The Comet: A Tale of Resistance and Betrayal in World War II

From an acclaimed New Yorker writer, The Comet is the thrilling true story of Dédée de Jongh, the young woman who led a crucial World War II escape network, risking her life to rescue hundreds of Allied airmen.

During the Second World War, there was no more dangerous activity for a civilian in Nazi-occupied Europe than helping a downed Allied airman escape to Britain. To a young Belgian woman named Andrée “Dédée” de Jongh, the risks were worthwhile. To do nothing in the face of the Nazi occupation was to suffer a kind of living death.

From 1941, Dédée led the Comet Line: an underground railroad with hundreds of agents that spirited to safety British and American airmen who had been shot down over occupied Europe. The line ran more than a thousand miles, journeying from Belgium and France over the Pyrenees by foot into Spain and finally to the sanctuary of Gibraltar. Many of the most important guides on the line were young women like Dédée. Dozens of the Comet helpers were discovered, jailed, and killed by Nazi forces, paying the highest penalty for their courage.

Based on previously unseen sources and fresh insights, The Comet presents a gripping tale of courage and its cost, of treachery and resistance, and of what it means to fight without weapons.