Jeanne Bohec

Life & Legacy

Jeanne Bohec (born 16 February 1919 in Tourlaville in Normandy; died 11 January 2010) was a French Resistance fighter.
After enlisting in the Women's Volunteer Corps of the Free French Forces, she joined the Central Intelligence and Action Bureau and learned sabotage techniques. She parachuted into occupied France in February 1944 and then conducted her work in the resistance by criss-crossing Brittany by bicycle; hence, her nickname “the bomber on a bicycle”. She trained teams of saboteurs, organized and took part in several sabotage operations and participated in the liberation of France.
After the war, she became a professor of mathematics and deputy mayor of the 18th arrondissement of Paris. She wrote a book describing her involvement in the Resistance: La Plastiqueuse à bicyclette (The Bomber on a Bicycle).
On 10 April 1975 Jacques Chaban-Delmas stated: "At a time when the equivalence between women and men is the subject of many speeches or is the subject of many measures, Jeanne Bohec provides striking proof that women are quite capable of attaining a degree of courage, determination and efficiency accessible to few men."