I've posted photos from Gibraltar Barn at Tempsford before but it's always moving going there and I thought I would focus on a couple of individuals who flew out of there this time.
Lilian Rolfe could have stayed safely working for the British Embassy in Rio de Janeiro: '...before going to London, England in 1943 to join the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. Because of her fluency in the French language, she was recruited into the Special Operations Executive (SOE), where she was trained as a wireless operator.
On 5 April 1944, she was dropped near the city of Orléans in occupied France, where she was deployed to work with the "Historian" network run by George Wilkinson. Her job was to transmit Maquis and other important radio messages to London. Beyond her wireless duties, that included reporting on German troop movements and organizing arms and supply drops, she actively participated in missions with members of the French Resistance against the German occupiers and was involved in a gun battle in the small town of Olivet just south of Orléans.
Following the D-Day landings, an increasingly aggressive manhunt by the Gestapo led to the arrest of her superior officer. Nonetheless, Rolfe continued to work until her arrest at a transmitting house in Nargis on 31 July 1944. Transported to Fresnes Prison in Paris, she was interrogated repeatedly and brutally tortured until August 1944, when she was shipped to Ravensbrück concentration camp. According to an admission made by a German officer after the war’s end, she was so ill that she could not walk. On 5 February 1945, 30-year-old Lilian Rolfe was executed by the Germans and her body disposed of in the crematorium.'
Three other female members of the SOE were also executed at Ravensbrück: Denise Bloch, Cecily Lefort, and Violette Szabo."
There are photos of another 4 women at Gibraltar Barn - Madeleine Damerment, Yolande Beekman, Eliane Plenman and Noor Khan. They died in Dachau in 1944.
Also displaying immense bravery were the airmen who took them into France - Eric Foster was part of a mission named VEGA III which failed to return from an SOE mission to Norway in March 1943. He was 20 years old. His twin brother died in January 1944.
A wonderful collage, and what a story abut a woman who risked everything to do "her thing" during the war. She was one incredible woman to take on what she did. Amazing story about her and others. It was an awful time in our history.
I find the courage and commitment of WWII heroes and heroines beyond amazing. Thank God for their bravery and sacrifice. This is such a poignant and beautiful tribute to those who gave their all.
@peggysirk@neatz unimaginably brave. There's a good novel called 'The Girl Who Fell From The Sky' by Simon Mawer which includes the selection and training they went through. Quite remarkable people.
Such brave men & women....Violettes name is quite well known of course but I have never heard of any of the others which is criminal really.....their bravery saved us from defeat. A terrible story to read......so young & brave....I wonder if we would have as brave a group in this day & age?
we all revisit photos locations as part of our 365, I did so too today