Gaston Vandermeerssche was a Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 leader within the Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 underground resistance

Dutch resistance

Dutch resistance to the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during World War II can be mainly characterized by its prominent non-violence, summitting in over 300,000 people in hiding in the autumn of 1944, tended to by some 60,000 to 200,000 illegal landlords and caretakers and tolerated knowingly...

 against Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. Vandermeerssche's life in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 became the basis for the 1988 novel by Allan Mayer, which was later adapted into the 1997 Dutch film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

, Gaston's War

Gaston's War

Gaston's War is a 1997 drama film directed by Robbe De Hert and starring Werner De Smedt, Mapi Galán and Peter Firth. Many decades after the Second World War, a Belgian resistance fighter, Gaston Vandermeerssche, tries to discover who betrayed them to the Nazis. It is based on a novel by Allan...

.

Using the code name "Raymond", Vandermeerssche established an undercover smuggling line through the Pyrenees Mountains to deliver microfilmed intelligence from occupied France to the Belgian military headquarters in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

.

Vandermeerssche emigrated to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and resided in
Bayside, Wisconsin

Bayside, Wisconsin

Bayside is a village in Milwaukee and Ozaukee counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 4,518 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Bayside is located at ....

, where he died of natural causes on November 1, 2010, aged 89. He was survived by his wife, Violette, three daughters and one son.