Resistance Hero Dies at 105

France is mourning the death of a resistance heroine who has died aged 105.

Andree Peel, nee Andree Virot, was known as Agent Rose by Resistance and allied forces during the second world war and is credited with helping dozens of British and American airmen escaped Nazi occupied France during the conflict.

Aged in her 30s when the Germans invaded, and her involvement in the Resistance began almost instantaneously.

As Hitler’s troops marched into her home town of Brest she offered fleeing French soldiers sanctuary in her hairdressing salon before providing them with civilian clothing in order to keep them from being captured.

In 1940 she became an integral part of the local Resistance, rising through the ranks from paper girl delivering morale boosting publication to quickly head up her own under-section in direct communication with allied forces.

Over the course of the occupation, Andree helped to save the lives of more than 100 Allied. She used torches to guide in Allied aircraft and guided airmen to ships and sub waiting for them off the Breton coast under the cover of darkness.

Twice betrayed, she eventually fell into the hands of the Gestapo in Paris and was sent to Ravensbruck where she avoided the gas chamber on two separate occasions through luck and generosity.

Transferred to Buchenwald near the end of the war, Andree found herself facing a firing squad as allied liberators closed in and was granted a last minute reprieve by the interception of American forces.

After the war she became a restaurant owner in Paris and married Englishman John Peel.

She died on March 5.