French wartime resistance heroine Solange Alexandre dies aged 104

What the report says

French Resistance figure Solange Alexandre has died at the age of 104, according to BBC World News. Alexandre was one of the last surviving heroines of the wartime resistance in France and was described as having helped create and lead her own anti-German unit with her future husband.

BBC reported that Alexandre served first as a courier from 1941 before founding the Pas-de-Boeuf network near Ruillé-sur-Loir in 1944. With about 30 men under her command, she organized sabotage, sheltered Allied airmen and joined the fight against German forces after the D-Day landings. She later took part in the liberation of Tours and ended the war as a sub-lieutenant in the French Interior Forces.

Born in 1922 in western France, Alexandre came from a family shaped by the First World War and said she was inspired to resist after hearing Charles de Gaulle’s appeal on the radio in 1940. The BBC said she moved through the region by bicycle, under the code name Corlay, carrying messages and intelligence. She also said the Gestapo twice failed to arrest her.

President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute after her death was announced at a nursing home in Le Mans. BBC also noted that Alexandre twice declined the Légion d’Honneur before accepting it in 2024. The story highlights the dwindling number of living Resistance veterans and the continuing national memory of France’s wartime struggle.