Madame Fourcade's secret war : the daring young woman who led France's largest spy network against Hitler / Lynne Olson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Olson, Lynne, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

World War, 1939-1945--Secret service--France--Biography.

World War, 1939-1945.

Spies--France--Biography.

Spies.

Espionage, British.

History.

Women spies.

France.

Great Britain.

Women spies--France--Biography.

Spies--Great Britain--Biography.

Women spies--Great Britain--Biography.

Espionage, British--France--History--20th century.

World War, 1939-1945--Secret service--Great Britain--Biography.

World War, 1939-1945--Underground movements--France.

World War, 1939-1945--Women--France.

Secret service.

War--Underground movements.

Women.

Fourcade, Marie-Madeleine, 1909-1989.

Fourcade, Marie-Madeleine.

Local Subjects:

France.

Great Britain.

Genre:

Biographies.

Nonfiction.

History.

Physical Description:

xxiv, 428 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Other Title:

Daring young woman who led France's largest spy network against Hitler

Place of Publication:

New York : Random House, [2019]

Language Note:

Text in English.

Summary:

"The little-known story of Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, the woman who headed the largest spy network in occupied France during World War II ... In 1941 a thirty-one-year-old Frenchwoman, a young mother born to privilege and known for her beauty and glamour, became the leader of a vast intelligence organization--the only woman to serve as a chef de résistance during the war. Strong-willed, independent, and a lifelong rebel against her country's conservative, patriarchal society, Marie-Madeleine Fourcade was temperamentally made for the job. Her group's name was Alliance, but the Gestapo dubbed it Noah's Ark because its agents used the names of animals as their aliases. The name Marie-Madeleine chose for herself was Hedgehog: a tough little animal, unthreatening in appearance, that, as a colleague of hers put it, 'even a lion would hesitate to bite.' No other French spy network lasted as long or supplied as much crucial intelligence--including providing American and British military commanders with a 55-foot-long map of the beaches and roads on which the Allies would land on D-Day--as Alliance. The Gestapo pursued them relentlessly, capturing, torturing, and executing hundreds of its three thousand agents, including Fourcade's own lover and many of her key spies. Although Fourcade, the mother of two young children, moved her headquarters every few weeks, constantly changing her hair color, clothing, and identity, she was captured twice by the Nazis. Both times she managed to escape--once by slipping naked through the bars of her jail cell--and continued to hold her network together even as it repeatedly threatened to crumble around her. Now, in this dramatic account of the war that split France in two and forced its people to live side by side with their hated German occupiers, Lynne Olson tells the fascinating story of a woman who stood up for her nation, her fellow citizens, and herself."--Dust jacket.

In 1941 Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, lifelong rebel against her country's conservative, patriarchal society, became the leader of a vast intelligence organization. Her group's name was Alliance, and used the names of animals as their aliases. Fourcade was Hedgehog: a tough little animal, unthreatening in appearance. The Gestapo pursued them relentlessly, capturing, torturing, and executing hundreds of its three thousand agents. Captured twice by the Nazis, she escaped and continued to hold her network together. Olson tells the fascinating story of a woman who stood up for her nation, her fellow citizens, and herself. -- adapted from jacket

Contents:

Prologue, 1936-1942

Leaping into the unknown

The chaos of defeat

Fighting back

Spying in Marseille

The birth of alliance

Danger in Paris

Taking command

A network in peril

The mailbag

The return of Leon Faye

A game of wits

"An undisputed leader"

"Sitting on a barrel of gunpowder"

The traitor

A general escapes

Captured

Operation Attila

"Down go the U-boats"

1943-1944

On the run

The tinderbox of Lyon

High anxiety

"Here you are at last!"

"The most remarkable girl of her generation"

Pink heather

Calamity

Captives

The map

Going home

1944-1945

Caught in the net

Liberation and beyond

"Hail Mary, full of grace"

The road to Gethsemane

Epilogue.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 387-405) and index.

ISBN:

9780812994766

0812994760

OCLC:

1060184003