Have you ever wondered what the D in D-Day stands for?
RAF Sergeant Leslie John Faircloth parachuted to safety when he was shot down on a bombing raid on the Paris/Vaires railway yard on the outskirts of Paris in 1944.
Only fragments survive to witness the passage of more than 60,000 people interned in the Camp of Rivesaltes between 1942 and 1966.
One of the most successful escape routes for allied airmen wishing to cross the border into Spain was right here in the P-O, known as the Pat Line, after the man who set it up.
O’Leary radioed London with the message “Pas plus de bateau que de beurre au cul!”
The war is nearing it’s end. The Germans occupying France are on edge and expecting the Allied Invasion at any time.
The Comet line, so named because of the speed needed to whisk stranded airmen down through occupied France to safety, helped hundreds of allied soldiers and airmen to escape from occupied France.
We all learn differently, and as we grow older, one of the greatest blocks to learning is memory. And yet many of us can still sing along to new songs – and remember the words!
During the Second World War, resistance movements in the Pyrenees-Orientales helped hundreds of refugees, allied soldiers and airmen to escape from occupied France across the border into Spain.
One day in August 1944 we were told “OK, boys, here we go.”