The father of Ruby Crane was the head gardener working for a rehabilitation centre for blind soldiers called St Dunstan’s in Brighton, Sussex during the Great War and St Dunstan’s still helps blind veterans.
Ruby Crane saw a blind soldier stumbling and decided to take his hand and guide him where he wanted to go. After this act of kindness Ruby spent every day guiding blind soldiers and was popular among veterans and their families.
Ruby was in her late 90’s when she died in 2011.
Alan Malcher
From the 1973 Thames Television documentary ‘World at War’ Episode 12 ‘Whirlwind’
David Finlayson
David Finlayson was born to English parents living in France where he was educated until the age of thirteen and after his family returned to England, he studied engineering at Wolverhampton Technical College.
Finlayson entered the SOE training schools on 25 July 1943 and after successfully completing the three compulsory courses his final assessment said he would be suitable as a member of a coup-de- main party (member of a clandestine circuit) but was only 19 years old and considered too young to be placed in charge of a circuit but was ideal as a wireless operator and after volunteering for wireless training attended the Wireless and Security School at Thame Park, Oxfordshire.
David Finlayson, Maurice Lapage (aka Colin) and an agent named as Lesout arrived in France on the night of 2/3 March 1944 to organise a circuit called LIONTAMER but after parachuting into France nothing was heard from them. London received several messages sent from Finlayson’s wireless, but his personal code was not used, and no security checks were sent. London suspected a German operator was attempting to ‘play back’ his wireless but the channel remained open in case Finlayson, whilst working under pressure, had forgot to use the codes. The channel was eventually closed after London received word that MUSICIAN circuit whose members were tasked with receiving the agents had been destroyed and was under German control. Consequently, the three agents were dropped to German soldiers.
Until late January 1946 there was no information about the fate of the three agents and is now thought David Finlayson was executed at Gross-Rosen camp in Poland.
Alan Malcher
Paul Tessier
Paul Tessier was born in Clichy-sous-Bois, France on 15 October 1916 to French parents but was a British national at the time of his service with the British army and was married with two young children.
In 1940 he enlisted into the Royal Fusiliers and sometime in 1942 transferred to the Royal Armoured Corps where he served in a reconnaissance unit. During his SOE training and selection he was described as ‘tough and enthusiastic. Anxious to finish training so he could get down to the real thing.
His first mission to France was in August 1943 as part of the Dressmaker sabotage team that arrived north of Escoussens by parachute to attack a tannery said to be used by the Germans, but the intelligence was wrong and they found the target deserted. The team then became ill after drinking contaminated water and returned to England.
In January 1944 Tessier returned to France to become the second in command of a circuit called Musician commanded by Gustave Biéler, but after being dropped over the pinpoint (drop zone) nothing was heard from him. Shortly after his disappearance London was warned the circuit that arranged the reception committee (helpers on the ground) had been infiltrated by the Abwehr (German Military Intelligence) and Tessier had been dropped to waiting Germans.
On 27 June 1944 SOE HQ in London received a message from a wireless operator working for the Spiritualist circuit informing them Tessier was now working for their circuit. It is now known that after being dropped to German soldiers he escaped from custody after breaking through an outside wall with an iron bar and tied bedding together to make a rope to climb out of the building and did this shortly after German interrogators broke his hand. The Germans and Gestapo now had his photograph and he should have left France through an escape line or air extraction by No.161 Special Duty Squadron RAF that specialised in air landings but he decided to remain in France.
It is known he sheltered with an English born woman whilst working for Spiritualist during which he helped arrange twelve air drops of weapons and involved in sabotage attacks against the railway running from Paris to Strasbourg and Metz. Dates vary according to several sources when Tessier was with three members of Spiritualist circuit attempting to cross the German lines at Clichy-sous-Bois to recover weapons and explosives when the lorry they were traveling in was engaged by Germany soldiers. During a brief firefight Tessier was wounded, capture, then shot and allowed to die in the road.
Paul Tessier was buried at Langny-sur-Marne around 18 miles east of Paris and a town square was later dedicated to his memory.
The square named after Paul Tessier.
Alan Malcher.
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 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.
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.
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 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
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.
Alan Malcher 