Emilienne Moreau and the Germans

"...The Moreau house was not large, and the wounded kept coming. The rescue station was expanded to include the house next door. An enormous hole was made in one of the walls so the wounded men could be moved in and out more easily.

Shortly afterwards, Emilienne was caring for a wounded soldier in the expanded station when a bullet suddenly whizzed through a hole in the wall and just past her head. When she turned to see where the bullet had come from, she saw the silhouettes of two approaching Germans. She grabbed a revolver that had been left by one of the male nurses and fired..."

Excerpt from "Emilienne Moreau: The Teen Who Became a National Symbol" from Women Heroes of World War I: 16 Remarkable Resissters, Soldiers, Spies, and Medics.

Emilienne Moreau and the Scottish soldiers in Loos

"Emilienne ran down the stairs, out of the house, and towards the tombs. She saw what looked like "strange beings with enormous eyes" who seemed to have pipes for noses. And to top it off, these strange creatures were wearing skirts. They were Scottish soldiers wearing kilts and gas masks: the Highlanders of the Ninth Black Watch, so named because their kilts were dark.

Emilienne, who didn't speak English, frantically tried to make one of the officers understand that his men were walking towards their deaths. She offered to guide them in such a way that they would avoid the gun nests in the tower bridge and the long slag heap.

With Emilienne's help the Scottish troops moved safely around the gun nests and took them out..."


Excerpt from "Emilienne Moreau: The Teen Who Became a National Symbol" from Women Heroes of World War I: 16 Remarkable Resisters, Soldiers, Spies, and Medics.