I Was A Spy (1934). By Marthe McKenna

I Was A Spy by Marthe McKenna.

Publisher: Jarrolds, London, 1934. SCARCE. Foreword by Winston Churchill.

Good hardback with no jacket. Orange cloth boards are marked and rubbed. No inscriptions. Binding firm, pages quite foxed. 16 b&w plates plus frontispiece all in good condition.

For two years, Marthe McKenna (codenamed "Laura") used her cover as a nurse and her frequent proximity to German military personnel at both the hospital and as a waitress at her parents' café to gather important military intelligence for the British and their allies, which she passed on to other agents in local churches. She mostly worked with two other female Belgian spies: an elderly vegetable seller codenamed "Canteen Ma", and a letterbox agent codenamed "Number 63", both of whom helped her relay messages to and from British General Headquarters. Her exploits during the war included destroying a telephone line which a local priest was using to spy for the Germans; and obtaining details of a planned but cancelled visit by Kaiser Wilhelm II for a British aerial attack. At one stage, her German lodger, Otto, tried to recruit her to spy on the British. McKenna attempted to relay harmless but seemingly important information to him for a short time, but when operating as a double agent became too difficult, she arranged for him to be killed. She discovered a disused sewer tunnel system located underneath a German ammunition depot, and placed the explosives to destroy the ammo dump; however, this operation led to her exposure and capture when she lost her watch, engraved with her initials, while placing the dynamite. In November 1916, McKenna was sentenced to death for her espionage; however, her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment due to her Iron Cross honour. She served two years in a prison in Ghent, and was released in 1918 when the Armistice with Germany was declared, ending the war.

All books are sent free by courier postage within New Zealand.