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

by Pearl Witherington Cornioley

Edited by Kathryn J. Atwood

Part of the Women of Action series

Paperback / softback

Out of stock

Description

An NCSS Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young PeopleÂ 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 â€œcool and resourceful and extremely determinedâ€ and â€œthe best shot, male or female, we have yet had,â€ became one of the most celebrated female World War II resistance fighters. Â 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 â€œPaulineâ€ and rose to command a 3,500-strong band of French Resistance fighters. Â With an annotated list of key figures, an appendix of original unedited interview extractsâ€”including Pearlâ€™s husband Henriâ€™s storyâ€”and never-before-published photographs from Pearlâ€™s personal collection, Code Name Pauline will captivate World War II buffs of any age and, just as Pearl wished, inspire young people.