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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
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Wake has died aged 98 years old....as is often the case when post obits..who? I hear you ask......well, this time I will tell you a little....
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Nancy wake was born in 1912 in New Zealand. She moved to Australia when she was 2 yrs old.
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She travelled to Europe in 1932 and settled in France. She worked as a freelance journalist.
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She remained in France after the second world war broke out and became heavily involved with the ressistance movement there. She was known as The White Mouse, a name attributed to her by the Gestapo. They suspected her of being involved but could not catch her.
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When her network was betrayed she eventually managed to escape to Britain where she joined the French Section of the British Special Operations Executive.
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In 1944 she and another SOE operative, Major John Farmer, were parachuted into the Auvergne region of central France to help organise and lead the 7,000-strong 'Maquis' Resistance fighters in preparation for the D-Day invasion on 6 June.
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Following the end of the War nancy wake received numerous awards in recognition of all of her efforts. these included the George Medal from Britain (awarded 17 July 1945), the Médaille de la Résistance, Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur (awarded 1988) and three Croix de Guerre (two with bronze palms and one with a silver star) from France, and the Medal of Freedom (with a bronze palm) from the US, making her the most decorated servicewoman of the Second World War.
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A remarkable and inspirational woman, with a remarkable life story. her autobiography is definitely worth a read.
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R.I.P
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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There are regular programmes on BBC 3 & 4 about the wartime activitives of our near ancestors.
There are hundreds of unsung hero's and heroine's who's exploites are only just becomeing known to us.
There was a very interesting one the other day about lady pilots who had to learn to fly over 140 different types of aircraft, from fighters to heavy bombers. It was their job to delivery new and replacement aircraft to operational squadrons all over the country.
Another programme was dedicated to the ladies who were wartime spies and sabutors. There were hundreds who were killed in action and because of the secret nature of their missions were just designated as being "lost or missing" in execution of their duty.
Most of these ladies and gents haven't had any recognition at all for their exploits, except a telegram to their family from Whitehall.
We will never really know just how much we owe these people.
The ones who survived are now at the ends of their lives and every one who was inter_iewed said they would do it all again.
There was one lady who was dropped into France along with another lady to help to lead a group of Ressistance fighters.
One of them was captured when her parachute was blown off course, and she was taken to a POW camp.
After the war, fellow inmates told how this woman was burned alive because she refused to tell her captors how many accomplices landed with her, or what their mission was.
I just sat and stared at the tv for ages after this programme finished.
We will never be able to repay the people who sacrificed so much so that we are free today.
We will never even know the names of most of them |
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I had the utmost honour and pleasure of knowing another SOE veteran, Eileen Nearne, in the couple of years before I sold my Devon shop.....she too served in France during World War Two as a Special Operations Executive agent, in constant danger from the Nazia.
Eileen was captured and sent to a concentration camp after being tortured.
And you know something?....That lovely woman never once whinged about what had happened to her or what she had gone through.
Sometimes when I see members whinge on here about life I think back to Eileen and wonder what on earth people have to moan about.
Bless them all.... |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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Christina Rossetti
Remember
REMEMBER me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go, yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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Dirge without Music
Edna St. Vincent Millay
I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.
Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.
Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.
A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,
A formula, a phrase remains, --- but the best is lost.
The answers quick & keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love,
They are gone. They have gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled
Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve.
More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.
Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.
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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
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"There are regular programmes on BBC 3 & 4 about the wartime activitives of our near ancestors.
There are hundreds of unsung hero's and heroine's who's exploites are only just becomeing known to us.
There was a very interesting one the other day about lady pilots who had to learn to fly over 140 different types of aircraft, from fighters to heavy bombers. It was their job to delivery new and replacement aircraft to operational squadrons all over the country.
Another programme was dedicated to the ladies who were wartime spies and sabutors. There were hundreds who were killed in action and because of the secret nature of their missions were just designated as being "lost or missing" in execution of their duty.
Most of these ladies and gents haven't had any recognition at all for their exploits, except a telegram to their family from Whitehall.
We will never really know just how much we owe these people.
The ones who survived are now at the ends of their lives and every one who was inter_iewed said they would do it all again.
There was one lady who was dropped into France along with another lady to help to lead a group of Ressistance fighters.
One of them was captured when her parachute was blown off course, and she was taken to a POW camp.
After the war, fellow inmates told how this woman was burned alive because she refused to tell her captors how many accomplices landed with her, or what their mission was.
I just sat and stared at the tv for ages after this programme finished.
We will never be able to repay the people who sacrificed so much so that we are free today.
We will never even know the names of most of them "
My father had few run ins with the enemy dring the war, and my uncle manged to scape from a POW camp and make his way to Switzerland.....we probly all know someone, but know litle of their courage and their bravery.
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Have recently met a coupe of Germans who came through the war, their exploits as civilians and their own courage in facing up to life under the nazis is no less inspiring.  |
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R.I.P. 
