Pam Webber, the bestselling author of “The Wiregrass,” which was chosen as a Southern Literary Review's "Read of the Month," is back with a new novel, “Massawa” (She Writes Press, June 3), about the American women who changed the tide of World War II by working as spies in North Africa and the Mediterranean, inspired by true events.
We dive into the contribution made by women spies in World War II, the setting of North Africa and the Mediterranean and how this factors into the story and the real-life people who helped craft her protagonist Kit Thomas.
Tell me about the women who worked as spies and how they changed the tide of WWII.
Leveraging their gender, Allied women went largely unnoticed serving as operatives in Nazi-occupied countries. They set up communication systems, established safe-houses, helped trapped Jews and airmen escape, organized resistance networks and trained resistance fighters.
The British employed 4,000 women, 50 of whom served in occupied France, and the US employed 4,000, 1,500 of whom served in occupied Europe. American Virginia Hall epitomized the best of them. At 35, and with a prosthetic leg, she served in occupied France from 1941 to 1944. With a bounty on her head, she escaped multiple times using disguises and hiking the Alps in winter.
What was happening in North Africa and the Mediterranean at this time?
By 1942, the Nazis had invaded North Africa, intent on capturing the Suez Canal and the Middle East oil fields. The only ones standing in their way were the British, who were struggling to get supplies and find bases to service their planes and ships. To help, the US, which had not yet entered the war, solicited two private companies, Boeing and Douglas, to restore the airbase at Gura, Eritrea, known as Project 19, and recruited retired naval salvage officer Captain Edward Ellsberg to restore the naval base at Massawa. What Ellsberg accomplished became known as the Miracle at Massawa.
Can you explain more about the setting of Massawa and why it was so important?
Eritrea’s climate is extreme. Asmara, the capital, is in the cool mountains while Massawa is a desert town 70 miles away on the Red Sea. The trip between the two involves a precipitous 7,000-foot drop along a treacherous road and crossing a desert known as the hottest place on Earth. Ancient Massawans believed it was a gift to live in a place where the environment protected them from their enemies in the mountains. Also, given that the Red Sea has been a source of inspiration for poets for centuries, I had to give setting a pivotal role in the story.
How common was it for women to serve as spies?
While women have spied for their homelands for centuries, they did not become an essential element in the world of espionage until World War II when the U.S., in concert with the British MI6, started the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency. The first director of the OSS was William Donovan (aka Wild Bill). A notorious womanizer, Donovan realized that women were a natural emetic for men’s secrets, especially those who knew how to capitalize on their gender. Consequently, he ushered women into the role of international spies by the hundreds.
Tell me a bit about Kit Thomas and how you created her character.
In preparing to write Massawa, I read multiple books on the OSS, MI6, and female spies in World War II. The two that impacted me the most were “A Woman of No Importance” by Sonia Purnell, which highlighted the incredible work of Virginia Hall, and “Wild Bill Donovan” by Douglas Waller, which highlighted Donovan’s role as the father of American espionage and sexpionage. I could hardly believe the courage of Hall and the audacity of Donovan. Both helped sculpt the character of Kit Thomas into a fearless yet naive spy who didn’t hesitate to use her gender as tradecraft.
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