tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2737903099642089452.post2199864965887023893..comments2024-03-12T13:28:53.733+00:00Comments on The Escape Line: The Guides - Part NineKeithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15204149912245253542noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2737903099642089452.post-69107287184640078622013-01-04T23:54:50.670+00:002013-01-04T23:54:50.670+00:00What perilous treks the escapers and evaders had t...What perilous treks the escapers and evaders had to go on in this latest break-neck post by Keith.Dédée was indeed an extraordinary woman. She was in her mid-20s but looked younger, just another girl in ankle socks, pretty enough in her light blue floral dress and dark jumper but with nothing to make her stand out in a crowd. Her ordinariness was her disguise. It hid the steeliness and courage to carry out extraordinary deeds. In 1941, she took a group of escaping Belgian soldiers across the Pyrenees and presented herself at the British consulate in Bilbao. She explained that her family had been helping British evaders since Dunkirk and that she had put in place a chain of safe houses all the way from Belgium. She said she was prepared to pass more servicemen along it, so long as an organisation was set up to collect them once they crossed the mountains. Although Spain was neutral, its government sympathised with the Nazis - and previous evaders had been arrested and thrown in concentration camps. Her pitch - from such a sweet and ineffectual-looking girl - was greeted with incredulity and then scepticism. Surely she was far too fragile to have made the mountain crossing? A quick check established that she had. But was she a German plant, an infiltrator? London was drawn into the discussions. The acting head of MI6 dismissed her as a phoney - he distrusted all women - but cooler heads ordered checks on her, and she came up clean.With the new code name of 'Postman', she was directed back across the Pyrenees to fetch the next batch of evaders. She was told to concentrate on British airmen, now being shot down in increasing numbers as the bombing war against Germany intensified. As the escapers must have discovered; <br /> <br />“It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.”<br />(Edmund Hillary.)<br /><br />Look forward to the next post and these amazing feats of endurance and courage.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Helenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13304115337328075135noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2737903099642089452.post-6376728948652708532013-01-01T23:02:34.797+00:002013-01-01T23:02:34.797+00:00She sounds almost like an angel, such courage, her...She sounds almost like an angel, such courage, her life was certainly not a wasted one. Every so often these good souls turn up through history, as if they have been sent by a higher force to protect and do good. Amazing strength of character...Mariahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05322234219197041788noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2737903099642089452.post-35993870864641240412013-01-01T12:21:59.595+00:002013-01-01T12:21:59.595+00:00Airey Neave of MI9 and later prominent in British ...Airey Neave of MI9 and later prominent in British politics did write a book all about her Maria. Nicknamed 'The Little Cyclone' by her father, she turned up at the British Consulate in Bilbao in August 1941 with a British soldier and a couple of Belgian volunteers and asked for support for her escape network. She had escorted the men from Paris to Bayonne by train and then on foot over the Pyrenees. The British took a bit of convincing, for the same reasons I guess, that the Germans would later after her arrest simply not believe she was the head of Comete . <br />I know that she was born in Schaerbeek Belgium which was under German occupation in the First World War and Edith Cavell was a heroine in her youth, so I would say they may have been a driving force along with her father, who was active in Comete until his arrest and execution in 1943.<br />Amazing to think that after she returned from the camps in poor health, when the war was over she still went out to Africa to work in the leper hospitals putting her nurses training (studied and passed before the war) to good use.Keithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15204149912245253542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2737903099642089452.post-63928139002640798682013-01-01T10:37:52.079+00:002013-01-01T10:37:52.079+00:00Blimey, you could write a novel based on Dédée'...Blimey, you could write a novel based on Dédée's life alone. What an interesting life that lady led. I wonder what drove her forward to do what she did?<br /><br />Mariahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05322234219197041788noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2737903099642089452.post-83702784414511570592012-12-31T20:16:25.605+00:002012-12-31T20:16:25.605+00:00Thanks Liz. Dédée was an amazing Belgian lady. Aft...Thanks Liz. Dédée was an amazing Belgian lady. After she was arrested on 15 January 1943, she did everything possible to convince the Germans that she was the founder and leader of the Comete Line, in order to save others. The Germans would not believe that this tiny girl was capable of running the line and trekking backwards and forwards over the Pyrenees. How wrong they were. Condemned to death she was sent to Ravensbruck and Mauthausen but the warrant for her execution was never carried out. Dédée survived by managing to assume the identify of a concentration camp inmate who had died. After liberation she returned home and in the post-war period devoted herself to working with lepers in Africa and was eventually was given a distinction by being named a Comtesse. This amazing woman died in October 2007 aged 90.Keithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15204149912245253542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2737903099642089452.post-16256558672403769062012-12-31T15:39:47.093+00:002012-12-31T15:39:47.093+00:00Informative and shocking, Keith. What terrible con...Informative and shocking, Keith. What terrible conditions they had to move in. Goodness only knows how they kept going. What happened when Dédée was arrested? Or will I have to wait to hear that part?Liz Ringrosehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14549790415514746802noreply@blogger.com