Virginia, by then living in France, was well-placed to act as a forward agent for the Allies. The outbreak of WWII changed that attitude. Attitudes toward disabilities were different in the 1930s, and even fitted with a prosthetic leg (which she named “Cuthbert”) Virginia was deemed unfit for the life of a diplomat. Impeccably educated, fluent in multiple languages, and worldly from her years spent abroad from her native Baltimore, Virginia’s dream of a life in the foreign service was shattered when a hunting accident led to the amputation of her left leg. Virginia Hall had all the makings of a diplomat. “Cuthbert” can be seen in the foreground. The Limping Lady Virginia Hall operating a British B2 spy radio from Vichy France. Spy radios were key clandestine assets, both during the war and later during the Cold War. From apartments in Berlin to farmhouses in France, covert agents toiled away over sophisticated transceivers, keying in coded messages and listening for instructions.
Radios were soon being used for everything from coordinating battlefield units to detonating anti-aircraft artillery shells.īut it was not just the battlefields of WWII that benefitted from radio technology. Radio technology was firmly established commercially by the late 1930s and poised to make huge contributions to the prosecution of the war on all sides. Radio was rapidly adopted into the battlefield, which led to advancements in miniaturization and ruggedization of previously bulky and fragile vacuum tube gear. World War II can be thought of as the first electronic war.
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