| The
S.O.E. agents, many of them women had spent long tiring months in
"the field" they were in constant danger from collaborators
and the "Milice" who were the most loathed, and numbered
some 45,000 men. The Germans had their own forces, the S.D. (Security
Service) the German Secret Field Police and the most feared of all,
the Geheime Staatspolizei the dreaded "Gestapo".
|
| Their
lives took on many roles as they tried to evade capture, some acted
as couriers others coding and decoding messages from London via their
radio operator, organising parachute drops, assembling arms caches,
finding the right landing fields for their pickups, waiting for London
to issue their "message personnel's" via the B.B.C. which
were invaluable in notifying the many scattered Resistance groups
with their own coded cryptic message, in regard to forthcoming operations. |
Radio
used by the S.O.E. Agents in the field. |
|
Preparing
for the battle to come.
|
Many
thousands of loyal French people waited in eager anticipation by their
"illegal" radio sets for their own "message personnel"
to be broadcast by the B.B.C.
There was fear of certain death if caught listening to a radio broadcast.
When the message came over the airwaves, jubilation was present as
they could now spring into action against the enemy forces. |
D-Day was drawing ever nearer, "Operation Overlord" was
about to begin, the French Resistance was ready to mobilise in their
key role in sabotaging the German forces.
The people of Europe had endured many years of suffering and oppression
now their hope was real, the Allied landings were shortly to take
place, and in their hearts they knew that their long awaited... Deliverance
and Liberation was near!!! |
A
successful derailment of German troop trains before
getting reinforcements and supplies to the D-Day beaches. |
|
