PPRuNeUser0139
30th Apr 2020, 18:47
This is the story of a P-47 pilot's exploits after being shot down in Belgium in November 1943.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zECvEQuJzqw
It runs for 1hr 40..
Bergerie1
1st May 2020, 12:35
Great video, thanks sidevalve for posting that one. I knew a lady who was on that train when she was a seventeen year old girl. She had been a runner delivering messages as required between various resistance units. She said up until the time she was arrested it all seemed great fun. But being imprisoned by the Gestapo rather changed that!
Those ordinary Belgian people were Real Heroes. I salute them all.
Cornish Jack
2nd May 2020, 08:50
Fascinating revisiting of a traumatiic experience. A much needed reminder of the extraordinary courage displayed by 'ordinary' citizens in the face of daily mortal danger.
I have recently finished reading Sonia Purnell's "A woman of no importance" which is linked, in that it deals with the story of a major organising figure in the escape routes through France and Spain. The book explains the means used by the Gestapo in tracing and destroying the organisation by infiltration. The subject, an American citizen, Virginia Hall, is remarkable, not only for her tireless efforts to mobilise Resistance groups, but doing so while physically hampered by a prosthetic leg! That latter disability eventually having to be overcome in a gruelling climb through 11000 feet of snow and ice to cross the Pyrenees. The lady was very much a 'one-off' and goes almost unrecognised by her country for her exceptional courage and superhuman efforts. Well worth reading!