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Madame Fourcade's Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France's Largest Spy Network Against Hitler
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite History & Biography (2019)The little-known true story of Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, the woman who headed the largest spy network in occupied France during World War II, from the bestselling author of Citizens of London and Last Hope Island
In 1941 a thirty-one-year-old Frenchwoman, a young mother born to privilege and known for her beauty and glamour, became the leader of a vast intelligence organization--the only woman to serve as a chef de r�sistance during the war. Strong-willed, independent, and a lifelong rebel against her country's conservative, patriarchal society, Marie-Madeleine Fourcade was temperamentally made for the job. Her group's name was Alliance, but the Gestapo dubbed it Noah's Ark because its agents used the names of animals as their aliases. The name Marie-Madeleine chose for herself was Hedgehog: a tough little animal, unthreatening in appearance, that, as a colleague of hers put it, "even a lion would hesitate to bite."
No other French spy network lasted as long or supplied as much crucial intelligence--including providing American and British military commanders with a 55-foot-long map of the beaches and roads on which the Allies would land on D-Day--as Alliance. The Gestapo pursued them relentlessly, capturing, torturing, and executing hundreds of its three thousand agents, including Fourcade's own lover and many of her key spies. Although Fourcade, the mother of two young children, moved her headquarters every few weeks, constantly changing her hair color, clothing, and identity, she was captured twice by the Nazis. Both times she managed to escape--once by slipping naked through the bars of her jail cell--and continued to hold her network together even as it repeatedly threatened to crumble around her.
Though so many of her agents died defending their country, Fourcade survived the occupation to become active in postwar French politics. Now, in this dramatic account of the war that split France in two and forced its people to live side by side with their hated German occupiers, Lynne Olson tells the fascinating story of a woman who stood up for her nation, her fellow citizens, and herself.
In 1941 a thirty-one-year-old Frenchwoman, a young mother born to privilege and known for her beauty and glamour, became the leader of a vast intelligence organization--the only woman to serve as a chef de r�sistance during the war. Strong-willed, independent, and a lifelong rebel against her country's conservative, patriarchal society, Marie-Madeleine Fourcade was temperamentally made for the job. Her group's name was Alliance, but the Gestapo dubbed it Noah's Ark because its agents used the names of animals as their aliases. The name Marie-Madeleine chose for herself was Hedgehog: a tough little animal, unthreatening in appearance, that, as a colleague of hers put it, "even a lion would hesitate to bite."
No other French spy network lasted as long or supplied as much crucial intelligence--including providing American and British military commanders with a 55-foot-long map of the beaches and roads on which the Allies would land on D-Day--as Alliance. The Gestapo pursued them relentlessly, capturing, torturing, and executing hundreds of its three thousand agents, including Fourcade's own lover and many of her key spies. Although Fourcade, the mother of two young children, moved her headquarters every few weeks, constantly changing her hair color, clothing, and identity, she was captured twice by the Nazis. Both times she managed to escape--once by slipping naked through the bars of her jail cell--and continued to hold her network together even as it repeatedly threatened to crumble around her.
Though so many of her agents died defending their country, Fourcade survived the occupation to become active in postwar French politics. Now, in this dramatic account of the war that split France in two and forced its people to live side by side with their hated German occupiers, Lynne Olson tells the fascinating story of a woman who stood up for her nation, her fellow citizens, and herself.
464 pages, Hardcover
First published March 5, 2019
3363 people are currently reading
37482 people want to read
About the author
Lynne Olson
17 books709 followers Lynne Olson is a New York Times bestselling author of ten books of history, most of which focus on World War II. Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has called her "our era's foremost chronicler of World War II politics and diplomacy."
Lynne’s latest book, The Sisterhood of Ravensbruck: How an Intrepid Band of Frenchwomen Resisted the Nazis In Hitler’s All-Female Concentration Camp, will be published by Random House on June 3,2025. Three of her previous books — Madame Fourcade's Secret War, Those Angry Days, and Citizens of London were New York Times bestsellers.
Born in Hawaii, Lynne graduated magna cum laude from the University of Arizona. Before becoming a full-time author, she worked as a journalist for ten years, first with the Associated Press as a national feature writer in New York, a foreign correspondent in AP's Moscow bureau, and a political reporter in Washington. She left the AP to join the Washington bureau of the Baltimore Sun, where she covered national politics and eventually the White House.
Lynne lives in Washington, DC with her husband, Stanley Cloud, with whom she co-authored two books. Visit Lynne Olson at http://lynneolson.com.
Lynne’s latest book, The Sisterhood of Ravensbruck: How an Intrepid Band of Frenchwomen Resisted the Nazis In Hitler’s All-Female Concentration Camp, will be published by Random House on June 3,2025. Three of her previous books — Madame Fourcade's Secret War, Those Angry Days, and Citizens of London were New York Times bestsellers.
Born in Hawaii, Lynne graduated magna cum laude from the University of Arizona. Before becoming a full-time author, she worked as a journalist for ten years, first with the Associated Press as a national feature writer in New York, a foreign correspondent in AP's Moscow bureau, and a political reporter in Washington. She left the AP to join the Washington bureau of the Baltimore Sun, where she covered national politics and eventually the White House.
Lynne lives in Washington, DC with her husband, Stanley Cloud, with whom she co-authored two books. Visit Lynne Olson at http://lynneolson.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,210 reviews
February 18, 2019
What a fascinating woman! In a time when women barely held jobs, Marie-Madeleine Fourcade ran the largest espionage ring in France during WWII.
Olson does a fabulous job of giving you the background of the country that led to their poor showing when Germany invaded. I had no idea of the political turmoil France was dealing with. In fact, I learned more from this book about international politics leading up to the war than I ever knew before. Olson also provides the necessary background on the Vichy government and the political warfare between generals de Gaulle and Giraud. She knows exactly how much information to provide without bogging the reading down.
Olson keeps the book moving at a fast clip with short chapters. This nonfiction book read almost like a book of fiction. You get a true sense of the time and place. It’s a gripping book and some of the escapes would seem unbelievable if this were a book of fiction.
This book was eye opening. I was astounded by the number of people who risked their lives, many of whom had no training and most of whom died. As Olson writes at the very end of the book “they served as an example ...of what ordinary people can do...when faced with existential threats to basic human rights.”
I recommend this to anyone who enjoys history, even those who think they only enjoy historical fiction.
My thanks to netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.
Olson does a fabulous job of giving you the background of the country that led to their poor showing when Germany invaded. I had no idea of the political turmoil France was dealing with. In fact, I learned more from this book about international politics leading up to the war than I ever knew before. Olson also provides the necessary background on the Vichy government and the political warfare between generals de Gaulle and Giraud. She knows exactly how much information to provide without bogging the reading down.
Olson keeps the book moving at a fast clip with short chapters. This nonfiction book read almost like a book of fiction. You get a true sense of the time and place. It’s a gripping book and some of the escapes would seem unbelievable if this were a book of fiction.
This book was eye opening. I was astounded by the number of people who risked their lives, many of whom had no training and most of whom died. As Olson writes at the very end of the book “they served as an example ...of what ordinary people can do...when faced with existential threats to basic human rights.”
I recommend this to anyone who enjoys history, even those who think they only enjoy historical fiction.
My thanks to netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.
December 21, 2020
I absolutely loved this book about Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, a mother of two who was “arguably the greatest wartime spymaster in Europe.” What is so outstanding about this story is how author Lynne Olson shows Madame Fourcade to be both extraordinary and ordinary: leading 3,000 spies across France to defeat the Nazis, yet battling sexism and self-doubt along the way. It’s an exciting history of a woman who helped save the world—and yet another example of what’s possible when women lead.
March 24, 2019
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5+ stars
Marie Madeleine was a 31 year old mother of two when she led the largest French spy network during the Nazi occupation. Alliance, the name of the network, provided crucial intelligence to Britain's M16. Described by a colleague as "the pivot around which everything turns. She has the memory of an elephant, the cleverness of a fox, the guile of a serpent, the perseverance of a mole, and the fierceness of a panther." Although hundreds of Alliance agents were tortured and killed, Madame Fourcade's network saved thousands of Allied lives and shortened the hold of Hitler's grasp.
I have never read a more riveting nonfiction book. The daring, courage and dedication to freedom shown by Marie Madeleine and her agents is mind-boggling. How she and those who survived could ever return to normalcy is beyond me. She eventually does return to a life in her beloved France, although she initially had months (maybe years) of adjustment. At first she had trouble remembering to use he real name or realizing the knock on the door wasn't the Gestapo. But do the nightmares and memories of those who died for the cause ever cease? The "normal" life she returned to might have been superficial.
It was particularly meaningful to read about this woman during Women's History Month. In a patriarchal country when women didn't work outside the home, Madame Fourcade won the respect of all in the British and French intelligence agencies. Sadly, Olson tells us that following the war,"histories of the resistance largely ignored the contribution of women." Even today, Olson says, women who had significant roles in WW II intelligence are rarely highlighted.
I cannot recommend this book enough. If this is typical of the research and excellence of Olson's books, I will be reading everything she has written or will write in the future.
"Although they were from varied walks of life and political background, a moral common denominator overrode all their differences; a refusal to be silenced and an iron determination to fight against the destruction of freedom and human dignity. In doing so, they, along with other members of the resistance, saved the soul and honor of France... they served as an example from the past of what ordinary people can do in the present and future when faced with existential threats to basic human rights."
5+ stars
Marie Madeleine was a 31 year old mother of two when she led the largest French spy network during the Nazi occupation. Alliance, the name of the network, provided crucial intelligence to Britain's M16. Described by a colleague as "the pivot around which everything turns. She has the memory of an elephant, the cleverness of a fox, the guile of a serpent, the perseverance of a mole, and the fierceness of a panther." Although hundreds of Alliance agents were tortured and killed, Madame Fourcade's network saved thousands of Allied lives and shortened the hold of Hitler's grasp.
I have never read a more riveting nonfiction book. The daring, courage and dedication to freedom shown by Marie Madeleine and her agents is mind-boggling. How she and those who survived could ever return to normalcy is beyond me. She eventually does return to a life in her beloved France, although she initially had months (maybe years) of adjustment. At first she had trouble remembering to use he real name or realizing the knock on the door wasn't the Gestapo. But do the nightmares and memories of those who died for the cause ever cease? The "normal" life she returned to might have been superficial.
It was particularly meaningful to read about this woman during Women's History Month. In a patriarchal country when women didn't work outside the home, Madame Fourcade won the respect of all in the British and French intelligence agencies. Sadly, Olson tells us that following the war,"histories of the resistance largely ignored the contribution of women." Even today, Olson says, women who had significant roles in WW II intelligence are rarely highlighted.
I cannot recommend this book enough. If this is typical of the research and excellence of Olson's books, I will be reading everything she has written or will write in the future.
"Although they were from varied walks of life and political background, a moral common denominator overrode all their differences; a refusal to be silenced and an iron determination to fight against the destruction of freedom and human dignity. In doing so, they, along with other members of the resistance, saved the soul and honor of France... they served as an example from the past of what ordinary people can do in the present and future when faced with existential threats to basic human rights."
January 18, 2025
I hesitated between three and four stars for this book but I rounded up because of the importance of learning about a spy network in World War II France led by a woman. The first half of this book was much better than the second half. Whenever the emphasis stayed on Madame Fourcade it held my interest but when she was evacuated to England Olson strayed to discuss other spies in the network and this digression to me was less successful.
Olson throws out lots of names and the book could have been improved by concentrating on fewer individuals. A strongpoint of the work for me was the number of photographs which added to my enjoyment.
Olson throws out lots of names and the book could have been improved by concentrating on fewer individuals. A strongpoint of the work for me was the number of photographs which added to my enjoyment.
July 27, 2019
Madame Fourcade’s Secret War
Incredible. I am stunned, and staring still. . . .all of the unnamed, undiscussed, unwritten, unknown victims, bullies, heroes in that war. There are no words.
Halfway through I wanted to stop thinking about it. To honor all, I continued.
I hope we were all worth it. I’m glad for the chance to read, to know of this great effort. A victory that must have felt an awful lot like a failure some days.
If you haven’t read this, and you are at all inclined, you should.
5 stars. Re-readable. Important history. People have died for my opportunity to read, to choose what to read and to choose not to read.
Kudos to the authors who tell the tales so we can know what price has been paid for our freedoms.
Incredible. I am stunned, and staring still. . . .all of the unnamed, undiscussed, unwritten, unknown victims, bullies, heroes in that war. There are no words.
Halfway through I wanted to stop thinking about it. To honor all, I continued.
I hope we were all worth it. I’m glad for the chance to read, to know of this great effort. A victory that must have felt an awful lot like a failure some days.
If you haven’t read this, and you are at all inclined, you should.
5 stars. Re-readable. Important history. People have died for my opportunity to read, to choose what to read and to choose not to read.
Kudos to the authors who tell the tales so we can know what price has been paid for our freedoms.
May 10, 2023
This book is an important addition to the literature about the resistance in France in WW2, such as the books written by M.R.D. Foot, because it highlights a network and its leader who were largely written out of the history because a) the network was founded by a former Vichy official (Navarre), and b) because its primary leader after Navarre's capture was a woman, Marie-Madeleine Fourcade. This is not Lynne Olson's writing at it's best, but if you are interested in the subject of the clandestine resistance work in France in WW2, this is a highly interesting addition to that history.
Ms. Olson's always stellar research is on display again in this book. She describes the infiltration of the U-Boat bases on the French Atlantic coast by members of Fourcade's Alliance network, and how the intelligence provided by her agents played a huge role in the destruction of the U-boat fleet. Another of her agents drew a highly detailed map of the German defenses on the Normandy coast, and Fourcade's people got the map delivered to the Allies a couple of months before D-Day, saving many lives by allowing the Allies to come ashore in the least defended areas.
But the terrible cost in lives to Resistance members is made clear. The rate of death among resistants (more than 20% of all participants) was equivalent to the highest casualty rates among frontline infantry assault forces, if not higher. And the death rate for Resistance members in Paris was even worse.
I enjoyed this book, and I appreciate Lynne Olson's dedication to giving Madame Fourcade's efforts the history she deserves.
Ms. Olson's always stellar research is on display again in this book. She describes the infiltration of the U-Boat bases on the French Atlantic coast by members of Fourcade's Alliance network, and how the intelligence provided by her agents played a huge role in the destruction of the U-boat fleet. Another of her agents drew a highly detailed map of the German defenses on the Normandy coast, and Fourcade's people got the map delivered to the Allies a couple of months before D-Day, saving many lives by allowing the Allies to come ashore in the least defended areas.
But the terrible cost in lives to Resistance members is made clear. The rate of death among resistants (more than 20% of all participants) was equivalent to the highest casualty rates among frontline infantry assault forces, if not higher. And the death rate for Resistance members in Paris was even worse.
I enjoyed this book, and I appreciate Lynne Olson's dedication to giving Madame Fourcade's efforts the history she deserves.
Read
December 20, 2020The extraordinary story of the elegant and aristocratic Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, an unlikely leader who ran a resistance network throughout WWII. For me the book brought several elements of the war starkly into relief. You learn about the infighting and politics between the spy networks of the UK and the various internal French forces all on the side of the resistance. But above all you learn about the sheer scale of ordinary citizens, teenagers and scouts, policemen, housewives and bankers who chose to help the French resistance and who were rounded up and executed or imprisoned and sent to camps. The level of risk and the consequences impressed me. How you would behave in the same situation, would you be that brave? Or would you be filled with energy to have something to fight for? The portraits of some of these people positively sparkle.
I'm glad that this book exists both to highlight an incredible leader (who also happens to be female) and also to honor the lives of these men and women.
I'm glad that this book exists both to highlight an incredible leader (who also happens to be female) and also to honor the lives of these men and women.
May 13, 2020
This is such an important story — that of average people who reach the limits of what they find to be acceptable and undertake extraordinary tasks to put a stop to it. I am fascinated by the boundary-crossing that causes civilians to say, "I will likely be tortured or killed for what I'm about to do, but I believe in my cause so strongly that it's a risk I'm willing to take."
The French Resistance was microscopic compared to the partisan guerrilla groups in many countries occupied by the Nazis, but somehow they get an outsized share of the coverage. This book recounts the Alliance network, which provided excellent information to MI6 (for example, the V2 rocket program), and was led by Marie-Madeleine Fourcade for most of its existence. I read Olson's Citizens of London a few years ago, and I absolutely loved it, so I was really looking forward to this one! Unfortunately, this book seems as if it were both written and edited in a real hurry. The prose is at times embarrassingly purple and cliche; for example, women are often referred to along the lines of "pert blondes" or "stylish brunettes." (My own hair color is one of my all-time least important traits, and I struggle to imagine these ladies who casually carried around cyanide pills thinking to themselves, "Yep, I'm 23 years old, I'm willing to die for my country...and also I have blonde hair.") Many exciting, thrilling, and tragic things happen in this book, but for such a gripping subject, the pacing felt clumsy. Lengthy phrases are often repeated, or nearly so, just a few sentences later. I know from experience that Olson can do better than this, which makes me think this was written under a too-aggressive deadline and that editors didn't have enough time with it. I am pretty disappointed, but I also don't regret spending a couple of weeks with a person as courageous and fascinating as Marie-Madeleine Fourcade.
The French Resistance was microscopic compared to the partisan guerrilla groups in many countries occupied by the Nazis, but somehow they get an outsized share of the coverage. This book recounts the Alliance network, which provided excellent information to MI6 (for example, the V2 rocket program), and was led by Marie-Madeleine Fourcade for most of its existence. I read Olson's Citizens of London a few years ago, and I absolutely loved it, so I was really looking forward to this one! Unfortunately, this book seems as if it were both written and edited in a real hurry. The prose is at times embarrassingly purple and cliche; for example, women are often referred to along the lines of "pert blondes" or "stylish brunettes." (My own hair color is one of my all-time least important traits, and I struggle to imagine these ladies who casually carried around cyanide pills thinking to themselves, "Yep, I'm 23 years old, I'm willing to die for my country...and also I have blonde hair.") Many exciting, thrilling, and tragic things happen in this book, but for such a gripping subject, the pacing felt clumsy. Lengthy phrases are often repeated, or nearly so, just a few sentences later. I know from experience that Olson can do better than this, which makes me think this was written under a too-aggressive deadline and that editors didn't have enough time with it. I am pretty disappointed, but I also don't regret spending a couple of weeks with a person as courageous and fascinating as Marie-Madeleine Fourcade.
January 10, 2019
I continue to be amazed at how much there is discover about the resilience and courage of ordinary people. Those who took an active part in gathering and sharing information about the Germans during World War II were so fearless and bold. They were not willing to stand by and let evil flourish. Madame Fourcade defied all stereotypes to lead an organization that was vital to the Allies in their campaigns to defeat the Third Reich. She was a true patriot in every sense of the word. This is a great story that needed to be told. The members of the Alliance network deserve to be honored and remembered for their deeds and sacrifices. Thanks to all of them, we can pursue our dreams for a better life.
October 1, 2019
I feel bad leaving a negative review of a book about a female resistance fighter but WOW, this was drier than a triscuit. I really almost couldn’t believe how slow and boring it was considering the subject matter. I kept thinking about what exactly was wrong - the biggest offending factor - and I think it’s that the book totally misses tying any of this resistance work into the larger context of the war and shares literally zero outcomes of any of their / Madame Foucade’s resistance efforts. So you’re just listening to a list of codes sent and spy plane trips with zero context, in a vacuum. As such, none of it means anything or has any stakes - for the reader. It was very boring and I should have just given up because it’s not short either.
August 23, 2022
“How could one not be fascinated by the story of this cultured young woman from a well-connected family who had dreams of becoming a concert pianist but ended up as arguably the greatest wartime spymaster in Europe?”
Marie-Madeleine Fourcade was the leader of an espionage network across occupied France in WWII at a time when it was rare for a woman to be in charge. The book describes how she handled many challenges and narrow escapes. The title implies it is about Madame Fourcade, but it is written about many, many people in her spy network and it is often difficult to keep track of them all. Names are mentioned once or twice, sometimes never to be mentioned again. There are many digressions. It is almost as if the author decided to include all her research rather than only that which supports the main thesis. I applaud the author for calling attention to an unsung heroine of WWII. I wish it had been a little more focused.
Marie-Madeleine Fourcade was the leader of an espionage network across occupied France in WWII at a time when it was rare for a woman to be in charge. The book describes how she handled many challenges and narrow escapes. The title implies it is about Madame Fourcade, but it is written about many, many people in her spy network and it is often difficult to keep track of them all. Names are mentioned once or twice, sometimes never to be mentioned again. There are many digressions. It is almost as if the author decided to include all her research rather than only that which supports the main thesis. I applaud the author for calling attention to an unsung heroine of WWII. I wish it had been a little more focused.
May 1, 2024
Alliance, the largest and most effective French underground resistance network of WWII was headed and effectively run by a woman, a practice absolutely unheard of in 1940. That woman was Marie-Madelain Fourcade. Her code name was Hedgehog: a tough little animal, unthreatening in appearance that, as a colleague of hers put it, “even a lion would hesitate to bite.”
Marie-Madelain set up a spiderweb of an alliance network recruiting agents, who then recruited agents. Alliance soon covered France, gathering information and photographic evidence and forwarding it to MI6 in London. She recruited associates who were most trustworthy and a few (as it turned out) not so much. Alliance was betrayed on several occasions resulting in the capture of many and the ultimate execution of many. She herself was captured once which resulted in an absolutely harrowing escape.
Alliance, as most of France, had difficulty knowing with absolute certainty who to follow politically, Charles De Gaulle, or Henri Giraud. That being the case, they simply continued to work with the thought in mind of ultimately saving their beloved country,
The book was eye opening and I was shocked at the number of people who risked their lives and the number who ultimately lost their lives out of sheer love and loyalty to their country and for the cause of freedom.
Lynne Olson's books are loaded with information gleaned through stellar research. They read like historical fiction. Absolutely engrossing and easy to get lost in.
Marie-Madelain set up a spiderweb of an alliance network recruiting agents, who then recruited agents. Alliance soon covered France, gathering information and photographic evidence and forwarding it to MI6 in London. She recruited associates who were most trustworthy and a few (as it turned out) not so much. Alliance was betrayed on several occasions resulting in the capture of many and the ultimate execution of many. She herself was captured once which resulted in an absolutely harrowing escape.
Alliance, as most of France, had difficulty knowing with absolute certainty who to follow politically, Charles De Gaulle, or Henri Giraud. That being the case, they simply continued to work with the thought in mind of ultimately saving their beloved country,
The book was eye opening and I was shocked at the number of people who risked their lives and the number who ultimately lost their lives out of sheer love and loyalty to their country and for the cause of freedom.
Lynne Olson's books are loaded with information gleaned through stellar research. They read like historical fiction. Absolutely engrossing and easy to get lost in.
January 18, 2019
Madame Fourcarde's Secret War is the story of a brave woman. I've noticed a trend of the stories about amazing women doing dangerous activities during WWII finally being told. This Parisian woman ran an underground network to help the allied forces. She was incredible. Her story is well written and researched. It's a great read, especially if you love historical fiction. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.
March 13, 2019
“The memory of an elephant, the cleverness of a fox, the guile of a serpent, and the fierceness of a panther.”
Marie-Madeleine Fourcaude ran the largest spy network in France during World War II. Charismatic, organized, intelligent and completely fearless, she was possessed of such obvious leadership skills that even very traditional Frenchmen (and a few Brits as well) came to recognize and respect her authority and ability. I had never heard of her before this galley became available; thanks to go Net Galley and Random House. This book is for sale now.
Fourcade was born into a wealthy family, and this fact almost kept me from reading this biography. Fortunately, others read it first and recommended it, and once I began reading I quickly caught onto the fact that no one without financial resources could have initiated and organized this network. At the outset, there was no government behind them and no funding other than what they could contribute themselves or scrounge up through the kinds of contacts that rich people have. There are a few fawning references to some of her associates—a princess here, a Duke there—that grate on my working class sensibilities, but they are fleeting.
Fourcade’s organization ultimately would include men and women from all classes, from magnates and royals to small businessmen, train conductors, waitresses, postal clerks and so on. Some were couriers delivering information about Nazi troop placement and movement, U-boats and harbors and so forth, whereas others quietly eavesdropped as they went about their daily routines. Once they were able to network with the British, the organization became better supplied and funded, and it had an enormous impact on the fascist occupiers, which in turn drew more enemy attention to the Resistance itself; among the greatest heroes were those that piloted the Lysander planes that delivered supplies and rescued members that were about to be captured. But not everyone was rescued; a great many were tortured, then killed. Fourcade herself was arrested twice, and both times escaped.
If you had tried to write this woman’s story as fiction, critics would have said it lacked credibility.
In reading about Fourcade, I learned a great deal more about the Resistance than I had previously known; in other nonfiction reading this aspect of the Allied effort was always on the edges and in the shadows, not unlike the spies themselves. In addition, I also came to understand that France was barely, barely even a member of the Alliance. The British bombed a ship to prevent fascists from seizing it, but they didn’t evacuate it first, and an entire ship full of French sailors were killed, leading a large segment of the French population to hate the British more than the Germans.
Then too, there was a sizable chunk of the French government that welcomed the fascists.
Revisionist histories will have us believe that the Nazis were opposed but that France was powerless to stop them, and for some that was true; yet the ugly truth is that it was the French themselves that incorporated anti-Semitism into their governmental structure before the Germans demanded it. Vichy cops had to take an oath “against Gaullist insurrection and Jewish leprosy.”
When planning D-Day, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt didn’t want to include the French in the planning or even inform them that the Allies were invading. Let them find out the same way that the Germans would, he suggested to Churchill. But the British insisted on bringing in friendly French within the orbit of De Gaulle, not to mention those around a pompous, difficult general named Gouroud, a hero from World War I who had to be more or less tricked into meeting with the Allies at the Rock of Gibraltar. The guy was a real piece of work, and some of the humorous passages that are included to lighten up an otherwise intense story focus on him.
I have never read Olson’s work before, but the author’s note says that she writes about “unsung heroes—individuals of courage and conscience who helped change their country and the world but who, for various reasons, have slipped into the shadows of history.” Now that I’ve read her work once, I will look for it in the future.
Highly recommended to historians, feminists, and those that love a good spy story, too.
Marie-Madeleine Fourcaude ran the largest spy network in France during World War II. Charismatic, organized, intelligent and completely fearless, she was possessed of such obvious leadership skills that even very traditional Frenchmen (and a few Brits as well) came to recognize and respect her authority and ability. I had never heard of her before this galley became available; thanks to go Net Galley and Random House. This book is for sale now.
Fourcade was born into a wealthy family, and this fact almost kept me from reading this biography. Fortunately, others read it first and recommended it, and once I began reading I quickly caught onto the fact that no one without financial resources could have initiated and organized this network. At the outset, there was no government behind them and no funding other than what they could contribute themselves or scrounge up through the kinds of contacts that rich people have. There are a few fawning references to some of her associates—a princess here, a Duke there—that grate on my working class sensibilities, but they are fleeting.
Fourcade’s organization ultimately would include men and women from all classes, from magnates and royals to small businessmen, train conductors, waitresses, postal clerks and so on. Some were couriers delivering information about Nazi troop placement and movement, U-boats and harbors and so forth, whereas others quietly eavesdropped as they went about their daily routines. Once they were able to network with the British, the organization became better supplied and funded, and it had an enormous impact on the fascist occupiers, which in turn drew more enemy attention to the Resistance itself; among the greatest heroes were those that piloted the Lysander planes that delivered supplies and rescued members that were about to be captured. But not everyone was rescued; a great many were tortured, then killed. Fourcade herself was arrested twice, and both times escaped.
If you had tried to write this woman’s story as fiction, critics would have said it lacked credibility.
In reading about Fourcade, I learned a great deal more about the Resistance than I had previously known; in other nonfiction reading this aspect of the Allied effort was always on the edges and in the shadows, not unlike the spies themselves. In addition, I also came to understand that France was barely, barely even a member of the Alliance. The British bombed a ship to prevent fascists from seizing it, but they didn’t evacuate it first, and an entire ship full of French sailors were killed, leading a large segment of the French population to hate the British more than the Germans.
Then too, there was a sizable chunk of the French government that welcomed the fascists.
Revisionist histories will have us believe that the Nazis were opposed but that France was powerless to stop them, and for some that was true; yet the ugly truth is that it was the French themselves that incorporated anti-Semitism into their governmental structure before the Germans demanded it. Vichy cops had to take an oath “against Gaullist insurrection and Jewish leprosy.”
When planning D-Day, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt didn’t want to include the French in the planning or even inform them that the Allies were invading. Let them find out the same way that the Germans would, he suggested to Churchill. But the British insisted on bringing in friendly French within the orbit of De Gaulle, not to mention those around a pompous, difficult general named Gouroud, a hero from World War I who had to be more or less tricked into meeting with the Allies at the Rock of Gibraltar. The guy was a real piece of work, and some of the humorous passages that are included to lighten up an otherwise intense story focus on him.
I have never read Olson’s work before, but the author’s note says that she writes about “unsung heroes—individuals of courage and conscience who helped change their country and the world but who, for various reasons, have slipped into the shadows of history.” Now that I’ve read her work once, I will look for it in the future.
Highly recommended to historians, feminists, and those that love a good spy story, too.
November 28, 2023
― “Many years after the war, an American journalist asked Jeannie Rousseau, one of Marie-Madeleine’s operatives, why she had risked her life to join Alliance. ‘I don’t understand the question,’ replied Rousseau, who was responsible for one of the greatest Allied intelligence coups of the war. ‘It was a moral obligation to do what you are capable of doing. It was a must. How could you not do it?’”
― Lynne Olson, Madame Fourcade's Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France's Largest Spy Network Against Hitler
It took just six weeks in the spring of 1940 for Germany to invade and defeat France. Between May 9 and June 22 of that year, the German assault punched through the defending French forces and raced across northern France. It also witnessed the retreat of the British Army and its evacuation from Dunkirk. On 22 June the French signed an armistice, surrendering to the Germans. France had fallen. The world was stunned. The French army had the equipment and personnel – five million men. How had one of the most powerful armies in the world been so quickly vanquished? The armistice, signed by Adolph Hitler and the French leader, Marshal Petain, divided the country geographically into two large sectors, one occupied by Nazi Germany and one governed by a new regime from the town of Vichy, ostensibly designated as free but really controlled by the Nazis.
Nevertheless, small pockets of resistance began to spring up around France. Many of the people who chose to resist were isolated at best, captured, tortured, deported, or executed. However, the largest spy network had some important success. Georges Loustaunau-Lacau, a fiercely anticommunist army major, recruited a young woman by the name of Marie-Madeleine Fourcade. A married mother of two, blond, in her early 30s, she seemed a most unlikely recruit. Yet Loustaunau-Lacau worked with Fourcade to build France’s largest spy network before turning over its operations to her. Named Alliance, the operation consisted of a vast network of spies and radio operators who worked all over France.
In December 1940, when Fourcade walked into a bar in the port city of Marseille to recruit a source named Gabriel Rivière, the potential recruit was stunned, to say the least. “Good God!” he shouted. “It’s a woman!” Nevertheless, he joined the network and became an important source of information about maritime traffic in the Mediterranean. This “woman” led some 3,000 agents in the largest and most important French secret intelligence network against the Nazis. Not only did a woman lead the network, many of the agents were women.
― “…women accounted for some twenty percent of its agents over the five years of its existence. Like their male counterparts, they represented all classes of society, from maids and laundresses to Paris socialites.”
― Lynne Olson, Madame Fourcade's Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France's Largest Spy Network Against Hitler
It begs the question, why in the world have we never heard of Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, the only woman to lead a major French resistance network? Fortunately, author Lynne Olson (Freedom's Daughters: the Unsung Heroines of the Civil Rights Movement and Citizens of London: The Americans who Stood with Britain) seeks to correct this unfortunate oversight. Her biography of Fourcade challenges our notions about who deserves to be called a hero (I personally think that it is one of the most overused words in our modern vocabulary).
Raised in a well-to-do French family, Marie-Madeleine Fourcade was extremely independent for her time and refused to comply with the unstated rules of proper feminine behavior. “All her life,” writes Olson, “she rebelled against the norms of France’s deeply conservative, patriarchal society.” When she was approached to work with the resistance, she accepted the position with little hesitation. She organized, recruited, trained, and raised funds. Fourcade was always on the run from the Gestapo or their French associates. She traveled in disguise using false documents, changed her hair styles and hair color, and even wore a dental prosthetic. Despite her attempts to conceal her identity, Fourcade was arrested and tortured by the Nazis. Nevertheless, she twice escaped her captors. But approximately 450 members of the network were killed by the Germans.
The author chronicles the actions of Fourcade and Alliance from 1936 to 1945. The information they gleaned provided information to MI6 and the Allies that changed the course of the war. This included information about submarine operations, as well as the development of the V1 and V2 rockets and their location, allowing the Allies to bomb these sites. In one fascinating account, Olson describes how Robert Douin, a flamboyant artist in Caen, led a team of forty to create a highly-detailed 55-foot-long map of the Normandy coast that was delivered to the Allies months before the D-Day invasion.
While Alliance’s work saved countless thousands of lives, the Nazis hunted down, imprisoned, tortured, and often executed hundreds of the network’s agents. After the war, when Charles De Gaulle created a list of those whom he deemed heroes in the fight for France’s liberation, Forcade did not make the list. However, when Fourcade passed away in 1989 at the age of 79, she became the first woman to be granted a funeral at Les Invalides, the complex in Paris where Napoleon I and other French military heroes are buried.
Olson honors Fourcade’s fight for freedom with a fascinating narrative that will interest World War II history buffs. Even more, the book provides some long-overdue recognition for a woman who played an important, even crucial, role in the Allied victory during World War II.
― Lynne Olson, Madame Fourcade's Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France's Largest Spy Network Against Hitler
It took just six weeks in the spring of 1940 for Germany to invade and defeat France. Between May 9 and June 22 of that year, the German assault punched through the defending French forces and raced across northern France. It also witnessed the retreat of the British Army and its evacuation from Dunkirk. On 22 June the French signed an armistice, surrendering to the Germans. France had fallen. The world was stunned. The French army had the equipment and personnel – five million men. How had one of the most powerful armies in the world been so quickly vanquished? The armistice, signed by Adolph Hitler and the French leader, Marshal Petain, divided the country geographically into two large sectors, one occupied by Nazi Germany and one governed by a new regime from the town of Vichy, ostensibly designated as free but really controlled by the Nazis.
Nevertheless, small pockets of resistance began to spring up around France. Many of the people who chose to resist were isolated at best, captured, tortured, deported, or executed. However, the largest spy network had some important success. Georges Loustaunau-Lacau, a fiercely anticommunist army major, recruited a young woman by the name of Marie-Madeleine Fourcade. A married mother of two, blond, in her early 30s, she seemed a most unlikely recruit. Yet Loustaunau-Lacau worked with Fourcade to build France’s largest spy network before turning over its operations to her. Named Alliance, the operation consisted of a vast network of spies and radio operators who worked all over France.
In December 1940, when Fourcade walked into a bar in the port city of Marseille to recruit a source named Gabriel Rivière, the potential recruit was stunned, to say the least. “Good God!” he shouted. “It’s a woman!” Nevertheless, he joined the network and became an important source of information about maritime traffic in the Mediterranean. This “woman” led some 3,000 agents in the largest and most important French secret intelligence network against the Nazis. Not only did a woman lead the network, many of the agents were women.
― “…women accounted for some twenty percent of its agents over the five years of its existence. Like their male counterparts, they represented all classes of society, from maids and laundresses to Paris socialites.”
― Lynne Olson, Madame Fourcade's Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France's Largest Spy Network Against Hitler
It begs the question, why in the world have we never heard of Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, the only woman to lead a major French resistance network? Fortunately, author Lynne Olson (Freedom's Daughters: the Unsung Heroines of the Civil Rights Movement and Citizens of London: The Americans who Stood with Britain) seeks to correct this unfortunate oversight. Her biography of Fourcade challenges our notions about who deserves to be called a hero (I personally think that it is one of the most overused words in our modern vocabulary).
Raised in a well-to-do French family, Marie-Madeleine Fourcade was extremely independent for her time and refused to comply with the unstated rules of proper feminine behavior. “All her life,” writes Olson, “she rebelled against the norms of France’s deeply conservative, patriarchal society.” When she was approached to work with the resistance, she accepted the position with little hesitation. She organized, recruited, trained, and raised funds. Fourcade was always on the run from the Gestapo or their French associates. She traveled in disguise using false documents, changed her hair styles and hair color, and even wore a dental prosthetic. Despite her attempts to conceal her identity, Fourcade was arrested and tortured by the Nazis. Nevertheless, she twice escaped her captors. But approximately 450 members of the network were killed by the Germans.
The author chronicles the actions of Fourcade and Alliance from 1936 to 1945. The information they gleaned provided information to MI6 and the Allies that changed the course of the war. This included information about submarine operations, as well as the development of the V1 and V2 rockets and their location, allowing the Allies to bomb these sites. In one fascinating account, Olson describes how Robert Douin, a flamboyant artist in Caen, led a team of forty to create a highly-detailed 55-foot-long map of the Normandy coast that was delivered to the Allies months before the D-Day invasion.
While Alliance’s work saved countless thousands of lives, the Nazis hunted down, imprisoned, tortured, and often executed hundreds of the network’s agents. After the war, when Charles De Gaulle created a list of those whom he deemed heroes in the fight for France’s liberation, Forcade did not make the list. However, when Fourcade passed away in 1989 at the age of 79, she became the first woman to be granted a funeral at Les Invalides, the complex in Paris where Napoleon I and other French military heroes are buried.
Olson honors Fourcade’s fight for freedom with a fascinating narrative that will interest World War II history buffs. Even more, the book provides some long-overdue recognition for a woman who played an important, even crucial, role in the Allied victory during World War II.
April 2, 2020
Enjoyed the heavily researched and greatly detailed story of Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, the leader of the vast French Resistance organization, Alliance from 1941 until the end of the war. Her recruitment and implementation of wartime espionage was largely forgotten or dismissed while men received accolades for their heroism. The stories of how the individual members fared is both astonishing and heartbreaking.
Won this book on a goodreads giveaway so thank you to Random House for the book in exchange for a fair review.
Won this book on a goodreads giveaway so thank you to Random House for the book in exchange for a fair review.
June 25, 2022
This book was hard to rate, because as many of you know, I am a lover of all things WWII, of women taking unprecedented roles of power and influence, of resistance and spy networks, of infiltrating and resistance, anything to win the war for moral reasons. And a lover of anything Paris and French. I knew I wanted to read the book, and I knew it would capture my interest. So why would there be any drawbacks?
I'm actually quite embarrassed and a little ashamed to tell you. Non fiction can be hard for me to pick up, follow, read, and digest. Not all non-fiction. Some of it captures me, much of it I can get into if I choose well. But this was one of the ones that despite the very very good writing and the interest of the topic and the escapades, and the high stakes action, I found my eyes closing, and pages turning quicker, and my needing to go back and try to re-capture. I had distraction. But this has nothing to do with the book, this has to do with me. I spent some time trying to understand this.
I really wanted to understand how Madame Fourcade thought and felt. I wanted to understand her instincts and contradictions, her longings, her fear, her anger, and her dreaming. Even if it were non-fiction, I wanted someone to imagine that for me. Or pull that from her or from the witnesses in a quoted way. I needed that intrapersonal depth. And when I don't have it, I try to understand something, or just make it up. So here goes.
The heroes, the true life heroes of the war, even everyday heroes, even our January 6th heroes, there is something about understanding the call to action. Because I don't think its a decision. It seems more to be a reaction or an instinct. Inevitably, whether its a split second thing or a larger pull, even a small decision that has life stakes, or that will lead you down one road or another inevitably, there is actually little decision at all. Because when people know and feel what is right, they just act without thought. The reasoning of the moral code comes later. This heroine never "decided", she simply knew what she had to do. I wanted to learn more about how she understood that, but also about heroes and heroines in general. How did they come to see themselves simply doing what's right because the body and the soul and the moral and the action just come together in perfect synchrony in an automatic whole moment action. Have you ever stepped into something without thinking? Reacted to a situation that needed help or was suffering from injustice of one kind or another? Or did you find yourself an innocent bystander who regretted the second to longer of hesitation, where fear or self preservation or indecision got in the way? This was what was so interesting to me about the book. All the real life people who never thought about the question of why they were doing what they were doing, and at what personal cost? A moral imperative, a moral instinct, a soul's direction takes over. I was so taken by all the close calls, and widespread plans. But mostly by everyday people rising up for what is right. I was looking to understand that they way I thought about it in Kate Quinn's Diamond Eye. A woman sniper who needs to reconcile what she does with being a mother and an absent one at that. She reconciles it by truly believing in the rightness of what she is doing, and the necessity of her part in it.
There is more to add. I read this book also for a challenge (Walk Down History Lane) that involves a group of people linking books together, so I might stop here for this review. But I do want to say that our group is exploring as a theme for this second loop and for the entire loop, of Revolution, and sometimes internal revolution. Everything from gender role switches, to gender bending, to new ways of conceptualization and thinking that are revolutionary and counter to what would be expected. I just wanted to say that my non-fiction read for this challenge encompasses all of those areas. A woman in the 1940's using her position and connections and expertise and instinct to be able to pull off the largest spy network against Hitler in France. She as a person was revolutionary, but she was also at the center of the Revolution. The only thing missing for me, and maybe it was in there, was what that meant to her and how she conceptualized that. That would have not only captured my attention, it would have made it a 5 star read.....
I'm actually quite embarrassed and a little ashamed to tell you. Non fiction can be hard for me to pick up, follow, read, and digest. Not all non-fiction. Some of it captures me, much of it I can get into if I choose well. But this was one of the ones that despite the very very good writing and the interest of the topic and the escapades, and the high stakes action, I found my eyes closing, and pages turning quicker, and my needing to go back and try to re-capture. I had distraction. But this has nothing to do with the book, this has to do with me. I spent some time trying to understand this.
I really wanted to understand how Madame Fourcade thought and felt. I wanted to understand her instincts and contradictions, her longings, her fear, her anger, and her dreaming. Even if it were non-fiction, I wanted someone to imagine that for me. Or pull that from her or from the witnesses in a quoted way. I needed that intrapersonal depth. And when I don't have it, I try to understand something, or just make it up. So here goes.
The heroes, the true life heroes of the war, even everyday heroes, even our January 6th heroes, there is something about understanding the call to action. Because I don't think its a decision. It seems more to be a reaction or an instinct. Inevitably, whether its a split second thing or a larger pull, even a small decision that has life stakes, or that will lead you down one road or another inevitably, there is actually little decision at all. Because when people know and feel what is right, they just act without thought. The reasoning of the moral code comes later. This heroine never "decided", she simply knew what she had to do. I wanted to learn more about how she understood that, but also about heroes and heroines in general. How did they come to see themselves simply doing what's right because the body and the soul and the moral and the action just come together in perfect synchrony in an automatic whole moment action. Have you ever stepped into something without thinking? Reacted to a situation that needed help or was suffering from injustice of one kind or another? Or did you find yourself an innocent bystander who regretted the second to longer of hesitation, where fear or self preservation or indecision got in the way? This was what was so interesting to me about the book. All the real life people who never thought about the question of why they were doing what they were doing, and at what personal cost? A moral imperative, a moral instinct, a soul's direction takes over. I was so taken by all the close calls, and widespread plans. But mostly by everyday people rising up for what is right. I was looking to understand that they way I thought about it in Kate Quinn's Diamond Eye. A woman sniper who needs to reconcile what she does with being a mother and an absent one at that. She reconciles it by truly believing in the rightness of what she is doing, and the necessity of her part in it.
There is more to add. I read this book also for a challenge (Walk Down History Lane) that involves a group of people linking books together, so I might stop here for this review. But I do want to say that our group is exploring as a theme for this second loop and for the entire loop, of Revolution, and sometimes internal revolution. Everything from gender role switches, to gender bending, to new ways of conceptualization and thinking that are revolutionary and counter to what would be expected. I just wanted to say that my non-fiction read for this challenge encompasses all of those areas. A woman in the 1940's using her position and connections and expertise and instinct to be able to pull off the largest spy network against Hitler in France. She as a person was revolutionary, but she was also at the center of the Revolution. The only thing missing for me, and maybe it was in there, was what that meant to her and how she conceptualized that. That would have not only captured my attention, it would have made it a 5 star read.....
March 14, 2019
A very well written book. However, most likely due to my timing, was just too much of a fact-to-fact within a sentence-to-sentence movement through events. In my opinion the book read like a time-line with explanations.
I will have to admit that I am also currently reading Eric Larson's "In the Garden of Beasts" and I just completed Lilac Girls both of which have similar topics and I am very much enjoying. So, my timing may have been off with this one. Consensus would lean towards this being an excellent book and I am not disagreeing.
I will have to admit that I am also currently reading Eric Larson's "In the Garden of Beasts" and I just completed Lilac Girls both of which have similar topics and I am very much enjoying. So, my timing may have been off with this one. Consensus would lean towards this being an excellent book and I am not disagreeing.
August 28, 2019
Fascinating story about brave men and women from French resistance.
August 6, 2022
Lynne Olson’s Madame Fourcade’s Secret War reports the real accomplishments of a women, working and fighting in a “Man’s World” while it was at war. Madame Fourcade was a woman born to privilege who could have sat out World War Two secure in her social position. Instead, she recognized the Nazi’s and their French toadies for what they were and at risk to herself and her family to become an early resister and major leader in the secret efforts to end German occupation. Being a woman, her fight necessarily included overcoming French resistance to having a female leader, English resistance to the notion of a female leader and of course the invaders increasing determination to have her and hers put to a slow painful death. At this point a lot of women readers are responding that much of this sounds like a typical week.
Rather than list the usual highlights of what her people accomplished, it is sufficient to say that over the years the intelligence her network provided had both tactical and strategic importance. Instead let s consider, in terms of the thousands of operatives in her network she was holding a position equal to a General in any Army. Her people where so spread across France, she could be considered on par with a theater command. Then consider:
1. In modern warfare field grade and above officers may on occasion choose to be within range of small arms fire. For years she was never more than 1 doorway from capture. Too often she did not have that much cover.
2. In modern warfare a commanding general has a dedicated section to handle administrative and budgetary matters. Madam Fourcade had to physically handle millions in network moneys, and the paperwork necessary to mange a network was to prove a lifre or death consideration, unknown to a army commander.
3. A senior commander may have to deal with local and national politics, but Madam Fourcade had issues beyond liking or disliking the civilian leadership. While she was in southern France, changes in the Vichy government’s submissive posture toward the Germans, and their eventual occupation of Vichy, was a constant life or death problem. Within the Free French movement, she unintentionally got caught between the followers of Charles De Gaulle and a competing leader, General Giraud. That she and her group was perceived as being on the wrong side of French politics may have created other direct threats to her people.
4. One matter not made clear to Ms. Olson’s reader was the fact that her people were caught between two units of the British secret war. From the beginning her network passed information to MI6. Ms. Olson barely considers this more than an insiders struggle for administrative preference. It was much more. MI6 wanted information. It wanted a low profile and the least possible friction with the Germans. Later, The Special Operations Executive, SOE, started operations in France. This organization existed to launch active warfare: sabotage and assassinations. The occupying army was never going to be gentle in its search for and handling of French spies, but once there was blood on the ground, and direct action against supply and communications, the priority of the spy hunt and the assets available would change, costing Madam Fourcade the lives of hundreds.
The end of the war brought a predictable lack of recognition for Madam Fourcade. Rather than bemoan the injustice of this suppression of history, rather, Herstory, Madam Fourcade would spend much of her post war life, seeking to locate her comrades. For the dead she would work to return their bodies to home and a decent burial. Survivors or surviving family members she would work to get them support and recognition.
It is not uncommon for a retired wartime general to work for fallen warriors and their families. Madam Fourcade did so in situations where there was little or no proof, except her loyalty to her people.
Lynne Olson knows she is telling and thereby helping to preserve the story of a war hero. Her writing style allows the story to tell itself. The author neither oversells the heroics, nor hides the mistakes. The reader knows that this was never a one person operations, and credit is honestly given to those faithful subordinates. Even those who overcame their reluctance to have a woman lead. The result is a very believable woman, achieving important and necessary, war winning work.
Rather than list the usual highlights of what her people accomplished, it is sufficient to say that over the years the intelligence her network provided had both tactical and strategic importance. Instead let s consider, in terms of the thousands of operatives in her network she was holding a position equal to a General in any Army. Her people where so spread across France, she could be considered on par with a theater command. Then consider:
1. In modern warfare field grade and above officers may on occasion choose to be within range of small arms fire. For years she was never more than 1 doorway from capture. Too often she did not have that much cover.
2. In modern warfare a commanding general has a dedicated section to handle administrative and budgetary matters. Madam Fourcade had to physically handle millions in network moneys, and the paperwork necessary to mange a network was to prove a lifre or death consideration, unknown to a army commander.
3. A senior commander may have to deal with local and national politics, but Madam Fourcade had issues beyond liking or disliking the civilian leadership. While she was in southern France, changes in the Vichy government’s submissive posture toward the Germans, and their eventual occupation of Vichy, was a constant life or death problem. Within the Free French movement, she unintentionally got caught between the followers of Charles De Gaulle and a competing leader, General Giraud. That she and her group was perceived as being on the wrong side of French politics may have created other direct threats to her people.
4. One matter not made clear to Ms. Olson’s reader was the fact that her people were caught between two units of the British secret war. From the beginning her network passed information to MI6. Ms. Olson barely considers this more than an insiders struggle for administrative preference. It was much more. MI6 wanted information. It wanted a low profile and the least possible friction with the Germans. Later, The Special Operations Executive, SOE, started operations in France. This organization existed to launch active warfare: sabotage and assassinations. The occupying army was never going to be gentle in its search for and handling of French spies, but once there was blood on the ground, and direct action against supply and communications, the priority of the spy hunt and the assets available would change, costing Madam Fourcade the lives of hundreds.
The end of the war brought a predictable lack of recognition for Madam Fourcade. Rather than bemoan the injustice of this suppression of history, rather, Herstory, Madam Fourcade would spend much of her post war life, seeking to locate her comrades. For the dead she would work to return their bodies to home and a decent burial. Survivors or surviving family members she would work to get them support and recognition.
It is not uncommon for a retired wartime general to work for fallen warriors and their families. Madam Fourcade did so in situations where there was little or no proof, except her loyalty to her people.
Lynne Olson knows she is telling and thereby helping to preserve the story of a war hero. Her writing style allows the story to tell itself. The author neither oversells the heroics, nor hides the mistakes. The reader knows that this was never a one person operations, and credit is honestly given to those faithful subordinates. Even those who overcame their reluctance to have a woman lead. The result is a very believable woman, achieving important and necessary, war winning work.
November 1, 2022
I have read many biographies on World War 2, and almost all of them have taught me a few things I have not known. But when it comes to the quantity of events and the individuals involved, I have no doubt that Ms. Olson's biographies on World War 2 and the European theater have enlighten me to more people and events that were extremely significant but that I had no idea about. I have read four of her biographies on World War 2 (each between four and five hundred pages) and the knowledge that I have come away with is amazing, and it doesn't hurt that her writing style is beautiful.
"Madame Fourcade's Secret War," is about Marie-Madeline Fourcade and her leadership of the French spy network, "Alliance," that lasted as long as the occupation of France by the Nazis and supplied critical intelligence to M16 (the British spy network) that would save hundreds of thousands of lives and especially help with the liberation of France and the victory over the Germans.
Despite the Gestapos relentless pursuit of them, executing hundreds of its agents, it refused to lay low and continual to supply information to General Patton toward the end of the war as he pushed the Germans out of France and back into Germany.
"Alliance," led by fearless and courageous leader Madame Fourcade had as many as three thousand agents. For those allied geniuses that were originally taken aback that a beautiful female agent was running such an organization, their doubts were quickly erased as the intelligence information kept on flowing. Sadly, after the war it was mostly the men that were recognized as heroes, and Madame Fourcade and her network were virtually left out of the spotlight and it wasn't until recently that her and her network of spies are receiving the recognition they so richly deserved.
A SIDE NOTE: For those who believe it's no big deal that our former president took highly classified documents down to Mar-a-Lago, let me remind you that it is the information in those documents that put the lives of our agents in jeopardy, and the security of our country and our allies at risk. Senator Rubio, besides being a cowardly traitor and a despicable human being, it is not simply a 'storage issue,' but an issue of life and death for individuals who have more courage in their pinkie finger than you have in your entire being.
"Madame Fourcade's Secret War," is about Marie-Madeline Fourcade and her leadership of the French spy network, "Alliance," that lasted as long as the occupation of France by the Nazis and supplied critical intelligence to M16 (the British spy network) that would save hundreds of thousands of lives and especially help with the liberation of France and the victory over the Germans.
Despite the Gestapos relentless pursuit of them, executing hundreds of its agents, it refused to lay low and continual to supply information to General Patton toward the end of the war as he pushed the Germans out of France and back into Germany.
"Alliance," led by fearless and courageous leader Madame Fourcade had as many as three thousand agents. For those allied geniuses that were originally taken aback that a beautiful female agent was running such an organization, their doubts were quickly erased as the intelligence information kept on flowing. Sadly, after the war it was mostly the men that were recognized as heroes, and Madame Fourcade and her network were virtually left out of the spotlight and it wasn't until recently that her and her network of spies are receiving the recognition they so richly deserved.
A SIDE NOTE: For those who believe it's no big deal that our former president took highly classified documents down to Mar-a-Lago, let me remind you that it is the information in those documents that put the lives of our agents in jeopardy, and the security of our country and our allies at risk. Senator Rubio, besides being a cowardly traitor and a despicable human being, it is not simply a 'storage issue,' but an issue of life and death for individuals who have more courage in their pinkie finger than you have in your entire being.
May 25, 2020
Astounding! Full of twists and turns that I didn’t expect, and even more incredible that they were all true events. Marie-Madeleine Fourcade was a force to be reckoned with, and I found myself smiling over the fact no one suspected her to be leading a vast spy network simply because she was a woman.
I can’t recommend this book highly enough. It’s written like a spy novel and will have you flipping through pages wondering who is going to make it out alive. Will Fourcade survive 9 hours stuffed into a mail bag while being smuggled into Spain? Will the Germans discover who she really is? How is she going to break out of prison?
But it’s not all about Fourcade, either. Olson details the lives and sacrifices of many other spies within Alliance, and some of them bravely give their lives to ensure the Allies’ success. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to live during this time, and to work under such pressure knowing that the stakes couldn’t be any higher. There are many incredible stories in here, and I’m grateful that Olson has brought these men and women to life once more.
See more of my reviews: Blog // Instagram
I can’t recommend this book highly enough. It’s written like a spy novel and will have you flipping through pages wondering who is going to make it out alive. Will Fourcade survive 9 hours stuffed into a mail bag while being smuggled into Spain? Will the Germans discover who she really is? How is she going to break out of prison?
But it’s not all about Fourcade, either. Olson details the lives and sacrifices of many other spies within Alliance, and some of them bravely give their lives to ensure the Allies’ success. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to live during this time, and to work under such pressure knowing that the stakes couldn’t be any higher. There are many incredible stories in here, and I’m grateful that Olson has brought these men and women to life once more.
See more of my reviews: Blog // Instagram
August 17, 2024
An excellent account of the creation of the Alliance, one of the original resistance networks in France, founded by Navarre and Fourcade and continued/lead throughout the war by her after he was arrested.
Marie Madeleine’s father worked for a French shipping company in Shanghai. Her mother refused to stay behind in Paris, though agreed to return to Marseille for the birth of her daughter in 1909. Marie-Madeleine and her siblings grew up in Shanghai, with freedoms unheard of for the social and family circles they hailed from. Those freedoms, an early bilingual education and their return to Paris when she was 10 years old, set her up in many ways for the future role she would play, organising and ultimately leading an important French intelligence network.
As a young woman, she again lived abroad, in Morocco. She drove a car, learned to fly a plane and had a job. She rejected French society’s (and her husband’s) restrictive ideas about how women should behave. She had trained to become a concert pianist, worked at a commercial radio station and would forge her own future.
Access to Important Connections, Two Rivals
Though never in the military herself, she was married briefly to a French military officer, as was her sister. She thus had opportunity to meet and observe some of the younger officers through her social connections, men who would later become important during the war years.
Both products of Saint-Cyr, France’s elite military academy Ecole Supérieure de Guerre, both fought and received multiple citations for bravery in WWI; they were brilliant, ambitious and egocentric. A rebellious streak put them at odds with Marshal Philippe Pétain (a French general who commanded the French Army in WW1 and would become head of what became known as the Régime de Vichy Vichy France). The rivalry between the pair would also keep them from being unified during the war years and likely impacted perceptions afterwards.
A Partnership, A Turning Point
After a discussion at one of the social events around March 1936, Loustaunau-Lacau contacted Marie-Madeleine and asked for her help in creating a journal that would argue the case for reform of the military and open the eyes of leaders to the imminent threat of Germany. The work would begin immediately.
An Intelligence Network is Formed, Working Inside France
Over the next two years, they would recruit informants in France, Switzerland, Belgium and Germany who passed on reports about the build up of the German armed forces. Loustaunau-Lacau adopted the codename Navarre, after Henri de Navarre, later King Henri IV of France. Given the risks they faced, that one of them might be captured or killed, Navarre insisted they share leadership of the network and when he was compromised, as promised Fourcade took the lead role.
At the same time, backbencher in the British House of Commons, Winston Churchill had created a similar private network and Charles de Gaulle decamped to London, setting up his Free French operation. Fourcade suggested they join with him.
They would resist from within.
Another Perspective of History
Madame Fourcade’s Secret War is a work of history, told in a compelling narrative voice, that not only focuses on the leadership role of this one extraordinary woman, but will likely expand most reader’s knowledge of what living in France under German occupation was like for the many, who vehemently opposed the way their government had capitulated to a hostile outside force, without much initial resistance.
Personally, the history I learned in school was quite different, as it was told from a very anglo-centric perspective, so the narratives stemmed from how this threat impacted the United Kingdom and their allies.
I never really understood what exactly happened within France in the lead up to the occupation, how it impacted their government and rendered the military ineffective. So many of the protections a country might normally expect when facing a hostile enemy were lacking; to go against the orders of a government (even if under occupation) was a betrayal.
Cinema Can Create Its Own Self Serving Narrative
Though there have been books and films about the war and the French resistance, little has been shown of the importance of the Alliance network and of Marie-Madeleine Fourcade’s achievements. Most of the attention has gone to stories of sabotage and escape lines, of battles and blitzes.
I would certainly be interested in a cinematic development of Fourcade’s story, one that traverses France and shows a very different side to those who travelling around the country, making radio transmissions and secret flights across the channel, where they are hosted by memorable characters in this real life adventure.
Noah’s Ark and the Hedgehog
In the late 1960’s Fourcade would get her story down in a gripping memoir entitled L'arche de Noé Réseau Alliance 1940-1945 (Noah’s Ark), the name the German’s referred to their network as, after they would use codenames of animals, Fourcade’s was hérrison (hedgehog), a small animal that intelligently eluded predators.
Lynne Olson provides a thoroughly researched, immensely readable account of the creation of the Alliance, one of the original and most important resistance networks in France. From its foundation by Navarre and Fourcade to the establishment of thousands of recruits, the many dangerous activities they undertook, throughout the war, all that was able to be continued by Fourcade due to her continued leadership deserves to be more widely recognised and appreciated.
They Will Not Be Forgotten, The People
The book is full of stories about the different people she recruited, the relationships and loyalties and daring escapades each of them went on, in order to bring their intelligence to the Alliance.
It is also, sadly, a homage to those who would be punished and killed for their roles, some, so close to the end of the war, it is excruciating to read. That Fourcade survived and was able to share her story and thus the courage and bravery and loyalty of others is a true gift to all humanity.
It’s the first time I have read an account that centres what was happening in France at this local level, with a more global scope, that renders the dangerous and delicate situation of those in the military, who were against the capitulation of their government. While in great danger to themselves, they were able to band together like-minded civilians and provide those on the outside with the information they needed to mount a significant and ultimately successful defence.
Highly Recommended!!
Marie Madeleine’s father worked for a French shipping company in Shanghai. Her mother refused to stay behind in Paris, though agreed to return to Marseille for the birth of her daughter in 1909. Marie-Madeleine and her siblings grew up in Shanghai, with freedoms unheard of for the social and family circles they hailed from. Those freedoms, an early bilingual education and their return to Paris when she was 10 years old, set her up in many ways for the future role she would play, organising and ultimately leading an important French intelligence network.
As a young woman, she again lived abroad, in Morocco. She drove a car, learned to fly a plane and had a job. She rejected French society’s (and her husband’s) restrictive ideas about how women should behave. She had trained to become a concert pianist, worked at a commercial radio station and would forge her own future.
Access to Important Connections, Two Rivals
Though never in the military herself, she was married briefly to a French military officer, as was her sister. She thus had opportunity to meet and observe some of the younger officers through her social connections, men who would later become important during the war years.
Two of the most prominent members of that younger group – Lieutenant Colonel Charles de Gaulle and Major Georges Loustaunau Lacau – took centre stage in the discussion on rue Vaneau, engaging in a debate that quickly escalated into a full-blown argument. It soon became obvious to Marie-Madeleine that the two officers viewed each other as rivals…
Both products of Saint-Cyr, France’s elite military academy Ecole Supérieure de Guerre, both fought and received multiple citations for bravery in WWI; they were brilliant, ambitious and egocentric. A rebellious streak put them at odds with Marshal Philippe Pétain (a French general who commanded the French Army in WW1 and would become head of what became known as the Régime de Vichy Vichy France). The rivalry between the pair would also keep them from being unified during the war years and likely impacted perceptions afterwards.
A Partnership, A Turning Point
After a discussion at one of the social events around March 1936, Loustaunau-Lacau contacted Marie-Madeleine and asked for her help in creating a journal that would argue the case for reform of the military and open the eyes of leaders to the imminent threat of Germany. The work would begin immediately.
“One of my Belgian friends has procured secret dossiers that expose the intentions of the German high command,” he said. “I need to get them quickly. Such documents must not travel by mail. You have a car. You must go to Brussels and collect them. I will pay all expenses.”
An Intelligence Network is Formed, Working Inside France
Caught up in this real life spy drama, Marie-Madeleine agreed – a decision that would radically change her life. From that moment, she wrote later, she and Loustaunau-Lacau began building an intelligence network against Nazi Germany.
Over the next two years, they would recruit informants in France, Switzerland, Belgium and Germany who passed on reports about the build up of the German armed forces. Loustaunau-Lacau adopted the codename Navarre, after Henri de Navarre, later King Henri IV of France. Given the risks they faced, that one of them might be captured or killed, Navarre insisted they share leadership of the network and when he was compromised, as promised Fourcade took the lead role.
At the same time, backbencher in the British House of Commons, Winston Churchill had created a similar private network and Charles de Gaulle decamped to London, setting up his Free French operation. Fourcade suggested they join with him.
Her mentor rejected the idea outright. In England, he said, they would be refugees, just like de Gaulle, dependent on the British for everything. At that point, almost no one in the British government, with the promising exception of Winston Churchill, took de Gaulle and his minuscule band of followers seriously.
They would resist from within.
Another Perspective of History
Madame Fourcade’s Secret War is a work of history, told in a compelling narrative voice, that not only focuses on the leadership role of this one extraordinary woman, but will likely expand most reader’s knowledge of what living in France under German occupation was like for the many, who vehemently opposed the way their government had capitulated to a hostile outside force, without much initial resistance.
Personally, the history I learned in school was quite different, as it was told from a very anglo-centric perspective, so the narratives stemmed from how this threat impacted the United Kingdom and their allies.
I never really understood what exactly happened within France in the lead up to the occupation, how it impacted their government and rendered the military ineffective. So many of the protections a country might normally expect when facing a hostile enemy were lacking; to go against the orders of a government (even if under occupation) was a betrayal.
Cinema Can Create Its Own Self Serving Narrative
Though there have been books and films about the war and the French resistance, little has been shown of the importance of the Alliance network and of Marie-Madeleine Fourcade’s achievements. Most of the attention has gone to stories of sabotage and escape lines, of battles and blitzes.
Saboteurs and other resistance fighters in France were certainly important after D-Day, but they did little to obstruct the Germans before then. Escape networks did heroic work in smuggling shot-down Allied airmen and others out of occupied Europe and back to freedom, but their actual contribution to victory was small.
I would certainly be interested in a cinematic development of Fourcade’s story, one that traverses France and shows a very different side to those who travelling around the country, making radio transmissions and secret flights across the channel, where they are hosted by memorable characters in this real life adventure.
Noah’s Ark and the Hedgehog
In the late 1960’s Fourcade would get her story down in a gripping memoir entitled L'arche de Noé Réseau Alliance 1940-1945 (Noah’s Ark), the name the German’s referred to their network as, after they would use codenames of animals, Fourcade’s was hérrison (hedgehog), a small animal that intelligently eluded predators.
Lynne Olson provides a thoroughly researched, immensely readable account of the creation of the Alliance, one of the original and most important resistance networks in France. From its foundation by Navarre and Fourcade to the establishment of thousands of recruits, the many dangerous activities they undertook, throughout the war, all that was able to be continued by Fourcade due to her continued leadership deserves to be more widely recognised and appreciated.
They Will Not Be Forgotten, The People
The book is full of stories about the different people she recruited, the relationships and loyalties and daring escapades each of them went on, in order to bring their intelligence to the Alliance.
It is also, sadly, a homage to those who would be punished and killed for their roles, some, so close to the end of the war, it is excruciating to read. That Fourcade survived and was able to share her story and thus the courage and bravery and loyalty of others is a true gift to all humanity.
It’s the first time I have read an account that centres what was happening in France at this local level, with a more global scope, that renders the dangerous and delicate situation of those in the military, who were against the capitulation of their government. While in great danger to themselves, they were able to band together like-minded civilians and provide those on the outside with the information they needed to mount a significant and ultimately successful defence.
Highly Recommended!!
July 24, 2020
Fascinating book about the French resistance and WWII and how hard they struggled, constantly getting caught and then rebooting the network. Marie-Madeleine was an impressive woman - the number of times she had to show grit to keep the network alive when it seemed dead, not seeing her kids much at all for 4 years, losing her lover to the gestapo. Sounded hard for the Germans to control a country where almost everyone is willing to be a spy.
I got a real sense for the "two Frances" - the Vichy/Petain one, and the DeGaulle/resistance one. I liked this quote:
"France must undergo a complete transformation of its society, adhering to the conservative spirit of his government’s new motto—Travail, famille, patrie—rather than to France’s national motto since the French Revolution—Liberté, égalité, fraternité. Obedience to authority and devotion to work, he made clear, must replace the idea of freedom and equality. There must be a return to tradition, to working the land, and to so-called family values, which in his and Vichy’s eyes meant accepting men as the unquestioned authority figures of the family and viewing women solely through the prism of motherhood and caregiving."
I got a real sense for the "two Frances" - the Vichy/Petain one, and the DeGaulle/resistance one. I liked this quote:
"France must undergo a complete transformation of its society, adhering to the conservative spirit of his government’s new motto—Travail, famille, patrie—rather than to France’s national motto since the French Revolution—Liberté, égalité, fraternité. Obedience to authority and devotion to work, he made clear, must replace the idea of freedom and equality. There must be a return to tradition, to working the land, and to so-called family values, which in his and Vichy’s eyes meant accepting men as the unquestioned authority figures of the family and viewing women solely through the prism of motherhood and caregiving."
October 30, 2022
I hadn’t recognized until this book the differences between SOE and MI6…and they did not get along. But mostly I marvel at the bravery of women in the French resistance…and how their stories haven’t been recorded.
April 8, 2025
Really interesting story of a powerful woman, now historical figure thar contributed to the end of WWII, and saving France. It reads like a documentary, so it was difficult/dry to follow at times. However, understanding the atrocities of the time vested me in knowing their fates.
April 24, 2019
The few works that explore the Resistance Movement in France during World War II tend to ignore the intelligence gathering movements and women. Madame Fourcade was the leader of the largest anti-German intelligence gathering organization in France. The author does an excellent job of telling her story. A good read for those wanting a better picture of World War II against the Germans. This was a free review copy through goodreads.com.
April 26, 2020
Imagine running the largest spy organization in Vichy France - setting up safe houses and networks, negotiating the tensions between de Gaulle's Free French and the anti-Gaullist General Giraud, helping to spirit spies and messengers from France to England in the dead of night on dangerous Lysander plane trips. Never staying in one "safe" location for too long; never knowing who has your back and who might stab you in the back.
Now, imagine doing all of that as a woman, a mother of two young children and an infant, in a society where, as author Lynne Olson describes it, "men fought, and women stayed home" (525). Marie-Madeleine Fourcade resisted both the German occupation and the gendered expectations of a military and espionage apparatus designed for and perpetuated by men. That she did so successfully, in a time when the life of a spy in occupied France was reputed to be six months at the most, is a credit to her resourcefulness, daring, and people skills. Even some of her supporters in MI6, while recognizing her talents and success, did so reluctantly. Still, the colleagues she trusted and led knew her worth. In the words of Léon Faye, her dependable lieutenant and the father of her youngest child: "A woman...But not just any woman! She's an indisputable and undisputed leader. Even the English have accepted her" (201).
Readers who enjoy espionage fiction and nonfiction alike will be amazed that Marie-Madeleine's story is real, and that she is not more widely known. The scenes depicting her captures and escapes, and those of her Resistance colleagues, are riveting - sometimes by simply talking her way out of the hands of the Gestapo, or waiting until their backs were turned to climb out of a window and make a run for it. Not all went according to plan; she did lose friends and companions, and their stories, and her anxiety for their safety and grief over their losses, are powerfully depicted. Her devotion to a cause greater than herself and her family is heroic - even after the war, when she advocated for remembrance ceremonies, official honors, government pensions, and medical care for Alliance agents, as well as benefits for the families of those who were executed in German hands. As she put it herself in her memoirs, "The connection formed by a threat to one's country is the strongest connection of all. People adopt one another, march together. Only capture or death can tear them apart" (511). Read this fascinating account of her dedication and defiance of societal norms, and be riveted by her exploits and those of her spy network.
Now, imagine doing all of that as a woman, a mother of two young children and an infant, in a society where, as author Lynne Olson describes it, "men fought, and women stayed home" (525). Marie-Madeleine Fourcade resisted both the German occupation and the gendered expectations of a military and espionage apparatus designed for and perpetuated by men. That she did so successfully, in a time when the life of a spy in occupied France was reputed to be six months at the most, is a credit to her resourcefulness, daring, and people skills. Even some of her supporters in MI6, while recognizing her talents and success, did so reluctantly. Still, the colleagues she trusted and led knew her worth. In the words of Léon Faye, her dependable lieutenant and the father of her youngest child: "A woman...But not just any woman! She's an indisputable and undisputed leader. Even the English have accepted her" (201).
Readers who enjoy espionage fiction and nonfiction alike will be amazed that Marie-Madeleine's story is real, and that she is not more widely known. The scenes depicting her captures and escapes, and those of her Resistance colleagues, are riveting - sometimes by simply talking her way out of the hands of the Gestapo, or waiting until their backs were turned to climb out of a window and make a run for it. Not all went according to plan; she did lose friends and companions, and their stories, and her anxiety for their safety and grief over their losses, are powerfully depicted. Her devotion to a cause greater than herself and her family is heroic - even after the war, when she advocated for remembrance ceremonies, official honors, government pensions, and medical care for Alliance agents, as well as benefits for the families of those who were executed in German hands. As she put it herself in her memoirs, "The connection formed by a threat to one's country is the strongest connection of all. People adopt one another, march together. Only capture or death can tear them apart" (511). Read this fascinating account of her dedication and defiance of societal norms, and be riveted by her exploits and those of her spy network.
May 3, 2020
An amazing and remarkable story expertly written. Marie-Madeleine Fourcade was the only woman to lead a large and complex French resistance network during WWII from 1941 through 1945 and the liberation of France. A young mother living a life of privilege in high society Paris, she ran in social circles with the well-connected with whom she would discuss the issues of the day which at that time of course included the threat of Nazi Germany's aggression in Europe. Madame Fourcade was in many ways perfectly suited for the most unlikely path she would eventually take. She was smart, attentive, a detailed thinker, and had a certain disarming beauty and presence. And she was restless, with a burning desire to do what she could to protect France and the French people. Many made the mistake of underestimating her, including some of those in the Alliance network, yet she was able to overcome their skepticism and earn their trust and respect which was essential to running an underground spy network.
This book is the detailed story of how Madame Fourcade came to lead a sophisticated resistance network, how she built the network from scratch, rebuilt it in times of loss, and directed a multitude of intelligence gathering activities and information transmission network that put this crucial info in the hands of the Allies. That she did this all without any formal training in intelligence operations was even more remarkable. She relied on logic and instincts, and of course the ability of men and women all over France who were willing contributors. The story is fascinating, complete with fast-paced action, hot pursuits, busted down doors, jail breaks, disguise, and ingenuity. There are heroes, traitors, shrewd operatives, ruthless antagonists, political infighting, and world freedoms at stake. Some of the intelligence supplied by Alliance turned out to be pivotal to insuring success of the Allied forces, including D-Day, and securing the liberation of France. Wow.
Madame Fourcade would eventually be recognized many years after the end of WWII. This book brings this incredible story to the forefront. The maps, photos, and selected cast of characters description in the book made for easy reference when things got hard to follow. Very helpful. Everything about this book is five star. Highly recommend.
Thanks to Random House for offering up this book through Goodreads giveaway. I offer in return my honest review. Thank you.
This book is the detailed story of how Madame Fourcade came to lead a sophisticated resistance network, how she built the network from scratch, rebuilt it in times of loss, and directed a multitude of intelligence gathering activities and information transmission network that put this crucial info in the hands of the Allies. That she did this all without any formal training in intelligence operations was even more remarkable. She relied on logic and instincts, and of course the ability of men and women all over France who were willing contributors. The story is fascinating, complete with fast-paced action, hot pursuits, busted down doors, jail breaks, disguise, and ingenuity. There are heroes, traitors, shrewd operatives, ruthless antagonists, political infighting, and world freedoms at stake. Some of the intelligence supplied by Alliance turned out to be pivotal to insuring success of the Allied forces, including D-Day, and securing the liberation of France. Wow.
Madame Fourcade would eventually be recognized many years after the end of WWII. This book brings this incredible story to the forefront. The maps, photos, and selected cast of characters description in the book made for easy reference when things got hard to follow. Very helpful. Everything about this book is five star. Highly recommend.
Thanks to Random House for offering up this book through Goodreads giveaway. I offer in return my honest review. Thank you.
February 3, 2019
A very solid 4.5. I have read and immensely enjoyed many of Ms Olson’s books — some are among my favorite works of popular history — but this one takes the reader in a very different direction. In sharing the experiences of Mme Fourcade and the resistance group she led in World War Two, Olson has written a book that comes as close to being a thriller as a history book can come. She captures the personalities of the major figures, the terrible risks that faced them everyday, the hair’s breadth escapes from the Gestapo and the escape attempts that failed, the incredible courage of these ordinary (and extraordinary) men and women, the sacrifices they made, the betrayals... I knew nothing of Mme Fourcade going into this book. After reading it I am in awe of a remarkable woman who was the unheralded leader of one of the most important and successful resistance groups in wartime France. Their heroism lay not in acts of violence and sabotage but in the collection of information that was critical to the Allied victory. I can’t imagine how they accomplished so much under such awful and dangerous conditions. I’m pretty confident that movie rights will be sold, as they deserve to be, but I hope people will read the book. Not only will they find a remarkable, tension-filled story, they’ll also be introduced to a writer they really should know.
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