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Leadership Case Study: Virginia Hall

SSG Angela D. Holtby

U.S. Army Intelligence Senior Leader Course

Class 21-002

SFC Jesse West

2 February 2021
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Leadership Case Study on Virginia Hall

The purpose of this case study is to examine the intelligence contributions of Virginia

Hall in the perspective of the seven principles of mission command and ethical conduct. The

seven principles outlined in Army Doctrinal Publication (ADP) 6-0, Mission Command:

Command and Control of Army Forces and ethical conduct outlined in ADP 6-22 Army

Leadership and the Profession. When implementing mission command during operations, leaders

use the seven principles of competence, trust, shared understanding, mission orders,

commander’s intent, and disciplined initiative to guide their decisions. The purpose of applying

the principles of mission command and ethical conduct to the intelligence contributions of

Virginia Hall is to demonstrate their significance and influence in the intelligence operational

environment.

Virginia Hall played a substantial role in both intelligence and special operations during

World War II (WWII). She was the first American female intelligence operative sent into

German occupied areas of France to conduct clandestine special operations. The Germans listed

her on the most-wanted list of Allied spies and gave her the name “Artemis” the ‘most dangerous

spy’ (Meyer, 2008). In fact, the United States recognizes Virginia Hall as “America’s female

greatest spy of World War II”. Accreditations include; she conducted more jailbreaks, rescued

Allied troops, clandestine sabotage missions, and provided timely and relevant intelligence on

German troop movements than any other spy in American history. Despite being physically

handicapped, with the use of a wooden prosthetic leg, was no obstacle to Virginia Hall’s courage

and determination to defeat the Nazis (Purnell, 2019). Subsequently, she is the only American

female civilian to have received the Distinguished Service Cross for her contributions during

WWII.
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Competence and Resilience

Born in 1906 in Baltimore, Maryland, Virginia Hall’s goal was a career as a Foreign

Service Diplomat, which only eight females held in 1930 (Purnell, 2019). Virginia pursued her

college and postgraduate education at five prestigious universities in the United States and

Europe studying economics and languages to pursue her goals. She was fluent in French,

German, Russian, Spanish, and Italian. After she failed to pass the U.S. Foreign Service test in

1930, she decided to get some real-world experience by working overseas with the U.S. State

Department (Purnell, 2019). In 1933, while serving in Turkey, Virginia suffered an unfortunate

hunting accident when she tripped climbing over a fence shooting herself in the foot.

Subsequently, amputation was required at the knee; gangrene had set in during the recovery

phase. This was replaced with a wooden prosthetic leg Virginia nicknamed “Cuthbert” (Purnell,

2019). In the Army, resilience is the ability to face and cope with adversity, recover and

overcome (ARCP, 2019). In 1937, she retook the U.S. Foreign Service exam and passed with a

score of 100 percent. Unfortunately, the U.S. State Department turned her down because of a

rule against hiring people with disabilities as diplomats. She spent seven years as a Consular

Clerk at various U.S. Embassies in Europe that included Poland, Turkey, Italy, Great Britain and

Estonia from 1931 to 1939.

Selfless Service

In late 1939 as war was breaking out across Europe, she volunteered to drive ambulances

in France transporting wounded allied soldiers from the front line (Purnell, 2019). The Army

values play well into our personal life, and she demonstrated selfless service every day of her life

(ADP 6-22, 2019). When France surrendered to Germany, instead of returning home to the

United States, Virginia traveled to London to continue assisting in the war efforts in Europe.
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While traveling to London, she met a British Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent that

admired her motivation and provided her with a contact to the SOE that could offer her work

(Pearson, 2005).

Shared Understanding

Once Virginia Hall arrived in London, she contacted the British SOE for an interview.

Her ability to speak French and German fluently was an attribute that was quite impressive to the

SOE. Additionally, her American nationality would be beneficial due to the lack of success in

secretly infiltrating SOE agents into France within the last six months (Pearson, 2005). In 1940,

the SOE recruited Virginia and trained her in guerrilla warfare, communications, and covert

operations. Her first SOE assignment was in the German occupied town of Vichy, France, where

the SOE arranged her cover as a journalist with the New York Post and her new identity as

Brigitte Lecontre (Purnell, 2019, p). Since the United States was neutral at the beginning of the

war, Virginia’s American nationality would allow her to travel freely around France (Gralley,

2019).

Commander’s Intent and Mission Orders

The fundamental ideas of issuing mission orders, commander’s intent, and then leaving

the manner in which carrying out these orders and intentions is up to the discretion of

subordinates (ADP 6-0, 2019). Virginia Hall understood the intent and her assigned mission in

Vichy, France. Her cover as a journalist allowed her to interview people, gather information, and

file encoded intelligence in her published reports. They contained detailed, useful information to

the SOE and military planners (ADP 6-0, 2019). While assigned as a journalist for the New York

Post, Virginia befriended Suzanne Bertillon, who worked for the foreign press in Vichy. Suzanne
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did not censor any of Virginia’s articles and assisted her in the collection of information on

German troop movements (Purnell, 2019).

Trust

After a month in Vichy, SOE moved her seventy miles to the southeast to Lyon, France,

due to increased German operations at that location. In Lyon, she founded “HECKLER”, which

was the codename for her intelligence network made-up of recruited personnel that Virginia Hall

deemed trustworthy (Pearson, 2005). Trust is the degree of confidence and reliability that people

develop and one of the main principles of mission command (ADP 6-0, 2019). The network

helped refugees escape occupied France, conduct reconnaissance and surveillance, gather

intelligence, sabotage German operations and other clandestine operations (Gralley, 2019).

Disciplined Initiative

The German occupiers of France imprisoned numerous Allied Soldiers and resistance

fighters at the infamous escape-proof Fort Montluc Prison and 12 of those imprisoned were SOE

agents. Virginia demonstrated her leadership by the mission command principle of exercising

disciplined initiative in taking action in the absence of orders or when unforeseen opportunities

arise (ADP 6-0, 2019). In 1942, Virginia Hall masterminded a bold and successful plan that

rescued the 12 SOE agents from the prison and ensured their safe passage back to Great Britain

(Purnell, 2019). In order to avoid compromising her identity, she recruited the assistance of a

priest in a wheelchair, a bar maiden, and guards from the prison. The priest, being legless,

allowed him to hide a radio transmitter under the wheelchair seat, permitting communication

between the agents and Virginia during his numerous visits to the prison (Purnell, 2019). The

day set for the escape, the bar maiden brought in wine for the guards to drink, laced with a

harmless sleeping potion, and one of the guards provided the location of the key to free the
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agents. Virginia’s successful operation caused an uproar in Germany and Hitler ordered a

significant lockdown in France and wanted her captured. Virginia became German Gestapo

Chief, Klaus Barbie, also known as the “Butcher of Lyon” number one priority. Through mission

command, leaders initiate and integrate all courses of actions (COA) and Virginia Hall

demonstrated that by successfully accomplishing the mission and saving the lives of 12 SOE

agents (ADP 6-0, 2019).

Actions have Consequences

With information furnished from an informant that infiltrated the network by posing as

Priest, Klaus Barbie began to close in on Virginia and the HECKLER network (Gralley, 2019).

An SOE agent that escaped from the Gestapo warned Virginia of the infiltration and the

compromise of her identity. Klaus Barbie ordered thousands of WANTED posters with a lifelike

drawing of Virginia and across the bottom were the words: “THE ENEMY’S MOST

DANGEROUS SPY: WE MUST FIND AND DESTROY HER” (Purnell, 2019). Virginia Hall

escaped Klaus Barbie by undertaking a difficult journey thru the Pyrenees Mountains on foot,

and escaping into Spain in an ordeal that added to her legend (Gralley, 2019). She traveled over

fifty miles in increasingly steep terrain and slopes covered in deep snow in the winter. Part of

creating a shared understanding in mission command is for leaders to solve problems, and

Virginia demonstrated that crossing the Pyrenees Mountains (ADP 6-0, 2019).

A Breakdown in Communication

Once she returned to SOE, they refused to send her back to France to conduct operations.

Instead, the SOE trained her as a wireless radio operator (Pearson, 2005). It was during this time

that the United States established the Security Service Office of Strategic Services (OSS) as the

American version of the SOE. The OSS grew increasing frustrated with not having any agents
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established in France, but needed experienced intelligence officers. Virginia Hall contacted OSS

director, General William Donovan, volunteering her services to work as an operative for the

United States (Gralley, 2019). General Donovan’s position as the OSS director provided Virginia

with a new purpose, direction, and motivation to accomplish the mission and improve the

organization (ADP 6-0, 2019). OSS accepted prudent risk by sending Virginia into France to

conduct covert operations during a time when the United States did not have anyone. In

exercising, accepting prudent risk in mission command is a deliberate exposure to potential

injury, when a leader assesses the outcome is worth the cost for mission accomplishment (ADP

6-0, 2019). Having left the SOE and joining the OSS without requesting a proper transfer,

effectively a breakdown in communication, have the potential to cause mission failure, moreover

contributes to distrust between OSS and SOE. If Virginia had requested a transfer to OSS this

would have built trust and possibly more shared information between OSS and SOE.

Successful Mission

Virginia Hall’s second tour in France from 1944 to 1945 would be more successful than

her first. In 1944, the OSS sent Virginia Hall and a team as part of Operation Jedburgh to the

Haute-Loire area of France to set up for the U.S. evasion of Normandy (D-Day) (Gralley, 2019).

Virginia’s new cover was that of an elderly milkmaid named Marcelle Montagne. She conducted

radio operations to coordinate parachute drops of arms and supplies for the resistance groups and

planned escape routes for downed Allied troops. Moreover, she trained three battalions of the

French Forces of the Interior (FFI) on guerrilla warfare, to conduct covert operations against the

German military (ADP 3-05, 2018). The OSS-SOE Haute-Loire Operation Jedburgh team

displayed all seven principles of mission command and the mutual trust of a cohesive team. The

American, British, and French OSS-SOE demonstrated shared understanding, competence, and
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disciplined initiative of the clandestine paramilitary operations (ADP 6-0, 2019 & ADP 3-05).

Virginia created the United States and Allied Forces, many potential opportunities for freedom of

maneuver for Allied commanders against German occupied areas of France. In her final report to

OSS-SOE, her team had destroyed four bridges, severed a key rail line in multiple places, and

destroyed numerous German lines of communication. By the end of WWII, Virginia spent over

three years operating undercover conducting clandestine operation for both the OSS and SOE

(Gralley, 2019).

Lessons Learned

As an Intelligence Analyst in the Army, our primary job is gathering information to make

into relevant intelligence. Knowing the trials and tribulations that Virginia Hall had to endure,

gives me a greater appreciation of the intelligence we receive from human intelligence

(HUMINT) and covert operations. With a greater understanding of the monumental risks, they

partake to bring me the intelligence in the relative safety of my work area; I shall not take them

for granted.

Conclusion

The purpose of this case study examined the intelligence contributions of Virginia Hall

during World War II, in the perspective of the seven principles of mission command and ethical

conduct outlined in ADP 6-0 and ADP 6-22. Virginia also conducted herself as a leader, using

the mission command seven principles of competence, trust, shared understanding, mission

orders, commander’s intent, and disciplined initiative to guide their decisions. The mission

command principles and ethical conduct are essential for mission success in a joint operational

setting. Military intelligence professionals can analyze Virginia Hall’s mission command tactics

and apply them to future intelligence covert operations.

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References

Army Doctrine Publication (ADP) 3-05 (2018). Special Operations. Washington, DC:

Government Printing Office

Army Doctrine Publication (ADP) 6-0 (2019). Mission Command. Washington, DC:

Government Printing Office

Army Doctrine Publication ADP 6-22, (2019). Army Leadership and the Profession.

Headquarters, Department of the Army

Army Recovery Care Program (ARCP). (2019). Headquarters Department of the Army

Executive Order 048-20

Binney, M. (2008). The Women Who Lived for Danger: The Agents of the Special Operations

Executive

Gralley, C. (2019). Hall of Mirrors: Virginia Hall—America's Greatest Spy of WWII

Meyer, R. (2008). “World War II’s Most Dangerous Spy” The American Legion Magazine.

Mitchell, D. (2019). The Lady Is a Spy: Virginia Hall, World War II Hero of the French

Resistance

Pearson, J. (2005). The Wolves at the Door-The True story of America's Greatest Female Spy

Polette, N. (2012). The Spy with the Wooden Leg: The Story of Virginia Hall

Purnell, S. (2019). A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of WWII’s Most Dangerous

Spy, Virginia Hall

Robuck, E. (2021). Women Heroes of World War II, 32 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage,

Resistance, and Rescue