Code Name Pauline: Memoirs of a World War II Special Agent

Modern Age

Code Name Pauline: Memoirs of a World War II Special Agent (Women of Action) Author: Cornioley, Pearl Witherington Buy at Amazon | BookShop.org Time Period: Modern Age Time Frame: 1939-1945 Geographic Area: Europe Country: France, Great Britain Topics: WWII Genre: Non Fiction, Biography Reading Age: Young Adult, Adult Format: Book Published: 2015 Women of Action series 1) Double Victory: How African American Women Broke Race and Gender Barriers to Help Win World War II 2) Women of the Frontier: 16 Tales of Trailblazing Homesteaders, Entrepreneurs, and Rabble-Rousers 3) Women Aviators: 26 Stories of Pioneer Flights, Daring Missions, and Record-Setting Journeys 4) Code Name Pauline: Memoirs of a World War II Special Agent 5) Women of Steel and Stone: 22 Inspirational Architects, Engineers, and Landscape Designers 6) Women in Space: 23 Stories of First Flights, Scientific Missions, and Gravity-Breaking Adventures 7) A World of Her Own: 24 Amazing Women Explorers and Adventurers 8) The Many Faces of Josephine Baker: Dancer, Singer, Activist, Spy 9) Women Heroes of the American Revolution: 20 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Defiance, and Rescue 10) She Takes a Stand: 16 Fearless Activists Who Have Changed the World 11) Women of Colonial America: 13 Stories of Courage and Survival in the New World 12) Marooned in the Arctic: The True Story of Ada Blackjack, the "Female Robinson Crusoe" 13) Women in Blue: 16 Brave Officers, Forensics Experts, Police Chiefs, and More 14) Women Heroes of World War II―the Pacific Theater: 15 Stories of Resistance, Rescue, Sabotage, and Survival 15) Seized by the Sun: The Life and Disappearance of World War II Pilot Gertrude Tompkins 16) Courageous Women of the Vietnam War: Medics, Journalists, Survivors, and More 17) This Noble Woman: Myrtilla Miner and Her Fight to Establish a School for African American Girls in the Slaveholding South 18) Women Heroes of the US Army: Remarkable Soldiers from the American Revolution to Today 19) Women Heroes of World War I: 16 Remarkable Resisters, Soldiers, Spies, and Medics

World History > Modern Age > WWII

There was a full moon on the evening of September 22, 1943, when Pearl Witherington, age 29, parachuted into France to aid the French Resistance as a special agent for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE). Out of the 400 agents sent to France during the German occupation, 39 were women. Pearl, whom the SOE called “cool and resourceful and extremely determined” and “the best shot, male or female, we have yet had,” became one of the most celebrated female World War II resistance fighters.

In Code Name Pauline Pearl describes in a series of plainspoken reminiscences her difficult childhood and harrowing escape from France in 1940; her recruitment and training as a special agent; the logistics and dangers of posing as a cosmetics saleswoman to make her way around the country as an undercover courier; and both failed and successful attempts at sabotaging the Nazis. She tells how, when the leader of her network was caught by the Gestapo, she became “Pauline” and rose to command a 3,500-strong band of French Resistance fighters.

With an annotated list of key figures, an appendix of original unedited interview extracts—including Pearl’s husband Henri’s story—and never-before-published photographs from Pearl’s personal collection, Code Name Pauline will captivate World War II buffs of any age and, just as Pearl wished, inspire young people.

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