BELGIAN HEROINE

Grey River Argus, 15 February 1946, Page 5

BELGIAN HEROINE

Saviour of Servicemen RECEIVES BRITISH DECORATIONS. (Rec. 8.10.) LONDON. Feb. 14. A slight, curly-haired, pretty Belgian woman, Mademoiselle Andree De Jongh, aged 25 years, drove to Buckingham Palace and received from His Majesty the King the award of the George Medal “for outstanding gallantry and tenacious devotion to the Allied cause.” Her citation revealed a remarkable story of Mademoiselle De Jongh’s planning and leadership under cover of an organisation known as “The Comet Line,” which was the saviour of many Allied servicemen who were stranded in Gernjan-occupied Europe. The citation said: "From 1941, until her arrest in January, 1943, she organised the despatch of these servicemen from Belgium to the Pyrenees. Her work was not a haphazard undertaking, but a masterpiece of careful planning. She crossed ti e Pyrenees Mountains to Spain in all weathers, in mid-winter snow and ice, and in summer heat and rain.” The citation recounts how Mdlle, De Jongh swam the River Somme t.wenty times in one trip, helping nonswimmers across the river. She constantly evaded frontier patrols. She refused to abandon hej? self-imposed task, although her arrest appeared daily imminent. Once when the Gestapo appeared at the front door, she escaped through a garden. She was finally arrested on the Spanish frontier on January 13, 1943, and was sent to a concentration camp. In addition to the George Medal, the Air Ministry ..ihas presented Mdlle. Dr 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 Stansgate, said Mdlle. De Jongh’s efforts “are almost unsurpassable in the history of mankind.” After receiving the George Medal, Mdlle. De Jongh talked with Their Majesties in their private apartments, and told her story.