Remembering 'The Spy Princess' Noor Inayat Khan

This week in a corner of Bloomsbury, the sculpture of Noor Inayat Khan - a woman who was a pioneer in many ways, was unveiled by Princess Anne. Also known as "Nora Baker" or "Madeleine", Noor was a real Indian Princess but also a talented musician, writer, and linguist.

As the great-great-great granddaughter of Tipu Sultan, the Muslim ruler who heroically held back the East India Company, Khan told her army bosses that she might very well fight the British in India. But on 19th November 1940, she joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), and as an Aircraft woman 2nd Class, she was sent to be trained as a wireless operator. She became an anti-imperialist who spied for the British Empire, and was the first female radio operator sent into Nazi-occupied France in 1942 by the Special Operations Executive (SOE), Churchill’s secret organisation that sought to “set Europe ablaze”. She was armed with only a false passport and a pistol. But in Paris she ran a spy ring; a role so deadly she was given 6 weeks max to survive. When the Gestapo did catch her, they tortured her for ten months, but she didn't reveal a single piece of information. She was classified as "highly dangerous" and shackled in chains. She was eventually killed in Dachau Concentration Camp, her last words before the gunshot were "Liberté", a notion the pacifist-turned-war-heroine held deeply. She was only 30 years old. Noor was posthumously awarded the George Cross by Britain and France awarded her the Croix de Guerre.

Following a campaign to install a permanent memorial in her honour in London, the Vice Chancellor of the University of London gave permission for the bust to be installed in Gordon Square, near the house where Noor lived and from where she left on her last mission, unable to tell her mother she might never return. Campaigners spent years raising £60,000 for Noor’s statue, by London-based artist Karen Newman. After the unveiling, a bugler played the Last Post before a minute's silence was observed.

Khan was one of the 2.5 million Indians who formed the single-biggest volunteer army in The Second World War, who all deserve commemoration. The memorial in Gordon Square will be the first for an Asian woman in this country, it will stand for peace and religious harmony, the principles Noor Inayat Khan believed in. This Remembrance Sunday, take your minutes to reflect on brave stories such as these that might never be known, the unsung heroes, and of course all those who have given their lives in conflict.

Thank you for reading,

Katie

Bomber Command Memorial

It's taken 67 years to finally get this memorial for the Bomber Command built, but finally, yesterday was the day when Britain finally and formally acknowledged its debt to the 55,573 men of Bomber Command who never came home.

Due to the recent emphasis on this campaign, and some excellent books and documentaries pushing the stories of these brave men to the front of peoples minds, we now know how the government had brushed them aside in the aftermath of the war, concerned that the carpet-bombing of German cities would sit ill with Britains victory. 

Personally, I cannot comprehend such attitudes, particularly when The Lancaster Bomber and the Spitfires are such icons of Britain, brought out at every special national occasion, and admired for their beauty, strength and courage. How could these men have been so betrayed? 

In numbers, here are the facts:

19 Victoria Crosses won by men of Bomber Command, including Guy Gibson, who led the Dam Busters raid
125,000 Bomber Command air crew serving during WWII
55,573  died in action, a death rate of 44 per cent
4% average chance of being shot down per mission – but crews had to complete at least 30. Chances of surviving war lower than infantry officer in First World War trenches
9,838 bomber crew became prisoners of war
1.3m  tons of bombs dropped by the Allies on Germany
635,000   is the estimate of German civilians killed
72% of Bomber  Command dead were British. The rest were from Canada, Australia and New Zealand

I think the memorial is stunning, particularly the figure looking towards the sky shielding his eyes. Very stoic, and in my opinion, understated. 
It was designed by Liam O'Connor and built in Portland stone, features a bronze 9ft-high sculpture of seven aircrew. Sculptor Philip Jackson said the tone of the work was reflective and portrayed men returning from a mission: "I chose the moment when they get off the aircraft and they've dumped all their heavy kit on to the ground."
The memorial also has a roof made of aluminium reclaimed from a Handley Page Halifax III bomber

An inscription says the memorial "also commemorates those of all nations who lost their lives in the bombing of 1939-1945".

I'm just sorry it's taken so long.

 If you would like to learn more about the "Bomber Boys" i would highly recommend this BBC documentary with Ewen and Colin Mcgregor exploring the Bomber Commands story.

As always, thanks for reading!

Katie

Maureen Dunlop de Popp - A true heroine

 

I thought a post dedicated to the brave and beautiful as Maureen Dunlop de Popp, who sadly passed away last week at the age of 91 was appropriate. She was one of the 164 female members of the wartime Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA), of which one in ten pilots died doing their duty of transporting planes between factories and military airfields. The above photograph proved the dream of the Picture Post photographer, who put this image of her emerging from the cockpit of a Fairey Barracuda on the cover, 1944.

The ATA's work was gruelling, they flew the length and breadth of the UK in all weathers, at a time when the nature of flying was changing to become a vital part of the war effort. The women pilots had to cope with opposition and rudeness from men who had little faith in their abilities - or perhaps even misplaced chivalry. The female pilots weren't permitted to fly in combat, but Dunlop expressed her wish to have been involved in the fighting : "I thought it was the only fair thing. Why should only men be killed?"

Maureen flew 38 different types of aircraft during her time at the ATA, including the Spitfire, Mustang, Typhoon and the Wellington bomber. However, when asked her favourite, she immediately responded "The Mosquito". 

Maureen Dunlop began flying at the age of 15, when she joined the Aeroclub Argentino. Two years later she had obtained her pilot's licence. The example of her father's British military experience as a volunteer with the Royal Field Artillery in the First World War, together with an article in Flight magazine, inspired her to sail to England and offer her flying skills to the ATA.
She came through the war uninjured, but once had to make a forced landing with a faulty engine, and once was flying a Spitfire when a badly fitted cockpit cover blew off. After the war she qualified in England as an instructor and, returning to Argentina, flew for the Argentine Air Force and taught its pilots, as well as flying commercially.

Maureen is a true inspiration, but I think a widely unknown story. Perhaps reading about such bravery is a reminder that it was a national effort fighting in World Wars, and we should always be keen to learn, and remember their contributions.

If you would like to discover more, the "Spitfire Women of World War II" book by Giles Whittel can be found HERE 

Thanks for reading,

Katie

War Horse - Part Two

As promised, here is the follow up to my last post - including a very interesting video that i found recently, which gives a strong insight into the horses used in WW1. 

The proportion of soldiers to animals on the battlefields was 4 men to 1 horse. Of the one million horses and mules sent to the Western Front during the conflict, only 67,000 returned home to the UK with 933,000 killed through injuries or illnesses, which were rife in the terrible conditions of the trenches. 

Horses in the Great War are as much a symbol of that conflict as the mud or the gas mask. A sad fact of the Great War battlefields is when a field was ploughed, the most common bones were horse or mule. I visited the battlefields a few years ago, and this fact was never mentioned. Many officers wanted to be buried with their horses if they fell, and there is at least one war grave where that indeed happened. These animals were loved and brought great comfort, perhaps a reminder of the "Green and Pleasant Land" they'd left behind.

A Cavalry horse stands over the body of its rider - from the book The War Horses

As author Simon Butler explains, this was not just ‘the first and last global conflict in which the horse played a vital role’, but also a war which changed the entire relationship between society and the horse. A nation which had depended on domestic horsepower up until 1914 suddenly lost its workhorses to the front and had to find mechanised alternatives. By 1918, there was no going back.

You can purchase his book HERE. It has many powerful photographs of horses from both sides of the fields, a very in-depth read.

  General Jack Seely and Warrior.

The tale of War Horse's equine hero exploits is fictional, however a similar tale about "Warrior" who carried General Jack Seely of the Canadian cavalry throughout the horrors of World War I are all true and documented documented in a book written by General Jack Seely, in 1934. Seely's book spoke about his time at battle with his beloved war horse who he called a 'courageous animal.' A group of cavalrymen dubbed Warrior 'The horse the Germans couldn't kill'. He writes how the horse's extraordinary character and some unbelievable twists of fate, helped him survive a war which claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of horses. The first time General Seely rode the Warrior through shell fire, it was at the battle of Mons, on the French border and he was amazed to discover that Warrior did not try to run away and instead the thoroughbred 'was pretending to be brave and succeeding in his task.' I thought the portrait of the both of them above was truly spectacular.

The recent popularity of the play and film War Horse (based on the book by Michael Morpurgo) in my view, can only be a positive. It's imperative to inform a wider audience about such sacrifices, and despite some arguing about correct uniforms/language etc etc, it will undoubtedly encourage people to ask more questions, and discover the truth for themselves, particularly those who might not have previous interest of military history.

Here is the mentioned video, thank you for reading!

Christmas in Wartime

Animals in Wartime 1914-1918, Imperial War Museum.

In what will be my last post before Christmas, I thought i'd share some findings of Christmas in Wartime that I have collected recently, the Imperial War Museum's new website have begun to put their image collection online, I could have spent hours searching through! 

You cannot talk about Christmas in Wartime without mentioning the famous Christmas Day Truce of 1914, an unofficial ceasefire along the Western Front where many troops from both sides met in No-Mans-Land to exchange rations and sing carols. Most famously, was an all day football match (above) between Chester-based Royal Welch Fusiliers against their German opponents, the Saxons of the 133 Infantry Regiment and the Prussians of the 6 Jager Battalion in Frelinghien, France.

Captain C I Stockwell, who was present at the original Truce, wrote an account of the events on "one of the most curious Christmas Days" he had ever experienced.
He describes the singing, cheering and the exchanging of beer that took place. However, after this one night of peace and festivity, the fighting was resumed the next day.
Captain Stockwell recalls: "The German captain and I both saluted. He fired two shots in the air, and the war was on again".

The truces were not unique to the Christmas period, and reflected a growing mood of "live and let live", where infantry units in close proximity to each other would stop overtly aggressive behaviour, and often engage in small-scale fraternisation, engaging in conversation or bartering for cigarettes.

Of course, that first year many people believed that 'It'll all be over by Christmas!', a motto which actually followed on through the first years of The Second World War.

When WW2 broke out in September 1939, it was unknown to people at the time there would be five Christmases before May 1945, when this war was 'all over'. By that time the government's drive for maximum productivity had ensured that summer holidays were done away with, that Guy Fawkes' night had disappeared - the victim of blackout regulations - and that Easter eggs had disappeared, but at least the Christmas holiday still remained! So spirits were still high, and creativity and imagination with gifts, food and decorations were in full swing.

The above scan from Garden Work magazine in the 1940s shows some VERY useful and thrifty gifts that personally, i would be very pleased to recieve! Swapping seeds sounds like a great idea for next year.

We've already made ours this year, but i would be very interested to try this recipe for a wartime christmas pudding, making lots of use of plentiful root vegetables! 1940-1941 was the first Christmas 'on the ration', with food rationing having been a part of everyday life for almost a year. One positive note was in the week before Christmas, the tea ration was doubled and the sugar ration increased to twelve ounces!

I also found a very interesting recipe for "Mock Turkey", as  the greatest efforts to simulate normality were made at Christmas and for weddings with scarce ingredients being stockpiled for weeks or months! The creativity and enthusiasm they showed is admirable.

Mock Turkey

Ingredients
1 loaf bread (can be stale)
1 quart milk
1 carrot, grated
1 onion, minced or finely chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 tsp salt
1 dash of pepper
1lb sausage meat
1 tsp seasoning
MethodRemove crust from loaf of bread; tear apart and moisten with milk.
Add meat, chopped vegetables and seasoning.
Mix together well and place in a buttered baking dish.
Bake at 350 for 1 1/2 hours. 

There was still plenty of non-rationed food available, however - at a price. Wines and spirits were plentiful, but French goods were almost completely gone, and imported fruit was extremely expensive. For Christmas, practical gifts were in vogue - gardening tools, books, bottling jars, seeds. Some gardening magazines even recommended a bag of fertilizer as a gift, and the most popular present for Christmas 1940 was soap! Well, all useful things!

British soldier eating Christmas meal in his slit trench with holiday cards from home propped up outside. December 25th 1944, Netherlands.

Christmas Party, Middlesex, December 1944

A child sleeps in an air-raid shelter festooned with Christmas decorations – a not uncommon sight in December 1940

Contents of a Christmas stocking, 1940. The contents have been made from wartime low-quality paper. 

Imperial War Museum Collection.

Gunner Jack Ward of 9th Medium Regiment, Royal Artillery, holds aloft two geese destined to become Christmas dinner,

19th December 1944.

Gunner H S Hadlow of 15th scottish Division in Holland announces that the Christmas pudding is ready,

19th December 1944.

I think we can all at least take some "Make Do And Mend" inspiration from these Christmas Pasts, and be pleased that we can all enjoy such food, drink and merriment this year!

I'll be back in 2012! Thanks for reading my blog this year!

Katie