The Most Daring Female Spies The World Has Ever Seen

As an ambitious young American woman, Virginia Hall hoped to join the United States Foreign Service. But a tragic accident — and, some would argue, her gender — prevented Hall from ever achieving this goal. Instead, she joined the Special Operations Executive during World War Two, working with the resistance in France.

Dubbed “la dame qui boite,” or the lady who limps, on account of her prosthetic leg, Hall established a spy ring, earning herself the wrath of the Germans in the process. But even though she was once forced to escape on foot across the Pyrenees Mountains, she was never caught. After the war, Hall was given the Distinguished Service Cross — one of just two women to receive the medal during the conflict.

Born in England to a Dutch mom, Anne Dawson traveled to German-occupied Belgium during World War One to serve as a British agent. One of only two female operatives to serve behind enemy lines in the war for Britain, she gathered information on military movements and passed it to the Allies — risking her life in the process.

At the time, Dawson’s dual nationality and language skills made her a valuable asset to the British, but those talents would’ve made her a target as well. Thankfully, she survived the war, receiving an MBE in 1920. In her later years, she went on to work for the Inter-Allied Rhineland High Commission, though the exact nature of her activities at the organization have never been revealed.

Born almost 50 years before slavery was abolished in her home state of Virginia, Elizabeth Van Lew was an abolitionist from a young age. And after her father’s passing, she devoted her inheritance to the cause. But it was when Civil War broke out in 1861 that this heroine really came into her own.

Working for the Union, Van Lew established the Richmond Underground, a ring of spies working undercover in Confederate circles. And she didn’t stop there. Once she received important information, she’d translate it into a cipher and transfer it out of the state — sometimes hidden inside hollowed-out eggs. And while some regarded her as a traitor during her lifetime, she’s seen as inspirational today.

Thanks to her privileged upbringing in Romania, Vera Atkins often rubbed shoulders with diplomats in the years prior to World War Two. And when the conflict broke out, she was enlisted by the Allies as a spy, charged with ferrying information from Europe to Winston Churchill himself. Later, she became part of the Special Operations Executive, continuing her career in espionage.

Like many female spies, Atkins is said to have used her looks and charm to trick the enemy into revealing their secrets. But that wasn’t all. As the war progressed, she found herself in charge of an entire unit of women operatives, supervising their missions out in the field. And according to some, she even helped persuade United States officials to enter the war.

A member of the Polish aristocracy, Krystyna Skarbek was beautiful, charming, and — to those who knew her — the “bravest of the brave.” At the outbreak of World War Two, she tried to sign up to fight for the Allies, but was rejected because of her gender. So she then strapped on skis and crossed into occupied Poland via the Tatras Mountains, ready to work behind enemy lines.

There, Skarbek joined forces with the resistance, spreading British propaganda and smuggling vital information out of the country. On one occasion, she brazenly walked into a jail and persuaded the guards to release their prisoners — including a man who’d become her lover. Though she survived the war, Skarbek ultimately met a tragic end, murdered at the hands of a jealous admirer.

Dubbed the White Mouse by the Gestapo, Nancy Wake was an Australian who’d enjoyed a privileged life in France before World War Two broke out. But when conflict arrived on her doorstep, she rose to the challenge, initially driving an ambulance that she persuaded her husband to buy. Later, she used her wealth to establish an underground railroad, smuggling Allied servicemen to safety across the Pyrenees.

When the Germans occupied France, Wake escaped to Britain, where she enlisted with the Special Operations Executive. And for the rest of the war, she engaged in dangerous missions, parachuting behind enemy lines to aid the resistance. In Russell Braddon’s biography Nancy Wake: SOE’s Greatest Heroine, the author described her as “the most feminine woman I know — until the fighting starts. And then she is like five men.”

According to legend, Belle Boyd’s life as a rebel began when she shot an interfering Union soldier during the American Civil War. Now on the Yankees’ radar, she managed to turn the attention to her advantage, seducing at least one officer and passing confidential information on to the Confederate Army.

At one point, she even rode through enemy fire to deliver a vital message to the Confederate General Stonewall Jackson, helping him to victory in Virginia. But though she was awarded the Southern Cross of Honor for her actions, her political passions must’ve faded over time. In fact, she went on to marry former Union officers on two separate occasions.

Before World War Two, American-born Josephine Baker was a popular entertainer in Paris, an icon of the Jazz Age. But when war broke out, she turned informant, charming German officers at parties and passing intelligence on to the French military. Later, she used her career as a cover to travel without suspicion, carrying classified messages penned in invisible ink.

In 1941 Baker traveled to North Africa to continue her work with the French resistance, delivering intelligence between Morocco and Spain. And even though she was eventually sent to London for her own safety, Baker’s espionage career inspired her to become a serious performer. After the war, she went on to become a leading figure in the American civil rights movement, considered by some the unofficial heir to Martin Luther King.

Paris-born Violette Szabo was living in London and working at a department store when the horrors of World War Two began. After marrying a French soldier, she spent the early years of the conflict as part of a women’s army defending home soil. But when her husband was killed, she signed up with the Special Operations Executive instead.

Arriving by parachute in occupied France, Szabo — affectionately dubbed “La P’tite Anglaise,” meaning The Little Englishwoman — successfully gathered intelligence on damaged Allied equipment. But during her second mission, she was captured and tortured by the Gestapo. Even under terrible duress, though, she refused to reveal her secrets. Eventually, she was executed at Ravensbrück concentration camp, receiving a George Cross after her death.

Perhaps the most notorious of history’s female spies is the woman known as Mata Hari, a Dutch-born exotic dancer who turned to espionage during World War One. Born Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod, she fled an abusive marriage and traveled to Paris, where she was the mistress of a number of influential men.

When war broke out, MacLeod’s exotic alias and globetrotting ways brought her to the attention of the French authorities, who persuaded her to turn spy. But in 1917 she was arrested and ultimately executed for being a double agent, having allegedly betrayed secrets to the Germans. Today, though, many regard her as innocent of these crimes, and no conclusive evidence has ever been found to support her conviction.

The daughter of liberal politicians, photographer Edith Tudor-Hart fled her native Austria to escape persecution in the run up to World War Two. Settling in Britain, she used her art to make political statements, commenting on everything from industrial decline to the plight of refugees. But ultimately, her communist sympathies led her to seek out allies in the Soviet Union.

In the 1930s Tudor-Hart became involved with the Cambridge Spy Ring, a group of informants who fed British intelligence to the KGB. And despite actively recruiting members while under surveillance, she was never prosecuted for her actions. Instead, she lived a quiet life after the war, operating an antiques store before her death in 1973.

Watchmaker Corrie Ten Boom had been the first Dutch woman to work in her trade prior to the Germans invading her home country in 1940. Though she and her family were Calvinist Christians, they opened their doors to Jews fleeing persecution, becoming part of the Dutch underground movement. And even as the Gestapo closed in, she hid refugees behind a false wall in the bedroom of her Haarlem home.

Later, Ten Boom joined an underground railroad network, smuggling Jews out of the city to safety. She was personally responsible for having saved some 800 lives by the end of the conflict. Arrested and sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp, she was ultimately released, going on to support other survivors after the war. And in 1946 Ten Boom returned to Germany, forgiving the soldiers who’d ill-treated her family during their internment.

The daughter of a World War One hero, Odette Hallowes was born in France but relocated to Britain with her English husband in the 1930s. When conflict broke out in Europe yet again, she trained with the Special Operations Executive to work for the French resistance behind enemy lines. And in November 1942 she arrived on the shores of Cassis.

During her time back in France, Hallowes risked her life to attend air drops and transport supplies across dangerous terrain. Later captured by the Germans, she refused to reveal confidential information — even under extreme distress. And though she then wound up incarcerated in Ravensbrück concentration camp, she lived to tell the tale. In 1946 she was awarded the George Cross, the first woman to receive the honor.

Born in Moscow, Russia, Noor Inayat Khan was living in France with her family when World War Two began. After fleeing to England, the devout pacifist decided to join the Allies’ cause, signing up as a wireless operator with the Special Operations Executive. Reportedly, she felt unable to kill anyone — choosing instead to take one of the most dangerous jobs around.

In June 1943 Khan was shipped behind enemy lines to operate wireless communications, the first woman to be dispatched to fulfill such a risky role. There, her language and technical skills made her a valuable asset, until she was betrayed, captured, and sent to Dachau concentration camp. Executed during September 1944, she was given a posthumous George Cross in recognition of her heroism.

A British national born in France, Pearl Cornioley worked as a typist to support her family from a young age. At the outbreak of World War Two, though, she set her sights on the French resistance and was soon recruited to the Special Operations Executive. According to reports, she was the best marksman that her superiors had ever seen.

Initially, Cornioley used her cover as a cosmetics agent to travel through France, delivering sensitive information. But when her radio operator was taken out of action, she stepped up to replace him — eventually controlling a network of some 3,500 resistance fighters. Later, she turned down the offer of a Civil Division MBE in recognition of her work. Allegedly, she retorted, “There was nothing remotely ‘civil’ about what I did.”

When the French resistance leader George Loustaunau-Lacau was arrested towards the beginning of World War Two, he nominated the young spy Marie-Madeleine Fourcade to take over in his stead. Married but estranged from her family, she threw herself into the war effort, constantly moving from city to city to evade capture by the Gestapo.

At the head of a network of 3,000 resistance fighters, Fourcade, nicknamed Hedgehog, gathered vital intelligence for the Allies. And while she was captured twice, she escaped to London and continued to direct her agents from across the Channel. Curiously, Fourcade wasn’t among the — mostly male — heroes whom Charles de Gaulle named after the war, though she received great praise following her death in 1989.

When the Germans invaded in 1940, Mauritius-born Lise de Baissac fled Paris for Britain, where she signed up with the Special Operations Executive as soon as women were allowed. And two years later, she and Andrée Borrel parachuted into occupied France — the first female agents to embark on such a mission.

In France, de Baissac was bold and brave, carrying out covert operations right under the Germans’ noses. Befriending a Gestapo chief, she took lodgings with the enemy, hiding her subterfuge in plain sight. And along with her brother Claude, she was instrumental in the Allied invasion of France. Despite her risky activities, she survived the war and received an MBE in 1945.

Belgian-born Elaine Madden was 17 years old and engaged to be married when World War Two came to her hometown. Disguised as a soldier, she smuggled her way onto a boat during the Dunkirk Evacuation, escaping to safety in Britain. But before long, her desire to help her fellow countrymen put her on the frontline once more.

Keen to do more for the war effort, Madden pursued a number of positions until she was recruited by the Special Operations Executive and parachuted back into occupied Belgium. There, she collected intelligence on German rockets, passing it back to her handlers in Britain. Later, she’d state that her only regret was not getting involved sooner in the war.

Before the outbreak of the American Civil War, Rose Greenhow was a socialite moving within influential circles in Washington, D.C. But when her husband died, she found herself drawn to the Confederate cause. Utilizing her connections, she became a spy, gathering intelligence about the Union Army and delivering it to generals in the South.

Credited with helping the Confederates to a victory on the battlefield, Greenhow was eventually arrested and imprisoned — though she even continued her espionage from her cell. On her release, she traveled to Europe, tasked with drumming up support for the American South. But on her way back, Greenhow’s ship ran aground. With a Union gunboat approaching, she attempted to flee in a rowboat but ultimately capsized and drowned.

Born into a life of slavery, Harriet Tubman escaped her violent masters and fled to the free state of Pennsylvania in 1849. But rather than disappearing, she returned to her former home time and time again, risking her life to smuggle out family members and friends. Eventually, she became a vital part of the original Underground Railroad.

For years, this network of secret safe houses and clandestine routes helped thousands of people flee enslavement and find safety in the free states. But Tubman didn’t stop there. When the Civil War broke out, she began working as a spy for the Union Army, and ultimately led a successful armed raid that liberated some 700 slaves. Today, she’s one of America’s icons, a symbol of courage in the face of adversity.