Edith Schaller was a young widow, born and raised in Alsace, a fluent speaker of French, German and English. She was partnered with Micheline Grimprel, a former Resistant who joined the Rochambelles at the last minute, in England, before they crossed the Channel. But the evening before, Micheline had driven off in their ambulance to take a wounded soldier to the field hospital, and she never returned. Edith was concerned, and went looking for her.

She drove into a tiny village, its streets deserted and still, until she saw an old man sitting on his front stoop. She stopped and asked if French troops were around there. The man stood and went inside his house without a word. She turned back to the road and suddenly German soldiers came pouring into the street. She ducked her head instinctively as a shot rang loudly against her heavy helmet. The Nazis ran over to her ambulance. « Ach, es ist eine Frau, » they said.

Edith talked her way out of German custody, and handed over two German soldiers as prisoners to the Americans to boot. Then she found the French troops, and got in line in the convoy just as it was ready to roll. Suddenly, an enormous boom resounded in her ears, and her windshield exploded from the inside out. The driver behind her had accidentally stepped on the firing pedal of a 37mm mortar launcher when he jumped into his vehicle. Her ambulance was destroyed, but she escaped with only a slight shrapnel wound behind her ear.

Edith was having a rough day, and it was just the first of many. She found Micheline’s ambulance the next day, burned by the side of the road near Argentan, the body of a dead soldier in the back. Micheline was never seen again.