Chapter 1 THINGS ARE NOT WHAT THEY SEEM In 1944 World War II 1939 1945 raged around the world At a police station in France a girl identified as a fourteen-year-old soap seller waited to be searched by German soldiers They eyed her ponytail which was tied up with a shoelace She untied the lace and shook out her hair The soldiers found nothing suspicious and let her go 4
The soldiers didn’t know that the girl was Phyllis Latour a twenty-three-year-old secret agent Inside the shoelace was a strand of silk Hidden on the thin silk strand were secret codes She also stashed silk threads in a knitting bag she carried with her Latour used the codes to send secret radio messages World War II spies hid secret codes in everyday items that would usually go undetected by enemy officers 5
LEGION OF HONOUR MEDAL The messages contained information about the German army in France Latour sent about 135 secret messages as a spy Her work helped free France and win the war In 2014 when she was ninety-three years old her contribution to France was recognized by the French government with the Legion of Honour the highest award in France 6
Meet a Spy During World War I 1914 1918 a group of American soldiers were surrounded by the Germans They could not escape enemy bullets Many soldiers died The group’s commander sent a message with their location to their home base by attaching a note to a pigeon messenger named Cher Ami As Cher Ami flew into the air she was hit by bullets She was badly hurt but she still flew 25 miles 40 km to the next Allied base Cher Ami saved 194 soldiers Pigeon messengers can find their way home from up to 1,100 miles 1,700 km away 7
