The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-02-19
Para-Girls Pave Way For Allies In France
 French Girls Toined Porotroopers Drop Down From the Skies end Bring Assistonce the Moqus
By ROSETTE HARGROVE NEA Staff Correspondent

oA Cbs -N\AA O OCA bdlAl AlASAlJ six months before D-Day a plane took off from its base somewhere in England" Its mission? Parachut- ing arms, money, and instructions to the men of the Resistance in France. But the bomber also carried two men and a pint-Sized French girl, 9 years old. The three were going back to their native country to carry out an even more dangerous mission, knowing full well that if anything went wrong and they were caught by the Germans it meant being shot on the spot.
 "The jumping wasn't half as bad as the waiting" she commented when I met her a few days ago, just before she left for Brittany to marry fellow parachutist, it was over so quickly that I didn't have time to be scared. Besides I had jumped three times during my training and was beginning to feel like an old hand at it."
 That there were a number of young Frenchwomen in Great Britain training as parachutists was another of these top secrets" !" the story of which can now be told. None of us knew how many we were," she said, be cause We were trained separately. After a bit, though, when I met the same girls in the building at odd times, concluded they must be doing the same sort of work that I was doing. But we never talked about It."
 DANGEROUS WORK
 The normal training for women accepted for this highly special ized and dangerous work was three months. She trained only six weeks because she already knew good deal about the type of work she would have to do. She could handle explosives, radio transmission and could send mes sages in code. Training was espe- cially strenuous, and the girls need ed courage and endurance to go through with it. Actual jumping was just one phase of it, although their first jump in France conferred on them the right to be rated as para chutiStS.
 Far longer and more complex was training az a terrorist" Several weeks were devoted to the study of sabotage and radio transmission Not only was it essential to know how to use the instruments but the girls also had to learn to construct makeshift ones if the need arose. They had to be instructed in secret codes as well as Morse. They had to learn to recognize every German uniform, know all about French ra- tioning, food tickets, identity cards and a host of other details which were matters of everyday knowledge in France. They learned to shoot, (eVery woman parachutist carried reVolver) to Wrestle, and also how to read staff maps.
 'The most astonished man in the world was certainly the Maquis chief in charge of parachutists, the night he saw me fall from the skies," she chuckled. "He was expecting arms, mail and money and all he saw was me. was wearing my jumping out fit with ordinary shoes, as 1t had been impossible to find parachuting boots small enough" (She wears a size two in shoes and stands five-feet nothing in her Stockinged feeU.
 What did I do after that?" Well, I started by blowing up a section on the railway in my native depart ment. Then I coded and decoded messages from England, instructed men in the Maquis and superinten- ded parachutings. This was a diffi- cut and very responsible job Then we were trained to dispose of para chutes and containers in the space of few minutes"
 JUST DROPPED IN
 Once when her work took her near home she decided to visit her parents. Her father opened the door and shouted to his wife. Its our daughter" They couldn't believe their eyes. They piled her with questions and wanted to know how she had come. By parachute" she calmly replied.
 Her mission lasted six months, until the liberation of Brittany During this entire period she never stayed more than three weeks in one place. Sometimes she averaged two hours sleep in 48 Covering any, thing from 50 to 100 miles by bicycle was just part of a days work, and not the most difficult by any means.
 She spent some time in Maquis group of 2,000 men and Is women One day the Germans attacked them with machine guns and tanks. They were able to collect most of their material, including radio sets and arms, in trucks. We were lucky that day. We were able to