Lynne Olson

Norway, Holland, Belgium, France, Poland, Czechoslovakia. What do most of us American readers know of them in regard to World War II, at least those of us who are not professional or rabid amateur historians? Hopefully, all of us know that they were invaded by Hitler's armies. Some of us know that those invasions began in 1939 and 1940 and that by 1945 the Allies had liberated those countries. While this is all true, these facts are but the superficial layer atop a far deeper history. show more Olson's Last Hope Island dives deep beneath this layer and opens our eyes to the significant support these conquered countries gave to the Allied war effort. We are also reminded of the dismissive attitudes held by quite a few powerful Allied leaders toward the leaders and soldiers who escaped from these countries into England, which became their “last hope island.”

Olson lavishes particular praise on the Polish aviators who flew as part of the Royal Air Force, at least once the RAF finally accepted them as capable pilots. In fact, the Poles may well have turned the tide in the Battle of Britain, but that's not all. Every student of code breaking in the war knows of the German's Enigma encoding machine and that the English eventually broke the Enigma's “undecipherable” codes, but not as many know that it was the Poles who gave the gurus at Bletchley Park the keys to that riddle.

Quite a few other facts that may not be widely known to contemporary readers (or at least they weren't previously known to me) continually pop out of the text of this highly readable history. I knew of Madeleine Albright, first U.S. female secretary of state, but had no idea that she was born Madlenka Korbel, daughter of a Czech government official in exile, or that as a child she lay in a basement shelter in London as Luftwaffe bombs exploded overhead during the Blitz. I knew of Audrey Hepburn but had no idea that she, at age 15 and with her maiden name of Audrey Ruston, “subsisted on turnips, tulip bulbs, and nettles” during the Hunger Winter of 1944 and 1945 when thousands of her countrymen died of starvation.

Did you know that the U.S. wasn't the only “friendly” power to set up internment camps and imprison innocent civilians at the commencement of the war? When the U.S. decided to imprison its citizens of Japanese extraction for no cause, it was following the example already set by the English. As Olson notes on page 103, “Throughout 1940, more than 20,000 “enemy aliens” from Germany, Austria, and Italy—many if not most of them Jews who had fled Nazi persecution—were taken from their homes and jobs and shut up internment camps on the Isle of Man, off the west coast of Britain.”

Other World War II histories I have read taught me about the V 1 flying bombs and the V 2 rockets that rained down upon England late in the war, but I had no knowledge that Nazi Germany targeted others with them as well. Olson notes that “more than 4000 Belgians died in V 2 attacks” and that in the single city of Antwerp “more than sixty-seven thousand buildings were destroyed, including two-thirds of all housing in the city.”

Olson gives her readers surprising insights on less onerous topics as well. Have you seen the popular 2005 movie V for Vendetta? In their occupied countries and encouraged by BBC broadcasts, Belgians and French chalked the letter V, in this case standing for the French Victoire and the Flemish vrijheid (“freedom”) on fences, utility poles, pavements, and so on. I think we have found the source of the movie makers' inspiration. Another real-life exploit by the Dutch resistance also inspired the opening scene in the movie Goldfinger where James Bond comes ashore with a tuxedo under his wet suit. It seems as though some of the most improbable fictions can be traced to improbable actualities!

Reading Last Hope Island will teach one about das Englandspiel, described by Olson as the “worst disaster in SOE history.” It will also reveal the enmity between the traditional British intelligence service and the SOE (Special Operations Executive) as the two agencies appeared to fight each other with more animosity than they showed toward the Nazis.

Many other examples of facts that escaped my reading of other histories could lengthen this review even further, but that's what the book itself is for. Suffice it to note that I found Last Hope Island an informative as well as fascinating read. I did note a very few weaknesses in the writing and do not intend to overlook them here. One begins on page 295 as Olson discusses the escape lines that helped downed Allied pilots get out of Nazi Germany and back to England to fly again. One such “underground railroad” operative was the young woman Dédée de Jongh, who, along with three Allied pilots, was captured. In Olson's words, “While the three pilots were sent to a POW camp, Dédée de Jongh disappeared without a trace—one of the tens of thousands of political prisoners in occupied Europe who, under a decree from Hitler, vanished into the 'night and fog' of Nazi concentration camps.” Imagine my surprise when, on page 301, I read “Yet another of the gray, emaciated, wraithlike inmates liberated from Ravensbrűck at the war's end was Dédée de Jongh.” My, my. I suppose she didn't disappear with a trace after all.

Another example of what I take to be poor wording on Olson's part comes on page 388 as she describes the hiding of a wounded British officer in a Dutch household: “His nurses and protectors were three middle-aged, unmarried sisters—Ann, Mien, and Cor de Nooij....” To my mind, the phrase “middle aged, unmarried women” connoted, to put it bluntly, three old maids, never married, never divorced, never widowed. On the very next page, however, the reader is briefly introduced to “Johan Snoek, a son of one of the sisters … and Johan's sister Marie.” These are, perhaps, minor nits, but I felt that they should be picked.

Given its topic, there is not much humor to be found in Last Hope Island, but there is one delightful exception. In a passage on page 121 depicting the hectic, crowded, subterranean quarters from which the BBC was broadcasting, Olson notes that “so many staffers and guest broadcasters rushed in and out that it was hard to keep track of all of them. When King Haakon arrived one day for a broadcast, the harassed receptionist asked him: 'Sorry, dear—where did you say you were king of?'”

Lynn Olson's Last Hope Island went a long way in filling in several voids in my knowledge of “the great American buffalo” Franklin Delano Roosevelt, of the “poor little English donkey” Winston Churchill, of the “great Russian bear [Stalin] with paws outstretched” (page 329), and especially of the contributions to the Allied victory of the countries under Nazi domination. I recommend the book to everyone who is open to learning a bit more about the history of humankind during a period of world war from 1939 into 1945. This was, after all, part of the great stage upon which the following years of humankind's history were constructed. show less

I am endlessly fascinated with espionage during WWII. Or, really, any major war. I blame the fascination on repeated viewings of Goldeneye when I was a child (it’s the best James Bond movie – I will fight you). While Madame Fourcade’s Secret War has a little to do with Bond’s MI-6, for the most part, it tells it’s own story. And this story was… incredibly good. It is really everything I was looking for in a narrative this type.

Marie-Madeleine Fourcade’s biography is exactly the show more type of strong female narrative we need in this world. Lynne Olson writes Marie-Madeleine as a strong women who fights for her right to run Alliance, who is brave and afraid and second-guessed but also empowered. Beyond anything, she is strong, true to her beliefs, and willing to sacrifice whatever she must for justice and right. Marie-Madeleine is the type of woman young girls should idolize, and I’m so glad I stumbled on this book while looking for information on the SOE or any WWII-era spy network.

Lynne Olson writes the story as an accessible narrative, focusing on key moments in Marie-Madeleine’s life and referencing her personal memoir often. Her voice flows well, allowing the biography to feel equal parts story and history – none of the humdrum lists of names and dates here. While I’m sure there’s a level of narrative interpretation going on, the ways in which Lynne Olson brings Marie-Madeleine to life make this biography exciting and interesting. I haven’t read any of her work before, but after reading Madame Fourcade’s Secret War, I would certainly consider her future works.

Historical biographies don’t get a lot of love, especially compared to modern celebrity memoirs, but these people have left their imprint on history. In the case of women like Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, history seems determined to forget them, and so, it is doubly important for us to drink up their stories and honor their memories and contributions. In the 1940s, there was still a lot of resistance to having women operate in any aspect of the war effort… doubly so to lead it. Those who watched the short run of Marvel’s Agent Carter have seen on screen the sort of ridiculous prejudice that world had against the minds and leadership of women. Marie-Madeleine struggled with that prejudice, but I really appreciated that Olson included men who believed in her as well. It’s too easy, culturally, to slide women into a specific category. Marie-Madeleine led the French spy network Appliance on her own for most of WWII, and was still a mother. Not one thing or the other. Both.

And that powerful feminist message is just one reason why I really liked this book.

I think it’s easy to see the trenches and the American perspective of WWII – especially as it is taught in American classroom – but so many people of so many nationalities were instrumental to the destruction of the Nazi regime. Every action led to the endgame – and it was not all violence and hate… but also a deep sense of national pride and the courage of those willing to risk their lives for a key piece of information that could save hundreds of soldiers.

Madame Fourcade’s Secret War is an excellent narrative for anyone interested in important, unknown women in history, WWII, or the history of espionage. Honestly, it was just a good read overall, and one I’d certainly like on my shelf. show less

Grand read. I had a hard time putting it down. It is British history written by an American journalist, and that is a good thing. The prevarication, cant, moral relativism, cynicism, and class consciousness that impedes so much British history is absent. Ms. Olson tells it like it was (this is my review, this is what I think!) and puts Neville Chamberlain exactly where he belongs, in the dustbin of history. Winston Churchill comes off as a very nuanced figure. Clearly the great war leader we show more all know about (in part thanks to Mr. Churchill's qualities as an historian) but also as somewhat blinkered in many of his dealings with people and the institution of Parliament. The heroes of the story are the MPs, largely but not entirely young, who "spoke for England" when it was necessary.
Ms. Olson writes well, and has to my limited knowledge culled the secondary sources well for her work. Above all, she is to be commended for writing, in this day and age, a book which lays out clearly that there is a difference between good and evil. Well done. Highly recommended. show less

Marie-Madeleine Fourcade was an amazing person. At the age of thirty-one, Fourcade became the head of France's largest Resistance intelligence group, Alliance. The fact that she was a woman made her accomplishments even harder won and more remarkable. Lynne Olson's readable narrative of Fourcade's life and years as chef de résistance brings to the attention of Western readers a woman whose story deserves to be known and honored.

Often underestimated because of her privileged upbringing and show more glamorous pre-war life, Fourcade was a force of determination and daring who bucked societal norms to become a pilot, get a job, and separate from her husband. When she was approached by Navarre, a former French military intelligence officer, to help him establish a clandestine journal trying to sway French military opinion prior to the war, she didn't hesitate. Their partnership led to the creation of Alliance, a nationwide resistance organization that provided key information to the Allies about submarine installations and movements, the V-2 rocket, the Normandy coast, and much, much more. In the last months of the war, Alliance provided information directly to General Patton as he moved his army into Germany. When Navarre was arrested in 1941, Fourcade stepped into the breach and became the head of Alliance for the rest of the war.

Fourcade had to learn as she went: how to be a spy, how to organize and run a resistance organization, and how to persuade men, many former military, to accept the leadership of a woman. Despite being separated from her children, being constantly on the run, and captured by the Nazis twice, Fourcade was unstoppable. Her personal bravery was only outshone by her organizational skills. Alliance operated over all of France, and she built cells in all the major cities, only to have them be destroyed by the capture of its agents, but would rebuild them with single-minded determination and dedication.

Despite her amazing leadership during the war, Fourcade was not named a Compagnons de la Liberation, France's highest honor for heroes of the Resistance. In fact, of the 1,038 members, 1032 were men. Perhaps now, with this book, Fourcade will receive the admiration and accolades that she should have received during her lifetime. Highly recommended. show less