Sisterhood of Spies

What got me interested in this book was the movie I saw last year on Memorial Day, just  5 months ago; the one about Violet Szarbo a spy in WW2 who was recruited after her husband died as an air bomber.  I wrote a post on it – May 30th, 2011  Memorial day 2011- A Tribute to the Spies   is  the name of the post.

The book follows  the women in OSS as they are placed in the various countries involved  starting in Washington DC where the OSS originated, then moves to  Europe during WW2, then when agents went to Asia.  OSS (office of Strategic Services) was created by Major General William Donavan.   

My favorite parts of the book: 

• Parachutes made into flowing curtains by the ladies where they resided- I think it was in India. 
• The woman that changed the minds of 60 Czechoslovakian  soldiers on the Nazi side to turn themselves in .

Pg. 193 (around there) where the OSS lady goes to the farmhouse on just a suspicion of a spy living there who had  a radio for the Nazi’s that he was using.  She knocks on the door and said: “where is the radio”?  He tells her where the radio was hidden; confessed  out of fright as he was taken by surprise!

The sad part of the book was that many marriages ended in divorce since it was a rule that you could not be assigned to the same area as your spouse if you were both in OSS or other government work.  This book was very interesting and I’d recommend it as it was written by a former OSS woman who’s story is told in the latter part of the book.  This book helps you realize some of the ways the war was won other than by army soldiers.