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Nancy Wake
Nancy Grace Augusta Wake, (30 August 1912 – 7 August 2011), also known as Madame Fiocca and Nancy Fiocca, was a nurse and journalist who joined the French Resistance and later the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II, and briefly pursued a post-war career as an intelligence officer in the Air Ministry. The official historian of the SOE, M. R. D. Foot, said that "her irrepressible, infectious, high spirits were a joy to everyone who worked with her". Many stories about her World War II activities come from her autobiography, ''The White Mouse'', and are not verifiable from other sources. Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Wake grew up in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. By the 1930s, Wake was living in Marseille with her French industrialist husband, Henri Fiocca, when the war broke out. After the fall of France to Nazi Germany in 1940, Wake became a courier for the Pat O'Leary escape network led by Ian Garrow and, later, Albert Guérisse. As a member o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Resistance
The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régime during the World War II, Second World War. Resistance Clandestine cell system, cells were small groups of armed men and women (called the Maquis (World War II), Maquis in rural areas) who, in addition to their guerrilla warfare activities, were also publishers of underground newspapers, providers of first-hand intelligence information, and maintainers of escape networks that helped Allies of World War II, Allied soldiers and airmen trapped behind enemy lines. The Resistance's men and women came from all economic levels and political leanings of French society, including émigrés, academics, students, Aristocratic family, aristocrats, conservative Catholic Church, Roman Catholics (including priests and Yvonne Beauvais, nuns), Protestantis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a dictatorship. Under Hitler's rule, Germany quickly became a totalitarian state where nearly all aspects of life were controlled by the government. The Third Reich, meaning "Third Realm" or "Third Empire", alluded to the Nazi claim that Nazi Germany was the successor to the earlier Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) and German Empire (1871–1918). The Third Reich, which Hitler and the Nazis referred to as the Thousand-Year Reich, ended in May 1945 after just 12 years when the Allies defeated Germany, ending World War II in Europe. On 30 January 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany, the head of gove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal New Zealand Returned And Services' Association
The Royal New Zealand Returned and Services' Association, best known simply as the RSA, is one of the largest voluntary welfare organisations in New Zealand and one of the oldest ex-service organisations in the world. Wounded soldiers returning from the Gallipoli Campaign founded the organisation in 1916, and it received royal patronage in 1920. The RNZRSA celebrated its 100th Anniversary in 2016. The RSA's commitment to service personnel in need is embodied in Poppy Day Remembrance Day (also known as Poppy Day owing to the tradition of wearing a remembrance poppy) is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth member states since the end of the First World War to honour armed forces members who have died in t ... when red poppies are exchanged for donations to hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders to raise funds for the welfare of all service personnel and their families. Poppy Day is usually observed on the Friday before ANZAC Day (25 April), New Zealand's nation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Order Of Australia
The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Government. Before the establishment of the order, Australian citizens received British honours. The Monarch of Australia is sovereign head of the order, while the Governor-General of Australia is the principal companion/dame/knight (as relevant at the time) and chancellor of the order. The governor-general's official secretary, Paul Singer (appointed August 2018), is secretary of the order. Appointments are made by the governor-general on behalf of the Monarch of Australia, based on recommendations made by the Council of the Order of Australia. Recent knighthoods and damehoods were recommended to the governor-general by the Prime Minister of Australia. Levels of membership The order is divided into a general and a military division. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Legion Of Honour
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon, Napoleon Bonaparte, it has been retained (with occasional slight alterations) by all later French governments and regimes. The order's motto is ' ("Honour and Fatherland"); its Seat (legal entity), seat is the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur next to the Musée d'Orsay, on the left bank of the Seine in Paris. The order is divided into five degrees of increasing distinction: ' (Knight), ' (Officer), ' (Commander (order), Commander), ' (Grand Officer) and ' (Grand Cross). History Consulate During the French Revolution, all of the French Order of chivalry, orders of chivalry were abolished and replaced with Weapons of Honour. It was the wish of Napoleon, Napoleon Bonaparte, the French Consulate, First Consul, to create a reward to commend c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Émile Coulaudon
Émile Coulaudon (29 December 1907 - 1 June 1977), known as Colonel Gaspard, was one of the principal leaders of the French Resistance in Auvergne during the Second World War. Life prior to the Resistance Coulaudon was born on 29 December 1907 in Clermont-Ferrand to a socialist family. His father ran a business that distributed electrical goods for Philips. His brother, Aimé Coulaudon, a lawyer, was elected as a député for the French Section of the Workers' International in 1936. After military service, Coulaudon became commercial director of the family business, in 1930. In 1939, he was conscripted as a medical master sergeant. Following the Battle of France, he was imprisoned at Gérardmer on 22 June 1940, and escaped on 8 July. Soon after, with Jean Mazuel, he founded in Clermont-Ferrand and Brioude one of the first Resistance groups in Auvergne. Resistance By November 1942, Coulaudon was head of Combat in Puy-de-Dôme. In April 1943, he went into hiding and created ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Auvergne
Auvergne (; ; oc, label=Occitan, Auvèrnhe or ) is a former administrative region in central France, comprising the four departments of Allier, Puy-de-Dôme, Cantal and Haute-Loire. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.. The administrative region of Auvergne is larger than the historical province of Auvergne, one of the seven counties of Occitania, and includes provinces and areas that historically were not part of Auvergne. The Auvergne region is composed of the following old provinces: * Auvergne: departments of Puy-de-Dôme, Cantal, northwest of Haute-Loire, and extreme south of Allier. The province of Auvergne is entirely contained inside the Auvergne region * Bourbonnais: department of Allier. A small part of Bourbonnais lies outside Auvergne, in the neighbouring Centre-Val de Loire region (south of the department of Cher). * Velay: centre and southeast of department of Haute-Loire. Velay is entirely contained inside the Auvergne r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maquis (World War II)
The Maquis () were rural guerrilla bands of French and Belgian Resistance fighters, called ''maquisards'', during the Nazi occupation of France in World War II. Initially, they were composed of young, mostly working-class, men who had escaped into the mountains and woods to avoid conscription into Vichy France's ''Service du travail obligatoire'' ("Compulsory Work Service" or ''STO'') to provide forced labor for Germany. To avoid capture and deportation to Germany, they became increasingly organized into active resistance groups. They had an estimated to members in autumn of 1943 and approximately members in June 1944. Meaning Originally the word came from the kind of terrain in which the armed resistance groups hid, high ground in southeastern France covered with scrub growth called ''maquis'' (scrubland). from Dictionary.com Although strictly speaking it means thicket, ''maquis'' could be roughly translated as "the bush"; in Corsica, the saying ''prendre le maquis' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Allier
Allier ( , , ; oc, Alèir) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region that borders Cher to the west, Nièvre to the north, Saône-et-Loire and Loire to the east, Puy-de-Dôme to the south, and Creuse to the south-west. Named after the river Allier, it had a population of 335,975 in 2019.Populations légales 2019: 03 Allier INSEE Moulins is the prefecture; Montluçon and are the [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parachute
A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag or, in a ram-air parachute, aerodynamic lift. A major application is to support people, for recreation or as a safety device for aviators, who can exit from an aircraft at height and descend safely to earth. A parachute is usually made of a light, strong fabric. Early parachutes were made of silk. The most common fabric today is nylon. A parachute's canopy is typically dome-shaped, but some are rectangles, inverted domes, and other shapes. A variety of loads are attached to parachutes, including people, food, equipment, space capsules, and bombs. History Middle Ages In 852, in Córdoba, Spain, the Moorish man Armen Firman attempted unsuccessfully to fly by jumping from a tower while wearing a large cloak. It was recorded that "there was enough air in the folds of his cloak to prevent great injury when he reached the ground." Early Renaissance The earliest evidence f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Code Name
A code name, call sign or cryptonym is a code word or name used, sometimes clandestinely, to refer to another name, word, project, or person. Code names are often used for military purposes, or in espionage. They may also be used in industrial counter-espionage to protect secret projects and the like from business rivals, or to give names to projects whose marketing name has not yet been determined. Another reason for the use of names and phrases in the military is that they transmit with a lower level of cumulative errors over a walkie-talkie or radio link than actual names. Military origins During World War I, names common to the Allies referring to nations, cities, geographical features, military units, military operations, diplomatic meetings, places, and individual persons were agreed upon, adapting pre-war naming procedures in use by the governments concerned. In the British case names were administered and controlled by the Inter Services Security Board (ISSB) staffed b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spain During World War II
During World War II, the Spanish State under Francisco Franco espoused Neutral powers during World War II, neutrality as its official wartime policy. This neutrality wavered at times and "strict neutrality" gave way to "Non-belligerent, non-belligerence" after the Fall of France in June 1940. Franco wrote to Adolf Hitler offering to join the war on 19 June 1940 in exchange for help building Spain's colonial empire. Later the same year Franco met with Hitler Meeting at Hendaye, in Hendaye to discuss Spain's possible accession to the Axis Powers. The only result of the meeting was the signing of a secret agreement under which Franco was committed to entering the war at a date of his own choosing, while Hitler gave only vague guarantees that Spain would receive "territories in Africa". Franco did help the Axis—whose members Fascist Italy (1922–1943), Italy and Nazi Germany, Germany had supported him during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939)—in various ways. Despite ideologic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
