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

by Betty Lussier

A teenager on a Maryland farm 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 joined a counter-intelligence branch of the Office of Strategic Services. 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 for the first time as she takes the reader step-by-step through some memorable cases that helped bring the war to an end.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, World War II

240 pages, Hardcover

First published November 15, 2010

Reviews

[Elizabeth]

I loved most of this book - a fascinating and personal account of a very young female pilot doing her best for the Allied war effort.

I read another review of this book somewhere which complained that the ATA (flying) section was too detailed and that the OSS (spying) section not detailed enough. And it’s true, but my feeling as a reader is that the author ran out of steam at the end. The beginning is detailed day by day, blow by blow…. Wonderful descriptions of piloting in England (mostly) during the Second World War, of the different types of planes, the nightlife and friendships, the stolen rides in bombers. The last year of the war simply isn’t as well documented, maybe not even in the author’s mind. The first couple of years obviously made her; and, the reader needs to remember, she suffered some serious losses before the end.

I am terrifically disappointed to read, by Lussier’s own account, that it was not she but a colleague who caught the spy who wanted to meet Charlie Chaplin!

[Dale Lussier · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading Betty Lussier's story about going to England in World War HI to help the allies in the fight against Hitler. She trained grove a pilot with the British Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA). Then as a spy with the newly formed Office of Strategic Services (OSS) behind the lines in France. Betty and her fellow women pilots led the way for other women to be able I fly in service to their country. She had to do it as a civilian with no recognition at the time. Women pilots where not allowed to deliver planes to France during the war. That is why she decided to become a spy so she could help the war effort first hand.

[Anna]

I kept this one too long from the library but was really enjoying it. I’d like to finish someday.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

This autobiographical account describes Betty's youth, growing up on a farm on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, her college days at University of Maryland #goterps and her days as a pilot with the ATA in England during WW2. Her writing is bright, funny and her eagerness to fly is great! I admire her guts, too. Strong women kick butt!!