WWII Resistance fighter marks her 104th birthday by breaking silence on wartime heroics | Mail Online

At the age of 104, Andrée Peel has plenty of memories to cherish.
And as a French Resistance fighter who saved the lives of more than 100 servicemen in

But along with Mrs Peel herself, plenty of other souvenirs of the war have survived.
Thought to be among the most highly decorated women to have survived the conflict, she was awarded France's highest award for Bravery, the Legion d'Honneur, by her own brother - four-star General Maurice Virot.

She was also awarded the War Cross with palm, the War Cross with purple star, the medal of the Resistance and the Liberation cross.

She then received the American Medal of Freedom - from US President Dwight Eisenhower

Her first role was distributing clandestine newspapers, but within weeks she was made head of a section in the Resistance reporting on troop movements, naval installations and the results of Allied attacks.
Agent Rose and her team used torches to guide Allied planes and smuggled fugitive airmen on to submarines and gun-boats on remote parts of the coast.
She fled to Paris and assumed another identity when the Gestapo closed in on the Resistance network in Brest, but was arrested a week after D-Day.

She still keeps the striped blue and grey camp uniform she was forced to wear in the concentration camp as a reminder and said: 'It was a terrible time but looking back I am so proud of what I did and I'm glad to have helped defend the freedom of our future generations.'
She continued: 'You don't know what freedom is if you have never lost it. Everybody was ready to contribute to the fight and to risk their lives.

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Happy Birthday Andree. I would love to see a book or movie made-about this Lady. Thanks again Ka for aother great post.

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

Your wish is Granted my friend the lady wrote her autobiography it is called Miracles Do Happen,and a film was made by a guy in somerset who's name is William Ennals.And the great lady lives about 30 mins from me

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WHEN YOU GO HOME, TELL THEM OF US AND SAY, FOR YOUR TOMORROW,WE GAVE OUR TODAY. Epitaph on the Kohima memorial .

The film was a documentry called " Rose portrait of a resistance fighter"

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WHEN YOU GO HOME, TELL THEM OF US AND SAY, FOR YOUR TOMORROW,WE GAVE OUR TODAY. Epitaph on the Kohima memorial .

There's another article on this remarkable lady here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...-birthday.html

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A Bullet Saved My Life: An Untold Story from the Spanish Civil War;
Airman Missing:The True Story of WWII Bomber Pilot John Evans' 114 Days Behind Enemy Lines

I

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A Bullet Saved My Life: An Untold Story from the Spanish Civil War;
Airman Missing:The True Story of WWII Bomber Pilot John Evans' 114 Days Behind Enemy Lines

I have also received the following information from an escape and evasion group of which I am a member. Some of you might find it interesting:

Mme. Andrée Peel - née Virot - pseudo Rose. She was certainly involved in the Aber Wrac'h operations from the coast of Brittany in Dec 1943.

Besides the book, there is a documentary film by Bill Ennals of Bristol, which features Roseand actually has a scene which scans a handwritten paper list of evader names. Joseph Quirk, who was in the boat that made it on Dec 1/2, is also profiled in the film. She is also mentioned in "Par les nuits plus longues".

More info here:
‘Rose’: Portrait of a Resistance Fighter - Bristol Indymedia

and here:
Blank page

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A Bullet Saved My Life: An Untold Story from the Spanish Civil War;
Airman Missing:The True Story of WWII Bomber Pilot John Evans' 114 Days Behind Enemy Lines