More on "Michou" here, including the story how she'd initially been recommended for 'just' an MBE after the war - until the Awards Bureau realised just how much she'd achieved - when it was upgraded to the GM.:D

Edited to add: This column from The Washington Post briefly touches on how "Michou" (aka "Lily") nursed Bob Grimes (a B-17 aircraft commander) back to health in Brussels over a 5-6 week period in late 1943 after he'd had a fragment of a bullet removed (without anaesthetic) from his leg.
The full story of how she looked after Bob is revealed in Peter Eisner's book The Freedom Line. (well worth a read)
Bob was lucky to survive the ill-advised crossing of the river Bidassoa that cost 2nd Lt Jim Burch and Count Antoine d'Ursel their lives.
Bob's daughters have come here twice now to retrace their father's footsteps.

RIP, "Michou" - and all your brothers and sisters of the Resistance, who braved discovery or betrayal, followed by imprisonment, torture and a painful death, in order to hide and help Allied airmen on their way back to freedom.

I simply cannot imagine the kind of courage that required of you. To my mind, it was of an even higher order than that the fighting men had (at times) to display. For the danger hung like a Sword of Damocles over your heads night and day all through the years of the war.

GM - Yes - but how about the GC ?

I salute you, Madame. Danny.

That's it exactly Danny.. The helpers and guides were under threat 24/7.. and you don't want to think about what awaited them if/when they were arrested.
Michou's sister is still alive and kicking - she lives in Brussels. We had lunch at the RAF Club last December.
The two of them are much of a muchness. What a family!
MPN11 got it right:
This was the house in Biarritz used by the Gestapo for interrogations.. I can never drive by it without thinking.

There re not words enough to acknowledge the courage of resisters and those who helped escapers. The legacy lingers: in a village near here there are still two "camps" - those who resisted and those who did not resist enough. SWMBO has a friend who knows an elderly lady locally who as a 12 year old was on her way to a meeting of a resistance group in the Mervent Forest near here. The lass got a puncture in her bike tyre and so was going to be late at the RV. Minutes later she heard gunfire. All those who were at RV had been killed by the Germans. There is memorial at the spot which is most moving

Change of location - the funeral will now take place at the church at the nearby village of Saint-Siffret, date & times as above.

Danny is now aged 96. Many Happy Returns for which ever day it was.

Well spotted roving!

Well done Danny - talk about endurance! I hope that you marked the day with some suitable refreshment, I shall make you my toast of the day when I raise a glass tonight.
Good Health to you Sir!

Ian BB

We are a bit late with this tho' - think it was the 10th Nov. (well it was in 2015).

Gaining an RAF pilots brevet in WW2
 

A couple of months ago Danny I posted looking for information re S/Ldr Reg Reynolds DSO and bar, DFC and bar---Blenheims, Mosquitos etc.
Through a variety of sources I found that at 98 or 99 he is still alive and living in a nursing home in the Toronto area.
The main source of information was his co pilot in the early 50, s when they, for several years were flying supplies in connection with an extension to the North of a railroad in Quebec.When the rail work finished in the mid 50, he flew a Heron for many years , and, as I had learned earlier he retired from flying on a twin Piper for a Toronto radio station.
The co pilot confirmed that Reg had flown for KLM in the early post war years.
D

DFCP, your CV for Sqn Ldr Reynolds, DSO and bar, DFC and bar, is awesome and demonstrates fully the flexibility that is fundamental to the profession of aviation. War, airlines, railways, GA, and traffic reporting! Interesting that he flew for KLM in the immediate post war era. Our own OP, Reg Levy, of course flew (heroically as it turned out!) for Sabena. There must have been many more ex-pats flying for the newly resurrected European flag carriers in those days, given that those pre-war pilots who had survived occupation were now years out of currency. I suspect that the bureaucracy involved in those days for such employment was much less than today.

The never sleeping PPRuNe clock (nowadays at least!) has indeed clocked up one more digit for PPRuNe's most senior member. Hopefully something more personal than the computer generated greetings that the rest of us enjoy was forthcoming, or does Danny have to clock up the ton for that? At any rate, Happy Birthday Danny, you are an inspiration to us all! :ok:

OMG ... I missed Danny's birthday :(

Blessings on you, Sir!

Reggie Reynolds medals and silver box auction
 

roving, Ian Burgess-Barker, DFCP, Chugalug and MPN11,

Thank you all, Gentlemen, for your felicitations on one more click on my taximeter ! I'm not sure I'm the Oldest Inhabitant here, and in any case: "there is no such thing as an old person - only a person who has lived long" (I think my file card has dropped down the back of some celestial filing cabinet).

I shall sip my permitted can of Guinness tonight fortified by your good wishes !

Cheers, Danny.

Many happy returns, Danny. Long may your contributions continue


W

Danny

May I add my good wishes to those who have wished you a happy birthday. Great that you are still contributing to this thread in your own inimitable manner. Ad multos annos.

£22,000 for the presentation silver matchbox holder (estimate £300-£400) on top of £88,000 for Reggie Reynolds medals.....
Monetary value pales into insignificance against the courage required for those low level raids against Berlin, Jena and especially Aarhus.... and the rest....
Danny, your generation, when put to the test, certainly delivered!

PS: Many Happy Returns and watch those bumps!

For those in search of distraction from Budget boredom today, this drama documentary film created in 1945 may be of interest. It starts slowly but picks up speed as the story unfolds.

The leading participants:

Harry Alfred Rée, DSO, OBE

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Rée

Jacqueline Nearne MBE

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacqueline_Nearne

are in fact playing themselves as the SOE Agents. Add to which there is lots of brilliant footage of RAF a/c.

In the case of one of the two SOE Agents his actual operations in France were more dangerous than actually portrayed.

Jacqueline Nearne's younger sister, Eileen Nearne MBE, who also served as a radio operator in France, was not so fortunate. She was detected whilst transmitting, captured and repeatedly tortured by the Gestapo and later in Concentration camps. However she survived (if that is the correct description for someone so psychologically damaged) the war and was cared for by Jacqueline.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eileen_Nearne

Danny
 

Belated birthday greetings - only 4 years to The Telegram!

To:

Wander00, Taphappy, Icare9, Brian 48 nav (and any other kind gentlemen who may congratulate me on my dodging the Grim Reaper one more time). Thank you all. chaps !

Danny.

Happy Birthday Danny! Unfortunately I did not know you but we were at Valley in 1951. Not so much activity now that SAR has moved to Caernarfon and the occasional Hawk over Llandudno. They were interesting times.