cally cooper

History, 1940s, arty things, conservation, positive thinking, posting happy thoughts

[Prof. Frank McDonough @FXMC1957]

25 June 1947. Diary of Anne Frank was published for the 1st time in Amsterdam, Netherlands under the title: The Annex: Diary Notes. It’s subsequently been translated into over 70 languages and is one of the most widely read accounts of the Holocaust.

[J&L Historical @Jason_R_Burt]

After landing on Utah Beach on D-Day, the men of the 4th Infantry Division fought their way up the Cotentin Peninsula.

Their objective was Cherbourg, one of the few deep-water ports the Allies desperately needed to bring in supplies & keep the invasion moving forward.

The Germans had turned Cherbourg into a fortress. Hitler ordered it to be held at all costs. The fighting was brutal as the 4th Infantry Division battled their way through fortified positions, hedgerows, & a determined German army. House by house, the Ivy Division helped grind down the resistance.

By late June 1944, Cherbourg had fallen. The vital port was in Allied hands.

In the days that followed, some of the men came across a welcome discovery: cases of French wine that had been “liberated” from the cellars of the newly freed city.

They gathered around the bottles, smiling for the first time in what had to have felt like forever….helmets still on, uniforms dirty, & the weight of the fight still fresh in their minds.

They had earned every drop. The liberation of Cherbourg didn’t just open a port for the Allies. It gave these soldiers a small taste of victory… and a brief reminder of what they were fighting for.

[Dr Helen Fry | WWII Historian @DrHelenFry]

“I wanted to do more for the war effort than baking sausage rolls.”

- Bletchley Park Codebreaker Betty Webb MBE.
(1923 - 2025)

[Franklin Heath Ltd @franklinheath]

24 Jun 1940: Polish cryptographers Rejewski, Różycki and Zygalski escape France by flying to Oran, Algeria.

[Franklin Heath Ltd @franklinheath]

24 Jun 1917: Birth of Joan Clarke (later Murray), #BPark code breaker, deputy head of Hut 8 from 1944, later with @GCHQ.

[Dr Helen Fry | WWII Historian @DrHelenFry]

Francis Cammaerts, codenamed ‘Roger’, was one of the most outstanding SOE agents of the Second World War.

He rallied the French Resistance, orchestrated major sabotage operations and gathered vital intelligence that helped pave the way for D-Day.

A master of daring escapes, he was one of only three SOE agents promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

He survived the war.

[Dr Helen Fry | WWII Historian @DrHelenFry]

Irena Sendler, a Polish social worker, risked her life to smuggle more than 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto.

She once said:

“We are not heroes. I continue to have qualms of conscience that I did so little.”

[Second World War @WW2HQ]

#WWII #WW2

[Dr Helen Fry | WWII Historian @DrHelenFry]

Across both world wars, women played a far greater role in British intelligence than most people realise!

They ran spy networks, escape lines, and kept the entire intelligence machine running from Bletchley Park to Whitehall.

[J&L Historical @Jason_R_Burt]

In June of 1944, Marines fill canteens for drinking water supplies on Saipan. 🪖

[Dr Claire Hubbard-Hall | The Spy Historian @thespyhistorian]

Peggy Booth worked as an MI5 secretary during #WW2. Working from the cockroach-infested basement of Wormwood Scrubs prison and later from Blenheim Palace, she dispatched decoded messages to the War Office (now @raffleshotels) and other military offices.

Peggy remembers one bizarre wartime incident, when she took a phone call from MI5 in #Scotland and then had the task of informing Winston Churchill that Rudolph Hess, Hitler's deputy, had just landed on a farm in south #Glasgow.

For more intriguing #spyhistory #herstory, please follow me @thespyhistorian 🕵️‍♀️

[J&L Historical @Jason_R_Burt]

Mrs. Hale, whose husband is fighting in Normandy with the British, spends some time giving the men of the US 9th Air Force refreshments outside her house & a little music on her accordion.

[Franklin Heath Ltd @franklinheath]

23 Jun 1940: #BPark Hut 6 decrypts of Red (German Air Force) Enigma key reveal some Luftwaffe units are being refitted to attack the UK.

[Imperial War Museums @I_W_M]

Having landed in Normandy, women serving with the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS) set up camp at No 79 General Hospital outside Bayeux, 20 June 1944.

Film: IWM A70 53-2

[Dr Claire Hubbard-Hall | The Spy Historian @thespyhistorian]

Patricia Bartley was one of the leading female British codebreakers during #WW2. The head of @bletchleypark German diplomatic section was responsible for breaking the main German diplomatic code, known as Floradora. The Germans believed the twice-enciphered code was unbreakable, but Patricia quickly spotted mistakes in it.

By August 1942, Patricia and her team had moved to Berkeley Street (London), where they were busily reading all messages between the German embassy in Dublin and Berlin.

This was an incredible achievement.

Patricia remarked: “We were reading messages meant for Hitler before he read them.”

[Bygone Britain @BygoneBritain]

🇬🇧 Children in Coventry searching for books among the ruins of their school after an April bombing raid by the Luftwaffe, 1941

[Dr Claire Hubbard-Hall | The Spy Historian @thespyhistorian]

Patricia Barry spent #WW2 decoding garbled messages from SOE agents in Nazi-occupied Europe. Working in a special team known as “the indecipherables”, the 20-year-old worked tirelessly to understand broken or scrambled messages sent by SOE agents communicating from behind enemy lines under extreme pressure.

The highly skilled decoders, such as Patricia, were able to recognise an agent’s particular ‘fingerprint’ in the message, which was no easy task. She was also able to tell when an agent had been compromised and/or captured, and the Germans' subsequent attempt to mimic the agent and infiltrate SOE.

Patricia’s work, along with that of her fellow SOE decoders, was vital to the security of SOE and its courageous agents.

[cally cooper @CalaisCally]

lol

[Epic Clip Vault @EpicClipVault]

A little kid snuck into his older brother’s game and somehow ended up getting his very first red card.😅🟥

[Military History Now @MilHistNow]

Happy Father's Day

[Old England in Colour @englandincolour]

Londoners near Liverpool Street underground station during the Blitz in 1940.