The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line: Untold Stories of the Women Who Changed the Course of World War II

Retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Eder (American Cyberspace) profiles women who broke gender barriers to help the Allied war effort during WWII in this breezy history. Her subjects include tennis player Alice Marble, who won 18 Grand Slam championships in the 1930s and, after her husband was killed in action over Germany, helped U.S. Army intelligence to obtain Nazi financial records from her former lover, a Swiss banker. Journalist Ruth Gruber guided nearly 1,000 Jewish war refugees to safety in the U.S. in 1944, while opera-loving British sisters Ida and Louise Cook helped 29 people escape Nazi Germany before war was declared. Polish American spy Stephanie Czech Rader, who gathered intelligence of Polish and Soviet security services in postwar Poland, was posthumously awarded the Legion of Merit in 2016. Cartographer Marion Armstrong Frieswyk created three-dimensional topographical maps to aid U.S. military commanders in planning troop movements. Eder notes that though many of her subjects “shied away from medals and recognition,” they influenced the desegregation of the U.S. armed forces and served as role models for younger women in the military and intelligence services. This brisk and informative survey is a worthy tribute to the trailblazing women of WWII. (Aug.)