10 Badass War Heroes You've Never Heard Of‏

4. Krystyna Skarbek

Amazing individuals get written out of the record books for all sorts of reasons, usually owing to the societal prejudices of their time. They might be left out due to their race, the fact they're a bear...or because of their gender. Maria Krystyna Janina Skarbek, also known as Christine Granville, was rewarded with a George Medal, OBE and Croix de guerre for her frankly amazing work during the Second World War, going undercover for MI5 behind enemy lines in in Nazi-occupied Poland and France. Not bad for a Polish countess.

Having fled her home country she was recruited by the British Secret Intelligence Service months before the Special Operations Executive was founded in July 1940. During her time as a totally heroic and badass spy she helped recruit a record number of women agents to the cause, went to Hungary and Cairo and operated in a spy ring that smuggled intelligence and anti-tank rifles, and wiped out entire battalions in France by convincing bombers to abandon their positions. She even managed to get out of being arrested by the Gestapo by biting her tongue until it bled and convincing the Nazis she had tuberculosis, so they wanted to get as far away from her as possible. She was pretty cunning, that Skarbek.

After that she made rescue missions something of her speciality, saving three Allied spies by telling their captors they would get done for war crimes. Not only did Krystyna Skarbek do a load of amazing stuff, but she did most of it just by talking to people.