Particularly love the picture here of the Free French colonial soldiers at Bir Hakeim. They defended that spot in the Libyan desert against Rommel as if it was the last redoubt on earth.
#War_of_Shadows
When the Germans finally took Bir Hakeim, 44 nations were represented among the prisoners - incl. soldiers from Senegal & Cameroon, Tahiti & Madagascar, Czechs, Poles, Spanish Republicans who never gave up. The "French" force was an international legion.
Most of the FreeFrench escaped through gap at night in German line. Gen. Pierre Koenig's driver, Englishwoman Susan Travers, received Croix de Guerre for “bravery in the face of several barrages of intense artillery fire, numerous bullet strikes of her vehicle & pitch blackness.”
Bir Hakeim: Rommel reported facing "fanatical resistance" from Free French. Message sent in Enigma was decoded at Bletchley Park.
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