34. Killing Her First Nazi
Simone Segouin killed her first Nazi on July 14th, 1944. Around 5 AM, she waited in ambush in a roadside ditch, and when two Germans rode by in bicycles, she opened up with her submachine gun, killing both. She then went on the road, searched the bodies, collected their papers and weapons, then made her way alone through the woods, to deliver the haul to her Resistance hideout.
She confessed to having enjoyed killing the detested occupiers, which came as no surprise to her comrades. She was intensely patriotic, and was inspired by her father, a decorated soldier who had fought in WWI. When first recruited into the Resistance, she was asked if she felt queasy about killing Germans, and she replied: “No. It would please me to kill Boche“. As she put it decades later, it was simple: “The Germans were our enemies – we were French“.