During World War II, Andree “Dedee” de Jongh was an elegant 24-year-old Belgian Red Cross volunteer and ambulance driver who masterminded the Comet escape line, extending from Belgium into Holland, Luxembourg, France, the Basque territories, and Spain. Set up to save allied pilots left behind enemy lines, the Comet line had more than 1,500 members and supporters operating between 1941 and 1944 and saved 770 pilots. Arrested in 1943 on her 19th crossing into Spain, de Jongh, known to her admirers as “the little cyclone,” survived not only German interrogation, but years of forced labor at the Ravensbruck concentration camp until she was liberated at the end of the war. Tough, huh?
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