Phyllis Latour was born in April 1921 in South Africa.


 Her father was a French doctor, and her mother, Louise, was a British citizen living there.


In 1941, she moved to England and later joined the Special Operations Executive (SOE), a group created during World War II to gather secret information and disrupt enemy plans in areas controlled by the Axis powers, especially Nazi Germany.


On May 1, 1944, Phyllis parachuted into Normandy, France, as part of a secret group called the Scientist circuit. She spoke French fluently and pretended to be a teenage girl whose family had moved to the area to escape Allied bombing. She rode around on a bicycle, selling soap and chatting with German soldiers to collect information.


Phyllis had a clever way of hiding the codes she used to send messages. She had a piece of silk with one-time codes printed on it, which she wrapped around a knitting needle and tucked into a flat shoelace she used as a hair tie. She then used Morse code equipment to send the secret messages.


Even though German soldiers searched her and questioned her a few times, they never realized her hair tie was hiding secret codes, so they let her go. In total, she sent 135 coded messages, which helped guide bombing missions to important enemy targets.

Today, Phyllis Latour is the only living female SOE agent from World War II, and as of now, she is 102 years old.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chilling last words of killer before he is given lethal injection in brutal execution

Image
  Jeffrey David Matthews, indicted in 1994 for the murder of his 77-year-old great uncle Otis Earl Short, delivered his final sentence before receiving a lethal injection at Oklahoma State penitentiary A man on death row finally answered for the shooting of his elderly great uncle when he was executed to the loud bangs of his fellow inmates, but his last words left a disturbing chill in the execution chamber. Jeffrey David Matthews, indicted in 1994 for the murder of his 77-year-old great uncle Otis Earl Short, delivered his final words before receiving a lethal injection at Oklahoma State penitentiary. Moments before his death, Jeffrey grinned at his family members and said: "I think that governor's phone is broke. He hadn't called yet." Former Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry had previously granted two stays of execution for Jeffrey upon pending investigations regarding his claims of innocence. A third was granted only because defence attorneys repudiated motions to sub...
Read more

Remember Marcelle Aboudy

Image
 Marcelle Aboudy was born on January 27, 1930, in Marseille, France, to Jewish parents. Sadly, their names are not known today. Marcelle was a smart student and an active member of the Jewish scouting group called the Eclaireurs Israélites de France (EIF). While in the group, she became close friends with another scout named Anita Sidi. Their friendship was strong—and it is because of Anita, who survived the Holocaust by using a fake name and forged documents, that we know anything about Marcelle’s life. Anita later shared her memories and photographs, helping to keep Marcelle’s story alive. In early 1944, Marcelle was taken from her home and sent to Auschwitz. She was only fourteen years old when she was killed in the gas chambers shortly after arriving. Marcelle’s life was taken far too soon, but she is remembered through the stories told by those who loved her and by those who work to make sure people like her are never forgotten.
Read more

In February 1944

Image
 In February 1944, an American soldier found a tiny Yorkshire Terrier in an old, empty trench in the jungles of New Guinea. The dog was later named Smokey. She ended up with Corporal William Wynn from Ohio, who bought her from other soldiers for just 2 Australian pounds. For the next two years, Smokey stayed by his side during the war in the Pacific. Smokey took part in 12 rescue and photo missions by air and sea. She often rode inside a soldier’s backpack while bullets flew around them. She survived more than 150 air attacks and two big typhoons in Okinawa. Smokey even made parachute jumps from about 9 meters high using a special tiny parachute. Wynn said Smokey once barked and acted nervous right before a bombing, warning him just in time—and possibly saving his life. One time, Smokey saved a huge amount of work at an airfield. There was a need to lay a cable underground, which would’ve meant digging a long trench and moving 40 warplanes. Instead, they found an old, narrow pipe. ...
Read more

Gary Cooper with his mum at the Brown Derby 1955.

Image
 I’m always keenly interested in the parents of famous movie stars and was delighted to come across some information on those of Gary Cooper. Gary’s father, Charles, was born in Bedfordshire England in the year the American Civil War ended, in 1865. Charles was noted as having an excellent legal mind and, aged only 19, convinced his own parents to let him and his brother, Walter, cross the Atlantic to start a new life in America. Shortly after they arrived the more adventurous Charles left Walter in New York while he continued to Montana. While in Helena he studied law and passed the bar. He would become a State Supreme Court Justice. A visit from his parents at the studio. While there he met the lady who was to be his wife and mother of Frank James, who would adopt the Hollywood name of Gary, and another son, Arthur. Alice, born in 1873, had also emigrated from England, the county of Kent. Both parents lived to see their son become a huge movie star. Upon the retirement of Charles...
Read more

Remembering Josephine Myrtle Corbin (1868–1928)

Image
 Josephine Myrtle Corbin was born in Lincoln County, Tennessee, in 1868 with a rare condition called dipygus, which gave her four legs and two pelvises an incredibly rare congenital anomaly. Despite the challenges she faced, Josephine lived a remarkable life.  As a teenager, she briefly appeared in public exhibitions, known as the “Four-Legged Girl from Texas.” While curiosity drew attention to her unique anatomy, her story also became an important medical case for 19th-century doctors. But Josephine was more than her condition. She married Dr. Clinton Bicknell and went on to have at least four or five healthy children, living a life that was full of love and family. After her early exhibitions, she chose a relatively private life, prioritizing her family and personal dignity. Josephine passed away in 1928 at the age of 59. Her family took care to protect her memory and her body from exploitation, ensuring that she would be remembered for who she was, not just how she looked....
Read more

If German soldiers in WWII ran out of bullets, what did they do to survive?

Image
 A German soldier had only 4 quick ways to remain alive when ammunition stopped of which none was the best. Retreating was the wisest solution. In case a unit was out of bullets, the commander would call a quick retreat to a more secure position where the fire line would be covered by friendly forces or heavy fire. The men were hastening along, and wished a supply train was running.In case of retreat, the second option was hand-to-hand fighting, which was referred to as Nahkampf. Bayonets were found in German rifles, yet the weapon against which the enemy was afraid of was a shovel, a kind of entrenching tool. The shovel was sharpened and served the purpose of a little axe in trenches or buildings by the soldiers. They held back the last grenades to this last effort at defence. Third, they picked up ammunition on the battlefield. Crawling up to fallen German men was a dangerous affair but they also picked shells of fallen enemies. It was better to have a Russian or American rifle w...
Read more

What was the first scandal in the history of cinema?

Image
 It came from actress Hedy Lamarr in the film Ecstasy also called Symphony of Love (Czech production 1933) which caused the first scandal in the history of cinema. Austrian actress Hedy Lamarr was naked, running through the trees and diving into a river. Then, there was a simulation of a sexual act. All from a great distance. It lasted only ten minutes but an American government commission was scandalized. The film was taken out of circulation and most of its copies were burned. Partly because of the scandal Hedy was beaten by her husband, a weapons manufacturer, who spent more than $300,000 to incinerate other copies available in Europe. Disguised in her maid's clothes Hedy fled to Paris and then to the United States. To make Hedy Lamarr look like she was having an orgasm director Gustav Machaty stuck a pin in her buttocks... continue reading 
Read more
Image
  Most of the Nazi guards employed the dogs to intimidate and dominate prisoners, yet there is another man who was even worse, Amon Göth. He was the manager in the Płaszów concentration camp and happened to be very violent. Survivor Hellen Jonas-Rosenzweig referred to him as a killer, a murderer, a sadist. Göth had two large Great Dane dogs whose names were Rolf and Ralf. He taught them to be extremely nasty. According to survivors, he occasionally fired randomly at the prisoners just for fun as he stood on his balcony. Another means of him harming humans was his dogs to whom he instructed to bite and kill prisoners and it appeared that he liked watching it happen. Granting dogs the use against prisoners was not an activity Goth carried out just alone. It was part and parcel of Nazi system. German Shepherds were trained in special dog units by many of the guards. Dogs were used to patrol the camps, hunt those who attempted a breakout and ensure prisoners were always scared. Neverth...
Read more

Was Arthur Miller a bad husband to Marilyn Monroe?

Image
 Arthur Miller was a cold-hearted intellectual who never loved Marilyn Monroe. He never even bothered to show up at her Los Angeles funeral. ——-“To me it was meaningless to stand for photographs at her graveside.”——- Miller did not want to be part of the media frenzy that developed around her funeral. He was disgusted by the attention that came with a movie star on Marilyn Monroe’s scale. Over the years, there have been suggestions that Miller married Marilyn for her money or for the good publicity to counteract his refusal to name Communists to The House Un-American Activities Committee. On the other hand, Joe DiMaggio was inconsolable at her funeral, weeping uncontrollably, leaning over Marilyn’s casket, kissing her on the lips, and whispering,———-“I love you, I love you”. The grief stricken baseball star ordered 6 long stemmed roses, three times a week to placed on her grave….forever.
Read more

After World War II, some Nazis apologized, still they were punished.

Image
  After World War II, some Nazis apologized, still they were punished. They got their penalty reduced sometimes by saying sorry. Albert Speer is one such celebrity. He was a very significant person in the government of Hitler. Most Nazis claimed that they did not do anything wrong at the big Nuremberg trials. But Speer was something special when he claimed he was guilty and had accepted his punishment. This likely saved his life. Several other leaders of the Nazi were killed anyway, however, Speer was sentenced to spend 20 years in prison. He remained there all the time. Decades after his death, there was a reporter called Gitta Sereny who looked at his life. She discovered evidence that Speer was more aware of the evils that the Nazis committed than he testified to the court. She believed that had the judges known all the facts, they would probably have handed him a death sentence. In the story, Speer demonstrates that after saying sorry, you might be able to receive a milder sent...
Read more