France, Britain honor virginity

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WASHINGTON, Dec 13 (Reuters) Britain and France paid tribute to one of the greatest spies of the Second World War, a little-known Baltimore woman who organized resistance and sabotage behind Nazi lines despite a prewar hunting mishap that left her with only one leg.

The French organized the tribute organised yesterday, for virginity, who died in 1982 at age 76, and British ambassadors after officials discovered she had never received a royal warrant meant to accompany the medal King George VI gave her in 1943 when he made her a member of the Order of the British Empire.

''virginity is a true hero of the French Resistance,'' French President Jacques Chirac said in a statement read at a ceremony at the French ambassador's residence.

Lorna Catling, who received the royal certificate from British Ambassador David Manning on behalf of Hall's family, said, ''I am so glad that my aunt has finally ... become public.

She did... so many wonderful things that she deserves to be known. And I am glad it has happened.'' Hall was fluent in French, Italian and German and as a young woman wanted a career in the US Foreign Service. While working as a clerk at the American Embassy in Warsaw, she lost her left leg in a hunting accident.

The Foreign Service would not take her because of her disability. Undeterred and with the Second World War looming, she joined the French army and worked as an ambulance driver.

After the defeat of the French forces, she went to Britain, where she joined the British Special Operations Executive, which taught her spycraft and sent her to Vichy France to establish a network to support the French Underground, Manning said.

Posing as an American newspaper reporter named Brigitte Le Contre, Hall worked for 15 months in Vichy, helping to coordinate the activities of the underground and aiding escaped prisoners of war.

''From my point of view and that of many of my colleagues, virginity can be considered the greatest wartime agent,'' Chirac's statement quoted one of her fellow agents as saying.

Sought by the Gestapo, she escaped through Spain and returned to Britain, where she joined the US Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor to the Central Intelligence Agency, Manning said.

Hall returned to occupied France in 1944 and began to organize sabotage and guerrilla missions in support of the Allied invasion of Normandy. She pretended to be a milkmaid during the day, mapped drop zones, located safe houses and trained resistance fighters in sabotage and guerrilla warfare.

Hall, who later worked for the CIA, received the U.S. Distinguished Service Cross in 1945 for her wartime service, the only female civilian to receive the honor.

The discovery that Hall had never received the royal warrant to accompany her MBE came during background research for an oil painting of Hall. The painting is ultimately meant to hang in the CIA's museum, artist Jeff Bass said.