COURAGEOUS FEMALE SPIES WHO RISKED DEATH TO BATTLE NAZIS

MORGANE Polanski stars as Britain's first female World War Two spy in new film The Partisan, which premieres in London tonight.

- 

It's based on the life of Krystyna Skarbek - and is a true story as wild as anything Hollywood could imagine.

Hailed as the "bravest of the brave," Skarbek was celebrated for her role in the fight against Nazi Germany. Here, MEG JORSH remembers her courage and that of her fellow female spooks...

'The Limping Lady'

Known to her enemies as The Limping Lady, Virginia Hall struck fear into the hearts of the Gestapo.

They called her "the most dangerous of all Allied spies," who ran agent networks, helped escaped prisoners of war and recruited defectors in occupied France.

And she did all that despite having a wooden leg, which she named Cuthbert, following a 1933 hunting accident. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, she was rejected by the US diplomatic corps because of it.

So she signed up to the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), where her bravery soon became legendary. She was later the only female civilian awarded a Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism.

After the war, Virginia moved back to the US and served with the CIA for 15 years. At the age of 51 she married fellow agent Paul Gaston Goillet, eventually retiring to a farm before her death, aged 86, in 1982.

'James Bond in a skirt'