This book owes its existence to my editor Lisa Reardon, who thought that my writing a prequel to Women Heroes of WWII would be an excellent idea and who told me so repeatedly.
Once I finally saw the light, several people first ignited my enthusiasm, the most notable among them, Freddy Rottey of the Flanders Fields Museum at Ypres, Belgium, whose communications I found energizing and invaluable.
There are certain French books without which it would have been impossible for me to accurately tell the stories of three women contained in this book. Although there are several older English-language biographies of Louise de Bettignies, the best ones are in French, most notably Louise de Bettignies by René Deruk. The best information I was able to find on Emilienne Moreau was contained in Prof. Jean-Marc Binot’s Heroines de la Grande Guerre, and I have relied heavily on his research. And for the material on Gabrielle Petit, I am indebted to Pierre Ronvaux and his excellent Gabrielle Petit, la mort en face, which not only straightens out the story from previous fanciful biographies but eloquently communicates the nuances of this fascinating woman.
I hope that some day English readers will have access to all these materials but thankfully I didn’t have to wait, due to my husband John’s ability to read French. I’m also indebted to him for his multiple French-language communications with Vincent Boez, Prof. Jean-Marc Binot, Bertin de Bettignies, Béatrice Parrain at the Musée de l’ordre de la libération, and Vincent Rédier, all of whom provided additional material and/or photographs. Eric Hamilton also provided assistance in this regard, so a special note of thanks is due him for being in Paris at an opportune moment.
Ecaterina Teodoroiu is another woman whose story could not have been included here without translation assistance, so I am grateful in this regard to Valeria Balescu, curator of the National Military Museum in Bucharest, Romania, who cheerfully provided me with photos and Romanian-language material, which was then translated beautifully into English by Neriah Cruceru.
Gratitude is due to the following people who agreed to review sections of the manuscript, for their helpful comments and encouragements: Dr. Allison Scardino Belzer, Rupert Colley, Louise Miller, Nick Miller, Freddy Rottey, and Dr. Meredith Veldman.
Finally, very special thanks are due to William A. Hoisington Jr., professor emeritus of modern European history at the University of Illinois at Chicago, for agreeing to read the entire manuscript and whose assessment was very encouraging.