13/10/2026
Downed Allied airmen hunted across occupied Europe found their lives in the hands of a 24 year old Belgian woman. Andrée de Jongh built the Comet Line, an escape route that smuggled shot-down pilots from Belgium through France and then over the Pyrenees into neutral Spain. She led them across mountains with no fear, carrying forged papers and disguises. More than 700 men were saved before she was betrayed and seized by the Gestapo in 1943. Andrée never broke. She died on October the 13th, 2007. She asked nothing in return, only that the lost be brought home. It's the same as the greatest rescue of all time, a life freely spent so the condemned go free.