大象传媒

My name is Angela Bird and, though I was born in 1942, I don't remember anything about World War 2 - only posting a letter to my father during the war, and using ration books still during the post-war period.

I am no expert in WW2. I am just using this excellent website to post information about the experiences of my father (John Tucker, nicknamed "Tommy), and of my mother Sue (nee Bagshaw). Both, sadly, have died - my mother as long ago as 1964.

My father had never talked much about his wartime work - presumably because it was secret - but in 1994 he came across a small exhibition in a Portakabin at Helford, Cornwall (where he was living at the time) that showed a lot of information on the SIS and SOE activies in and around Falmouth and the Helford River.

He contacted the organiser - Derek Carter - to add his own memories (see A4211731). Many other people had done the same - having seen the exhibition while on holiday, or been told about it by friends. Derek (who had also co-authored a 1994 book on wartime Cornwall) then revamped the exhibition and persuaded Flambards amusement park at Helston to put it on in 1995. In May of that year, he organised a get-together for as many survivors as he could find - from Britain and France - who had connections with SOE or SIS, and Cornwall.

[NOTE: The SIS were involved in clandestine operations, taking agents and information to and from southern Brittany in fake French fishing boats(see A4211731). The SOE activities, on the other hand, were "very noisy, with lots of bangs", in the words of my father (whose SIS work was necessarily silent and secret). Part of the SOE mission was to pluck stranded airmen from the coast of occupied France from rendezvous points arranged by members of the Resistance. This required fast boats, incredible bravado, and pinpoint-accurate navigation.]

Because I speak fluent French, I was invited to join the 1995 reunion as interpreter. It was the most amazing and moving experience. A few of the individual people had kept in touch, but for them to meet up all together, in their late 70s, was something none of them would have dreamed of.

A boat trip along the Helford River meant they could all spot the SOE HQ, and the little creeks and coves where different units had been at work or where the Americans had been practising for D-Day landings.

Derek Carter had organised an exhibition at Flambards theme park, near Helston, which we all went to see and where a former member of the French Resistance planted a tree. (Some of the material now forms part of the Imperial War Museum's permanent "Secret War" exhibition, in London.)

During the 1995 reunion, I witnessed a former British sailor, who had been sheltered for a month by the Resistance after being stranded during an abortive attempt to rescue airmen, come face-to-face with the Resistance man who had helped him. They had no language in common, but the sailor - with tears running down his face - just said "Merci, merci," over and over again, as he shook the Frenchman's hand.