Fearless

The French marine fuseliers from Brittany who fought in Nieuwpoort, Flanders, from 1915 onwards, were brisk and cheerful youngsters, sporting colorful sailors' uniforms. Their nicknames "Playboys of Brittany" and "the Ladies with the red pompoms" were quite misleading, for the marines had a reputation as cunning and fierce fighters. If these soldiers were remarkable and strikingly colorful, their ambulance driver was even more so: for Dorothie Feilding was an English lady, daughter of the Warwickshire Earl of Denbigh. A woman in the war was unheard of in those days, but she stayed in Flanders at the side of her marines until 1917, saving hundreds of lives under horrendous circumstances. Along the way Dorothie won not only their hearts, but the admiration of generals and kings as well.