Denise Bloch

Unlike most of the women of the British Special Operations units who sneaked into France during World War II, Denise Bloch already had extensive experience in the French Resistance when she turned up in London after escaping France one step ahead of the German authorities. Despite the fact that she was a Jew and repeatedly warned that the Gestapo probably already knew who she was, Bloch was adamant about returning to France to undermine the German occupation.

So, in the spring of 1944, she re-entered France as an operative, fully trained to collect, code, and transmit information, but with orders, as well, to cut the railway and telephone lines just before the U.S. troop invasion on D-Day. Successfully fulfilling her mission threw the Germans into great confusion as they tried to communicate with their command headquarters while under the massive and unexpected attack. Bloch and the other Special Ops women were crucial to the war effort in Europe, receiving multiple medals, most of them (including Bloch) having been captured and executed -- in their twenties -- for their heroism.