremendous importance and great danger. In every instance they showed steel-nerved calm, resourcefulness and cunning, whether they were involved in straight espionage, as were most, or in the more rigorous program of organizing resistance and directing sabotage.

A young Italian girl performed exceptional feats in the organization and sustenance of the partisan groups in northern Italy. And she was not alone. There were countless others throughout the length of Italy who fought silently and tirelessly to aid the Allied cause. In France the same pattern was repeated from the example of the young French girl who calmly stood at a crossroads and misdirected a retreating German Army into an Allied trap, to the young American woman who smuggled sabotage equipment to resistance groups.

One of our best female operatives was a young American woman of strapping physique. She was strong, husky and athletic beyond the average; she knew the continent well and was fluent in both French and German. She dropped into France on two different occasions for us and performed effectively and with distinction. She made only one concession to the whole operation. Just before parachuting into enemy territory she insisted on a man-sized slug of brandy. She had it so well-organized she knew just how much to take to give her the added courage to go in without going over the edge and dulling her perception to the danger point. It was all very simple, no brandy, no drop.

It is remarkable that the women were not limited to the espionage type of operation but proved equally effective in the tougher, rougher sabotage and guerrilla assignments. Perhaps our outstanding woman operative, certainly our most daring, chose to function in this field. Slight of figure, wiry, taller than average, soft-spoken, quiet and unassuming, she would be the last person one would believe to be suitable agent material. She was, in fact, superb.

She had been dropped into occupied France once for a specific assignment, completed her mission and been brought back out for rest and retraining. Then, in March, 1944, she was parachuted again into occupied France for work with the French underground and resistance groups. Although in her earlier mission she had had a brush with the Gestapo and was known as an OSS agent she immediately established radio contact with London headquarters and again began supplying a steady stream of intelligence and operational information. Then, in co-operation with a Jedburgh team of American and British organizers and saboteurs, she began to organize, train and equip resistance groups. Throughout her mission she was hunted by the Gestapo and, even though she was operating in an area of intensive German military activity, she maintained a cool, calm determination to succeed.

That she did. For through the efforts of this girl three full battalions of French resistance forces were put into the field for the harassment of enemy troops and installations. They cut communications, destroyed supplies and matériel, and demoralized troops.

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