Whittle was a flight nurse during WWII. Her plane was shot down over Aachen, Germany in September of 1944 and Whittle was one of the few survivors.

She was captured and became the only female POW in the European theatre of WWII.

Whittle remained strong and was determined to get back home. Her resistance finally paid off on Jan. 25th, 1945 when she was finally released and brought back to the U.S.

Lady Triệu is a war hero from Vietnam. She was born sometime around 225 CE and is believed to have been an orphan. She and her brother are credited with leading a rebellion against the Chinese.

When told she should stop fighting and get married instead, Lady Triệu allegedly told him, “I want to ride the storm, tread the dangerous waves, win back the fatherland, and destroy the yoke of slavery. I don’t want to bow down my head, working as a simple housewife.”

The Night Witches were a band of Soviet female pilots who fought the Nazi invasion with often outdated equipment and crop-duster planes. They were a part of the 588th Night Bombers Regiment.

Although their planes were too slow to fly during the day, they flew at dusk and dropped bombs on enemy aircraft from above. These women were fearless and well-respected during their time.

Lt. Annie G. Fox was at Pearl Harbor during WWII when the Japanese attacked.

She was a military nurse who jumped into action, saving countless injured and dying soldiers in the field. She received the Bronze Star for her efforts to rally her nurses in the chaos.

Elsie Ott was a flight nurse and lieutenant who served during WWII. She was sent to India on a mission to retrieve injured soldiers and bring them back home.

Because of her, countless lives were saved from the front lines and men returned to their families.

Ott was the first woman awarded the Air Medal.

Cordelia E. Cook was the first woman to receive both the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star for her work in an Italian field hospital where she was in constant danger from enemy fire.

It was reported by those with whom she worked that she was constantly putting herself in harm’s way in order to help others.

When the Nazis invaded the Netherlands, they removed Queen Wilhelmina against her will. She was able to escape her captors and fled to England where she broadcasted messages of hope to her people over the radio.

Winston Churchill even called her “the only real man among the governments-in-exile in London.”

Jannetje “Hannie” Schaft was one of the Netherland resistance fighters that Queen Wilhelmina was sending messages of hope to. She refused to bow to Nazi rule and reportedly aided many refugees, spied on enemy soldiers, and sabotaged multiple targets.

She was eventually turned into a martyr for her efforts against the Nazis and reburied with honor after the war.

Sgt. Hester was the first woman to receive the Silver Star since WWII and the first ever to be cited for valor in close quarters combat. She was rewarded for her heroic efforts after an ambush during the Iraq war.

In 2005, when her convoy was attacked, she and Staff Sgt. Timothy Hein were able to gain ground with their troops and fight back against the attack, ultimately killing 27 of the 50 attackers.

Noor Inayat Khan worked as a spy for the British Army while she was living in France during WWII. She joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force and fought tirelessly against the Nazi regime.

Unfortunately, Khan was eventually captured and tortured by the Nazis, yet she still refused to give up the secrets of the codes she used to help transmit messages over the radio.

She was executed by the Germans in a concentration camp and posthumously awarded the George Cross in 1949.

Aleda Lutz received many accolades as a soldier including Distinguished Flying Cross (posthumously), Air Medal (four times), Oak Leaf Cluster, Red Cross Medal, and Purple Heart. As a flight nurse, she was always in the line of fire trying to extricate wounded soldiers from the front lines.

She flew evac missions and brought home hundreds of injured fighters before dying in a plane crash.

Violette Szabo was a British spy during WWII who received such awards as the George Cross, MBE (posthumously), Croix de Guerre, and the Médaille de la Résistance.

As a member of the Women’s Land Army, she used her knowledge of French to spy on the Germans occupying French territory. She even parachuted into areas to help set up resistance cells.

She was an integral part of the Ally victory, though she was caught and brutally tortured in Paris before being executed in a concentration camp in 1945.

Lyudmila Pavlichenko was a Russian sharpshooter who earned the nickname “Lady Death” for her skill. She racked up 309 confirmed kills, including 36 enemy snipers, during her fight against the Nazis. That makes her the most successful female sniper in history.

She eventually became a sniper trainer, teaching other soldiers how to shoot accurately like her.

Colonel Ruby Bradley was a POW nurse who gained 34 medals and citations, including two Legions of Merit, two Bronze Stars, and the International Red Cross’ Florence Nightingale Medal.

She tended to fellow POW soldiers while a POW herself in Japan. She would even help imprisoned children by sneaking them food from her own rations. And as she lost weight, she used the extra room in her clothes to smuggle more medical supplies to those who needed them.

Pvt. Cathay Williams was a freed slave who joined up with the Union Army during the Civil War at age 17. She told the military she was a man (William Cathay) just so she could join.

She was liberated from slavery by the 8th Indiana Regiment in 1861, but then drafted into the Union Army’s support troops.

She was a huge support and played an important role in defeating the Confederate army and continued on despite surviving illness, becoming disabled, being discharged, and then meeting up with the Buffalo Soldiers to continue the fight.

The Dahomey Amazons were a group of 4,000 to 6,000 women who made up the protection for the kings of Fon in southern Togo and southern Benin.

These men relied on the women as bodyguards, and they didn’t disappoint as they were known to fight their enemy with unmatched bravery and “audacity.”

Not only was Kosmodemyanskaya only 18 when she started fighting for the Soviets during WWII, but she was also the first woman to be named a Hero of the Soviet Union.

She snuck behind enemy lines and set up multiple land mines to cut off German supply lines. She was a guerilla fighter that you definitely wanted on your side.

However, she was executed for her loyalty. This was after being tortured and still never giving up her compatriots.

Nancy Wake was a New Zealand-born French-resistance fighter during WWII.

She racked up plenty of honors during her time as a guerilla fighter and spy (including the George Medal, Medal of Freedom from the U.S., Médaille de la Résistance, and the Croix de Guerre (three times!)).

Wake saved the lives of hundreds of Allied soldiers and rescued airmen who were shot down in France between 1940 and 1943 by escorting them to safety in Spain.

She also helped establish communication lines between the British military and the French Resistance that were important for weakening Germany’s grip on France.

Susan Travers was a General in the French Foreign Legion. She earned awards such as Légion d’honneur, Croix de Guerre, and the Médaille Militaire during her time fighting against the Nazis.

Travers led her unit safely through enemy fire on multiple occasions and even hid from invaders in sand pits for 15 days after refusing to be evacuated to safety with other women.

Lydia Litvyak was a flight instructor, Senior Lieutenant, and fighter pilot for the Soviets during WWII.

She earned such commendations as Order of the Red Banner, Order of the Red Star, and Order of the Patriotic War (twice) after becoming the first female pilot to shoot down an enemy aircraft (and she would tally up many more enemy kills during her service).

Skarbeck was a Polish spy during WWII who earned the Croix de Guerre, George Medal, and Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) during her time fighting against the Nazis.

She eventually became a paratrooper and jumped into the beaches of Normandy during D-Day.

Her biographer, Clare Mulley, told the BBC:

“Once, when she was arrested and was being interrogated quite brutally, she bit her tongue so hard that she appeared to cough up blood, which were the signs of tuberculosis and the Germans were rightly terrified of this disease so they released her.”

Schragenheim was an underground resistance fighter during WWII. She hid her identity as a Jew from the Nazis and helped smuggle other Jews out of Germany.

Unfortunately, she was eventually captured and died during a death march from Gross-Rosen concentration camp to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

Barbara Lauwers was born in the Czech Republic and earned the Bronze Star during her time fighting against the Nazis.

Because she was fluent in 5 different languages, she was able to turn many (roughly 600!) German POWs into counter operatives. And that’s in addition to her clever use of propaganda to demoralize German troops on the front lines.

Eileen Nearne was a British spy who earned the commendation, Croix de Guerre, and was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) by King George VI.

She was dropped behind enemy lines by parachute to arrange weapons drops and relay messages to French resistance fighters. Needless to say, her role was pivotal in defeating the Nazis during WWII.

Yaa Asantewaa was the Ashanti War Queen of a region now located in Ghana. She bravely led 5,000 troops into battle in the War of the Golden stool against the British colonizers.

She’s quoted as saying: “If you, the men of Asante, will not go forward, then we will. I shall call upon my fellow women. We will fight the white men. We will fight‘til the last of us falls on the battlefield.”

Unfortunately, she was captured and exiled but not before using her political power to help her people in the best way she could.