Tag: Alan Malcher Military Historian

Odette Churchill GC (aka Hallows, Sansom). A rare television interview (c1980) discussing her service with the Special Operations Executive.

Introduction

Odette Churchill was one of the first women agents serving with the Special Operations Executive to arrive in occupied France to raise and support resistance.

During this interview , Odette talks about being tortured by the Gestapo at their Paris headquarters, but left out the following.

After refusing to provide information about her wireless operator (Adolphe Rabinovitch), who was in hiding and refusing to reveal the identities of members of the resistance, she was burnt on her back with a red-hot poker. Each time she fainted from the pain, she was revived with buckets of cold water being thrown over her to allow the torture to continue.

After burning failed to break her, all her toenails were pulled out, and she still refused to cooperate. Odette Churchill not only survived Ravensbruck concentration camp, when American troops began advancing, the camp commandant, SS-Sturbnamnfuhrer Frits Suhren, surrendered to Odette, and she handed him to American soldiers. Suhren gave Odette his personal sidearm, a Walther PPK pistol which is now owned by the Imperial War Museum in London. 

The Walther PPK belonging to Fritz Suhren now part of the Imperial War Museum collection.

Interview c1980

Corporal Paul Edward Harman Intelligence Corps in Northern Ireland (Operation Banner)

Corporal Paul Edward Harman was killed during operation Banner (Northern Ireland) on 14 December 1977.

Paul was alone whilst driving an unmarked civilian vehicle along the Monagh Road in the Turf Lodge area, when he was stopped by members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army. As he attempted to escape, he was shot dead by the terrorists.

Paul, the son of a diplomat, was born in Ankara, Turkey on 15 April 1950. He originally joined the 16th/5th Lancers (regimental number: 24302090) and served in Cyprus during the Turkish invasion of the island. He transferred to the Intelligence Corps on 15 May 1975 (photograph of Squad 57 attached), and having been selected for special duties he was posted to Northern Ireland and was 27 years old on the day he died.

He was the only member the Corps to be killed in action during operations in Northern Ireland (Operation BANNER). In his memory, the trophy awarded to the winning team at the Corps’ annual football tournament was renamed the Harman Trophy.

Our thoughts are with his family and friends.

(Image: Paul on Exercise SNOW QUEEN 1975.)

Above text and images from the Intelligence Corps.

Corporal Sefanaia Sukanaivalu VC.

On 23 June 1944 in the Solomon Islands, Corporal Sukanaivalu crawled forward under fire to rescue wounded men. After dragging two men to safety, under heavy Japanese machine gun and mortar fire he returned to rescue another man, but whilst assisting the seriously injured soldier was hit by machine gun fire and fell to the ground. Knowing any attempt to rescue him and the other soldier would result in heavy casualties Sukanaivalu shouted out to his men to leave him. When it was clear they would not withdraw and intended rescuing him, to prevent further casualties Corporal Sukanaivalu deliberately raised himself from the ground to face a Japanese machine gunner and was killed. His citation for the Victoria Cross in the London Gazette dated 2 November 1944 ends with “… This brave Fiji soldier, after rescuing two wounded men with the greatest heroism and being gravely wounded himself, deliberately sacrificed his own life because he knew that it was the only way in which the remainder of his platoon could be induced to retire from a situation in which they must have been annihilated had they not withdrawn.”  His body was later recovered by Australian soldiers.

Operation Banner: A day of infamy.

Operation Banner (Northern Ireland). On 19 March 1988 Corporal Derek Wood, aged 24, and Corporal David Howes, aged 23, both serving with the Royal Signals, were wearing civilian clothes and driving a silver Volkswagen Passat with civilian number plates after completing repairs of signal equipment at a military base and were returning to their barracks. After taking a wrong turning they came across a large IRA funeral procession and attempted to reverse in the opposite direction, but their escape route was quickly blocked by a taxi and a car. Their vehicle was then attacked by a crazed mob, Derek Wood fired a round from his Browning HP pistol in an attempt to scatter the mob, but both were quickly overpowered and dragged from their car. Wood and   Howes were taken to a sports ground where they were stripped and beaten before being taken to waste ground and shot.  Two men were sentenced to life imprisonment for murder but released in 1998 under the Good Friday Agreement. Certa Cito. RIP!