Do Go On - 126 - Virginia Hall: The Limping Lady

Episode Date: March 21, 2018

Oooo! Looks like we have another WW2 badass on our hands! This is the story of WW2 spy, Virginia Hall. She was on the Gestapos hit list, and her story is a very interesting and exciting one!  Support the show and get rewards like bonus episodes:www.patreon.com/DoGoOnPod- Submit a topic idea directly to the hat: http://bit.ly/DoGoOnHat Twitter: @DoGoOnPodInstagram: @DoGoOnPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/Email us: [e-mail]  REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzBIWSh-1_Ahttps://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/virginia-hall-6944.phphttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Hallhttps://photos.state.gov/libraries/estonia/99874/History%20stories/Not-Bad-for-a-Girl-from-Baltimore.pdfhttps://www.c-span.org/video/?190549-1/the-wolves-door-true-story-americas-greatest-female-spy   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Melbourne and Canada, we got exciting news for you. And we should also say this is 2026. Jess, what year is it? 2026. Thank God you're here. Right now, I'm in Melbourne doing my show with Serenji Amarna, 630 each night at the Cooper's Inn Hotel, having so much fun. We'd love to see you there.

Canada, we are visiting you in September this year. If you've somehow missed the news, we are heading up Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, and Toronto for shows. That's going to be so much fun. Tickets for all this stuff, I believe, are online. And I'm here too. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit planetbroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates.

Hello and welcome to another episode of Do Go On. My name is Dave Warnocky and I'm sitting here with Mr Matt Stewart and Miss Jess Perkins. Hi Dave, Dave. Hello, Matt, I'm good, thanks, Matt. How are you? I'm really good, thanks. Just flew in from Brisbane this morn. Smorn. And how tired are your arms? Oh, they're bloody, yeah, they're real tired.

Yeah, there's some reason you just put them above your head for the two hours. Yeah, it's weird. It's a weird thing I do. They're like, sir, please put your arms down. I won't. Trying to get the pilot's attention. He's not looking at me. I have a question.

I'm trying to take over this plane. My question is, can I take over this plane? I'm going to need a million dollars and some cool shades. Okay. All right. I met so many cool listeners again. There was a whole bunch. I reckon about a good quarter of the crowd last night.

were do-go-on listeners, or at least do-go-on-listener-related. Do you think that they were one big group or they were just having to... Yeah, they were one big group. That was about, I think there were a group of about eight or ten or twelve. Twenty? Fifty? Three hundred. One quarter of your twelve hundred.

Three hundred. Yeah. There were a few different groups, but one main group and we chatted to them after. We being me and them. They talked amongst themselves. I'm so, my arms and the rest of me is very. Very tired. Brains tired.

So we normally start off the show, Dave and Jess, with a question to get us on topic. One of us does a report about a different topic every week. This week, it's Jess's turn. Dave and I don't know what the topic is. Very excited to find out. Jess is going to ask us a question. That's going to get us on the topic. That's exactly it.

My goodness. Let me stop you there and just say that you said what I couldn't say so succinctly that. Maybe that will be your new job, Matt, to explain what this shit is. And may I just make one minor adjustment to it? You say, you know, we take turns during the reports. Two of us write questions. One of us always forgets. And this week is no exception.

So I will ask you, gentlemen, who is the limping lady? Oh. Sadie, the limping lady. Oh, it's early for a sing-along, but I like it. Limping. That was John Fynum's first ever number one. hit single. Sadie.

I learned that like two days ago. The claiming lady. How apt? What about, apps not right, is it? Yeah. Okay. Was it the woman that Tanya Harding

bashed with a leg, with a steel pipe? No. She would have limped? The leaning lady. It's a, it's a nickname, obviously. A leaning lady.

Isn't it a leaning tar of pizza? Oh, wait. What was it? Limping. Oh, limping. Yeah, that's why that one would limped. She got bashed in the leg. That's not who I'm talking about.

It's going to be like something weird, like the Statue of Liberty or something like Is it the Statue of Liberty? No. Because if it is, that's my answer. It's not. I'm guessing it was not answer. Any further clues?

Are we likely to get this, or should we just wrap it up? Probably. Probably not. It does kind of link back to a former episode that we've done. Oh, the linking lady. But it might not be a name that rings a bell to you. Oh, the limping man. Big foot.

Big foot. One foot was big, the other was regular size. Very difficult to walk. Really tricky for balance. but he gave it a red-hot go. Just like the go on the Simpsons episode and the Australian one where he gave him a little boot up the bum. And he's growing the giant boots.

Such fun, huh? No. Get the Simpsons reference out earlier. Yeah, good. Who are we talking about, Jess? We're talking about Virginia Hall. Nah, never would have got that. The limping Virginia Hall.

No. Did not know. Virginia, the original state. Which isn't true, I don't think. Someone told me later. So this report is about a fun community hall. Virginia and I'll tell you about the

rental cost I imagine it's quite hard high wonder what the rental yield would be if you bought a building like that what's interesting about this lady apart from obviously her walking troubles

well how about I bloody tell you oh that's a great idea this was suggested by Rowan Clayton and Kevin Packrad Wow Packard

so thank you very much for your suggestion Do they suggest it separately or is they like a they came in together? I'm pretty sure separately, but maybe they conferred before emailing or filling out the form. I put this because obviously the Patreon listeners vote on my topics at the moment and I put this one out a couple of weeks ago when International Women's Day was happening. So I put out four options of Limping women. Different badass women.

And the people voted for Virginia. So I'll tell you a little bit about her. Cool. She was born in Baltimore on the 6th of April in 1906, and her parents were Barbara Virginia Hamill and Edwin Lee Hall. There isn't a lot of information about her early life. She was quite an adventurous child. She enjoyed being outdoors, hiking, hunting, horse riding.

Her family were pretty well off. They were very comfortable. And her father owned a cinema in Baltimore. Wow. That's a laugh. Isn't that not like everyone's dream? To have a dad that owns a cinema. To have a dad.

Yes. To have a dad. Full stop. Stop right there. That's my dream. I'm not dad. And I'm living it. Living it every day.

And I want him to own a cinema. But I mostly want it so that I get popcorn. So what you do? I mean, you could just make that simple and just wish for a dad who has popcorn. My dad doesn't have popcorn. Popcorn factory. It makes sense. You go to the cinema then. I go to the cinema for popcorn.

I go to the cinema to get what my dad cannot give me, which is popcorn. And three hours of entertainment, blockbusters. Wow, you go to see some epic films. Yeah, they're long. That's too long for me. You don't have the attention span. I'm checking my time. Two hours in, I'm thinking, let's wrap this up, guys.

All right, we get it. We get it. We get it. We'll beat them all. There's a troll over there. We get it. He'll have his axe, radio. Whatever.

Gandalf, something. Yeah. And my ax. Yes, Jess. And your axe. All of it's in there. Yeah, that's right. the film goes to so long because 90 people own separate actors and talk about it.

Stop singing songs. I don't care about the goblins. Never seen a lot of the rings. I think we might have mentioned a few different ones in the trilogy and that probably broke some people's brains. Yeah, some people are very mad at you right now. So Virginia graduated high school in 1924. Oh, wow. A good year.

A good year. A lot of her classmates were looking ahead to getting married and having children. You know, it's the 20s. However, she believed that the only way for a woman to get a head was through education. Yeah, they didn't have heads back. I fucking knew it. I fucking knew it. As soon as I said it, I was like, you know, you pieces of shit.

Just give them out a little low-lying fruit there. I'll grow onto that. I'll, uh, I'll, uh, I'll, I'll, uh, I'll, I'll, fast any, any fruit. I don't care if it's underground. It's been riding on the ground for three months. I'll get it. Um, she was, her dream was to be a foreign services officer.

She wanted to be a dip, a diplomat. Oh, and if she wanted some sort of immunity, what would that sound like? I think she would have something along the lines of diplomatic immunity. Fantastic. Also haven't seen that film either, but I love it. Every time.

I can't tell why they laugh, Matt, if it was good or terrible. That was some mix of the two. You know what, I feel that's my comedy. It's a mix of good and terrible. Not great and terrible. I don't know. That'd be awful, great and terrible. Too many peaks, too many troughs.

And it was a flat line that a little bit. Good, that's good. That's me, real up and down. But not too up, but very down. Very down. She studied at the Rowland Park Country School and thereafter attended the renowned Radcliffe College, which was an all-women liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

It was the female coordinate to the all-male Harvard College. Oh. Yeah, and Radcliffe College had a really popular reputation of having a particularly intellectual, literary, and independent-minded student body. So it was a university for women, but, you know, it was probably a little bit more liberal. And then there was kind of this non-merger merger agreement with Harvard, which was signed in 1977 and the two schools were fully integrated

only in 1999, which wasn't that long ago, where, like, Harvard and Radcliffe became one. Right, what's it called now? Harvard. Right. They took the Pudson's name. Have you heard of Harvard?

El Woods goes there in Legally Blonde. You know, so who the hell is El Woods? Which I watched recently. That's fun. Fuck, it's good. And that is their biggest claim to fame. same so far. I mean,

Legally Blonde really put Harvard on the map. Oh, amazing. Before that. It was like, Hawa. Hawa? She also attended the prestigious Barnard College, which is a private women's liberal arts college in New York. Barnyard College.

Yeah. A couple of cows. She studied farms. Gardening. Her professor, old man, McDonald. With a wolf. No, she studied French, Italian and German. She had a real aptitude for languages,

and she became fluent in those. And she also understood Russian, I read as well. So she was really good with languages. She moved across Europe with the support of her parents and studied in Germany, Austria and France. So by this time it's 1926, and to allow a young woman to travel overseas unescorted, was pretty radical and unheard of.

Like her parents were kind of people like, Oh, do you do that? But they were like well-read and well-educated people and it just sort of seemed like the right thing for her to do. So off she went. So she went to Paris and from there she went to Vienna. And she graduated, armed with, she was again fluent in French and German and she earned a diploma in economics and international law.

So she's pretty smart. She then came back to the US to make her first application to the Foreign Service. her dream job. Yeah, dream job. She's come back, she's studied, she's got all the bits and bobs that they need. Right. A brain.

Yep, what are the bobs? A student body? Student body. Yeah, she pretty much put herself a whole Frankenstein set up together. Frankenstein's monster, so. University calves. Yeah, she's got it all. From the barnyard.

The calves would be from. That's good Well done That feel good But you just transform that into Imagine that Your lower legs of baby cows Isn't that good fun

That's good fun It's fun It's all a little fun When they're young But then they grow up into big cows And when people adopt animals They just don't often think that And when people

Replace their calves With calves They don't think about the big picture When suddenly you've got An 800 kilo cow on each leg It's very difficult It's hard to walk It's hard.

Near impossible. But not impossible. And that is how she got her limp. Yeah. Wouldn't you just make the cows walk for you and you'd just ride them? You'd be astride the cows. Geez, you'd really want them to go in time with each other. One goes one way.

That's why sheep are better because they always move together. That's true. You want a herding animal. Do you know what's even better an option? Legs. Okay. Okay. Like from what animal?

Humans. Just human calves. Oh, like rhinoceros' legs? No, no, oh, dear, dear, no. You boys, you're fucking morons. Great calves, though, great calves. Great calves. So, yeah, she wants to, she's applying for the foreign service,

and the exam consists of three parts. First is a written part, which tests their knowledge of world history, sociology, all things that sort of have to do with world events. Second portion tested the applicant's knowledge of a foreign language, so she decided to test in French, probably the language she felt the most comfortable with. And the third portion was far more subjective and it gave the examiner the opportunity to determine

whether this individual was going to fit into the foreign service. So it's like an interview kind of stage. Swimsuit competition. Swimsuit competition and a talent element. She played the spoons. I was wearing a swimsuit. Look, I'm afraid you're just not foreign affairs material. the washboard.

More of an knife and fork kind of group. Come back next year. So she failed the exam miserably, except for the French portion. She did well there, but she was completely undeterred, and she immediately made plans to reapply. So did she also fail the geography history part as well?

I guess so, yeah. I think so. The second time, yeah, she must have, because the second time she took the test, she passed the written portion with flying colours, and obviously the language part she did very well in again. But again, it was the third portion, the interview, in which she was failed. This was 1930.

Women had only had the vote for 10 years. There were six foreign service officers who were women at the time out of 1,500. Okay. The odds are stacked against you there, aren't they? Yeah. So there's, you know, I don't know if you can speculate that there's sexism at play, but there's definitely that idea of like, well, what are you doing? But again, she's not deterred.

she was bound and determined that this is what she was going to do. She said to a friend, if I can't get in through the front door, I'm going in through the back door. Okay. All right. Well, hey, we've all... Will there's a way. We've all tried stuff. Matt's confused.

We'll explain later. Eventually, she was able to land a job as a consular service clerk at the American embassy in Warsaw in Poland in 1931, because she sort of thought, well, I'll do some other type of job. and kind of like work my way in a sideway, you know? She's going down to the sideways. Wow, she's gone from the back door to the side door. It's the side door of the body. Um, pit.

Ah, of course. I feel like an idiot. From there, she was transferred to Turkey. And again, she was ready to take the foreign service exam. She's like, I'm going to fucking nail it this time. However, an accident that occurred in 1933 set her back from achieving her goal. Oh, dear. In December of 1933, she and some friends had gone snipe hunting.

And while she was climbing over a fence, small birds. Thank you. Matt and I were both looking at each other like, what the fuck is a snipe? They're like birds that hang out in water. Oh my goodness. Is that where the word sniper comes from? Yes.

You don't know that. Well, you can't prove. I don't know it. I'm not going to look it up. I'm just going to assume it's right. Continue. Oh, that's progress. Normally he would sit there and look it up, wouldn't he?

He would. We'd lose them for 10 to 15. 10 to 15. And then, like, irrelevantly later go, I just wanted to say, it is where Snyder comes from. Amazing. Anyway, so while she's climbing over a fence, her shotgun misfired,

and it hit her left foot and, like, tore it to pieces. It was not looking good. Her friends managed to get her to a local hospital in time to save her life, but gangrene had already set in on her foot. Already. I thought that was a slow thing. Yeah.

Like that happened on a wound. What are we talking about? Are we talking about they walked her there over like weeks and months? I don't think it took that long. But, I mean, it's probably before they could just chuck her in a car or call an ambulance. Yeah. I also don't really understand Grang green at all. Grand green.

So much so that I said it on. I don't get grand green. I don't get your grand green. I thought he said green. Green green. Green green. I've got green green, but give me the good news. When's this going to turn back in this?

I remember hearing about gang green as a kid and thinking, like, that sounds cool. Green's always been my favourite colour. And you'd be in a gang. I want to be in the green gang. No, Maddie, it's not a green gang. That sounds like cash, doesn't it? Yeah. Oh, the green gang.

They've done some white-collar crimes. So, yeah, they've got into hospital, and there was an American doctor there who, who was treating her and he was forced to amputate her left leg below the knee. It's the 30s. Medicine's fairly basic. And after her condition stabilized, she transferred to the American hospital in Istanbul in January of 1934, so a few weeks later.

By Feb, she was able to travel back to the US to continue treatment. And she went back to her hometown of Baltimore, and she was fitted with a custom prosthetic and started to learn how to walk all over again. So she's had to basically start from there. And back then the prosthetics would have been like made from, like it was like a hollow wood and I think an aluminium foot. I think I read it weighed about seven pounds.

Right. Like it's fairly heavy and bulky and they don't fit perfectly so they rub and they're not very comfortable. It's fascinating right? Because at the time that would have been cutting edge. Yeah. And they would have seen it as that way. Like, can't, can you believe this?

We're replacing your leg with a false leg, right? I think they've been around prosthetics, been around for a while, but that would have been the cutting edge, right? And we think of the stuff they do now as being amazing in prosthetics. There's a big prosthetics set up down in Ballarat near us here. I went there to film something a while ago, and it's like, fucking hell, amazing what they do. But you just can only imagine, like, in 100 years.

How amazing it will be? Is it going to be, you know, is it going to be Star Wars sort of robotic? Like, they're already going. that way. Yeah, you already can make a move, but yeah. Like almost that you can't even tell. That's probably where it's all moving. Anyway, it's just fascinating field.

Yeah, it's incredible. And I mean, you know, I don't know. I can't possibly imagine what it would be like. But you'd think back then in the 30s, having had an accident and losing half of your leg, to be able to walk again is incredible anyway. Yeah. You know, you'd be grateful even though it's not the most of your way. most comfortable, but you don't know any different.

Yeah. Oh, I really think it would so depend on your personality. Yeah. If you go, this is great. Like you go, how lucky am I to be here now where I can walk in? Or if you'd be like me and go, what the fuck did I do that for? How unlucky am I? And I think I'm so unlucky and just be a real sad sack.

That's what I'd do. Well, I know. But yeah, I love hearing stories like, what I'm assuming the Olymping Lady is she's going to go on to fucking smash it. And then I'll remember that when I have like some small... You have a cold. Yeah. Why did this happen to me? This is not on.

Where is the bloody justice in this world? Oh, the humanity. What is it the comedy festival? Don't they know I need to talk? That is annoying. I came down with something last week, which you can probably still hear a little bit in my voice, where I couldn't... Like my throat just kind of closed over.

I work in a call center. and on radio and on a podcast. I couldn't work that day. Yeah. Where's the justice? Where's the justice? The people need to hear this voice. Take my leg.

Leave me my voice. Take it. I don't need it. Is what Jess was saying. Not me. Oh God, not me. Please don't take my leg. Anyway, so she's relearned how to walk. And rather than just giving up or closing herself off, like we're saying,

she once again decided that she was going to go back to her pursuit of foreign service. And she was home for about a year while she recuperated. and, you know, got better and learnt to walk again. A letter arrived, politely asking her not to apply for the foreign service again. They simply didn't have room for an amputee. As a matter of fact, there was a bizarre rule that didn't allow amputees as foreign service officers. That is a bizarre rule. I had to be able-bodied, which is ridiculous.

That's very vague as well. Yeah. Or it's not vague, but it's sort of vague in the reverse. So what? If you do a Vincent van Gogh. and cut off your ear. Can I not work there now? You probably shouldn't if you've been to go, to be honest.

I don't know if he's up for it. Yeah. You probably need to be a bit more emotionally stable. I think so. Yeah, okay. Anyway, you get my point. You forget that he was a man. Oh, there's that.

So he probably would have been higher. There it is. There it is. Back then, there was seen to be you weren't able-bodied unless you were a man. That's right. Got to be able-bodied. Where's your penis? Fortunately, he hadn't cut that off.

Only its ears. Whenever that makes, that doesn't mean anything, does it? Cut off his dick's ears. Balls? I don't know. I don't know. I'm overthinking, aren't I?

So if the dick and balls is the whole body, that becomes the whole body. Right. To you, the balls are the ears. Yeah. And then I guess the dick is everything else. Yeah. Yeah.

Am I wrong? It's definitely got a little mouth. It's got a hat, potentially. Neck there, midsection, side obleeks. Got to really strengthen that core. My parents listen. All right, well, I heard that bit, yeah. So this time Virginia's hopes were pretty thoroughly dashed.

She was quite upset by that. She went on to attend graduate school at American University in Washington, D.C. And when World War II started that year, she ended up in Paris, where she joined the ambulance service driving ambulances, which apparently wasn't a problem for her despite her prosthetic leg. She could still drive normally. So she's driving ambulances around in Paris. And in May of 1940, when the Nazis invaded France,

she managed to escape to England, where she was recruited for Britain's newly formed Special Operation Executive. also known as the Baker Street Irregulars, Churchill's Secret Army, or the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Is that the episode you were referring to earlier when you said this is similar? No, it was the McDonald's one. Did she know Ray Crock?

Yeah, she was in the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Man, is she a World War too badass? She's a World War too badass. Yes. So the British had been working on intelligence and they'd been watching the Germans very carefully. They were well aware of a great deal of progress that Hitler was making. And Churchill knew there was going to be something that there was going to be something special needed for this war.

Should a war occur? They were going to need sabotage, intelligence, surveillance. Oh, it's very exciting. Virginia fit in perfectly. She spoke fluent French and they needed people to go back to France. So, okay, we'll tick it off. She spoke French. She knows the country.

America is not yet at war, so she would enter France very easily because she was a non-combatant. I can't say that word. But she's just like, she's just an American, it's fine. I'm just an American citizen. I just want to hang out. No, big deal. I don't have a beef with you. I don't have a beef with you.

That's fine. We're cool. Her dad wasn't a car, used car salesman, was he? No, yeah. We might have talked about her. Oh. Remember the one woman, I think, was mentioned at one point. Yeah.

But the only description in the report I read was that the daughter of a car salesman. Yeah, that's right. It was like a former Olympian, a very smart scientist and a daughter of a man. Like, ooh, I'm the daughter of a salesman, that's cool. And the daughter of a man. And the daughter of a man. God, I've got it all. Wow.

So, yeah, she was going to fit in nice. So she was trained in how to live undercover. She was training communications, how to run an agent network and surveillance. She went through every single course with all the other men and women. She wasn't given any special dispensation because of her leg, not that she would have accepted it anyway, but she just did all the same training that everybody else did. The only part she didn't have to take was parachute.

And that's because, because she was an American, she could just wander in to France herself. She didn't have to parachute in like the others. The others had to start to sneak in. She could just walk across the border and be like, I'm American, but they're like, come on in. Did you have to practice that? Bonjour!

She had to practice. They had like a ropes course and stuff and like a parachuting in And then for her it was just like genuinely a door that she had to knock on and say, Hello, I'm American. And they just let her in. And they were like, again. No, faster. Again, it's raining.

She's in the mud. Again. Montage. Yeah. It's a training montage. She posed as a reporter for the New York Post and went by the name of Mary. And she was sent to Lyon. Lyon.

Lyon. Lyon. Beautiful city. She was sent to Lyon. You know, when you have, because I went there for a week, and it was just the best weather I've ever experienced, basically. So I just, in my head, it always is the deepest blue, pure skies. I mean, that's just, that's Leon. Even at night.

Deepest blue. Deep blue. See, it's funny because I went to Barcelona and got robbed and got quite, got conjunctivitis and Exma. And so now I hate Barcelona. That's a shame. One of my friends was like, I'm thinking of going to Barcelona for. for my honeymoon. Any suggestions?

I was like, don't. Just because I had a crap experience, but she should have a great time. I've been there three times and I'm bloody loved it. I know, but did you get robbed and conjunctivitis? Yes.

Yes. No, I didn't. I booked into La Tomitina, but bailed because I decided I don't want to get fucked up. It's insane. Is it horrible? Yeah, I don't. It's not horrible.

I can't understand the attraction to it, really. Yeah. Well, I paid my $200 and just didn't get on the bus. I slept in. That's a good way to do it. You had to catch a bus at 2 a.m. Oh, yeah, it was ridiculous. I had to get it to train.

And the big appeal, when I went back and read it, and this is when I realized it wasn't me, it was like 2am bus ride. We get everyone pumped up. Arrive, 6am, all the sangria you can drink. And I'm like, I'm not drinking sangria at 6am. This is not me. Sounds great so far. It sounds really fun. I want to go back.

I just don't like stickiness. It's so sticky. And it rained when I did it too. Oh, God, wash away the stickiness. But it didn't. And then they won't let you back on the train if you're still tomato-y. So there's just like lines at showers where you try to get everything off you. And you're just picking tomato off you for the rest of the week.

It's disgusting. And I love tomato. Oh, it put me off tomato for a while. Yeah, I bet it really. Anyway. It's probably my favorite fruit almost. Okay. Tomato.

That's my favorite. Yeah, if you count it, which, you know, it is technically right. But it's hard to compare that to a banana. Take banana as well. Manga. This is a stupid conversation we're having. Avocado technically. Yeah, right.

I'll take avocado. I'll put that in the tree with tomato and banana. Thank you. Not together. A smoothie with avocado and tomato on toast, please. Oh my God, yes. Can we have a bit of crumbed feta on it too? Okay.

Yeah, the fourth best fruit. Yeah, fedder. Anyway. So, yeah, she's in Lyon. And she set up with a flat and through that flat pass, every British spy who arrived in France. She was kind of like their... Gateway. Gateway.

A gateway. They were led to... From Virginia. They were led to other agents. They were handed off to radio operators. They received their equipment, counterfeit money. They were put in contact with the resistance fighters. She was kind of like a...

She sort of organized everything. She's like an admin. That's so patronising. I meant that she's organizing everything. It's like an admin who could be murdered at any moment. At any moment. It's very good. exciting. She's under cover.

So yeah, her home's sort of like a jumping off point, I guess. And all the while she... It's like on a cliff or something. Yeah, it's on a cliff. I was really hoping to say her house was a jumping castle. No one ever suspects the jumping castle. Oh, man, that'd be fun. That's deep undercover.

The German's like, should we search the jumping castle, sir? Oh, no, don't bother. It's a family of clowns. That didn't sound very German, Dave. Oh, yeah. We searched the jumping castle, yeah. much better. Thank you, yeah.

I say yeah. It's my favorite bit too. All the while, she was writing her newspaper articles to be shipped back to the United States, which were actually being published. What? So she was actually working as a newspaper reporter. She'd actually get... That's like her day job.

Do they know the newspaper that she's... I don't know. Isn't that amazing? So she's actually writing articles. She's not just pretending to be a reporter. She's actually reporting. That's awesome. But she's at getting feedback from the editor that's like, look, too long.

We need you to cut that. down a little bit. She's like, look, I don't have much time because I'm mainly like dealing with every agent in France. It's ridiculous. That's great. That's like now you would have to because people would be able to check if you're a journalist in a big New York paper or not by Googling you.

But back then she probably could have got away with it, right? Maybe. I don't know. But would it be worth the risk? Yeah. Even if they just had someone back there pretending they were doing it for or something. But I like this. She's a real bloody Clark Kent type.

She's cool. It'd be great if she wasn't a good writer, though, and they had to keep publishing. Oh my God. That's for the national interest. Yeah, that's right. And the British government are like, look, you can't edit anything out of it.

Like, if she misses an apostrophe, just leave it. Just leave it. It's fine. Don't worry about it. It's like killing the editor. Jess, speaking of apostrophies, I can just interrupt you,

for one, a momento. I'm looking forward to how he makes apostrophies work here. And speaking of a Mary's, history, which I have been, and we'll continue to. Yes, please. I like that twist. So while she's writing a newspaper reports undercover, but that was all fine until the United States was bombed in December of 1971.

That's not correct at all, 1941. December 7th, 1941, which I know. Remember, that date that Dave just said. All of a sudden, she was no longer a non-combatant. was now a citizen of a country at war, and she had to be much more careful. Coinciding with that time, a new man had arrived at the headquarters of the, I always say it wrong, Gestapo, Gestapo. Gestapo.

I'll start that again. Gisbacho, it's announced. Coinciding with that time, a new man had arrived at the headquarters of the Gestapo by the name of Klaus Barby. Which are the German secret police at the time. Yes. But he was later known as the butcher of Leon. What's his name?

Klaus Barbie. Right. We talked about the butcher of another place in the gentlemanly warfare episode. Where was he the butcher of? It doesn't matter. There's a few butchers and the Nazis. It's a bad time or good time. For butchers.

Butchers, depending on your perspective. Mine is bad. Interesting. He'd heard a lot about espionage and intelligence that was leaking out of the city. And through his connections, they said it could be either a Canadian or a British woman. So they put up posters with her likeness. And someone had also mentioned that she had a limp.

So they began looking for the lady with a limp. Poststers went up all over the city with her face on them. And she realized. And does it actually look like her? I think it was a likeness. It was pretty good. So they knew so much about her, but not who she was. So how did they get such like intel,

where they're like a delimping lady looks exactly like this. She's here all the time. She lives at this address. She's writing articles. But she just told me it wasn't her. Yeah. So I keep door knocking. Can't be Mary.

So she realizes it's time to go. She had to use her own escape route that she'd been sending so many men across in the wintertime. So she'd been sending men across this. It was like a 30 mile or 48 kilometers. trek across the Pyrenees mountains into Spain. Keep in mind, she's hiking through snow with a wooden prosthetic leg. Oh, my goodness. For 48 kilometres.

She'd given her artificial foot its own nickname. Colin. Terrence. Cuthbert. Colin wasn't bad. Were you thinking of my car? Yep. He's such a good boy, little Colin.

So while on this trek, she was able to radio. back to London to the SOE and she signalled to them that she hoped Cuthbert would not give her any trouble on the way and the SOE, not understanding the reference, replied, if Cuthbert is troublesome, eliminate him.

Wow. I wonder who they thought Cuthbert was. Yeah, like, okay, it's going to be a problem. I love that. Also the idea they don't know who Cuthbert is. Do they know if Cuthbert's listening? Cuthbert's in the camp?

They just hear, if Cuthbert's a shit, shit dog, kill him. Cuth was like, are they talking about me? I'm right here. What the hell? She was joking. I'm not giving her any trouble. I swear.

It'll be good. Eliminate him. Take off that leg and throw it away. When she arrived in Spain, she was immediately imprisoned because she didn't have the appropriate entry papers. And after about six weeks in prison, she was finally released and made her way back to England. She was ready to go back to France and start again. But the S.O.E executives wouldn't allow it.

She was now a wanted woman, and it was too risky and dangerous to send her back. Plus, we've got a new operative. His name is Cuthbert. He's doing many things you couldn't. He's wily. But God, he's effective. They offered her a desk job, and they said that maybe in the future there might be a chance for her to do more field work. It does make sense that they couldn't send her back to the place she'd just had to escape.

That makes sense. Totally. I mean, they've got a wanted poster with her face on it. Yeah. It's pretty big country though, France. Maybe she could have gone somewhere else. Yeah. Well, she also speaks German.

Maybe she could have... She speaks Italian. Go there. It's beautiful. Yeah. Anyway, during this time that she'd been in France, the American Intelligence Organization had been developed called the Office of Strategic Services.

It was similar to that of Britain, with one exception, that it was an all-American, headed by a World War one-ace by the name of General William Donovan. He decided to be. needed people with other skills, so he began recruiting circus performers, counterfeiters and thieves. Virginia was taken on immediately as a new recruit. Which category did she fall into?

Counterfeiters. It was a side hobby of hers. No, I don't know. I'm choking. Oh my God. Well, this woman is so amazing that that could have been a side hustle for her. Counterfeiting. She's just, I mean, she's so useful because she speaks all these languages and she's so resourceful.

and she's already had all this amazing training. She didn't really need much more training. They didn't have to do much with her, although she did insist on being trained in radio because she felt that it was going to be very necessary for her to do her. She knew FM was about to take off. And that's where it is, baby. Brecky radio.

It's where the big bucks are. Yeah. She knew it would be necessary to do her own radio transmitting. Apparently radio transmitters or radio operators were the ones who would be kidnapped the most often. So she thought, well, if I'm with a radio operator and they're gone, and I need to be able to communicate. Right.

I imagine back then it would have been a lot more complicated than just... Pressing a button. Yeah. Yeah, you also have to say stuff like, Roger Dodger. So if you don't know that. And over dover. Yeah, exactly. If you just say Roger and you don't say Dodger, they won't even listen to your message.

They just wait. They just wait. It's a very complicated system. Eliminate Cuthbert to Roger Dodger. Sorry, what am I doing to Roger? No, Dodger. However, there was still the issue of the posters all over France with her face on them. So she needed a disguise.

Fake mustache? Not far off. She dyed her brown hair grey and wore old clothing. She took the cover of an elderly woman. She's in like her 30s. Right, but she's trying to look quite old. She's playing a 60-something year old. Well done.

As her cover, which kind of worked with the limp. She just kind of... you just be like, look, I've just got an old war wound from the first. Yeah, she just kind of adopted more of like a shuffle, like an old person would do. Like a soft shoe shuffle? Soft shoe shuffle. Is that a thing? Who's now?

Why are your shoes soft? That's weird. She and her husband, who was another agent in disguise, walked for over two and a half hours to a small village in France, and they found a farmhouse. In exchange for rent of a cottage on the farm, Virginia was to work at the farmhouse, cooking for the family, taking their cows to pasture in the morning and then retrieving them each evening. And it was then in the evening that her real work began. So the suitcase she carried since landing in Britain contained a type of three mark two transmitter. She used the set to transmit messages to the London OSS office,

giving coordinates of large fields she located during the day while she was moving the cows around to observe parachute drops for agents. Oh. Yeah, she's pretty sneaky. One morning, though, while making her way through the town, she saw a small crowd gathered, and as she got closer, she saw three people dead hung from iron fences.

And there were Nazi soldiers there who stood guard and held villages at bay with rifles and said the bodies would remain as a reminder to all those who dared resist. Oh, my God. So that night she sent her final message to London from the cottage. its meaning would be understood by few and those few would be on a need-to-know basis

and her message was, the wolves are at the door. That's a cool message. Over to over. Look, if the wolves give you trouble, eliminate them. Look, you're not really understanding this. You keep just asking us really simple questions. Just kill Cuthbert.

Eliminate. Eliminate the wolves. Don't, I mean don't let them in, no matter how politely they ask. I know. Lock the door. how they brought a casserole? Doesn't matter.

They're wolves. Classic wolves. They always bring in cassaroles. It will eat you, then the casserole. It smells amazing. Does it? All right, worth a try. Roll the dust.

So she left and she was ready for her next mission. And in fact, she was about to be sent back into Vienna when the war ended for good in Europe in May of 1945. And along the way, she'd met a Frenchman, Paul Gaston, Golo. I don't know, this is his last name. And they married in 1950. He was also a spy. Is this the second husband?

Or is this the husband you're talking about before? That was husband inverted commas. I even said husband. And I said another agent in disguise. When you did that thing, I thought you meant, don't worry about anything else I ever say. But that you meant inverted commas. Yeah. That gets me interested in online courses.

So you can understand. Body language. Body language more? Yeah. That's right. President Truman in the US decided that the OSS was not necessary and he disbanded it earlier in 1946. But shortly thereafter, he thought better of his decision

and created another intelligence organization, which ultimately became known as a central intelligence agency. The C-I-A. And as you can imagine, Virginia was right front of line to join and was immediately recruited. She was eager. She was very willing to be retrained, but the CIA wanted fresh young agents for field work. She's in her 40s by now.

She was given a desk job. And a lot of work she did for the CIA is still classified. So we don't really know exactly what she was doing in that time. Right. But I find that kind of cool in itself. We still don't know. So I don't really know what she was up to. She accepted mandatory retirement at the age of 60 in 1966

And she and her husband Paul retired to a farm in Maryland Where they raised poodles and they gardened And they did crossword puzzles Well what was she really doing in the farmhouse? Yeah, who knows? Yeah, if this is a movie, she's going deeper undercover now Yeah, she's got like, it's like, you know, Mr and Mrs Smith Where they've both got guns hidden around the house

Just in elaborate places Like hers are in the kitchen and stuff? It's like that. I imagine. Only herds are in farm animals. See this pig? She's got a zip in its back. I like I said she accepted mandatory retirement.

Like mandatory means it's optional. And she accepted. Thank you. You have one option I accept? I feel like she was a type that would never have retired. Right. She'd still be going now. I'd retire.

I'd totally retire. Oh yeah, I'd retire now. If I had the opportunity to retire, I'm done. See ya. Oh, that's not, no, I'd get bored and I'd get sad. Virginia died in 1982 at the age of 76. 82.

Yeah, you just missed her. We bloody missed her, guys. She's gone. There's some weird thing I enjoy when someone who seems like is from forever ago crosses over my life a little bit. You're alive at the same time. Yeah. Imagine the same planet.

Oh. She didn't talk a lot about like her life and what she'd done. She was fairly quiet and I suppose humble about that for one of a better word. She was remembered as one saying that a lot of her friends had been killed by talking too much. So she kept a very low profile, didn't say too much about her career. It was actually really hard to find much information about it. I had to go to so many different resources. You know how normally you can just, you find something really good

and that can sort of be the skeleton of your report? and then you sort of pull other bits from it. I had to go everywhere because there's not a lot of information about it. It was really hard. Are we going to get murdered for talking about her? Is this podcast classified? I don't think so.

I think it's fine. I wanted to mention a couple of awards that she's been granted as well before I finish up. Any guesses, Dave? Egot, perhaps. Farmhouse of the year. Farmhouse of the year. Which is, of course, a prestigious award.

It's actually called a Fegot. The farmhouse of the year, the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar Tony. Et cetera. Whatever. For her efforts in France, General William Joseph Donovan in 1945, personally awarded her a distinguished service cross, the only one awarded to a civilian woman in World War II. That's pretty cool.

The only one, amazing. The only one. And President Truman wanted a public award, like a ceremony for this medal, but she objected, saying she was still operation. and most anxious to get busy. She's like, I'm too busy for that. No, thank you. Anxious to get busy, aren't we all?

Put that on my Twitter profile. Doing a Dave laugh. That's a good Dave. Just doing a good Dave. People at home would have thought, wait, isn't that Dave doing a Dave laugh? That's me, that's me. This is me.

Matt, have a go. You can't quite do it. You're too deep. Do your low one. Yeah. That's the best one. Is that it? Yeah, that kills me.

The count from Sesame Street. Wow. Ah, ah, ah. It's just tonally on the same scale. And she was also made an honorary member of the Order of the British Empire, MBE. So she's quite an impressive lady. And that is my report on Virginia Hall, the limping lady. How very cool.

And I will also say that possibly this could be the second-eater triptitch. incredible limping women starting with Frida Carlo. Oh, yeah, okay. We've just got to find a third limping lady. Yes, but amazing lives. Both of the people obviously got very injured young in their lives and just didn't let that stop them from doing whatever the hell they want it. Yeah, I'm sure.

The drive is incredible. Yeah. Is there, there's no, there hasn't been a biopic or biopic, biopic? Surprisingly, no, not that I could find. I could barely even find docos about it on like YouTube and stuff to get more information. There's a couple of books written. A lot of the information I've, I've been able to find was from a video I saw of a talk by the author of one of the books.

I went into a fair bit of detail, which was very convenient for me. Because otherwise I was... She just started reading the book. Financially a stupid decision, but really good for us. Yeah. She gave it out for free. So, yeah, it was... But yeah, I...

Actually, I think I did read that there would be... Maybe from late last year, there's talks of a movie about it. Sounds like there would be a crack and blockbuster. Yeah. So anyway, yeah, that's my report. So good. Thank you. Very, very good.

The limping league. So that was... It's James Bond theme song. That was suggested by Rowan Clayton and Kevin Packard. Thank you, Rowan and Kevin. Thank you so much. Packrad's such a sick name. It's pretty cool, hey.

I hope I'm saying it right. I reckon you're bloody, uh. Thank you. And of you like Rowan and Packrad, would like to suggest a topic, maybe something, because I'd never heard of this lady, I've got to admit, and I'm glad I have now. So often the best ones are stuff we've never heard of.

So you know a cool cracking tale, a person or an event or something. You can get in contact or submit directly to that via the Google Doc that's linked in the description of this episode. Tell us why it's cool and we'll probably do it. I am just totally blanked on the thing I was going to say. Okay. It was real good.

Great contribution. Yeah, thank you for starting that sentence. I was, because I saw you on this docker we're both looking at, you just wrote Apartment 3. And that totally, I just, it exploded whatever trader thought I was on. You're on a train of thought? Or you're in a train. Okay.

You're always on a train. Matt to bed. He's tired. I'm very tired. Let's thank. Oh, maybe this is what I was going to say. on our Patreon, which I think just is about to talk about, we just hit a big target.

So we are now going to be doing two bonus Patreon episodes per month starting from next month, which I'm pumped about. So every fortnight-ish, we're a bit loose on the exact timing of those because it can depend on scheduling, but something like every fortnight-ish, there'll be a new bonus episode. So that's right. So it actually makes our Patreon.

We're not upping the price or anything. It just makes it twice as worth your while to submit your sweet, sweet cash. Yes, give us your money. Submit your cash. Submitted and it will be approved. We will approve that application. To give us the cash. Two episodes if you want to support us at patreon.com slash do go on pod.

How cool. Yes. Now this week I think we should, you know how we always give funny things to the people we Thank. Did you say funny? Was that in inverted commons? I don't know anymore. I think this time...

I think it should be probably. We should give them nicknames like the limping lady. Okay, great. Right. So the limping something. No, it doesn't, okay, it doesn't have to be limping. Okay. So the something lady.

Oh, dear. Okay. So something limping lady. Oh, dear. Oh my God. So big limping lady. It doesn't have to be the. I'll have a go.

A, limping lady. I'll have a go and then you'll see. All right. I go from there. I'll thank a couple. Go for it. I don't know if there are a couple, to be honest. I don't even know each other.

I'd love to thank, if I can, from Ridgecrest, California. Ridgecrest, California. Stephen, Shaw, Durges, Jr. What? I love an American junior. Yes. And if he has a child, it's something, something the third. So good.

Stephen, Shaw, Durges, the third. Oh! And they call the dad senior? Very good. Very good indeed. And sometimes I'll just get called junior by the family. Yeah, that's good. Which is a shame in this case because surely you'd be like,

hey, Stephen, Shaw, Durgis, Junior. Wouldn't it be a waste, just be like, hey, junior? Thumbs down, you say. Stephen Shaw. So what are you going about? What do you think Stephen would be? Would he be a limping lady or beer limping lady? I want to say

Stephen Shaw Durges Jr. The Lurking Lad. Oh, so it's got to be an L alliteration. Oh my God. I hate both of you. Well, you both understand and you're being smart Alex.

I reckon Stephen's loving being called The Lurking Ladd. It's not a bad thing. It's not necessarily a bad lurk. Sounds creepy. It's not my fault, is it? Um, you're entirely responsible for it. What did either of you want to have a go? The lovely lad.

All right, fine, lovely lad. The laracan-listical. Okay, don't waste them all. We've got for more people to get through. Come on, sit on that gold. Come on. Come on, it's got another one. It hurts to sit on the gold.

Who else you got? I'd also love to thank if we can. From the ACT, our very own Capital Territory Mr. Matt Duncan. Matt Duncan. The Dirty Digger. Oh, the Dirty Digger.

Okay. I like that. So they got the war memorial there? Is that what you're going for? Camberra? Yeah. The Dirt is like a literal dirt because he's digging trenches.

Matt Duncan, the Dirty Digger. Dirty Digger. He was one that just buddy, he didn't have a shower. No matter how much his bloody army mates, his battalion, his battalion, his battalion demanded of him, he said, no, I'm focusing all my energy on one thing. But he's getting us to the top of the chops. I'm going to cut you off there.

He was right near a pile of chops. I would also like to thank a couple of, shut the fuck up. I'd also like to thank a couple people if I may. Just do. From Dallas, Texas. Oh, I have been through your. airport running at breakneck speed because the travel agent booked the flights too close together. All right.

Yeah, blame the travel agent. Oh, but I got the, um... Yeah, blame the travel agent. Oh, I will. These punches down. I would like to thank Matt Alexander. Oh, the charismatic cowboy. Yay!

See you're getting it. I did enjoy, I got onto the plane and a lot of people were wearing cowboy hats. Yes. I'm from Dallas to Mexico City. That's their football. team, the cowboys, and that's why they wear the hats, because they're there to support their team. Right.

I just thought they were rodeo men. No, no, it's merchandise. Oh, right. No one actually is a cowboy. They're mythical creatures. Well, I did decide that they probably just couldn't put the cowboy hats. Obviously, you've been to Texas, so you buy one of those as like a souvenir, but you can't put it in your suitcase.

It will get crashed, so you have to wear it on the plane. Of course. I love them hats. So thank you to Matt Alexander. I'd also like to thank from my favorite place in the world, Ireland, from Wexford. like to thank Owen Fitzpatrick. Oh, great name. Very good name.

The irritable Irishman. Oh, very good. That's right. He has a very short fuse. Yep, but you keep tickling him. And that's irritating him. It irritates. Thank you, Owen Fitzpatrick.

Owen Fitzpatrick, great name. Fitzpatrick. Great person. Best person. It's weird. We're on the hottest streak of great people. ever since we started reading out patron names. It's great, isn't it?

Every single one we've read out has been a fucking legend. Yeah, agree. That stops now. Oh, no. No, this next name belongs to someone who lives in Victoria. But not this Victoria where we live, British Columbia, baby. I would like to thank all the way over in Canada. Thanks for supporting the show, Darcy Williamson.

Oh, Darcy's good. Oh, okay, you both look at me. Darcy the dancing dame Oh The dancing dame Dancing dame Yeah Like that

Dane or dame Both Oh a Danish dame The dancing Danish dame Yep Sounds delicious Dancing delicious Dancing delicious

Dancing Dane Daneh No you're thinking of Danish Like the food Yeah That's what we're all talking about Yeah That's what we're all doing

Who else? And finally I would like to thank We're going to finish on a high note. When I thank from Oakland, CA, California in the USA, can we please tip our hands to

Jason Bull. Jason Ball. Jason Bull. I want to say bucking Bronco, but that's too much of a thing already. Jason Bull. He deserves more. And this guy, he's a frequent tweeter.

What about, um, Oakland. They're the Raiders. That's their, football team. Does that help you? No. Because he's a bull, Michael Jordan played for the Chicago Bulls.

Yes. But before that, oh my God, no. He played North Carolina. That's right. How about Jason Bull, the Carolina collegemen? I mean, it's a long bow. It's a long bow, and I can't help it feel disappointed

to the bull himself. But let's go for it. Yeah. We didn't have anything better. I mean, it could have been the Californian king. He's actually from California. No. But that's not how this stuff works.

That's true. You've got to get so far away from the name, you can't even remember how you got the nickname. What about the Californian clown? Because clowns distract the bulls once they've bucked someone off. Yeah, I like that. So let's take that one step further. Well, there's options there. He can choose which one of these he looks.

least hates. I love it. That's very generous. Yeah. Well, thank you everyone. Almost as generous as Jason bull-whoops up. Thank you. I'm a bloody legend, Jason.

To all of you legends for supporting the show. It means a lot to us. And we love you all equally. That's right. It's a lot of love to give to spread amongst, because there's so many of you now that supports it, the Patreon, which warms our tiny heart. But also, not enough of you.

Just saying, there's always room for more. There is room for more. There is. We are actually, funnily enough, I did have a look and we are up to now 57% of the way to our American tour goal on Patreon That is a specific amount Well we can actually come to California

Yes And be the California clowns I really when we put that up I thought that was a pipe dream But it's slowly becoming a reality It's not that far off surely So exciting And I think we're going to try and work on

Because there is still a little ways to get to that Try and work on another Bridging goal in between if anyone's got any ideas, but we might put up another goal somewhere between here and there. Yes, that sounds like a good idea. Yeah, great idea. So it's good to have goals on the horizon.

It's always good to have goals. Maybe Jess to get a face tattoo after a little. Yes. She got such a little tattoo last summer. I reckon it's time to step it up. I think it should go face tattoo, American tour. Then the third goal will be removing Jess's face tattoo. In America.

Oh, thank you. Yeah. It'll be nice. Yeah. We'll have to have like 10,000 patrons. okay um so you'll you'll have that tattoo for a couple of decades i didn't i mean i didn't agree to any of that we'll exhume your body and then remove the tattoo just take off the skin yuck anyway now you've made me uncomfortable okay well our job here is done so thank you

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