Oct 2023 – Alan Malcher

Hanna Szenes: SOE (Special Operations Executive) Wireless Operator M26 (Hungarian Section)

Hanna `Anna’ Szenes was born to a Jewish family in Budapest, Hungary and during the war was living in a Kibbutz in British Mandate of Palestine when she decided to join the British military and is listed as serving as an Aircraft Woman 2nd Class with the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF’s) and her service number was 2992382. The date she completed SOE training at STS 102, Mount Carmel, Haifa is not documented.

On 19 March 1944 Hanna Szenes, Yoel Palgi and Peretz Goldstein parachuted into Yugoslavia to undertake operations in Hungary, but their arrival coincided with the German invasion of Hungary and after hearing the news Palgi and Goldstein decided it was too dangerous and aborted their mission and Hanna continued without them. She stayed briefly with partisans in the Balkans and used her wireless link to SOE Massingham in Algeria to arrange weapons to be dropped by parachute before making her way to Hungary to start her mission.

Hanna was captured with her wireless after crossing the border and because wireless operators where considered a rich source of intelligence was taken to the Hungarian Intelligence Headquarters in Budapest where she was stripped naked, tied to a chair, whipped, clubbed, and beaten by her interrogators. She was tortured over several months but refused to talk and according to a male prisoner her treatment was appalling even judged by the standards usually accorded to spies, but she managed to always keep absolutely silent. The source also said she had been shot, he had seen her body lying in the courtyard of Margit Korut, a road not far from the river Danube in the centre of Budapest and believed she had been executed because she refused to talk.

In 1971, her mother said that after being taken to see her daughter at the Hungarian Intelligence HQ in Budapest the door opened and she went rigid: four men led my Hannah, her face was bruised and swollen, her hair was in a filthy tangle, eyes blackened. I was shattered, all my hope for her collapsed like a house of cards. The Nazis watched us like hawks, Hannah tore herself away from them and threw herself into my arms sobbing. She asked me to forgive her. What for? One of the Nazis ordered me to talk to her, to persuade her to tell everything otherwise this would be the last time I saw her, but Hanna remained silent.
On 28 October 1944 Hanna Szenes was tried for treason and twice the trial was delayed, and whilst in prison she wrote in her diary “I played the number game. The dice I have rolled twice. I have lost” and before the Hungarian judges reached a verdict Hanna was taken from her cell and executed by a German firing squad.
Although the date of her death is listed by the Commonwealth War graves Commission as being sometime in May 1944 her execution took place on 7 November 1944 and after being placed in front of a firing squad witnesses said 23-year-old Hanna refused to wear a blindfold because she wanted to look her killers in their eyes.

Charlotte Wood the famous Canadian War mother of World War One.

Charlotte Wood was born on 27 September 1861 in Chatham Kent and later emigrated to Canada. In 1914 eleven of her sons and stepsons served during the Great War (1914-1918) and five of them were killed. It is known her son Peter was killed near Vimy Ridge with the Saskatchewan Regiment and is among the 11,000 Canadians listed as having no known grave and her son Frederick was killed during the Battle of Mons in 1914.

In 1936 Charlotte Wood was the first to place a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Westminster Abbey in London on behalf of all Canadian mothers who lost sons during the Great War. In 1939, a few weeks after the start of the Second World War, she died and was buried in an unmarked grave in Winnipeg Brookside Cemetery and a gravestone was erected 60 years later.

Alan Malcher.

A message from the French Resistance to a collaborator during WW2.

From the Museum of Resistance in Caen. A miniature coffin sent by a member of the French Resistance to a collaborator warning them of an impending visit!

Translation of the French text by Dr Christine Quintlé: First line: Mort à l’informateur (death to the informant).
In the middle the senders: Cross of Lorraine and FFI.
In the last line, which continues the first one: de la Milice et des Boches (for the Militia and the “Boches”. Boches was a pejorative nickname meaning Germans).

More information at at http://cvrduvaucluse.canalblog.com/archives/2021/07/15/39059668.html

Alan Malcher.

Remembrance Sunday is not only for the men and women killed in action during the two world wars and all conflicts since then.

On 24 October 1940, 16 year old Aircraftman 1st Class Harry Clack was two days into his military service with No.54 MU RAF when he was electrocuted whilst recovering a German Dornier DO 215 bomber shot down near St Neots when the crane he was operating touched overhead power cables. Harry Clack is thought to be the youngest RAF fatality during the Second World War.

Alan Malcher

Georges Blind the smiling resistance fighter.

Georges Blind was a fireman from Belfort, France who was arrested for being a member of the resistance. After the Gestapo failed to make him talk he was placed in front of a mock firing squad and told if he refused to provide information he would be shot – his response was to smile at his executioners.

After this failed he was deported to a concentration camp and is thought to have been executed in late November 1944.

Alan Malcher

General thoughts about the 2023 War against Israel by Hamas and the possibility of a political solution.

As well as being a military historian I have written about defence and security; advised journalists, authors, discussed the subject on television and radio and the following is my take on the current geopolitical situation.

At the time of writing (10 October 2023) Hamas terrorists have entered Israel and killed around 1,000 Israeli citizens and it is thought the numbers will increase. There are graphic accounts of babies, toddlers, entire families being massacred; it has also been claimed the Israel Defence force (IDF) found forty babies with their heads cut-off, others with their throats cut, and people burnt alive. The IDF recently announced that around 130 men, women and young children have been taken to the Gaza Strip who Hamas has threatened to execute. There is also evidence of women being beaten and raped sometimes Infront of their families.

In June 1967 war broke out between Israel and a coalition of Arab nations consisting of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, and Pakistan who were defeated by Israel within six days and consequently became known as the Six Day War. In 1973 there was the Yom Kippur War against Israel by Egypt, Syria and expeditionary forces consisting of Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Jordan, Iraq, Libya, Kuwait, Tunisia, Morocco, Cuba, and North Korea. Although often volatile and politically complex there continues to be no open hostility from these countries towards Israel.

A period of international terrorism

Dawson Field Hijackings by the PLO. Four airliners bound for New York and one for London were forced to land at Dawson’s Field, Jordan and blown up.

PLO hijacker Leila Khaled

After military action failed to destroy Israel the conflict was spread to Europe by international terrorists such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command who attacked overseas Israeli targets and hijacked western airliners, but this increased support for Israel from western nations and attacks are now seldom outside Israel. There continues to be emotional language such as occupation and apartheid going back to 1948 but conventional war and the many terrorist attacks against Israel are seldom mentioned by people of protest who often overlook modern geopolitics as the driving force of continued violence.

Hamas. Their original manifesto was antisemitism blaming Jews for all wars supported by Jewish international bankers. This was later removed but continued to call for the destruction of Israel.

Hamas dominate the political life of Palestinian and is widely believed Iran has been providing finance, weapons, and training for Hamas terrorist since they took over the Gaza Strip and like the so-called rejection front Iran and Hamas share the same moto ‘Death to Israel’. According to the Wall Street Journal (8 October 2023) Iran help plot the attack on Israel over sever weeks and the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard gave the final go-ahead.

It is inevitable the massacre of 1,000 Israeli citizens mainly in their homes and the brutal nature of their deaths will lead to a disproportionate military response against the densely populated Gaza Strip resulting in mass casualties among the civilian population. It may also be argued Iran and Hamas have used Palestinian civilians as pawns in an attempt to destabilise the region, further escalate the conflict and damage forthcoming talks and possible closer political relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel which would be a game changer in the middle east. Most Palestinians are not responsible for the massacres of Israeli men, women, and children but will pay the price because there is no such thing as a none military target in Gaza where weapons are hidden in mosques and residential buildings.

Many protesters continue to express anger over what they call Israeli occupation and expansionism but for Israel controlling Gaza is regarded essential for protecting their country. It is clear from current and ongoing events a One-state solution sometimes called a bi-national state is impossible until the people of Palestine have a stable political system that firmly rejects the Iranian proxy war supported by Hamas and Hezbollah. The massacres of Israeli citizens, the taking of hostages and hate speeches from Iran suggest many more generations of Palestinians will be used as pawns by state and non-state players, consequently, the barrier to peace is not connected with 1948 and many of the events that followed, a political solution leading to lasting peace is impossible under the current geopolitical landscape.