With the hint of a smile, Simone Segouin stares nonchalantly into the camera with a submachine gun slung over her shoulder. It is a startling image of the young French freedom fighter – and it would soon become iconic. It comes from a colour film, shot by Hollywood director George Stevens in August 1944. It immortalises an 18-year-old Simone shortly after she helped capture 25 German soldiers in her home village of Thivars, south west of Paris. The defiant teenager gazes back at the lens, dressed in blue shorts, a black-and-white top with a red sash and a khaki cap,...