The only woman in french Foreign Legion
There can have been few in the suburban eatery who gave this frail old lady a second glance as she ate her omelette and drank a glass of champagne. can certainly, that's exactly, They noticed the tiny coloured ribbons pinned to the lapel of her tweed suit.
One defined her as a people receiving the Legion d'Honneur, A French honour implemented by Napoleon, Others were that will Medaille Militaire and the Croix de Guerre. But the last red and blue ribbon was unique it identified Travers as the only woman in french Foreign Legion.
Born in northern England as the daughter of a Royal Navy admiral, But raised as a young tennis enjoying socialite in the south of France, Travers was among thousands of women who joined in france they Red Cross at the outbreak of the Second World War.
competent as a nurse, She spurned that to be "so messy" For cardiovascular disease exciting role of ambulance driver, Joining the French expeditionary force to Finland to help in the wintertime War against the Russians.
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When France fell to the Nazis she made her way to London and signed up with General De Gaulle's Free French and was attached to the 13th Demi Brigade of the Legion Etrangere, Which traveled the world for Africa. volunteering as a driver to the brigade's senior officers, She exhibited such nerves of steel in negotiating minefields and enemy attacks that she earned the caring nickname "La pass up" From her thousand male friends.
After an affair with a White Russian prince who was simply later killed, She was assigned as the driver to Colonel Marie Pierre Koenig, And top love affair of her life began.
coupled to the 8th Army and despatched to hold the desolate desert fort of Bir Hakeim in Libya in 1942, Koenig's forces were almost pounded to dust by Rommel's Afrika Korps in what became one of better sieges in the history of the Western Desert campaign.
With Stuka airplanes, Panzer tanks and heavy artillery saved, The Germans supposed to take the fort in 15 minutes. In what became a symbol of resistance across the country, will French held it for 15 days.
Refusing to leave her lover's side when all female personnel were ordered to flee, Susan remained on in Bir Hakeim, The only woman among during 3,500 sexually active men. Her fellow soldiers dug her into a coffin sized hole in the desert floor, Where she lay in temperatures of 51C for longer than 15 days, being attentive to the cries of the dying and wounded.
when all water, Food and bullets had run out, Koenig decided to lead a breakout with minefields and three concentric rings of German tanks.
As his motorist, Travers was ordered to take the wheel of his Ford and lead the midnight flight along the desert. The convoy of vehicles and men was only found out about when a mine exploded beneath one of their trucks. still in heavy fire, She was told through Koenig: "If people around the globe go, The rest will follow, She floored the accelerator and bumped her vehicle across the barren landscape.
"It is a delightful feeling, Going as fast as you can at nighttime, She said after. "My main concern could be that the engine would stall,
Under heavy machine gun fire, She finally burst by means enemy lines, a new path for the rest to follow. Only stopping when she reached Allied lines many hours later, She noted 11 bullet holes and severe shrapnel damage to your car.
rather 2,500 troops had escaped back with her. Koenig was marketed to the rank of general by de Gaulle. Hardly even saying have a pleasant day, He left Travers to go back to his wife and a life of high office.
Travers stayed on aided by the Legion seeing action in Italy, Germany and France driving a self forced anti tank gun.
The man who rubber stamped her admission had [-censured-=https://datingspanishwomen.travel.blog/2019/06/13/get-to-know-spanish-women/]girlfriend in spanish[/-censured-] known her in Bir Hakeim. After establishing her own uniform, Travers became the foremost and only woman ever to serve with the Legion, And was posted to Vietnam in First Indo China War.
It was there that she met and committed a fellow legionnaire, Nicholas Schlegelmilch, Who had been at Bir Hakeim. They had two sons and lived a quiet life on the outskirts of Paris until their deaths.
When I met her in the last years of her life, She was finally able to tell her story only because "everybody was gone and I was left alone with my medals, What she had, She told me, Was for her grandbabies to know how "depraved" She were.
The book was named later this morning to be Brave, following line from a poem Koenig once read to her which went: "Distrust your, And sleep a person fight. 'Tis not too late tomorrow to be brave, She died many years later.
She had witnessed several more wars and watched women routinely join the military and go off to the front lines, flabbergasted that it still raised eyebrows in some quarters.
Her highest quality regret, She considered that, Was not have been born a boy, Although she admitted that as such she would never have done half the things she'd done or enjoyed the life she led afterwards.
Susan only ever showed sensation once, When she spoke of her [-censured-=https://www.wattpad.com/746576562-spanish-women-the-reason-you-have-to-travel-to]spanish women[/-censured-] proudest time being. It was a student in 1956, 11 years after the war. The Legion invited her to Paris to be given the Medaille Militaire for her role at Bir Hakeim.
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On a bitterly cold day at Les Invalides, back with her husband and two young sons watching, Susan took her place part way through the square along with dozens of other Legionnaires, As hundreds glanced on.
Standing to attentiveness, She felt her heart lurch as she saw a lone general in full armed service uniform walking towards her. it was subsequently Pierre Koenig, The lover she hadn't seen since the days just after Bir Hakeim.
Her wrists and hands clenched into fists, She watched as he pinned her medal to the lapel of her coat. Their eyes based, Each one troubled with their emotions, He told her: "I hope this will remind you of many things. congratulations, La skip.