Dame Blanche (resistance)

'The White Lady') was the codename for an underground intelligence network that operated in German-occupied Belgium during World War I.

It was named after a German legend that foretold the fall of the Hohenzollern dynasty would be signaled by the appearance of a woman in white.

The Dame Blanche network was founded in 1916 by Walthère Dewé [fr], an engineer working in a telegraph and telephone company in Brussels.

In order to save the group, Dewé took control and developed it under the name Dame Blanche, with the assistance of his friend Herman Chauvin.

The network was initially affiliated with the British military intelligence service of Cecil Aylmer Cameron via Folkestone.