British MKIII Valentine tanks make their way through a town in Tunisia - April 1943. More than 8000 Valentine tanks were produced and used mainly in the North Africa Campaign proving to be both strong and reliable #ww2#worldwar2#valentine#tunis#tunisia#tank#britisharmy
#OnThisDay, 28 May 1944, Sonia Butt parachutes into occupied France as an explosives expert for the British Special Operations Executive. She had turned 20 two weeks earlier.
She trained the maquis and coordinated sabotage operations. She was never captured.
Extraordinarily proud to have been the editor on this book. The author is a wonderful soul and her deep dive into the lives of her mother and father really resonate. It was an honor and a privilege.
All for You: A World War II Family Memoir of Love, Separation, and Loss https://a.co/d/iF1GlHd
#OnThisDay, 14 May 1943, Vera Leigh returns to France to work as a courier for the British Special Operations Executive.
A fashion designer, Leigh had fled France in 1942 after running escape lines for Allied airmen.
After her return, Leigh carried documents and equipment such as guns and explosives around her network's area. Arrested by the Gestapo in 1944, she was executed at Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp.
Very early #OnThisDay, 6 May 1944, Marguerite 'Peggy' Knight parachutes into occupied France to be a courier for the Special Operations Executive. The British SOE supported the French resistance.
Knight fought her way out of an attempted capture, and returned to the UK in September 1944.
#OnThisDay, 1 May 1944, South African Phyllis Latour parachutes into occupied France to be a radio operator for the British Special Operations Executive.
New flats filling in a gap between old sandstone tenements on Peel Street in the Partick area of Glasgow. The gap was created when a German parachute mine exploded at 11:25pm on 13th of March 1941, killing 50 people and destroying much of the street. As with other similar sites in the city, there's nothing to mark its history.
Very early #OnThisDay, 30 April 1944, New Zealander Nancy Wake parachutes into occupied France to be a courier for the Special Operations Executive. The British SOE supported French Resistance to Nazi occupation.
Nick-named 'the white mouse' by the Gestapo, she is never captured. She died in 2011.
"My comrades, who did far more and suffered more profoundly than I, are not here to speak. Because of this, I speak for them."
#OnThisDay, 16 April 1943, Special Operations Executive agent Odette Samsom is arrested by the Gestapo in France. The British SOE worked with the French resistance.
Very early #OnThisDay, 12 Apr 1944, Odette Wilen parachutes into France to work as a wireless operator for the British Special Operations Executive. The SOE supports the French resistance.
Wireless operators were at the greatest risk of discovery, as their position could be triangulated whenever they were transmitting messages back to London.
Wilen evades capture by minutes and escapes over the Pyrenees. She lives until 2015.
Very early #OnThisDay, 6 Apr 1944, Lillian Rolfe and Violette Szabo separately arrive in occupied France to work for the British Special Operations Executive (SEO). Rolfe is a wireless operator, Szabo a courier.
Szabo returns to the UK at the end of April but goes back to France in June 1944 and is captured. Rolfe is captured in July 1944.
They are executed together, by shooting, in Ravensbrück concentration camp in Feb 1945.
#OnThisDay, 25 Mar 1941, the first WRNS arrive at Bletchley Park in the UK. They operate the Bombe machines used for decoding German Enigma machine messages. Their work helps shorten World War 2.
“Once, with hand-grenades in my shopping bag, I travelled in a train so full that I had to stand against a German NCO.”
#OnThisDay, 18 Mar 1943, Francine Agazarian arrives in Nazi-occupied France to be a courier in the Special Operations Executive. The British SOE supported the French Resistance.
#OnThisDay, 11 Mar 1942, the current Waterloo Bridge in London partially opens. The construction force included many women, giving it the nickname “the Ladies Bridge”.
Very early #OnThisDay, 3 Mar 1944, Denise Bloch and Eileen Nearne arrive, separately, into occupied France as wireless operators for the British Special Operations Executive. The SOE supports the French resistance in sabotaging Nazi operations.
A look at some photo studios in Singapore who kept working during the Japanese occupation.
"Some of the prewar photo studios that had serviced people wanting to mark significant events in their lives were able to reopen their businesses. It was not business as usual though."
#OnThisDay, 22 Feb 1943, Sophie Scholl is sentenced to death and immediately executed, alongside her brother and a friend, for distributing anti-Nazi literature at her university in Munich, Germany.
Her cellmate said her last words to her were “how can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually to a righteous cause... It is such a splendid sunny day, and I have to go.”