The real heroine behind the "Charlotte Gray" novel and movie (played by Cate Blachett) was Nancy Wake who was born in NZ, but grew-up in Australia. She moved to Europe and became a young journalist that married a rich Frenchman named Henri in Marseille just before the war. When war broke out, she volunteered for service but was only offered canteen duty. Infuriated, she returned to France when the invasion came and started to be a courier. That got her noticed by S.O.E. and she received training with them on hand-to-hand combat, firearms, explosives, and parachuting. Returning to France she helped train various Maquis groups that were nothing more than rabble, turning them into skilled fighters. They harassed the Germans endlessly and Wake herself killed many Germans with her Sten and also with her bare hands. She became known as the "White Mouse" and the Germans offered 5 million Francs for her capture (they wanted to humiliate her, torture her, and then ship her back to Germany for beheading). She eluded capture and aided with D-Day, delaying the 2nd SS Panzer Divison by 16 days to Normandy! A wonderful and glamourous woman, she remained faithful to her husband and was saddened that he was captured by the Germans and shot. This was a woman that prior to WW2 lived a life of champagne, caviar, and luxury who traded it in for fierce fighting against a hated enemy. She recently died in London at age 98.

http://resources2.news.com.au/images/2011/08/08/1226110/702962-nancy-wake.jpg