Jean de Lattre de Tassigny a combattu d’une manière exemplaire pendant la Première Guerre mondiale, remportant les plus hautes décorations. En tant que plus jeune général de l’armée française, il dirigea une division lors de la chute de la France en 1940, puis occupa divers postes militaires. En novembre 1942, lors de l’occupation allemande de la ‘zone libre’ en France, il refusa de suivre les ordres de Vichy qui interdisaient la résistance et fut par conséquent emprisonné. À la fin de 1943, il s’échappa et rejoignit les forces françaises libres en tant que commandant en chef. En août 1944, de Lattre de Tassigny commandait l’armée « B », composante française de l’opération Dragoon. Ses troupes libérèrent Marseille et, avec la 7ème armée américaine, chassèrent les Allemands jusqu’en Lorraine. Pendant l’hiver 1944/1945, il commanda la 1ère Armée française lors des combats en Lorraine et de la liquidation de la poche de Colmar. Lors de la dernière offensive des Alliés sur l’Allemagne, les troupes de de Lattre ont avancé jusqu’au Danube. Le général de Lattre de Tassigny participa en tant que représentant français lors de la capitulation sans conditions de l’Allemagne nazie à Berlin-Karlshorst. Avant la cérémonie, il réussit à convaincre les Alliés d’inclure la France en tant que puissance séparée acceptant la reddition de l’Allemagne. Plus tard, il commanda des troupes françaises en Indochine. De Lattre est décédé d’un cancer en 1952 et a été promu à titre posthume au rang de maréchal de France.

France

Jean de Lattre de Tassigny

L’on sait peu de choses sur le lieutenant-général Alexander Patch. Un de ses subordonnés, le général Lucian Truscott, a salué Patch en tant « qu’un homme d’une intégrité remarquable, un chef courageux et compétent et un compagnon d’armes désintéressé ». Patch évitait un langage cru et prenait soin de ses hommes. En mars 1944, Patch reçut le commandement de la 7e Armée américaine qui devait débarquer dans le sud de la France dans une opération sous le cryptonyme Dragoon. La 7e armée incorporait également un grand nombre d’unités françaises que Patch louait pour leur héroïsme. L’invasion fut un succès et la 7e armée a rapidement commencé à progresser dans la vallée du Rhône, lancée à la poursuite des forces allemandes qui battaient en retraite. En un mois, l’armée a parcouru plus de 400 km et libéra de nombreuses villes, dont Marseille, Lyon et Toulon. Au cours de l’hiver 1944-1945, Patch et son armée combattirent les forces allemandes dans les Vosges et subirent le choc de l’opération Nordwind : l’une des dernières offensives allemandes dans l’Occident. Après avoir stoppé l’avancée allemande, Patch et la 7e Armée revinrent à l’offensive en reprenant les territoires perdus lors de Nordwind pour finalement traverser le Rhin et pénétrer en Allemagne. Le 29 avril 1945, le camp de concentration de Dachau fut libéré par les forces sous commandement de Patch.

Alexander M. Patch

At the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 Shalwa Loladze was in service with the Red Army. As a commander of a Soviet squadron his airplane was brought down above Ukraine in 1942. He was taken prisoner by the German Army. To avoid the terrible conditions of a German prisoner-of-war camp he decided to join the Georgian Legion which served the German Army. Here he became lieutenant of the Georgian 882nd Infantry Battalion. Because of different revolts of Georgian troops in Eastern Europe the German Army decided to station these troops in the West. The battalion of Loladze therefore arrived on Texel on 6 February 1945. 2 months later the battalion was told to fight the Allies on the Dutch mainland. According to the battalion a revolt was the only chance to prevent this. Led by Loladze they started their revolt on 6 April at 01:00 and in the early morning 180 German soldiers were killed. However, the tide would soon turn after German reinforcements reached the island. Five weeks later the battalion surrendered. During the revolt 565 Georgians, 120 local citizens and around 800 Germans died. Shalwa Loladze was one of them. He was shot in the back on 25 April. A large number of the Georgians are buried on the Georgian cemetery on Texel. After the war the surviving 228 Georgians returned to their own country.

The Netherlands

Sjalwa Loladze

As a member of the 761st Tank Battalion, Sergeant Ruben Rivers arrived at Omaha Beach in France on 10 October 1944. Here, his unit became part of General George Patton’s 3rd Army. Rivers was 26 years old and known for his bravery. On 19 November he led a peloton of Sherman tanks to the occupied village Guébling. Arriving in the village under enemy fire, Rivers’ tank struck an anti-tank mine. Despite having an open bone fracture on his leg, he refused any morphine the medical team tried to give him.Soon after, he even took command of another thank. Over the following days Rivers fought without morphine and with a swollen and infected leg. On 19 November, the Black Panthers again tried to break through the lines at Guébling, but German troops were waiting with anti-tank guns. Rivers ordered his tank to get out of cover and to attack the enemy so that his comrades could retreat. His plan worked, but Rivers’ tank was blown up.Rivers’ actions were an example for the entire 761st Tank Battalion. After the war, like many other African-American soldiers, he did not gain the recognition he deserved. It wasn’t until 1997 that President Bill Clinton awarded his family his Medal of Honour. Rivers is one of only seven African-Americans to be awarded the Medal of Honour for his actions during the Second World War.

Ruben Rivers

George Dukson, born in French Equatorial Africa (now Gabon), decided to join the French army in Europe immediately after the Second World War broke out. Shortly before the French capitulation, he was taken prisoner by the German army. and after spending two years in a German prisoner-of-war camp he successfully escaped.Dukson returned to France, entering the underground resistance movement in Paris and where he played an important role in the resistance. During the liberation of the city of Paris, he rose through the ranks to gain the command over a group of resistance fighters. With just a few revolvers and grenades, Dukson and his comrades succeeded in capturing a German tank. On 21 August he was hit in his arm by a bullet, but Dukson kept fighting until Paris was liberated.On 26 August General Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Free French Forces, marched with his troops in a victory parade through the city. At the request of the Allies, only white soldiers had been involved with the liberation of the city, therefore the parade was therefore also white, despite a huge part of the French army existing of non-white people. However, George gained a spot in the parade and is seen near General de Gaulle in several pictures.After the Liberation of Paris, Dukson started to trade on the black market, until he was arrested. He was shot as he attempted to flee from his arrest and died from his wounds on 11 November 1944.

George Dukson

Noor Inayat Khan was born in Moscow on New Year’s Day 1914 to an American mother and an Indian father who was a descendant of the Sultan of Mysore in India. After the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the family moved to London and later to France in 1920. Here Inayat Khan focused on playing music and writing children's stories.After the capitulation of France in 1940 the family fled to London, where Inayat Khan would join the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force in November 1940. Here she trained to be a radio operator. She was recruited for the Special Operations Executive (SOE) at the end of 1942 and despite her lack of experience she was dropped in France on 17 June 1943. This was due to a shortage of spies and the fact that she spoke French fluently.In France, Inayat Khan became a radio operator for the Physician-network of the SOE in Paris. The goal of this network was to encourage and aid French resistance against the German occupier. Inayat Khan maintained the contact between the resistance and the SOE in London. However, a lot of members were arrested quite soon because of infiltration by the Sicherheitsdienst (intelligence agency of Nazi Germany).Despite this Inayat Khan tried to maintain contact with London all summer long. In October she was betrayed by a French woman and afterwards arrested by the Gestapo, the German secret state police. The Sicherheitsdienst knew how to decipher the coded notes of Inayat Khan which lead them to arrest several other people. Inayat Khan was imprisoned in the prison of Pforzheim in Germany for ten months, after which she was transferred to the Dachau Concentration Camp. Here she was tortured for two days. Together with three other SOE spies, she was executed on 13 September 1944.

Noor Inayat Khan

Edgard Tupët-Thome was born in Bourg-La-Reine on 19 April 1920. After obtaining his school diploma, he quitted his further education in order to join the French Armed Forces in October 1938. During the German invasion of Western Europe, Tupët-Thomé fought in Lorraine and Belgium. Along with the other Allied armies he was pushed back to Dunkirk. Here he helped with the embarking of the British Expeditionary Force before he was taken prisoner. During his transfer to Germany he managed to escape. After he had escaped, Tupët-Thomé joined the French resistance. He managed to reach England via Spain and joined the Free French Forces led by Charles de Gaulle. He was dropped in France to gather information in December 1941. Even though he was wounded during his parachute jump he stayed for six months to fulfill his tasks. He finally returned to England to let his wounds be treated in May 1942. After he was recovered, he became an instructor for French commando units in Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. In August 1943 Tupët-Thomé joined the British Special Air Service and half a year later he became second-in-command of the French 3rd Parachute Chasseur Regiment. Together with his regiment Tupët-Thomé landed in France in August 1944 where they took part in the liberation of several villages. His last mission took place in the Netherlands on 7 April 1945 and was part of Operation Amherst. The goal of the paratroops was to take bridges and other important locations in Drenthe and Groningen, to pave the way for the liberation of these areas. After the war Edgard Tupët-Thome received several medals including la Légion d’honneur. He died at the age of one hundred in Hôtel National des Invalides on 9 September 2020.

Edgard Tupët-Thomé

Sophie Scholl was born on 9 May 1921 and just like many other German children she was an enthusiastic member of the national socialistic youth movement. This was to the dismay of her parents, who valued the Christian tradition. However, Sophie’s enthusiasm would disappear slowly due to the violent and racist incidents which took place, but also because of the arrest of her brother, Hans, for being a member of another youth movement.In May 1942 Sophie started studying biology and philosophy at the University of Munich. Here she saw pamphlets of the White Rose and made the connection that her brother was involved in the organisation. Sophie confronted him with this and insisted on joining the group. Hans and his friends gained inspiration for the pamphlets from their experiences fighting on the Eastern Front. Here they had seen how bad the situation was in Poland and the Soviet Union, which resulted in their call for non-violent resistance against the Nazi regime. The pamphlets were distributed all over Germany.On 18 February 1943 Sophie and her brother were caught distributing pamphlets by the university janitor. They were arrested by the Gestapo the same day. The trial against Sophie and Hans took place behind closed doors four days later. Together with Christoph Probst, they were sentenced to the guillotine and the verdict was executed that same day. Despite the fact that during the trial they took all blame, their friends were convicted at a later time. The sixth pamphlet was smuggled into England via Scandinavia and was dropped by the Royal Air force in large quantities over Germany.

Germany

Sophie Scholl

Claude Mademba-Sy was born on 11 December 1923 in Versailles. His father, Abdel Kader, was the first black commander of a colonial infantry battalion of the French Army. Mademba-Sy did not grow up in France, but spent the first years of his childhood dependant on where his dad was stationed, on Madagascar, as well as in Mali and Senegal.After his father died Mademba-Sy spent several years in an orphanage after which he went to live with his mother, who had remarried, in Tunisia. After the German Army invaded Tunisia in November 1942, nineteen year old Mademba-Sy voluntarily joined the Free French Forces. As part of the French 2nd Armoured Division led by General Philippe Leclerc, he arrived on Utah Beach in Normandy on 1 August 1944. He hereafter played a role at the liberation of Paris and Strasbourg and the capture of Berchtesgaden, Adolf Hitlers’ country retreat in the Alps.It was extremely unusual that Mademba-Sy, as a black soldier, was present at the liberation of Paris, because at the insistence of the Allies it was the intention that only white troops would be present. However, since Mademba-Sy was born in Versailles he had the French nationality and because of this he was part of a white French unit which meant he could attend.After the war Claude Mademba-Sy stayed active in the army and he was one of the founders of the Senegalian army in 1960. He also fought for better appreciation of French colonial troops and for a raise for their pensions. He died at the age of 90 in France on 9 April 2014.

Claude Mademba-Sy

Ibrahim Asem was born on 7 January 1924 in Damascus in Syria, which was a protectorate of France at that moment. After France capitulated in 1940, Vichy France took control over Syria. This changed in July 1941, when the British Army and the Free French Forces took over the area. It was under these circumstances that Asem joined the Free French Forces in September 1942, after which he became part of the British Special Air Service (SAS) in 1943. On the night of 7 to 8 April 1945, he was dropped in Drenthe for Operation Amherst together with 701 other French parachutists. The mission of these parachutists was to make contact with the resistance, secure bridges and above all cause confusion and unrest among the German Army. This to make sure the Canadian troops could liberate the northern part of the Netherlands quickly. In different small groups the parachutists were dropped all over Drenthe. However, the group of Asem ended up in the wrong place and broke up on their way to the right destination. In order to escape from the sight of German troops, Asem and six other soldiers hid in a barn. The next day Asem and his group were discovered by German soldiers and a fire fight broke out. The straw roofing of the barn was shot on fire and collapsed. Three French soldiers were burned alive because of this. Three other parachutists, including Asem, were shot dead behind the barn. Just one Frenchman managed to escape.

Asem Ibrahim

Roscoe Brown est né le 9 mars 1922 à Washington D.C. Son père étant dentiste et sa mère enseignante, Brown grandit dans un climat intellectuel favorable et obtient de bons résultats scolaires. Après avoir terminé ses études avec d'excellents résultats, il décide de s'engager dans l'armée de l'air américaine en 1943.En tant qu'Afro-Américain, Brown se retrouve à l'école de pilotage de Tuskegee, en Alabama. Tout comme les autres secteurs de l'armée américaine, l'armée de l'air pratiquait la ségrégation à cette époque. L'école de pilotage de Tuskegee a été créée à titre expérimental pour prouver que les Afro-Américains n'étaient pas capables de piloter des avions. Or, elle a prouvé le contraire.Les Tuskegee Airmen se sont révélés être d'excellents pilotes et ont formé des escadrons d'escorte. Répartis dans différentes escadrilles du 332e groupe de chasseurs, les Tuskegee Airmen ont accompli des tâches importantes en Europe. En plus d'attaquer eux-mêmes différentes cibles au sol, leur tâche principale consistait à protéger les bombardiers alliés contre les chasseurs allemands. Brown termine son entraînement et est envoyé en Europe en août 1944. Au sein du 100e escadron de combat, il effectue 68 missions au total, son vol le plus réussi ayant lieu le 24 mars 1945. Au cours d'une très longue mission d'escorte visant à bombarder une usine de chars allemande à Berlin, il abat un chasseur à réaction allemand. C'est pour cette raison que Brown est connu comme l'un des trois tueurs d'avions à réaction.Après la guerre, Brown a repris ses études pour obtenir une maîtrise, puis un doctorat. Il est devenu, entre autres, professeur à l'université de New York, puis directeur du Bronx Community College. Roscoe Brown est décédé à l'âge de 94 ans le 2 juillet 2016.

Roscoe Brown

Born on 2 October 1916 in Chicago, Joe attended the University of Chicago before being drafted into the U.S. Army’s 69th Infantry Division in December 1941. As the youngest son of Jewish-Russian parents originally from Kiev, Polowsky spoke fluent Russian. On 25 April 1945, as part of a reconnaissance platoon led by Lieutenant Albert Kotzebue, they became the first Americans to meet Soviet soldiers on the Elbe River near Torgau – a symbolic meeting representing the closure of the Eastern and Western Fronts. The photo of this meeting circulated around the world and still stands today as a potent symbol of the end of the war. Making an oath of peace in Torgau, he dedicated the rest of his life to that mission. He tried in vain to have the United Nations declare 25 April "Elbe Day" - a day for world peace. In 1955, Polowsky visited Moscow together with Soviet veterans for the tenth anniversary of the Elbe meeting. In 1960 and 1961, he returned to Torgau on Elbe Day to speak at the Soviet-American Encounter Monument. Despite many efforts, he was never able to return to East Germany after a 1961. Instead, he led an annual vigil on the Michigan Avenue Bridge in Chicago. Polowsky last wish was to be buried in Torgau. He died on 17 October 1983. Overcoming the political hurdles and after gaining permission from the State Council Chairman Erich Honecker, his funeral was held on 26 November 1983 and became an international media event with American and Soviet veterans and other government officials from the USA, USSR, and East Germany. With his final wish, he succeeded in setting an example that, for a brief moment, brought East and West closer together during the Cold War.   In Torgau today, a peace run past his burial place and the Polowsky Peace Rose Garden at Torgau’s castle commemorate him.

United States

Joseph “Joe” Polowsky

In the summer of 1939, the United Kingdom was on the verge of war with Nazi Germany. Because male farm workers were send to the front, the British government decided to establish the Women’s Land Army (WLA). These women became known as Land Girls and replaced the men on the land in order to avoid a food shortage. Between June 1939 and November 1950 over 200,000 women signed up for the WLA. Coming from all walks of life, they played a critical role in increasing Britain’s food production.Daphne Mary Banks, born on 11 May 1922 in Slough, was a Land Girl. In the summer of 1939 she decided to quit her office job in order to join the newly-formed WLA. Driven by patriotism and supported by her parents she went down to the recruiting office in Portland Terrace, Southampton. At that time Daphne’s knowledge of farming mostly came from magazines she had read.As a Land Girl Daphne worked at several farms in the county of Hampshire. On these farms she performed several tasks, from fertilising the fields to trimming hedges. Daphne’s main task was looking after the cows. She fed them, milked them and moved them around the farm. During her stay at the different farms, Daphne always had a private billet in the farmhouse of the family she worked for.After the war, Daphne met her husband and left the WLA. They married in 1947. She had great memories of her WLA days and always recalled them as being some of the best of her life. She died on 14 March 2019.

United Kingdom

Daphne Mary Banks

Lee Miller was born in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1907, where from a young age her father introduced her to photography. After a successful modelling career in the late 20’s Miller decided to go behind the camera herself. During the 30’s she worked in Paris, New York, Caïro and London.At the outbreak of the Second World War, Miller was living in London and working for Vogue. She ignored the plea of her friends and family to return to the United States. When the male photographers of Vogue were send to the front, Miller was offered the position of photographer. One of her first series was photographing women who were active in the army or worked as nurses.As the war proceeded Miller started to do more fieldwork which lead to her being appointed as one of the few female photographers of the U.S. Army. She arrived in Normandy in July 1944, a month after the allied invasion had begun. Her first task was photographing the American nurses near Omaha Beach. During the following months she accompanied the Allied troops who liberated Europe. She was present during the siege of St. Malo, the liberation of Paris and the Alsace region. Miller also produced impressive pictures of the concentration camps Buchenwald and Dachau, alhough her most iconic photo remains the one she took of herself in the bath of Hitler’s apartment in Munich.After the war, Miller had a difficult time processing what she had seen at the Front. She spoke little about it. Her son only discovered much of her work in boxes in the attic, after her death in 1977.

Lee Miller

From 1941 Eugene Pinte, nicknamed Athos, operated out of a small farm in a town called La Gaubertie in the region Aixe-Sur-Vienne. Pinte was in command over several resistance groups in the west of Haute-Vienne. The farm functioned as command centre and from there messages were sent and received. It was also the gather point for supplies that arrived from England via parachute. Pinte insisted his family helped as well. Even his youngest son, Marcel Pinte, became involved in the resistance.Born on 12 April 1938 in Valenciennes, in the northern part of France, the six-year-old Marcel was appointed an important task. As a courier he delivered secret messages to different resistance leaders. Because he was only a small boy, German troops didn’t suspect him. In August 1944, Eugene Pinte had gathered a group of over 1200 men around him. Together with other groups of the French Forces of the Interior (FFI) they surrounded German troops around Limoges and tried to stop a German breakthrough. They won this battle.However, for Marcel it didn’t end well. On the early morning of 19 August, one of the sten guns of the resistance fighters went off by accident. Marcel was hit and died. Marcel was buried on 21 August, just before the liberation of Limoges. A large group of resistance fighters was present, including leaders of different movements. During the last drop of supplies on the farm the parachutes were black instead of white. The British did this to honour Marcel. Posthumously Marcel was promoted to FFI sergeant and became the youngest resistance fighter of France.

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