Pt 1.
For those who like to read actual books, I recommend the recently published book, A Guest Of The Reich, by Peter Finn. The reason I recommend it is not for the reasons intended by the author and publisher. The book is about American heiress Gertrude Legendre as the first American woman in uniform (rank of Army officer, without going through officer training) taken prisoner by German forces during WW2.
The author is a "national security editor" for the Washington Post, the publisher caters to the left wing and urban liberals. What makes this book a relevant read is the sourcing, directly from the book subject herself. A woman of leisure because of her inherited wealth (billionaire by today's standards), she recorded the details of her life in journals, plus saving all documents, letters and photos throughout her long life. That vast collection is now part of a university library as a resource into that time period of American history. It is from that collection the book was well crafted by the author.
While the author tries to paint Gertrude's life through the eyes and mind of a woman attempting to break free from the confines of being female during a time when men were kings (man bad, woman good), the image I took of her was of a money'd elitist of her time, injecting herself, and her interests, ahead of the war effort.
If you wanted a caricature of a wealthy southerner during the 20th century, complete with being a plantation owner, look no further than Gertrude Legendre. She was also well known among the American brass at the highest levels, mostly because of her hosting lavish parties among other elites during her time working with the newly formed OSS (pre-CIA) in Washington D.C.. Among those she associated with was General Patton himself.
Because she was a known American of social importance, she was treated much differently than most other captives. The most intriguing aspect of her captivity was the behind-the-scenes chess strategy used by the Germans trying to figure out the best intel/propaganda use for her. In the end, when it began to appear obvious who was going to win the war, her handlers started using her as the best link toward their own post war survival.
Her capture, during the late summer of 1944 as the Allied forces were pushing the German forces back into Germany, was entirely her fault. It was her bad judgement and decision making that nearly caused tremendous harm (perhaps even a death blow) to the Allied war effort.
When the Americans joined the war after the Pearl Harbor attack, she managed to land a job with the newly formed OSS as headquarters office manager. She was there from the start, helping organize the new spy agency. By all accounts, she did a great job keeping things running smooth and efficiently. She knew a lot about the OSS inner workings, and their missions. As the American forces landed first in North Africa, then Italy and on into France, she selfishly campaigned loudly to her superiors (Donovan, top army brass) for work near the action, but was repeatedly denied (for good reasons?).
When Paris was liberated, the London OSS expanded into Paris, with Gertrude assigned there to run the office. Still not content to be so far from the action (which she romanticized), during a short leave in September of 1944, she convinced two officer associates and a driver (an Army private) to take a trip toward the front in Luxembourg, which at that point was the furthest effort by the Allied forces closest to the German border.
There was no sound reason for them to go there. In fact, the two officers tried to talk her out of it. Blame her status as an uber wealthy elitist as the reason they buckled. Who doesn't want to disappoint this glamorous rich woman with connections to D.C., and General Patton! As they approached the front, they ignored all indications they had driven too far (no visible American troops or vehicles!), and were eventually stopped by German machine gun fire and taken captive.
The two officers along with her weren't just anybody's. One was a Naval officer (working with vital intel operations) she knew through her Navy officer husband. The other officer was a fellow OSS officer, who happened to be one of very few Americans working closely with the most secret Allied effort against Germany - the successful code breaking of the Enigma cypher machine used by the German military to secretly communicate with Berlin.
On a list of things that would have severely endangered the war effort at it's most crucial time, Germany finding out the Allies were able to read their most sensitive communications would surely be at the top of that list. Perhaps second on that list would have been the capture of an officer working at the highest levels with the OSS, about which Germany knew little at that time!