Simone Segouin - Nazi Hunter

Simone Segouin was only 14 years old when Nazi Germany invaded her homeland of

Chartres, France and forced her to drop out of school. However, as part of the French Resistance, she receive a different type of education. She not only learned how to wield machine guns, Simone derailed trains, blow up bridges, killed and captured Nazis, and liberated her hometown all while barely an adult.

Much has been written about the Allied soldiers who fought Adolf Hitler’s takeover in Europe, and because Segouin and her comrades weren’t officially enlisted, their story has gone largely untold.

Were it not for the September 1944 edition of LIFE magazine, none of her contributions to the Allied war effort would’ve been remembered. Photographed holding a machine gun in shorts and a beret, her story spread far and wide, and it remains just as unbelievable now as it was then.