Vladimir Bouryschkine (also known as Val Williams) was born on 17 August 1911 in Moscow, Russia, the son of Pavel Afanasyevich Bouryschkine and Anna Nikolayevna (Organova) Bouryschkine. After the Russian Revolution, the family emigrated to France, and he attended Ecol Socondaire Russe in Boulogne before the family moved to the U.S., where he entered Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont in 1930, graduating in 1933. He spent some time in the U.S. before teaching in a school in Boulogne. He worked as a mechanical engineer for several years, but happened to be in the U.S. on a Carnegie Foundation-funded tour as a basketball coach when World War II broke out.

He reportedly volunteered for service in the Red Cross, the French Foreign Legion, and then as an agent in British Military Intelligence Section 9 (MI9), which supported escape and evasion for Allied personnel. Posing as the trainer of the Monaco basketball team, he began his resistance career by persuading the local Italian commander that Allied POWs at the nearby Fort de la Revère near Nice had a right under the Geneva Convention to enjoy one afternoon of sport per week. In this way he spirited 53 men away by boat to Gibraltar. Since Bouryschkine had worked on the Pat Line network, MI9 chose him to lead the organization of the Oaktree evasion network in 1943. After a series of delays, he parachuted ‘’blind’’ into France in March 1943 with a Canadian radio operator. This mission was beset with difficulties from the start, since both their radios were damaged on landing, and the mission was almost compromised when they violated protocols to make initial contact with London. Bouryschkine worked with MI9, the French Resistance, and ‘’helpers’’ such as American civilian Roberta ‘’Betty’’ (Laurie) Countess de Mauduit residing in Plourivo, who provided support and refuge locally, to facilitate the return of about 100 Allied aircrew along the Oaktree line.

After the compromise of Oaktree in July 1943, Bouryschkine helped establish a follow-on evasion channel in the area, the Shelburne Line, responsible for the return of over 135 Allied aircrew and infiltration of eight British agents during 1943-1944. Notoriously careless about security, Bouryschkine was arrested and escaped several times, including once while escorting four pilots back to England, when he was imprisoned in Fresnes and later in Rennes. He escaped after several months, but broke his leg jumping from a wall, but later returned to operations in France.

Since he became well known to enemy intelligence, he had to return to England in late 1944, where he later worked with the U.S. Army on a sensitive program.

In addition to several U.S. Medals of Freedom with Gold Palm and several French decorations, he also received a letter signed by General Eisenhower saying The President of the United States has directed me to express to Vladimir Bouryschkine the gratitude of the American people for gallant service in assisting the escape of allied soldiers from the enemy.’’