At 24, she walked downed airmen 500 miles through Nazi territory, crossed the Pyrenees 24 times, and saved 118 lives before the Gestapo finally caught her. In August 1941, a tiny young woman walked into the British consulate in Bilbao, Spain, with three men in tow—two Belgian soldiers and one British serviceman. She told the British diplomats she had escorted these men from Brussels, through Nazi-occupied Belgium and France, over the Pyrenees mountains, into Spain. More than 500 miles through enemy territory. The diplomats didn't believe her. How could this slight, 24-year-old woman have possibly accomplished such a journey? She had to be a German plant. A trick. A trap. For three weeks, British officials interrogated her, investigated her story, suspected her of being a Gestapo agent. Finally, they verified the truth: Andrée de Jongh had done exactly what she claimed. And she wanted to do it again. And again. And again. All she asked in return was money to cover expenses—about $8,000 in today's dollars per person—and a promise that the British would protect the men . She would run the operation her way. Andrée was born in Brussels on November 30, 1916—during German occupation in World War I. Her father, Frédéric, was a schoolteacher who told her stories about Edith Cavell, a British Red Cross nurse who had helped 200 Allied soldiers escape from occupied Belgium to the neutral Netherlands in 1915. The Germans executed Cavell by firing squad. The story made a deep impression on young Andrée. Cavell became her hero. When Germany invaded Belgium again on May 10, 1940, Andrée was 23 years old, working as a commercial artist in Malmédy. She quit her job immediately, moved to Brussels, and became a nurse. Some of her patients were wounded British soldiers. Andrée helped them send letters home through the Red Cross. She found them safe houses. #