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John Hind Farmer
John Hind Farmer (1917-2012) was a member of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the Second World War. He was head of the FREELANCE network active in Auvergne from May to June 1944. Subsequently he worked for MI6 and is said to have been involved in a British plot to assassinate President Nasser of Egypt. Biography John Farmer was born in London on 12 January 1917 and educated in Germany and Switzerland as well as the Jesuit College at Godinne-sur-Meuse (now part of the commune of Yvoir) in Belgium. He continued his education at Beaumont College, Windsor, United Kingdom. He won many awards for sprinting and hurdles both in and out of school and rugby was a passion for all his life. He was also an actor and dancer having danced in the role of Puck in a production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by the Bank of England. Second World War In 1939, when working in the Bank of England, he joined the Royal Artillery and was sent to an anti-aircraft battery on the Maginot ... [...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 operat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maurice Buckmaster
Colonel Maurice James Buckmaster (11 January 1902 – 17 April 1992) was the leader of the French section of Special Operations Executive and was awarded the ''Croix de Guerre''. Apart from his war service, he was a corporate manager with the French branch of the Ford Motor Company, in the postwar years serving in Dagenham. He wrote two memoirs about his service with the Resistance during World War II. Early life and career Maurice Buckmaster was born on 11 January 1902 at Ravenhill, Brereton, Rugeley, Staffordshire, England, the son of Eva Matilda (daughter of R. B. Nason, M.D., of Nuneaton, Warwickshire) and Henry James Buckmaster, a company director running a brewery. He grew up at Marsham Lodge, Gerrards Cross. He was educated at Eton College. He showed an academic bent and gained an exhibition to study Classics at the University of Oxford, but was unable to take this up as his father went bankrupt. After financial problems in early 1912, his father received orders und ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ruynes-en-Margeride
Ruynes-en-Margeride is a commune in the Cantal department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ... in south-central France. Population See also * Communes of the Cantal department References Communes of Cantal {{Cantal-geo-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mouvements Unis De La Résistance
The Communist Party of Belgium (french: Parti Communiste de Belgique, or PCB; nl, Communistische Partij van België) is a communist party in Belgium. It was founded in Wallonia in 1989 as the Communist Party of Wallonia after the Communist Party of Belgium was bifurcated along linguistic lines, and refounded as the PCB following the extinction of its counterpart in Flanders. Pierre Beauvois was the General Secretary of the party to 2006. PC publishes ''Le Drapeau Rouge'' and ''Mouvements''. It was part of the Party of the European Left The Party of the European Left (PEL), commonly abbreviated European Left, is a European political party that operates as an association of democratic socialist and communist political parties in the European Union and other European countries ... until July 2018. References External links * 1989 establishments in Belgium Communist parties in Belgium Francophone political parties in Belgium Party of the European Left former memb ... [...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 th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Puy-de-Dôme
Puy-de-Dôme (; oc, label= Auvergnat, lo Puèi de Doma or ''lo Puèi Domat'') is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in the centre of France. In 2019, it had a population of 662,152.Populations légales 2019: 63 Puy-de-Dôme INSEE Its prefecture is and subprefectures are Ambert, [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aydat
Aydat (; oc, Aidac) is a commune in the Puy-de-Dôme department in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in central France. The Lac d'Aydat is located in the commune. Population See also * Communes of the Puy-de-Dôme department * Ponteix, Saskatchewan Ponteix (, ) is a town in southwestern Saskatchewan, Canada, 86 km (53 mi) southeast of Swift Current. It is located on Highway 628 just north of Highway 13. History In 1908, Father Albert-Marie Royer from the Auvergne region in Fr ..., named after Le Ponteix, a hamlet of Aydat commune. References Communes of Puy-de-Dôme {{PuyDôme-geo-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buchenwald
Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or suspected communists were among the first internees. Prisoners came from all over Europe and the Soviet Union— Jews, Poles and other Slavs, the mentally ill and physically disabled, political prisoners, Romani people, Freemasons, and prisoners of war. There were also ordinary criminals and sexual "deviants". All prisoners worked primarily as forced labor in local armaments factories. The insufficient food and poor conditions, as well as deliberate executions, led to 56,545 deaths at Buchenwald of the 280,000 prisoners who passed through the camp and its 139 subcamps. The camp gained notoriety when it was liberated by the United States Army in April 1945; Allied commander Dwight D. Eisenhower visited one of its subcamps. From August 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Montluçon
Montluçon (; oc, Montleçon ) is a commune in central France on the river Cher. It is the largest commune in the Allier department, although the department's prefecture is located in the smaller town of Moulins. Its inhabitants are known as ''Montluçonnais''. The town is in the traditional province of Bourbonnais and was part of the mediaeval duchy of Bourbon. Geography Montluçon is located in the northwest of the Allier department near the frontier of the Centre-Val de Loire and Nouvelle-Aquitaine regions. Montluçon is linked with surrounding regions and towns via four main road axes, plus the highway A71 from Orléans to Clermont-Ferrand; through a railway linking in the North Vierzon then Paris (3-5h). Formerly the canal de Berry linked Montluçon towards the north. Montluçon is south of Bourges, from Paris, from Clermont-Ferrand, (3h) from Lyon, (2h) from Limoges and from the Atlantic coast. Montluçon is close to the '' Méridienne verte'' (an architect ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maurice Southgate
Maurice Southgate (20 June 1913 – 17 March 1990), code named Hector, was an officer in the Royal Air Force and an agent of the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) organization during World War II. The purpose of SOE was to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in occupied Europe against the Axis powers, especially Nazi Germany. SOE agents allied themselves with resistance groups and supplied them with weapons and equipment parachuted in from England. Southgate was the organiser (leader) of the SOE's STATIONER network (or circuit) operating in a large area centered on Châteauroux in central France and Tarbes in southern France from 1942 to 1944. He was captured by the SS in Montluçon in 1944 and deported to Buchenwald concentration camp where he survived until its liberation by American forces in 1945. Southgate was regarded by Maurice Buckmaster, head of SOE's French Section, as one of his best agents. Early life Southgate was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Westland Lysander
The Westland Lysander is a British army co-operation and liaison aircraft produced by Westland Aircraft that was used immediately before and during the Second World War. After becoming obsolete in the army co-operation role, the aircraft's short-field performance enabled clandestine missions using small, improvised airstrips behind enemy lines to place or recover agents, particularly in occupied France with the help of the French Resistance. Royal Air Force army co-operation aircraft were named after mythical or historical military leaders; in this case the Spartan admiral Lysander was chosen. Design and development In 1934 the Air Ministry issued Specification A.39/34 for an army co-operation aircraft to replace the Hawker Hector. Initially Hawker Aircraft, Avro and Bristol were invited to submit designs, but after some debate within the Ministry, a submission from Westland was invited as well. The Westland design, internally designated P. 8, was the work of Arthur Da ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
