EPIC SERVICE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21947, 15 February 1946, Page 4

EPIC SERVICE

BELGIAN HEROINE ASSISTANCE FOR ALLIES AWARDED GEORGE MEDAL LONDON. Feb. l.'< Slight, curly-haired and pretty, a Belgian, Mademoiselle Andree De Jongh, aged 25, drove to Buckingham Palace and received from His Majesty the award of tnc George Medal “lor outstanding gallantry and tenacious devotion to the Allied cause.” The citation revealed the remarkable story of Mile, de Jongii’s planning and leadership under cover of the organisation known as the “Comet Line, which was the saviour of many Allied servicemen stranded in German-occu-pied Europe. „ ... The citation said: “From 1941 unul her arrest in January, 1943, she organised the despatch of these servicemen from Belgium to the Pyrenees. ihe work was not a haphazard undertaking but a masterpiece of careful planning. She crossed Hie Pyrenees in all weathers—midwinter snow and ice and summer heat and rain.” The citation recounts how Mile, de Jongh swam the Somme 20 times on one trip, beloing non-swimmers across the river. ‘ She constantly evaded frontier patrols and refused to abandon her self-imposed task, although her arrest appeared daily imminent. Once when the Gestapo appeared at her front door she escaped through the garden and was finally arrested on the Spanish frontier on January 13. 1943, and sent to a concentration camp. In addition to the George Medal the Air Ministry presented Mile, de Jongh with a mounted bomber's clock inscribed “in token of the deep and lasting gratitude of the R.A.F.” The Secretary of State for Air, Lord Etansgate said Mile, de Jongii’s efforts were “almost unsurpassed in mankind's history.” After receiving the George Medal Mile, de Jongh talked with Their Majesties in their private apartments and told her story.