Fold3 Spotlights

Agent Rose

To the stranger’s eye, Andrée Peel (née Virot) looked like any other kind, innocent young lady. But behind her sweet exterior hid a dedicated WWII resistance fighter who saved over 100 servicemen’s lives through her service and bravery.

Andree Peel, a.k.a. Agent Rose

Andrée, who operated under the code name “Agent Rose,” started off in her role as a secret agent distributing secret newspapers, but soon enough she had been promoted to an informant, giving information to the Allies about German troop movements, naval installations, and reporting on the success of Allied attacks. She and her team would also guide Allied planes using torches and smuggle fugitive airmen onto submarines and gunboats.

There weren’t many women in the sort of role which I had. In my house in Brest I used to hide the British and help them with their orders…I’d also tell them what they should be doing next and passed on information. This was extremely dangerous as the Germans had occupied France during this time…Under the Germans everyone had to be at home and have their curtains closed by 6pm and it used to terrify me that the comings and goings at my house would be discovered. [source]

When the Gestapo closed in on Brest’s resistance network, Agent Rose took a new identity and escaped to Paris. Unforunately, she was discovered and arrested the week after D-Day. She was put away in two concentration camps, the memories of which she retained in the form of her concentration camp uniform, which stayed in her possession until her death. It served as a reminder of the efforts she made to encourage freedom and defend future generations.

104-year-old “Agent Rose” with her old camp uniform

Andrée was being lined up before a firing squad when the U.S. Army arrived, and the prisoners were released.

After the war she met her husband, an English academic who asked her to teach him French. She was showered with awards and medals from France, Great Britain, and the United States for her resistance work.

You don’t know what freedom is if you have never lost it. Everybody was ready to contribute to the fight and to risk their lives…I rarely thought of my personal safety, I just acted and did what I believed was the right thing. [source]

Andrée Peel

Read more about Andrée Peel and other resistance fighters on this Fold3 page created by bgill.

A Lady’s Reputation

Conflict: Civil War

by Karen

Benjamin Butler during the Civil War

In May 1862, Union general Benjamin Butler was appointed military commander of New Orleans. The city’s citizens resented the Yankee occupation and began acting out against the Northern soldiers. Even the women joined in; they “cursed the soldiers, spat on their uniforms, turned their backs when the men walked by, and emptied chamber pots on their heads from upstairs windows.” No soldier, no matter his rank, was exempt from the harassment, and Admiral David Farragut himself had a chamber pot emptied on his head.

To stop the women’s insults, General Butler issued his infamous General Order Number 28, which read as follows:

As the officers and soldiers of the United States have been subject to repeated insults from the women (calling themselves ladies) of New Orleans in return for the most scrupulous non-interference and courtesy on our part, it is ordered that hereafter when any female shall by word, gesture, or movement insult or show contempt for any officer or soldier of the United States she shall be regarded and held liable to be treated as a woman of the town plying her avocation.

In essence, Butler’s order said that any woman insulting a soldier would be treated as a prostitute. He didn’t mean this in the sexual sense—it meant that if a woman disrespected a soldier, he wouldn’t have to treat her as a lady and she could be arrested under the same terms as a prostitute.

A Harper’s Weekly cartoon showing New Orleans women’s behavior before and after the Order 28

A Harper’s Weekly cartoon showing New Orleans women’s behavior before and after Order 28

Despite the widespread outrage at the order, it did have the desired effect. Since a woman’s reputation as a lady was one of her most valuable assets, the women of New Orleans stopped their harassment of the soldiers to preserve their reputations.

Read more about the order here or here. Or find more stories from the war in Fold3′s Civil War collection.

Watching from the Trees

Conflict: World War I

by Karen

Putting up a camouflage tree (artwork by GC Leon Underwood, 1919)

When British forces captured the Oosttaverne Wood from the Germans during the Battle of Messines in June 1917, they were surprised to find that one of the trees wasn’t a tree at all—it was a steel-and-iron imitation. This camouflaged “tree” had been used by the Germans as an outlook post to spy on the British lines without being detected.

The German “tree” found in Oosttaverne Wood

The British and French also used metal “trees” for observation during World War I. The Germans called the “trees” Baumbeobachter, which literally means “tree observer.” Because the enemy frontlines were watched so closely, any obvious observation methods would be easily spotted. So both sides used Baumbeobachters since they could easily blend into their surroundings.

The Baumbeobachters were hollow steel tubes covered by iron “bark” texturized to look like the real thing. The base of the steel tree widened and was buried in the ground to provide support. The observer would access the top of the observation post by climbing inside through a small opening close to the ground then ascending a narrow ladder, not much wider than a man’s boot. The rungs of the ladder were not very far apart, as the small circumference of the interior would prevent anyone from taking large steps. Once the observer climbed the ladder, he would sit on a small seat attached to the side of the tube. The seat was lower than the sight holes so any bullets or shrapnel that made it in through those openings wouldn’t directly hit the person inside; instead the observer used a periscope to see out.

An Australian-built Baumbeobachter

When an army decided they needed a Baumbeobachter, they would find a real tree in a location where they wanted their observation post. They’d have to choose a place along their frontline that was fairly static to put their Baumbeobachter; otherwise, if the line moved, the post would be useless. Then they’d take a picture of the real tree, and the Baumbeobachter would be made to look exactly like the existing tree. Once the army had the fake tree, they would cut down the real tree at night (sometimes under the cover of artillery fire to hide the sound), then put the Baumbeobachter exactly where the old tree was. That way, when the opposing army looked over in the morning, nothing would rouse their suspicions since everything looked exactly the same.

Read more about the Baumbeobachter here, here, or here. Or listen to a curator at the Australian War Memorial discuss their structure and use. You can also find more stories from the war in Fold3′s World War I collection.

Old Blood and Guts

Conflict: World War II

by Kayla

George S. Patton standing in front of a French tank in 1918

General George S. Patton was born in 1885 to a wealthy family in California. From a young age, Patton was well-versed in military history and quickly decided that the life of a soldier was his calling. At the age of five he had his very own pistol. One afternoon he was playing with it at his grandmother’s house and nearly shot off his finger. Thankfully he grew more skilled in weaponry with age.

Besides his love of weapons, Patton was an expert horse rider, which cinched his choice for which branch of military he would join after graduation at West Point: the cavalry. Patton wasn’t even close to being the highest in his class at West Point, but he displayed excellent skills and passion for leadership.

Current events were relatively peaceful when Patton graduated in 1909, and he began to get restless at his post in Illinois. As a result, he began training for the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden. He placed fifth in the pentathlon, but that was the end of his athletic pursuits. From then on his focus was strictly military.

After his search for Pancho Villa with General Pershing, Patton turned his eyes to Europe, and in particular, German tanks. To Patton, tanks were the future of cavalry forces and pushed for the United States to keep up with the Germans in tank production and technology. Just as America entered WWI, Patton took a course at a French tank school to prepare himself for the combat that lay ahead.

In 1918, Patton led troops in the Battle of Saint-Mihiel and was pleased to be in command over some tanks as well. However, as Patton watched his men’s movement, he saw many of the tanks getting stuck in the mud. Patton walked the two miles to help and remained with his troops through the battle. His efforts granted him another opportunity to lead more troops through France where once again Patton observed that the tanks were getting stuck in trenches. This time the tanks were under heavy fire, and the troops in charge of freeing the tanks were running off, afraid of the enemy shells. Patton confronted the men, grabbed a shovel, and helped them dig out the tanks. “When one soldier complained, Patton struck him over his helmeted head with a shovel,” (George S. Patton: World War II General & Military Innovator by Martin Gitlin, pg. 47). When the tanks were freed, Patton and his men continued to move forward. During combat, Patton suffered a bullet wound through his thigh; he made it a few steps before falling. Joseph T. Angelo, Patton’s orderly, dragged him off the field and bandaged him. Meanwhile, Patton kept giving commands until he was taken to the hospital.

WWI came to an end on Patton’s birthday, November 11, 1918, but it wasn’t much of a present to him. Patton thrived in war time but would have to wait another 25 years to engage in combat again.

In between the wars, Patton was stationed throughout the country and continued his efforts in improving the armory (particularly tanks) and honing his skill for training soldiers. When it came time for combat again, Patton was more than ready. He was in the middle of the action as much as he could be during the invasion of Sicily, D-Day, and the Battle of the Bulge. His military philosophy was to always be on the offense, and besides being reprimanded for disobeying orders, the technique worked very well for him.

Although held in high military esteem, Patton was often negatively represented by the media due to misquotes and Patton’s temper that resulted in slapping of soldiers, whom he felt were cowards. But leaders such as Dwight D. Eisenhower and Omar Bradley never wanted Patton removed from leadership, although they did request him to apologize for certain actions and issued punishment. They knew that Patton achieved results better and faster than his fellow leaders. One record states that “The advance of Patton’s Army during the first two weeks of August [1944] had been so rapid that the reconstruction of the railroad had been unable to keep pace with him.” The country could not afford to send Patton home; he was just too successful. Patton’s passion got him into trouble plenty of times, but it’s what made him the legendary leader known as “Old Blood and Guts.” In the words of General John J. Pershing, “It didn’t hurt America to have a general so bold that he was dangerous.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Omar N. Bradley, and George S. Patton (left to right) at the front in 1945

At the end of WWII, Patton returned home for a brief time to celebrate with the rest of the country. Then he returned to Germany to serve as an area administrator. The day before he was due to fly back to the United States for Christmas, Patton was paralyzed in a car accident, and he passed away not long afterward on 21 December 1945.

Find more information here, here, and in Fold3′s European Theater Army Records.

The Unsinkable Ship

Conflict: Uncategorized

by Taraya

RMS Titanic

On April 15, 1912, 101 years ago this week, a ship bigger than any before it scraped along an iceberg and within hours sank below the frozen water. Around 2,200 passengers and crew embarked on the journey from Southampton four days earlier, but less than a third of those people made it to their destination.

With high-class restaurants, elaborate first-class cabins, a gym, a swimming pool, and a grand staircase that passed through 7 decks of the ship, the Titanic was the embodiment of luxury in transatlantic travel. She was also built with the newest safety precautions: watertight compartments, remotely activated watertight doors, and more lifeboats than contemporary regulations required. No one expected this behemoth ship to go down, and unfortunately, those extra lifeboats were not nearly enough to save everyone on board.

Titanic’s gymnasium

With this “practically unsinkable” perception in mind, the ship was steaming full-speed through the icy waters 375 miles off the coast of Newfoundland. By the time the iceberg had been spotted, it was too late to avoid collision. Five of the sixteen compartments were punctured and began filling with water. If one less compartment had been compromised, the ship would have made it safely to New York.

Incorrect headline makes the front page of The Syracuse Herald, claiming the Titanic‘s passengers all made it safely home aboard the giant ship.

Over 1,500 passengers and crew drowned or froze to death that night. Although this is often blamed on the fact that the lifeboats were sometimes barely half-full before they were lowered into the ocean, the likelihood that filling them all the way would have saved more people is slim. The ship was sinking fast, and even with hurriedly letting down half-empty lifeboats, two of the on-deck lifeboats were still on board, empty, when the Titanic foundered. In the end, only about 750 people were saved — not even the number of crew men and women who worked on the ship.

Washington Post headline following the disaster

For more on this tragedy, you can click here for a Fold3 search of “Titanic,” or take a look at last year’s Fold3 Blog post about the disaster and some who experienced it here. You can also check out this event page, complete with stories, pictures, and newspaper headlines about the event. This page has an interesting list of facts about the Titanic, the people on board, and its sinking, and for a comprehensive list of lives saved and lost, take a look at this website. You can also read about the Titanic on the Wikipedia page.