and towns to Toulouse and onward to Perpignan where the airmen were turned over to guides who escorted them across the Pyrenees to Spain. Her deputy was Jean Bregi, an associate from the O'Leary Line. In January 1944, one of her guides was captured and had the address of her safe house in Toulouse in his notebook. She managed to escape arrest, move airmen to new safe houses, and, with the Gestapo on her trail, hid out in attics and basements in Toulouse. She eventually returned to live surreptitiously in her apartment which was near Gestapo headquarters. With her freedom of movement limited, a young man named Gabriel Nahas who was experienced in moving Jews across the Spanish border became the principal escort of airmen from Toulouse to Perpignan. The German occupation of France ended after an allied invasion in summer 1944. Dissard had helped rescue and repatriate more than 250 allied airmen. The escape organizations were labor intensive and Dissard recommended 123 of her helpers, including 24 women, for postwar awards. Honours and awards After the war, the United Kingdom awarded her the George Medal, a very senior decoration, and the United States awarded her the Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the U.S. In Toulouse, the Lycée professionnel Marie Louise Dissard Françoise was named in her honor. A street, the Rue de Marie-Louise Dissard, in Toulouse is named after her. France Officer of the Legion of Honour Croix de Guerre 1939-1945 with palms Médaille de la Résistance with rosette (17 May 1946) Belgium Officer of the Order of Leopold II, with palms Belgian Croix de Guerre with palms, 1940–1945 United Kingdom George Medal Honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) United States Medal of Freedom with Gold Palm References 1881 births 1957 deaths People from Cahors Female recipients of the Croix de Guerre (France) French Resistance members Female resistance members of World War II Officiers of the Légion d'honneur Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France) Recipients of the Resistance Medal Officers of the Order of Leopold II Recipients of the Croix de guerre (Belgium) Honorary Officers of the Order of the British Empire Recipients of the Medal of Freedom Recipients of the George Medal Date of death missing French women in World War II 20th-century French women