She was still hospitalized. The recovery from peritonitis was complicated by additional infections and by the cumulative physical toll of the previous three years of intelligence work, illness, and the stresses of operating in occupied and semi-occupied territory. The full eighteen months of hospitalization covered a period from June 1941 to sometime in late 1942 or early 1943.
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## Touring the War
After her discharge from the hospital, Baker threw herself into a different form of service. She toured Allied military camps throughout North Africa and the broader Middle East, entertaining troops in conditions that bore no resemblance to the elegant theaters of prewar Paris.
She traveled by jeep across North Africa, from Algiers to Jerusalem, often sleeping on the ground beside her vehicle to minimize the risk of land mines. She performed for Allied soldiers — American, British, French, colonial troops from across the French empire — in makeshift venues with minimal equipment, drawing on the technical skills she had developed over twenty years as a professional performer. The performances were not espionage; they were morale support, the specific form of service that entertainers have always provided to soldiers in wartime, and Baker did it with the same professionalism she had brought to the Folies Bergère.
She also raised money for the Free French Army, holding private fundraising concerts and selling personal possessions to fund the effort. One documented sale involved a gold Cross of Lorraine — the symbol of de Gaulle’s Free French movement — that she auctioned for a substantial sum, the proceeds going to the Free French cause.