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SOE RF Section
Following the creation of Special Operations Executive, SOE's F Section in the summer of 1940, it became eventually apparent that French anti-German sentiment was not as simple as once thought and effectively fell into two camps - those who supported de Gaulle and those who did not. To keep these camps apart, RF Section (pro-Gaullists) was mooted in late 1940 and came into being in early 1941. By May 1941 it was established at 1, Dorset Square and initially headed by Capt Eric Piquet-Wicks. The complexities of the interplay between F and RF Sections and between RF and Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action, BCRA is covered in MRD Foot's book "The SOE in France". The operations listed below are effectively, jointly mounted by SOE-RF and BCRA with the former supplying, or access to, the materiél (flights, wireless-sets, weapons, training etc.) with the BCRA supplying personnel. The men and women who made their ways to London to join BCRA came from a wide background both in term ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Special Operations Executive
The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its purpose was to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe (and later, also in occupied Southeast Asia) against the Axis powers, and to aid local resistance movements. Few people were aware of SOE's existence. Those who were part of it or liaised with it were sometimes referred to as the "Baker Street Irregulars", after the location of its London headquarters. It was also known as "Churchill's Secret Army" or the "Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare". Its various branches, and sometimes the organisation as a whole, were concealed for security purposes behind names such as the "Joint Technical Board" or the "Inter-Service Research Bureau", or fictitious branches of the Air Ministry, Admiralty or War Office. SOE operated ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fossoli Camp
The Fossoli camp ( it, Campo di Fossoli) was a concentration camp in Italy, established during World War II and located in the village Fossoli, Carpi, Emilia-Romagna. It began as a prisoner of war camp in 1942, later being a Jewish concentration camp, then a police and transit camp, a labour collection centre for Germany and, finally, a refugee camp, before closing in 1970. It is estimated that 2,844 Jews passed through this camp, 2,802 of whom were then deported. History Prisoner of War camp The camp was established by the Royal Italian Army on 30 May 1942 for the British, South African and New Zealand military personnel captured in military operations in North Africa and originally called ''Campo PG 73''. On 22 July 1942 1,800 prisoners of war were moved to the camp and accommodated in 191 tents in what was called the "Old camp", the ''Campo Vecchio''. With the surrender of Italy on 8 September 1943 the camp was evacuated and all prisoners of war moved to Germany. Concentrati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Travo River
The Travo River (french: Fleuve du Travu) is a river that crosses the Corse-du-Sud and Haute-Corse departments on the French island of Corsica. It flows through a relatively undisturbed natural environment, and its watershed has been recognized for its ecological value. The river contains deep natural swimming pools. Location The Travo rises to the southwest of the Monte Incudine in the Alcudina massif of Corse-du-Sud. It rises at an elevation of in the southeast of the Zicavo commune. It flows north through Zicavo to its border with Cozzano. It then turns east, enters Haute-Corse, and flows through Chisa and then between Ventiseri and Solaro to enter the Tyrrhenian Sea just south of the Solenzara Air Base. The river is called the "Bassu Rotondu" stream in its upper section, then "Forcinchesi" from Casamintellu to Monte Tignosu, then "Arinella" down to the border with Haute-Corse, and finally "Travo" from Chisa to its mouth at the Marina di Tovasinu. Hydrology The river is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Klaus Barbie
Nikolaus "Klaus" Barbie (25 October 1913 – 25 September 1991) was a German operative of the SS and SD who worked in Vichy France during World War II. He became known as the "Butcher of Lyon" for having personally tortured prisoners—primarily Jews and members of the French Resistance—as the head of the Gestapo in Lyon. After the war, United States intelligence services, which employed him for his anti-communist efforts, aided his escape to Bolivia, where he advised the regime on how to repress opposition through torture. The United States later offered France a formal apology for aiding Barbie's escape from an outstanding arrest warrant. In Bolivia, West German Intelligence Service recruited him. Barbie is suspected of having had a role in the Bolivian coup d'état orchestrated by Luis García Meza in 1980. After the fall of the dictatorship, Barbie no longer had the protection of the government in La Paz. In 1983, he was extradited to France, where he was convicted of c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Delestraint
Charles Delestraint (12 March 1879 – 19 April 1945) was a French Army lieutenant general and member of the French Resistance during World War II. He also befriended Charles de Gaulle. Delestraint was killed by the Gestapo in 1945. Early life He was born in Biache Saint-Waast, Pas-de-Calais. Military career World War 1 Delestraint was captured early during World War I and spent the remainder of it as a prisoner of war. Interwar Period After the war he remained in the army where he was a proponent for the use of armoured forces. World War 2 Delestraint retired in 1939 but was recalled to service after the outbreak of World War II. During the Battle of France, on 3 June 1940, he led the armoured counterattack against Germans in Abbeville. In The Resistance After the surrender of France on 25 June, he retired to Bourg-en-Bresse where Henri Frenay recruited him into the French Resistance. Delestraint began to organize resistance in Lyon. He clandestinely visited Charles de Gau ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royallieu-Compiègne Internment Camp
The Royallieu-Compiègne was an internment and deportation camp located in the north of France in the city of Compiègne, open from June 1941 to August 1944. French resistance fighters and Jews were among some of the prisoners held in this camp. It is estimated that around 40,000 people were deported from the Royallieu-Compiègne camp to other camps in the German territory of the time. A memorial of the camp, and another along the railway tracks commemorates the tragedy. History Before World War II, this site was home to French army barracks. Previously, the site housed the signing of an armistice that displayed the victory of French forces in World War I on November 11, 1918. World War II This site witnessed its second armistice. This time, the site housed the signing of the occupation of France by German forces. This camp on June 22, 1940, became the only fully German run camp within French territories. In June 1941 the camp was fully functioning as an internment camp. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp
Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners throughout World War II. Prominent prisoners included Joseph Stalin's oldest son, Yakov Dzhugashvili; assassin Herschel Grynszpan; Paul Reynaud, the penultimate Prime Minister of France; Francisco Largo Caballero, Prime Minister of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War; the wife and children of the Crown Prince of Bavaria; Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera; and several enemy soldiers and political dissidents. Sachsenhausen was a labor camp, outfitted with several subcamps, a gas chamber, and a medical experimentation area. Prisoners were treated inhumanely, fed inadequately, and killed openly. After World War II, when Oranienburg was in the Soviet Occupation Zone, the structure was used by the NKVD as NKVD ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
