Världskrigspersonligheter fortfarande i livet

Elinor Otto avled den 12 november, 104 år fyllda. Hon arbetade under kriget på flygplansfabrik, pensionerades först vid 95 års ålder, och kallades the last serving Rosie the Riveter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elinor_Otto
https://www.presstelegram.com/2023/1...s-dies-at-104/
https://americanveteranscenter.org/2015/02/elinor-otto/
https://www.rriveter.com/blogs/ameri...e-rosies-of-45
https://www.joanlunden.com/category/...ie-the-riveter

Kissinger dog den 29 november 2023. Han var 100 år. En sammanfattning av hans insats i WWII finns här.

https://www.sfasu.edu/heritagecenter/9809.asp

In February 1943 Henry was drafted into the United States Army and took his basic training at Camp Croft, South Carolina. And while at Camp Croft he became a naturalized United States citizen on June 19, 1943. After basic training he was sent to Camp Claiborne, Louisiana where he was assigned to Company G 335th Infantry Regiment 84th "Rail-splitter" Infantry Division.
/---/
Due to his heavy German accent and proficiency with this language he was assigned to the Military Intelligence Section of the 84th Division. Kissinger saw combat with the 84th Division and he volunteered for several dangerous intelligence details during the Battle of the Bulge. As the 84th advanced toward Germany, Kissinger, still only a private, was assigned as the administrator over the town of Krefeld, Germany. Kissinger restored order and removed all the Nazis from positions in the town government. He worked hard and managed to get all the city services up and going and got the town back on its feet. Due to his excellent work, Kissinger was re-assigned to the Counter Intelligence Corps and was promoted to the rank of sergeant. He was a team leader and his and his team's biggest mission was to track down Gestapo officers and Nazi saboteurs in and around Hannover, Germany. For his excellent work on this mission Kissinger was awarded the Bronze Star.

Krigsgenerationens försvinnande skildras i denna AP-text från september i fjol, och en del namn nämns.

Queen’s death is reminder of disappearing WWII generation
https://apnews.com/article/queen-eli...80d410beb5c448

The queen, who served as a mechanic and truck driver in the last months of the war, was a tangible link to the sailors, soldiers, airmen, marines and others who signed up to do their bit in a conflict that killed 384,000 service personnel and 70,000 British civilians.

But like the queen, even the youngest veterans of the war are now nearing their 100th birthdays, and a steady stream of obituaries tells the story of a disappearing generation.
/---/
The Royal Air Force says it knows of only one surviving Battle of Britain pilot, the men Winston Churchill immortalized as “the few” who helped turn the tide of the war. Group Captain John Hemingway celebrated his 103rd birthday in July.
/---/
Among those who died this year were Henriette Hanotte, who ferried downed Allied pilots across the French border as they made their way home. And Harry Billinge, who was just 18 when he joined the first wave of troops to land on Gold Beach in Normandy on D-Day, as well as Douglas Newham, who survived 60 bombing raids as a Royal Air Force navigator, but was haunted by those who didn’t return.
/---/
Many of those who took part in that joy [May 8, 1945] are now gone.

Among them is Frank Baugh, a Royal Marine who helped guide a landing craft to Sword Beach during the June 6, 1944, D-Day landings. He later campaigned for a memorial to be built to commemorate the 22,442 men and women who died under British command during the Battle of Normandy.

A few months before his death in June at the age of 98, Baugh toured the British Normandy Memorial, which overlooks the beach where he fought.

I tråden om avlidna kändisar uppmärksammades att den flerfaldigt dekorerade norske krigsseglaren Nils Severin Økland dog den 7 november, 108 år gammal. Först hette det att han var den siste av krigsseglarna, vilket dock är fel. Men en av de sista var han i alla händelser.

https://www.forsvaretsforum.no/andre...-er-dod/352463

Krigsseileren rømte over til Shetland i 1941 under 2. verdenskrig. Der ble han utdannet skytter, og tjenestegjorde i Sjøforsvarets skytteravdeling for handelsflåten frem til krigens slutt.

Ifølge datteren hans, Bjørg Elin Økland, var Nils Severin Økland skytter om bord på ni skip og var med på om lag 50 turer i konvoifart mellom USA/Canada og Europa.

– Han hadde sterke nerver. Han hadde god tro på at ting skulle gå bra. God tro og godt humør har han beholdt hele livet, sier hun.

Nils Severin Økland var om bord da M/T «Daghild» ble utsatt for et ubåtangrep og torpedert i Nord-Atlanteren februar 1943. Mannskapet ble reddet av den franske korvetten «Lobelia».

I 1944 var Nils Severin Økland kvartermester på D/S «Roald Amundsen» og deltok i «Operasjon Dragoon», den allierte invasjonen av Sør-Frankrike.

https://lokalhistoriewiki.no/wiki/Ni...in_%C3%98kland
https://www.krigsseilerregisteret.no/sjofolk/55651
https://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/...108-aar-gammel
https://www.nrk.no/nyheter/en-av-nor...mel-1.16635414

Den 7 december dog 101-årige Günther Stern / Guy Stern, en av de sista medlemmarna av Ritchie Boys, den amerikanska militära underrättelsetjänstens förband av förhörsspecialister. Senare blev han professor i litteraturvetenskap. Han berättade om sina upplevelser i memoarboken Invisible Ink från 2020, och i Ken Burns dokumentärserie The U.S. and the Holocaust.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Stern
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/17/w...tern-dead.html
https://www.timesofisrael.com/guy-st...e-dies-at-101/
https://clas.wayne.edu/news/former-w...ble-life-61277

Stern joined the U.S. Army in 1943 and was assigned to the Ritchie Boys. This special military unit was a group of mostly German Jewish immigrants who had fled the Nazis and trained at Camp Ritchie in Maryland. The Ritchie Boys were responsible for gathering more than 60% of intelligence on the Western Front during World War II.

The Army used these soldiers to gather information due to their knowledge of the German language and culture. Stern interrogated German prisoners in France and Germany and received the Bronze Star for his method of mass interrogation.
/---/
Stephanie Williams, director of Wayne State University Press, which published Stern’s 2020 memoir, Invisible Ink, said it was an immense privilege to work on the book project.

“Guy Stern’s father once said to him, ‘You have to be like invisible ink. You will leave traces of your existence when, in better times, we can emerge again and show ourselves as the individuals we are,’” she said. “Dr. Stern carried these words and shaped himself around them. In doing so, he had an influence on family, students and colleagues across the world. But his list of accomplishments fails to capture his stalwart warmth and abiding interest in people.”

If you live long enough honors are being showered upon you.

Den 17 december avled 100-åriga Maureen Flavin Sweeney, irländsk postanställd, som den 3 juni 1944 noterade att en kraftig storm var på väg från Atlanten. Hennes rapport fick general Eisenhower att skjuta upp D-dagen med en dag, och torde ha gjort att invasionen överlag lyckades. År 2021 fick hon amerikanska kongressens medalj.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maureen_Flavin_Sweeney
https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-41292409.html
https://www.irishamerica.com/2021/06...luenced-d-day/
https://www.esquire.com/news-politic...-world-war-ii/

She was the first to pinpoint the coming storm and her report, communicated to the Irish Met Service in Dublin, and then forwarded without her knowledge to the headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force in England, led to United States general Dwight Eisenhower postponing the D-Day landings from June 5th to June 6th.
/---/
If the Normandy invasion had gone off on June 5, the landings, if they even occurred, would have been even more nightmarish than they were on June 6th. Maureen Sweeney saved God knows how many lives.

En av de sista kvarlevande journalisterna från krigsåren har gått bort. Den 22 december avled den 105-årige (född 1918) Erling Bjøl, dansk journalist, statsvetare och historiker, författare till mängder av artiklar och böcker om internationell politik och 1900-talets historia. Säkert är det fler historiefrälsta FB:are som konfronterats med Bjøls verk, till exempel trebandsutgåvan Världshistorien efter 1945.
Bjøl inledde sin karriär vid UPI 1938, arbetade de första krigsåren för Nationaltidende och var bland annat stationerad i Stockholm, och tog sig 1944 till London för att verka vid BBC.
https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erling_Bj%C3%B8l
https://biografiskleksikon.lex.dk/Erling_Bj%C3%B8l
https://www.altinget.dk/magasin/arti...sse-og-politik

Det er ikke spørgsmål, Bjøl først er begyndt at stille nu, på det, man vel har lov til at kalde sine gamle dage. Han stillede dem først, da han som purung i 1938 fandt en tjans som korrespondent for United Press i Sverige og Finland. Gennem krigen var han journalist med tæt tilknytning til udefronten, især i Stockholm, hvor han i 1942 fik kontakt til Ebbe Munck, som holdt døren åben til den frie verden, og i London, hvor han fra 1944 arbejdede for BBC og kom i kontakt med nogle af de mænd, der siden blev ledende skikkelser i den kolde krigs politik.

Det var én lang rejse, som fra London fulgte med de allierede styrker gennem det befriede Europa. Her så og lærte Bjøl alt det, der få år efter krigen førte til dannelsen af Atlantpagten, Nato, hvis idé smeltede sammen med DNA i Bjøls udenrigspolitiske rygmarv.

Efter befrielsen blev Bjøl knyttet til Information, modstandsavisen, som han rejste og skrev for, indtil han i 1959 gik til Politiken, der blev hans blivende sted i dansk presse.

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10...-031-05171-5_7

When Bjøl wanted to go to London in 1944, the British refused, saying he was of better use to them in Stockholm. Bjøl then secured a permit for England from his American employers at the United Press, a move which provoked the British to arrest him upon arrival and place him briefly in a screening camp. He later went over to the BBC ---

I Svenska Pressen från den 14 maj 1943 kan man ta del av hans tankar om nordisk samverkan ...

Nordisk trust i stället för konkurrensen
https://digi.kansalliskirjasto.fi/sa...2273776?page=1

I dag, den 4 januari, avled 103-årige major Mike Sadler, före detta MI6-agent, och den siste originalmedlemmen i Special Air Service (SAS). Han ryckte in i militärtjänst 1939, gick med i SAS vid dess bildande 1941, var med om en rad vådliga äventyr i Nordafrika, och efter D-dagen även i Frankrike. Han tilldelades Military Cross, och senare också franska Hederslegionen. Han tjänstgjorde i MI6 till sin pensionering 1984.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/m...uary-nrsgphbqs
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituari...-rogue-heroes/
https://www.theoldie.co.uk/article/w...f-north-africa
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...pass-away.html

Historian Damien Lewis, who has penned several books on the wartime history of the SAS, paid tribute to the hero, telling MailOnline: 'Mike Sadler was one of the originals and one of the bravest of the brave and we now no longer have any surviving members of 1 SAS from the war.

'So this is the passing of a legend, the passing of a generation, the passing of an era. It is immensely tragic because our ability to capture these stories from first hand testimony is becoming so difficult. The lights are going out all over Britain.'

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/252498...er-antarctica/

“One of the essential things was not to let doubt creep into your mind,” The Times reported he said of his experience in the SAS.

“You have to be confident because it was awfully easy, especially at night, to start feeling you’re going wrong and you should be further to left or right.

"It was rather easy to give way to that feeling if you weren’t confident. It was a challenge, navigating, but I liked the challenge. I was young and you don’t really think about pressure at 21.”

I fjol intervjuades han en del, med anledning av BBC:s nya serie SAS Rogue Heroes.

An Interview with Original SAS Member Mike Sadler
https://fightingonfilm.com/an-interv...r-mike-sadler/
https://www.blindveterans.org.uk/new...wn-rogue-hero/
https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/new...ramme-25426771

Jag tvivlar på att några veteraner lever kvar om fem år, men det kan ju såklart finnas något enstaka undantag då.

Den holländske flygarveteranen André Hissink dog den 1 januari i Kanada, 104 år gammal. Han var tydligen den näst sista kvarlevande av Engelandvaarders, de runt 1.700 holländare som under den tyska ockupationen lyckades ta sig till Storbritannien för att ansluta sig till de allierade styrkorna.
Hissink var född 1919, upplevde Rotterdams bombardemang 1940, lyckades undkomma till UK och skeppades därifrån vidare till Batavia i Nederländska Indien, där han påbörjade sin flygarutbildnimg. Efter den japanska invasionen fortsatte han i februari 1942 sin färd till Australien, och sedan till USA där hans utbildning fullföljdes. Våren 1943 var han på nytt i England, och inledde tjänstgöringen vid RAF, vid No. 320 (Netherlands) Squadron, som bombfällare och navigatör på B-25 Mitchell. Han flög 69 stridsuppdrag, och blev nerskjuten en gång.
Efter kriget tjänstgjorde Hissink vid KLM och övergick senare till andra flygbolag. Det gjorde att han förlorade sitt nederländska medborgarskap - han återfick det först 2022.
Han mindes även hur det var att senare kändes att träffa en före detta fiende, en tysk, och ta en biertje med honom ...
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Hissink
https://nltimes.nl/2024/01/04/last-s...adron-dead-104
https://www.defensie.nl/actueel/nieu...tijd-overleden
https://nos.nl/l/2503652
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/102-ye...wait-1.5921867

Nu återstår en enda Engelandvaarder, 100-åriga motståndskämpen Ellis Brandon, tydligen känd som Verzetsoma, det vill säga Motstånds-Mormor.
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellis_Brandon
https://www.nationaalarchief.nl/bele...andon-100-jaar
https://www.museumengelandvaarders.n...ndon-100-jaar/
https://www.nrc.nl/verzetsoma/
https://www.theroadtoengland.com/sin...l-on-the-train

Valtanen dog den 17 januari, 98 år gammal.
https://www.hs.fi/kotimaa/art-2000010127371.html

Jack Jennings var sannolikt den siste kvarlevande av de 85.000 soldater från brittiska imperiet, som försvarade Singapore 1942, och den siste av de 60.000 fångar som japanerna satte att bygga "Dödens järnväg" mellan Thailand och Burma. Jennings (som var snickare i det civila) skildrade sina upplevelser i boken Prisoner Without a Crime från 2011, och gjorde även på äldre dagar besök till denna fasans ort för att minnas sina döda kamrater.
Jennings bodde på ett äldreboende i Torquay och var en baddare på munspel. Nu har han gått bort. 104 år blev han.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-devon-68049226

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-new...us-wwii-776345
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-new...o-pow-20844653
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon...eteran-6767267
https://www.itv.com/news/2015-10-26/...es-70-years-on

Den 20 januari dog Nathaniel Thomas Allen Fiennes, 21st Baron Saye and Sele, född 1920, brittisk affärsman och krigsveteran, som var med om att befria koncentrationslägret Bergen-Belsen.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan..._Saye_and_Sele
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3ZgYwmuE0U
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/202...elsen-reunite/

Den 25 januari dog Bat-Sheva Dagan, född 1925, polsk-israelisk förintelseöverlevande.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat-Sheva_Dagan
https://www.yadvashem.org/education/...bat-sheva.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI4pdYSgOdU

Den 27 januari avled Bruno Segre, född 1918, italiensk partisanveteran, advokat, publicist och politiker.
https://www.rainews.it/articoli/2024...1fa186f6f.html
https://gerontology.fandom.com/wiki/Bruno_Segre
https://www.ilmessaggero.it/en/passi...s-7898177.html
https://global.ilmanifesto.it/bruno-...ious-objector/
https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn723771

Den 14 april dog major Ervín Hoida, den siste i Storbritannien bosatte tjeckoslovakiske veteranen från andra världskriget. Han blev 105 år.

Mr Hoida was born on 30 November 1918 in Ostrava. After the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939, he fled the country and served in France and later with the Czechoslovak Independent Armoured Brigade in the United Kingdom. After D-Day he took part in the liberation of Europe and returned to Czechoslovakia in 1945. However, he returned to the UK a few months later due to the growing communist threat. Mr Hoida lives in the UK with his wife in Wirral, near Liverpool.

https://english.radio.cz/czechoslova...es-105-8808603
https://bnnbreaking.com/world/europe...fe-and-legacy/
https://erldc.org/obituary/ervin-hoida-obituary/
https://www.seznamzpravy.cz/clanek/d...k1ODJCNw%3D%3D