Intrepid Woman: Betty Lussier's Secret War, 1942-1945

by Lussier, Betty

• ISBN13: 9781591144496
• ISBN10: 1591144493
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-11-15
• Publisher: Naval Inst Pr

Summary

A college student in Maryland when World War II began, Betty Lussier went to England to help the British fight off an impending invasion. Armed with a private pilot's license, she joined the Air Transport Auxiliary and was soon ferrying planes and pilots for the RAF, and her memoir describes those days in thrilling detail. After the Normandy invasion, when women pilots were barred from delivering planes to the combat zones on the continent, she complained to Sir William S. Stephenson, who was in the RAF with her father in World War I and headed British intelligence in the States. He steered her to the newly formed American Office of Strategic Services, which was recruiting field agents. Her experiences with a special liaison unit in Algeria, Sicily, Italy, and France helping to set up a chain of double agents and transmit misinformation to the enemy are described in compelling detail as she takes the reader step-by-step through some memorable cases that helped bring the war to an end.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. IX
Foreword	p. XI
Acknowledgments	p. XIII
Flying With the Air Transport Auxiliary
Life in Maryland: The Early Years	p. 3
Betty's Favorite Day: Crossing the Ocean to England	p. 25
Welcome to London and Maidenhead	p. 34
It's Official: I'm an ATA Student Pilot!	p. 46
Duty Pilot Adventures	p. 57
Old Loves, New Friends	p. 69
Adventures and Misadventures on Land and in the Air	p. 83
Accidents Will Happen	p. 95
The Seeds of Discontent: No Continental Service for the Women	p. 102
A Well-Deserved Break	p. 115
Ferry Pool Number Five	p. 127
Kenny, Cousin Jack, Scotty, and Stephenson	p. 134
D-Day Nears	p. 147
Time for a Change: Resignation	p. 153
Counterespionage
On the Ground With the X-2	p. 167
Epilogue	p. 203
Abbreviations and Acronyms	p. 205
Some of the ATA Cross Cross-Country Routes	p. 207
References	p. 209
Index	p. 211
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