Friday, 14 April 2023

HEROINES OF THE SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE – VERA LEIGH

 

She was raised outside Paris

But was English born

And served as an agent for the SOE

In October 1943 “Simone”

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

And she was mentioned in despatches

She was posthumously awarded

A Kings Commendation for Brave Conduct

And is commemorated on the Tempsford Memorial

In the Bedfordshire village of Tempsford

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.

No comments:

Post a Comment

WHEN KITCHENER CALLED

When they hear the recruiter’s call And they take the King’s shilling They’re trained and uniformed And marched towards the killing