Tag: WW2

France under occupation: film footage taken at great risk by Gaston Madru.

Rare news footage of Nazi occupied France captured surreptitiously by a brave French cameraman, Gaston Madru, from 1942 to 1944. It gives a snapshot of everything from swastikas flying from French buildings to the German retreat from France in 1944. If caught Madru would have been executed.

RAF 161 Special Duty Squadron (Lysanders) Occupied France

Timeline documentary interviewing pilots of 161 Squadron including Hugh Verity, members of the French resistance and agents.

Also an excellent interview of a Lancaster wireless operator shot down over Belgium who was rescued and taken to France by the Possum Escape Line (MI9) and later extracted by Hugh Verity flying a Lysander.

Documentary: Nancy Wake: Gestapo’s most wanted (Timeline productions)

Based on my understanding of Nancy Wake this is the best documentary I have seen on her life with the Pat O’Leary escape line, her escape from France and her service with SOE.

Some of her wartime work in France is not covered and there are the following technical inaccuracies during the re-enactment:

During her parachute infiltration she is seen wearing the wrong type of helmet and parachute

The type of wireless shown is not correct

The Gestapo agent Nancy Wake said she would shoot if the Marquis refused to do so was a woman not a male as shown in the film and it was not as straight forward as depicted here.

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A Welcome to Britain, 1943 (US Army information film)

As most Americans had never lived outside the United States this film made by the US Army was intended to introduce American troops to British society, culture and political system

The main culture shock for white soldiers from the south was British communities rejecting racial segregation for instance:

“Local resident Gillian Vesey recalled how, as a young barmaid at the Olde Hob Inn, she stood up for African American soldiers against attempts by white Americans to impose discriminatory practices in the pub, insisting that the American white soldiers wait their turn rather than expecting to be served before their black colleagues…”

Further reading:

Black troops were welcome in Britain, but Jim Crow wasn’t: the race riot of one night in June 1943

https://theconversation.com/black-troops-were-welcome-in-britain-but-jim-crow-wasnt-the-race-riot-of-one-night-in-june-1943-98120