The unsung heroes sail
Under the Red Ensign
The tell-tale flag flown
By British merchantmen
Sunday 30 May 2021
KUBLAI KHAN’S MONGOL HORDE
Kublai Khan’s Mongol horde
Set
Sail In 1274
To
conquer Japan
And
add it to his empire
But
the great deity Raijin
Conjured
up a typhoon
And
his Divine wind
Destroyed
the Khan’s fleet
And
saved the Japanese
But
in 1281
They
sailed again
The
largest fleet every assembled
Four
thousand ships
Carrying
140000 men
But
when they were off the shore
Once
again Raijin
Brought
the Kamikaze
And
scattered the fleet
To
the four winds
And
thwarted Kublai Khan
And
he never tried again
Friday 21 May 2021
HEROINES OF THE SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE – MURIEL BYCK
She was English born
And served as an agent for the SOE
In May 1943 “Violette”
Was overcome by fatigue
And collapsed while at the radio.
She was diagnosed with Meningitis
And sent to Hospital in Romorantin
But died shortly after
Being given a lumbar puncture,
For her dedicated conduct
She was posthumously Mentioned in Despatches,
Her name is recorded on the FANY memorial
At St Paul's Church, Knightsbridge
And on the Valençay SOE Memorial “Roll of Honour”
In the French town of Valençay.
As well as the war memorial
At the Lycee Francais in Kensington.
ALL-TIME CLASSIC MOVIE FAVOURITES – THEY MET IN THE DARK (1943)
“They Met in the Dark” is a World War II romantic drama, written by Miles Malleson from the novel by Anthony Gilbert and Directed by Karel Lamac.
The story is set during World War II when, a Royal
Navy Commander, Richard
Francis Heritage (James Mason) is tricked by a pretty girl who unbeknown to him
is working for the Nazis and, although he is unaware of it at the time, he
reveals military secrets which leads to the loss of a Ship to a U-Boat, and he
is court-martialed as a result, but he vows to track the girl and her accomplices
down.
But when he seeks out the girl he is directed to
cottage where he stumbles upon her murdered body, then as he is leaving he
bumps into another woman Laura
Verity (Joyce Howard) and after a shaky start they set off together to discover a network
of Nazi spies and Fifth-Columnists.
ON THE BLOODY FIELD OF BATTLE
Bright burnished copper shields
Shined
bright as gold in the midday sun
Spear
points glinted in the sun
Like
a myriad of dancing fireflies
Silver
lights blinked from polished
Buckles
and embellishments
The
clink of metal on metal
The
snort of impatient horses
The
barking of impatient sergeants
Leather
creaked and strained
On
soldier and beast
All
the sights brought back to mind
Vivid
remembrances
And
the sounds spoke a familiar tongue
To
the battle hardened
Anticipation
dried the mouth
Almost
as much as the dust
Banners
fluttered lightly in the breeze
Some
standing as tall as trees
And
carrion eaters waited unseen
For
the coming banquet
Then
the battle commenced
With
an ensuing cacophony
Many
died quickly, painlessly
Not
even seeing the fatal blow
Equally
many died slowly
In
agony from their wounds
Others
lay on the bloody field
For
hours and survived
Only
to fight and die another day
The
victors write the history
Of
the bloody days events
The
truth also lies dying
On
the bloody field of battle
HEROINES OF THE SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE – SONIA OLSCHANEZKY
She was German born
And served as an agent for the SOE
In January 1944 “Tania”
Was arrested by the Gestapo
Along with other members of her
group
Then transported to Fresnes
Prison
And interrogated and
brutalized repeatedly
Before being sent to Karlsruhe in Germany,
With several other captured SOE agents
But was ultimately taken to
The Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp in France
Where on the 6th July 1944,
Along with three other agents
She was taken to the crematorium
After being beaten senseless
They were burned alive in the crematorium.
As far as the British were concerned
She was only missing.
To the great shame of the allies
Her name is not recorded on any
Of the SOE memorials
Despite having served as an agent for four years
And dying at the age of 20
REMEMBRANCE FOR UNCLE JOHN - John Holt 1887-1916
“Your country needs you”
We
heard Kitchener say to us
We
took the Kings shilling
Without
any fuss
Lads
and Pals all marched
Crowds
cheering jubilantly
Then
crossed the English Channel
To
halt the advancing enemy
The
distant we gain in battle
Against
the loss of a comrade
Is
measured in inches at best
As
we play out Hague’s Charade
We
came as proud young men
To
halt the invaders advance
Only
to live and die
In
the mud of western France
In
the cloying mud of France
Once
rich and fertile soil
No
longer appears like earth
And
now is as slippery as oil
The
mud colours everything
Even
we try and fail to stay clean
Mud
has consumed the landscape
And
hides the dead unseen
Subtle
hints of another time
Some
old Tree stumps remain
A
jagged piece of wall sometimes
Will
it ever be normal again?
Trenches
have become home
Trench
foot and rats our companion’s
Shellfire
is our music hall
Mortars
and rifles our musicians
We
escape the daily horror
But
only within our own minds
Where
we explore familiar places
Far
beyond the wars confines
The
enemy are much like us
Their
thoughts take them away
To
a peaceful quiet land
On
a peaceful quiet day
I
sit in my muddy trench
My
eyes closed to all but my wife
My
sweet and beloved Tilly
The
most important part of my life
Many
fallen comrades lie
Where
they fell upon the field
They
saw no sense to fight
But
still they refused to yield
After
three long years
In
the vile and muddy hell
I
climbed out of my trench
And
with my comrades fell
ALL-TIME CLASSIC MOVIE FAVOURITES – THE EAGLE HAS LANDED (1976)
“The Eagle Has Landed” is a World War II drama, screenplay by Tom Mankiewicz based on the novel by Jack Higgins and Directed by John Sturges.
The
movie of Higgins' bestselling debut book, in my opinion by far the best book he
wrote, unfolds at the height of World War II when a German plot to kidnap Sir
Winston Churchill in 1943 is proposed, at a time when the war is entering its
final stages and Germany is teetering on the brink of defeat.
So
an increasingly unhinged Hitler, orders a mission to have British Prime
Minister Sir Winston Churchill kidnapped and brought to Germany.
The
plan seems ludicrous in the extreme, but Himmler (Donald Pleasence)
tasks Admiral Canaris (Anthony Quayle) and Colonel Radl (Robert Duvall) to put
a plan together just to keep Himler happy, but a message sent from a German spy in the Norfolk countryside
Joanna
Grey (Jean Marsh) makes Radl
believe that such a mission might just succeed.
So Oberst Kurt Steiner (Michael Caine) and his rapidly
dwindling command land in East Anglia posing as Polish Soldiers on manoeuvres.
They
are aided by Irish nationalist Liam Devlin (Donald Sutherland) though not a Nazi sympathiser assists the Germans
after being offered money for the cause, but he is distracted by a local young
girl
Molly (Jenny Agutter) who is fixated on him, and might derail the whole enterprise
before the goal is achieved.
It’s a very enjoyable movie with a good story, strong
characters and an able supporting cast, including Sven-Bertil Taube as
Steiner’s second in command Captain von Neustadt, John Standing as Father
Verecker, Judy Geeson as his sister Pamela, Treat Williams as Captain Clark and
Larry Hagman as Colonel Pitts.
Wednesday 19 May 2021
HEROINES OF THE SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE – VERA MAY ATKINS CBE
She was a Romanian born
British intelligence
officer
During
the Second World War
Working in the France
Section
Of the Special
Operations Executive.
From 1941 to 1945.
But worked as a “stringer”
For British intelligence
Until emigrating
to Britain in 1937.
Her first mission
once in England
Was as part of the
British team
To help Poland's
Enigma code breakers
Cross the border
into her native Romania
And then ultimately
got them to England
Along with their
replica Enigma machines
Which they had reverse
engineered.
Though not a British
national,
She joined the
French section of the SOE.
Firstly, as a
secretary but rose through the ranks
Until she was appointed F
Section's intelligence officer.
And was responsible
for sending agents into France
Many of whom never
returned.
At the end of
1945 SOE was wound up,
But in January of
the following year
She went to Europe
in search
Of information on
her missing agents.
After countless
interrogations
Of captured Nazi’s
in Germany and France
And managed to
locate all but one.
Of the 118 who disappeared
in enemy territory
she was able to confirm
117 of them
Had died in German
captivity.
She ensured that
all those who died
Were honoured and
remembered
She was personally
appointed CBE
In the 1997
Birthday Honours
Was awarded the Croix
de Guerre in 1948
And was made a
Knight of the Legion of Honour
By the French government
in 1995
THE TREATY
The eleventh hour
The
T’s were crossed
And
the I’s were dotted
The
eleventh day
Books
were balanced
Of
the butcher’s tally
The
eleventh month
Seeds
were sown
For
the Second World War
By
the French at Versailles
ALL-TIME CLASSIC MOVIE FAVOURITES – GREEN FOR DANGER (1946)
“Green for Danger” is a crime thriller, based on the book by Christianna Brand and Directed by Sidney Gilliat.
The film is set in a rural English hospital during World War II, where a
postman Joseph Higgins (Moore Marriott) dies on the operating table after which one of the
theatre staff Sister Carter (Wendy Thompson) states publicly that Higgins
was murdered and she has proof of who the murderer is, but before she can
unmask the killer she is then murdered herself.
So the facetious and enigmatic Scotland Yard Inspector Cockrill
(Alastair Sim) arrives to investigate and very soon suspects one of the doctors
and nurses who were in the operating theatre during the surgery to be the
assassin, but which one?
In this straightforwardly plotted mystery Leo Genn, Henry
Edwards, Trevor Howard, Ronald Adam, Judy Campbell, Wendy Thompson, Rosamund John,
Sally Gray and Megs Jenkins make up the medical contingent in a little gem from
the heyday of British Cinema.
HEROINES OF THE SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE – DIANA HOPE ROWDEN MBE
She was English born
And served as an agent for the SOE
In November 1943 “Paulette”
Was arrested by German Military Police
Along with other members of her group
And transported
for interrogation to
84 Avenue Foch, their HQ in Paris
Before being sent to Karlsruhe in Germany,
With several other captured SOE agents
But
was ultimately taken to
The Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp
in France
Where
on the 6th July 1944,
Along
with three other agents
She
was taken to the crematorium
After
being beaten senseless
They
were burned alive in the crematorium.
As far as the British were
concerned
She was only missing
And she was mentioned in
despatches
She was posthumously awarded
an MBE
(later withdrawn due to the policy on posthumous
awards)
She was awarded the Croix de Guerre
1939-1945
A Kings Commendation for Brave
Conduct
And is commemorated on the Tempsford Memorial
in the Bedfordshire village of Tempsford
And is registered with the Scottish National War
Memorial
In Edinburgh Castle, and at the Runnymede Memorial
As one of the SOE agents who died for the liberation
of France,
Her name is
also recorded on the Brookwood Memorial
In Surrey as
one of 3,500
“To whom war
denied a known and honoured grave”
And on the Valençay
SOE Memorial “Roll of Honour”
In the French
town of Valençay.
THEY FELL
They fell
Like
ripened corn
Cut
with scythe’s stroke
In
seasoned hands
They
fell
Like
cherry blossom
Set
free
By
an April breeze
They
fell
Like
skittles toppled
By
a wooden ball
Skillfully
played
They
fell
Like
mighty English oak
Cut
in thousands
To
build the mighty fleet
They
fell
Proudly
and unwavering
Before
their enemy
Uncompromising
in their duty
They
fell
Like
the valiant
Cut
down before their time
A
generation forever lost
Friday 14 May 2021
ALL-TIME CLASSIC MOVIE FAVOURITES – WENT THE DAY WELL? (1942)
“Went the Day Well?” is a World War II thriller, based on the story by Graham Greene and Directed by Alberto Cavalcanti.
The
residents of an English village during WWII welcome a platoon of soldiers who are
to be billeted with them, but the trusting residents eventually discover that
the soldiers are really German paratroopers who proceed to hold the village
captive in advance of a planned invasion.
The
Germans block all the roads, so no one is allowed in or out, so the villagers
must try to smuggle someone out to alert the outside world to the impending
invasion.
“Went
the Day Well?” is one not to be missed and is very watchable with a large
familiar cast that reads as a veritable who’s who of British Cinema in the
1930’s and 40’s including;
Leslie
Banks, C.V. France, Valerie Taylor, Marie Lohr, Harry Fowler, Norman Pierce,
Frank Lawton, Elizabeth Allan, Thora Hird, Muriel George, Patricia Hayes,
Mervyn Johns, Hilda Bayley, Edward Rigby, Johnnie Schofield, Ellis Irving,
Philippa Hiatt, Grace Arnold, Basil Sydney, David Farrar and John Slater.
HEROINES OF THE SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE – YVONNE CLAIRE RUDELLAT MBE
She was French born
But served as an agent for the SOE
In June 1943 “Jacqueline”
Was shot in the back of the head
While she and a fellow agent
While being pursued by the Germans.
She was taken to Blois hospital
Where they found her wound was not fatal
And transferred her to Hôpital de la Pitié in
Paris.
Though still gravely ill, in late September
She was moved to Fresnes prison,
Before being forwarded in July the following year
To the Ravensbrück concentration camp for women.
And then in March 1945 she arrived at
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
In the middle of a typhus epidemic
The camp was liberated by the Allies a month later
She was hospitalised but died late in April.
Yvonne was recommended for the Military Cross,
But she was ineligible as it was not awarded to women
She was later made an MBE,
Honorary because she was not a British citizen
She is commemorated by an obelisk at Romorantin-Lanthenay,
Her name is also recorded on the Brookwood Memorial
In Surrey as one of 3,500
“To whom war denied a known and honoured grave”
And on the Valençay SOE Memorial ”Roll of Honour”
In the French town of Valençay.
And also, on the FANY memorial
At St Paul's Church, Knightsbridge
TOMMY
We walked towards the enemy
Hidden
in the mist
That
lay like a silent shroud
We
picked our way
Across
the open ground
Until
the silence was broken
As
overhead, a shell burst
Raining
death and shrapnel
Knocking
us to the ground
Throwing
us hither and thither
Like
skittles in an alley
Broken
bodies lay in the Flanders mud
Of
“no man’s land”
Before
me Tommy hung on the wire
His
body vivid red
Cut
from neck to groin
Even
a baker such as I, knew
He
was beyond earthy aid
“Shoot
me” he pleaded
His
face etched deep with pain
I
knelt before him contemplating his request
Then
his face relaxed
And
he called out “mother”
Though
not in pain or anguish
Not
a cry for help, but a greeting
An
exclamation of joy
As
he was returned to her arms
War
had diminished my faith
But
in that instant, it was restored
By a
single death, my friend Tommy
Monday 10 May 2021
ALL-TIME CLASSIC MOVIE FAVOURITES – IN WHICH WE SERVE (1942)
“In Which We Serve” is a World War II drama, written by Noël Coward and Directed by Noël Coward and David Lean.
It tells the story of a British Naval Destroyer, H.M.S. Torrin, from its
construction on the Clyde to its sinking during action in the Mediterranean Sea
in World War II, and is told in flashbacks by the survivors as they cling to a
life raft.
Among them are the ship's commanding officer Captain E.V. Kinross (Noël
Coward), Ordinary Seaman Shorty Blake (John Mills), Chief Petty Officer Walter
Hardy (Bernard Miles), Stoker (Richard Attenborough) and Flags (Michael Wilding).
But although the men have served valiantly and heroically in their time
aboard the Torrin we also get to see the stoic and determined women behind them,
Alix Kinross (Celia Johnson), Freda Lewis (Kay Walsh), Kath Hardy (Joyce Carey)
and Maureen (Penelope Dudley Ward).
“In Which We Serve” is a shameless story about naval heroism and was
based on Lord Mountbatten's wartime experiences and is a compelling and highly
rated piece of British cinema history.
HEROINES OF THE SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE – CECILY MARGOT GORDON LEFORT
She was English born
And served as an agent for the SOE
In September 1943 “Alice”
Was arrested by the Gestapo
Sent, first to a
prison in Lyon
Then transported to Fresnes Prison
And interrogated and brutalized repeatedly
She was then transferred to Germany
To be imprisoned at Ravensbrück
Where she was held until,
Her name was called out one morning
In February 1945,
And she was taken to the gas chambers.
As far as the British were concerned
She was only missing
And she was mentioned in despatches
She was posthumously awarded an MBE
(later withdrawn due to the policy on posthumous awards)
She was awarded the Croix de Guerre 1939-1945
And is commemorated on the Tempsford Memorial
In the Bedfordshire village of Tempsford
Also, on the Valençay SOE Memorial “Roll of Honour”
In the French town of Valençay.
And is also recorded on the FANY memorial
At St Paul's Church, Knightsbridge
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