Louise Jackson was one of the nurses called on for the highly sensitive mission, which she accepted, and in the circumstances, no one objected to her color. They needed topflight nurses to rescue nine Resistance fighters behind enemy lines. The Germans were closing in on the fighters to kill them, and the British had promised to help. One of the Resistance fighters the Germans were after was the most dangerous agent of the Resistance in all of France. The German High Command wanted him, dead or alive. He was known only as Tristan. The British had been notified that he was gravely injured.

Louise was on the tarmac at one A.M., wide-awake, prepared and ready to do whatever was necessary. She was fearless, and one of their best nurses. They sent two other nurses in with her, one of the Australian girls and a British nurse she had worked with before. They were briefed on their mission by an officer on the tarmac. They were going to be parachuted in with two corpsmen, and it was made clear to them how dangerous the mission was. She didn’t hesitate to accept it nonetheless. They headed toward France once they took off. The pilot flew low and made the drop successfully, and all three nurses and the two corpsmen headed immediately toward the agreed-upon meeting point, which was a farmhouse in the Maritime Alps. It took them three hours walking over rough terrain to get there. Louise and the others were quiet along the way. They were carrying nothing that could identify them as British military, and they all knew that they would be shot as spies if they got caught. Only Louise and the Australian nurse and one of the corpsmen spoke French, but none of them well enough to pass as natives.

Louise could feel her heart pound as the farmhouse came into view. It was an old stone house with a barn in the back. There were sheep and goats in the front yard, and a dog barked as they approached. The two corpsmen walked ahead of the nurses, and a youngish man in overalls came out of the house smoking a cigarette and carrying a shovel, which identified him as their contact.