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Frank McKenna (RAF Officer)
Francis Peter McKenna OBE (28 February 1906 – 14 February 1994) was a British Royal Air Force service police detective, deputy to Wilfred Bowes who ran the Special Investigation Branch investigation into the murders of recaptured officers who had escaped in the 'Great Escape' from Stalag Luft III in March 1944. McKenna personally arrested over 20 of the "Gestapo" agents involved in the murders. Pre-war life McKenna was born in Accrington, Lancashire on 28 February 1906, one of six children of Margaret and police constable Francis McKenna. The family moved to Blackpool shortly after his birth when his father was transferred to the Borough of Blackpool Police Force, they resided at 2 Huntley Avenue, Layton. Educated at Sacred Heart School, Blackpool he and his younger brother John later joined the police force where they both became detective sergeants. Frank McKenna married on 30 December 1934 in Blackpool to Eunice Naomi. With the outbreak of the second world war, McKen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Accrington
Accrington is a town in the Hyndburn borough of Lancashire, England. It lies about east of Blackburn, west of Burnley, east of Preston, north of Manchester and is situated on the culverted River Hyndburn. Commonly abbreviated by locals to "Accy", the town has a population of 35,456 according to the 2011 census. Accrington is a former centre of the cotton and textile machinery industries. The town is famed for manufacturing the hardest and densest building bricks in the world, "The Accrington NORI" (iron), which were used in the construction of the Empire State Building and for the foundations of Blackpool Tower; famous for Accrington Stanley F.C. and the Haworth Art Gallery which holds Europe's largest collection of Tiffany glass. History Origin of the name The name Accrington appears to be Anglo-Saxon in origin. The earliest citing appears in the Parish of Whalley records of 850; where it is written ''Akeringastun''. In later records, the name variously appears as ''Ak ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flight Lieutenant
Flight lieutenant is a junior commissioned rank in air forces that use the Royal Air Force (RAF) system of ranks, especially in Commonwealth countries. It has a NATO rank code of OF-2. Flight lieutenant is abbreviated as Flt Lt in the Indian Air Force (IAF) and RAF, and as FLTLT in the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) and has sometimes also been abbreviated as F/L in many services; it has never been correctly abbreviated as "lieutenant". A flight lieutenant ranks above flying officer and below a squadron leader and is sometimes used as an English language translation of a similar rank in non-English-speaking countries. The rank originated in the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) in 1914. It fell into abeyance when the RNAS merged with the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War but was revived in 1919 in the post-war RAF. An RAF flight lieutenant is the equivalent of a lieutenant in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthony Eden
Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, (12 June 1897 – 14 January 1977) was a British Conservative Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1955 until his resignation in 1957. Achieving rapid promotion as a young Conservative member of Parliament, he became foreign secretary aged 38, before resigning in protest at Neville Chamberlain's appeasement policy towards Mussolini's Fascist regime in Italy. He again held that position for most of the Second World War, and a third time in the early 1950s. Having been deputy to Winston Churchill for almost 15 years, Eden succeeded him as the leader of the Conservative Party and prime minister in 1955, and a month later won a general election. Eden's reputation as a skilled diplomat was overshadowed in 1956 when the United States refused to support the Anglo-French military response to the Suez Crisis, which critics across party lines regarded as a historic setback for British foreign poli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Protecting Power
A protecting power is a country that represents another sovereign state in a country where it lacks its own diplomatic representation. It is common for protecting powers to be appointed when two countries break off diplomatic relations with each other. The protecting power is responsible for looking after the protected power's diplomatic property and citizens in the hosting state. If diplomatic relations were broken by the outbreak of war, the protecting power will also inquire into the welfare of prisoners of war and look after the interests of civilians in enemy-occupied territory. The institution of protecting power dates back to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and was formalized in the Geneva Convention of 1929. Protecting powers are authorized in all four of the Geneva Conventions of 1949. In addition, the International Red Cross may itself be appointed a protecting power under Protocol I (1977). The practice of selecting a protecting power in time of peace was formaliz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous member state of the European Union. Warsaw is the nation's capital and largest metropolis. Other major cities include Kraków, Wrocław, Łódź, Poznań, Gdańsk, and Szczecin. Poland has a temperate transitional climate and its territory traverses the Central European Plain, extending from Baltic Sea in the north to Sudeten and Carpathian Mountains in the south. The longest Polish river is the Vistula, and Poland's highest point is Mount Rysy, situated in the Tatra mountain range of the Carpathians. The country is bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south, and Germany to the west. It also shares maritime boundaries with Denmark and Sweden. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Żagań
Żagań ( French and german: Sagan, hsb, Zahań, la, Saganum) is a town in western Poland, on the Bóbr river, with 25,731 inhabitants (2019). The town is the capital of Żagań County in the historic region of Silesia. Previously in the Zielona Góra Voivodeship (1975–1998), Żagań has been in the Lubusz Voivodeship since 1999. The town hosts the Polish 11th Armoured Cavalry Division. An American Armored Brigade Combat Team is constantly rotated through the town under Operation Atlantic Resolve. Etymology The town's name probably means "place of the burnt forest" (Polish: ''żegać'', ''żagiew''): probably referring to the burning of primaeval forest by early settlers. If this is correct, it is consistent with the names of nearby places: Żary, Zgorzelec, Pożarów. Geography Żagań is located roughly halfway between Cottbus and Wrocław, approximately 100 meters above sea level and at the centre of the Żagań administrative district. It is about north of the Polish ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stalag Luft III Murders
The Stalag Luft III murders were war crimes perpetrated by members of the Gestapo following the " Great Escape" of Allied prisoners of war from the German Air Force prison camp known as Stalag Luft III on March 25, 1944. Of the 76 successful escapees, 73 were recaptured, most within several days of the breakout, 50 of whom were executed on the personal orders of Adolf Hitler. These summary executions were conducted within a short period following recapture. Outrage at the killings was expressed immediately, both in the prison camp, among comrades of the escaped prisoners and in the United Kingdom, where Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden rose in the House of Commons to announce in June 1944 that those guilty of what the British government suspected was a war crime would be "brought to exemplary justice." After Nazi Germany's capitulation in May 1945, the Police branch of the Royal Air Force, with whom the 50 airmen had been serving, launched a special investigation into the killings ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The50Memorial
The5 were an Arab pop boy band composed of Kazem Chamas, Ahmed Hassan, Adil Echbiy, Said Karmouz and Mohamed Bouhezza (aka BMd). They finished third in the fourth series of the Arabic televised singing competition ''The X Factor Arabia'' in 2015 ''The X Factor Arabia'' In 2015, Kazem Chamas, Ahmed Hassan and Adil Echbiy auditioned as solo candidates for the fourth series of the Arabic televised singing competition ''The X Factor Arabia'', whereas Said Karmouz and Mohamed Bouhezza (aka BMd) auditioned together. They were put together to form a five-piece boy band in Beirut, Lebanon, thus qualifying for the "Groups" category. Elissa and Donia Samir Ghanem, their future mentor, have both come up with the idea of forming the band. They reached the finals and ended up as third (Groups category) losing to Hamza Hawsawi (International Solo category) and Hind Ziadi (Arab Solo category) on June 13, 2015. Music career After break-up The band broke up in 2019. The Egyptian Ahme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gestapo
The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organisation. On 20 April 1934, oversight of the Gestapo passed to the head of the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS), Heinrich Himmler, who was also appointed Chief of German Police by Hitler in 1936. Instead of being exclusively a Prussian state agency, the Gestapo became a national one as a sub-office of the (SiPo; Security Police). From 27 September 1939, it was administered by the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA). It became known as (Dept) 4 of the RSHA and was considered a sister organisation to the (SD; Security Service). During World War II, the Gestapo played a key role in the Holocaust. After the war ended, the Gestapo was declared a criminal organisation by the International Military Tribunal (IMT) at the Nuremberg trials. History After Adol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Nebe
Arthur Nebe (; 13 November 1894 – 21 March 1945) was a German Schutzstaffel, SS functionary who was key in the security and police apparatus of Nazi Germany and from 1941, a major perpetrator of the Holocaust. Nebe rose through the ranks of the Prussian police force to become head of Nazi Germany's Criminal Police (Kriminalpolizei (Nazi Germany), ''Kriminalpolizei''; Kripo) in 1936, which was amalgamated into the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) in 1939. Before the Operation Barbarossa, 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union, Nebe volunteered to serve as the commanding officer of Einsatzgruppen, ''Einsatzgruppe B'', one of the four mobile death squads of the SS. The unit was deployed in the Army Group Centre Rear Area, in modern-day Belarus; it reported over 45,000 victims by November 1941. In late 1941, Nebe was posted back to Berlin and resumed his career with the RSHA. Nebe commanded the Kripo until he was denounced and executed after the failed attempt to kill Adolf Hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Warrant Officer
Warrant officer (WO) is a rank or category of ranks in the armed forces of many countries. Depending on the country, service, or historical context, warrant officers are sometimes classified as the most junior of the commissioned ranks, the most senior of the non-commissioned officer (NCO) ranks, or in a separate category of their own. Warrant officer ranks are especially prominent in the militaries of Commonwealth nations and the United States. The name of the rank originated in medieval England. It was first used during the 13th century, in the Royal Navy, where Warrant Officers achieved the designation by virtue of their accrued experience or seniority, and technically held the rank by a warrant—rather than by a formal commission (as in the case of a commissioned officer). Nevertheless, WOs in the British services have traditionally been considered and treated as distinct from non-commissioned officers, as such (even though neither group has, technically, held a commiss ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
