31st August 2020

 Yesterday we talked about the French Foreign Legion, Légion étrangère, mentioning Susan Travers, the only woman to have served with them.

Susan Travers during WW2 

She had such a fascinating life that I decided to look into her story more fully.

Susan Mary Gillian Travers was born in London on 23rd September 1909. Her father, Admiral Francis Eaton Travers and her mother, Eleanor Catherine were austere and  distantly cold parents.

When she was 12, the family moved to the  south of France for her father’s health and there, Susan entered the world of a rich and carefree young socialite.

“It was a wonderful time to be on the Riviera. Parties and champagne, and tangos and Charlestons and of course lots of young men - well, lovers really.”  

In later years, her ghost writer-biographer, Wendy Holden said, ‘there were rather a lot of lovers, even a Russian Prince but we had to leave some of them out!’

Author Wendy Holden and Susan

On a generous monthly allowance from an aunt,  young Susan lived an easy life, drifting between chateaux, country house parties and the smartest hotels. 

She was staying in the luxurious Poitiers home of a divorced friend when Britain declared war on Germany.

She was almost 30 and along with many thousands of other young women applied to join the French Red Cross; completed training as a nurse but decided a more exciting life could be had as an ambulance driver.

In this role, she sailed from Liverpool with the 13th Demi-brigade of the French  Foreign Legion, as driver to one of the Legion's doctors. 

Tragically, he was soon killed when his truck hit a landmine.

His replacement, Colonel  Marie-Pierre Koenig for whom Susan was also the official driver, subsequently became her lover, some say the love of her life.

Koenig

In May 1942, 1st Free French Brigade was posted to Bir Hakeim in Libya, under constant attack from Axis forces. 

 During one bombardment, a shell took off the roof of Koenig's car but Travers and a Vietnamese driver fixed it.

With Stukas, Panzer tanks and heavy artillery, the Germans expected to take the fort in minutes. The Free French held it for 15 days. 

Legionnaires at Bir Hakeim

For most of that time, Susan Travers lay in a small hole in the ground, dug out by her Legionnair comrades. Temperatures reached  51C but she refused to leave her Legion friends and her lover.

As water and ammunition ran out, Koenig decided to evacuate and as they left Bir Hakeim, their column ran into minefields and German machine gun fire but Travers was ordered to drive at the front of the column, “The rest will follow” Koenig told her".  And follow  they did. 

Reminiscing year later, Susan Travers said, ‘It’s a delightful feeling, going as fast as you can in the dark. My main concern was that the engine would stall.”

When they got to the British lines the next day, her vehicle had 11 bullet holes and the shock absorbers and brakes were totally useless.

Koening, promoted to General was transferred but Travers remained with the Legion, who had nicknamed her ‘La Miss’, and went on to drive a self-propelled anti-tank gun in the Italian Campaign. 

She saw further action in Germany and France before being posted to Vietnam during the First Indo-China War.  .  She was wounded when she too drove over a land mine.

After the war, her military status with the Legion became official and she was formally enrolled in the Légion Étrangère, as an Adjutant-chef.  

 “I had to make my own uniform because there wasn't one for a woman.”  She was sent on service to Tunisia,  “where I had to go buy a barrel of red wine for the mess every day, and bring it back on the back of a mule.”

After the war, she  married Legion Adjudant-chef  Nicolas Schlegelmilch, who had also fought at Bir Hakeim. They retired to lived a quiet, unexceptional life in France, raising two sons.

Showing their many medals for outstanding bravery

 Madame Susan Schlegelmilch waited until all the main figures in her remarkable life were dead before she agreed to tell her story.

In in 2000, aged 91 and assisted by author Wendy Holden,  she wrote, “Tomorrow to Be Brave: A Memoir of the Only Woman Ever to Serve in the French Foreign Legion.” 

The title came from a poem once read to her by her beloved Koening:

 “Distrust yourself, and sleep before you fight. 'Tis not too late tomorrow to be brave." 

“I do hope they make it (my life story)  into a film," she  told Holden,  "I should quite like my grandchildren to see what their naughty old grandma got up to”.

She died in a Paris nursing home in 2003

Her medals:

 Légion d'honneur

Médaille commémorative 1939-1945 with clasp - "Afrique" - "Italie"- "Libération"

Médaille Coloniale, du mérite syrien de 4e classe

Croix de libération finlandaise

Officier de l'Ordre du Nichan Iftikhar

Médaille Militaire

Croix de Guerre

Le Croix de Guerre

30th August 2020

                       Honneur et Fidélité

There can be few groups with as romantic a mythology as the French Foreign Legion, or Légion étrangère.

  "You can join as a fugitive from the law and you don’t even have to give your real name."

 Both these assumptions are incorrect although it may have had some crédence  in 1831 when the Legion first began.

 Nowadays, strict background checks are made by Interpol and France’s Intelligences services but petty crime may be overlooked in some circumstances.

 

Fording a river in full kit may have hidden dangers: currents and predators

The selection process is rigorous; only one in nine applicants even get through the doors. Basic training is harsh and many will never get to wear the traditional white kepi.  Injury and even death during training are not unknown.

  Applicants must be between 17 and 40 and foreign (not French), though this rule can be relaxed -  up 15% of legionnaires are thought to be French. 

 The Legion can afford to be picky. Every day, dozens of men, from all over the world,  turn up at recruiting station across France (and this is the only way to join, a personal visit)  eager to prove themselves with this elite force.

 

The Legion can be made up of 140 different nationalities but French is the common language, so learning is compulsory.  There are daily lessons but as training often leads to pain, injury  and sleep-deprivation, this isn’t easy either.

 Theoretically, you can leave the Legion any time during the first month but if the Legion itself decides you’re not up to the mark, they’ll dismiss you instantly without question or explanation, just ‘Non - allez vous!’

 

Legionnaire - 1863 Mexican Campaign

Recruits who survive what is reputed to be the most arduous military training in the world both physically and psychologically can expect a good pay rate and excellent food and lodgings whilst on base (jungle warfare training may depend on foraging for bugs).    The diet includes wine from the Legion’s own vineyards in Provence, tended by former legionnaires in the veterans home there.

Women were not permitted  to join the Legion until 2000 when Defence Minister Alain Richard changed the rules, saying he’d like to see 20% female recruitment over the next 20 years.

 

Susan Travers 1909-2003

Prior to that, only one woman ever to be a distinguished Legionnaire was an English nurse: Susan Travers who joined Free French Forces during World War II.

Travers, known as ‘La Miss’ by her comrades, served as nurse and ambulance driver in the French Red Cross, then as a full member of the Legion in Vietnam during the First Indochina War.

 

Since its inception, the Legion has served in most theatres of war.  

The 13th Demi Brigade, formed for service in Nor way, was in the UK when the French Armistice was declared in June 1940.  It was deployed to the British 8th Army in North Africa and distinguished itself in the Battle of Bir Hakeim in which Susan Travers played a heroic part, afterwards being warded her first Croix de Geurre.

 The Legion is the only branch of the French military that does not swear allegiance to France but to the Foreign Legion itself,  although after 3 years service, a Legionnaire, whatever his nationality, may apply for French citizenship.

Any soldier injured during conflict may apply immediately for citizenship under "Français par le sang versé" ("French by spilled blood").

Modern day Legionnaires can be Sapeurs, Paratrooper, Commandoes and  ever other profession needed by today's armed forces.

Legionnaires in an armoured transport

The Legion has its own band but they are quick to point out they are highly trained, super-efficient soldiers first and only then, amateur bandsmen.

Because traditionally the Legionnaires march at a slower pace than other branches of the French military (a pace known in the Legion at 'the crawl') they are alwasy last in any military parade.

Sapeurs- Pioniers  wear beards and leather aprons and carry axes (best not to get on their wrong side).

"Legionnaire, you are a volunteer serving France with honour and fidelity.

Each legionnaire is your brother in arms whatever his nationality, his race or his religion might be. You show him the same close solidarity that links the members of the same family."

The Grenade in Flames symbol of the Legion

The march down the Champs Elysee, showing 'the crawl'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yASlGCLkBSw

Legionnaires on patrol in Paris during civil unrest

  

 

 

 

29th August 2020

It saddens me a little, that as an English immigrant, I apparently left behind the heritage of nursery rhymes.

There are many popular songs for children.  Who can forget or avoid the jolly ‘Wheels on the Bus’ so beloved of toddlers?

But nursery rhymes are part of British history; they have hidden meanings in many instances and romantic, occasionally dark origins.

 

‘Rock-a-bye Baby’. This gentle lullaby is designed to send wee ones peacefully into slumber -  and providing they don’t know the deeper meaning - and what baby does, it will. 

Rock-a-by Baby on the tree top

When the wind blows the cradle will rock

When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall

Down will come baby, cradle and all

Leaving aside the sheer foolishness of placing a crib in a tree, especially outside during unpredictable weather, I found this rhyme ideal for soothing my son.

 No matter that ten minutes later,  as I prepared to leave his room, make myself a cup of tea  and do a week’s ironing, he woke, stood up in his cot and wanted to play.  

 Most websites say the poem dates from the 17^th century but its roots go back much further,  to Greek mythology.

Rheia was the wife of Kronos who’d been told he would be overthrown by one of his children. So he killed them as they were born.

Rheia handing over child to Kronos

When Rheia found she was expecting Zeus, she hid herself away and then, when the baby was born, ‘placed him in a tree cradle, twixt earth and sky’ so he couldn’t be found.   As predicted, Zeus grew up to oust his murderous father.

 

Hey Diddle Diddle was another rhyme my sons loved, particularly the idea of a cat playing a fiddle.

This too goes back to Greek mythology but can be seen depicted in medieval scripts too.

It’s memorable in our house for my mother’s version, which so delighted my 5 year old he abandoned the traditional poem completely.

Hey Diddle diddle, the cat did a widdle, all over the living room floor

The little dog laughed to see such fun, so the little cat widdled some more.

My grand-dad called me 'Dumpling Dust'

Diddle, diddle dumpling, my son John

Went to bed with his britches on

One shoe off and one shoe on

Diddle diddle dumpling my son John.

 In many households, the rhyme is sacrificed to replace ‘John’ with the child’s name. 

My sons found it quite scandalous that the boy went to bed wearing his britches and a shoe!

“Diddle dumplings!” was apparently a street traders cry as they sold dumplings.

 

“Baa, baa black sheep, have you any wool?”.  

So much hullabaloo surrounds this rhyme, it’s now almost impossible for adults to see it as a simple poem about sheep.  

Once the backbone of English trade, wool and meat production was severely compromised, especially for the subsistence farmer,  by the wool tax of 1275 ....but there’s no real evidence  this is linked to the rhyme.

In modern times, when the politically correctness bandwagon  trundled over it, the whole thing deteriorated into unprovable racist nonsense.

A rhyme is what you want it to be.

 

Goodness knows what the ‘deeper meaning fraternity’  could make of ‘Hot Cross Buns, hot cross buns, one a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns. If you have no daughters, give them to your sons.’

Nursery Rhymes were an important part of my childhood and that of my sons.  Neither I nor they knew about any hidden meanings, we simply enjoyed the pleasure of singing together.

 Ride a cock horse, Jack and Jill  or Humpty Dumpty, could bring squeals of suprised joy as I pretended to let the baby slip from my knee.   

Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross

As they got older we danced Round the Mulberry Bush, played Ring-a-ringa Rosie,  marched to The Grand Old Duke of York and pretended we were teapots.

We didn't see it as bonding, just enjoying being together but that's what it was. 

Not just bonding me to my babies but to a heritage I passed on.

And it's that bond which is now broken: the one which links their children to English heritage.  

Children's songs now come from television or Disney films and on one website featuring the top 10 most popular songs for children, only Twinkle, twinkle little Star was listed. 

No.1 was 'Bohemian Rhapsody - Muppet version.'

What a shame.

 

 

 

 

 

28th August 2020

 

In 1979, my elder son, then 11, took part in Ilkley’s millennium celebrations.

In fact there have been humans living in that area since the Mesolithic period (11,000BC onwards) but the festival was geared to teaching children about the town's Roman history. 

This included making armour from silver cardboard, learning what the soldier’s days were like and eating fairly authentic Roman food. Fortunately they didn’t carry out the ritual of decimation if anyone was naughty.

 My son loved the food and was keen to make it when we got home, although even he drew the line at roasted Dormouse.

In those days, Bradford was not, as it is today, known for its adventurous cuisine.

 If you wanted a curry (and according to my parents, the only people who did, were beatniks and dangerous anarchists) you daringly nipped down the Co-op for a packet of Vesta.  Their curries were a truly revolting mix of Textured Vegetable Protein, curry powder and raisins.

 I was no stranger to food from the hedgerows; my Auntie Minnie  taught me how to recognise and use Wild Garlic (Ramsons), Sorrel, peppery Dandelion leaves and Watercress as well as many edible flowers and berries. 

So first on our Roman table was Nettle Soup.

If you’d like to try this, I’ve revised it a little because in 1979 I had no blender; the nettles were pushed through a hair sieve.

Stinging Nettle

 

Using gloves (try Marigolds. Auntie Minnie also taught me how to grasp them so they didn't sting) pick the young tops of Stinging Nettles from a source which is not visited by dogs or cats. 

It’s like spinach in that the leaves boil down, so even for one helping you need a lot. Wash it well.

Nettles are versatile and can be used in a variety of ways.

 Saute a chopped onion in a little butter, add a garlic clove, or if you’re really keen and would like to gather wild Ramsons, this is what the plant looks like, though you'll know it by its smell.  You can use leaves, stems and flowers, chopped.

 

Add enough stock, vegetable or chicken, for the number of people you are serving, then the chopped nettles, leaves only, stems can be tough, 2 bay leaves, salt & pepper to taste. 

Romans added barley too, so if you have pearl barley in the pantry, a handful of that will thicken the soup.  

There a many Nettle Soup recipes and some include beans, chopped mint, honey, black peppercorns and other spices.  

As Romans ate meats,  you could certainly add chicken, lamb, rabbit or beef to the soup.  Your choice.   Blend until smooth.

 Chopped young nettle leaves can also be sautéed then added to omelettes or fried in pancakes, or even blended in smoothies.

 

Nettle Soup

Roman soldiers, frequently afflicted with arthritic joints in Britain’s cold, damp climate, used to apply Stinging Nettles to painful joints, presumably on the assumption that this intense pain took their minds off the arthritis.

The sting contains formic acid (as do ants) and a histamine; this causes the stinging sensation.   Dock leaves contain an anti-histamine, which is why, if you’re stung, they soothe the skin.

Nettle sting

You can make a tea from the leaves to get the same anti-inflammatory benefits but I suspect the soldiers were too macho for this and competed with one another to see how much pain they could stand.

'I'm a 6 nettle man, Legate.' 

  If you’d like to make the oldest recipe ever known, thought to be from 6000 BC, try Nettle Pudding. It is essentially the Nettle Soup recipe but with a lot more barley or barley flour, simmered (like a risotto) until it’s puddingy and blended. Yum.

 

Netle Pudding

Thanks (I think) to the University of Wales archaeology department who discovered this, although I wonder if they also tasted it? 

27th August 2020

 

Mozart

They say we’re only six degrees of separation away from anyone in the world.    This is a scary prospect indeed when you think who’s in the White House.

We’re about to go on just such a journey (possibly with a few more characters in the chain  than six), which will take us from Mozart to the  AH-64 Apache,  the most advanced multi-role combat helicopter in the world.  Impossible for Mozart to be linked with a state-of-the-art helicopter?  

Fasten your safety belts, we’re about to take off.

 It’s 1756 and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, actually baptised  Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart,  the musical genius, is born in Salzburg.  Playing the piano at 3 and composing by the age of 5,  his father naturally wanted his son’s talents to make a lot of money.  Hello Europe!

Mozart’s  ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ was premiered in Vienna but based on a play by Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, coincidentally called Le Mariage de Figaro.  Perhaps plagiarism hadn't been invented.

Beaumarchais

Beaumarchais was many things: writer inventor, watchmaker, horticulturalist…. and spy.

During the American War of Independence, Beaumarchais  persuaded the French  to cough up beaucoup de francs with which to buy arms which would deal to the Brits.  Beaumarchais, the tart, also later bought rifles to aid the French Revolutionaries.

Thomas Jefferson had reason to be grateful to the French for their support which helped free his country. His countrymen had reason to be grateful to him when he repealed the Whisky Tax. 

He was a liberal and much influenced by a book called ‘On Crimes and Punishments’ by Italian, Cesare di Beccaria, which contained shocking truths about the treatment of criminals. This was a universal but unaddressed problem,  after all,  who cared about criminals?

Thomas Jefferson

Actually, quite a few people: social reformers in the same mould as Thomas Jeffferson who tried to get capital punishment removed from the statue books.  Sadly he was not as successful with this as he had been with the whisky.

Two other reformers, Austrians, Franz Gall and Johann Spurzheim also felt they had the answer to the rehabilitation of wrong-doers - their invention Phrenology. Their theory ,that the bumps on a person’s skull could indicate their tendencies, was widely accepted. If you could catch potential criminals early enoug you could turn them to the straight and narrow.

Spurzheim took this very popular idea to American but in 1832, he died.  The eulogy at his funeral was read by Harvard academic and devoted followe Karl Follen.

Follen, whom every university student can thank for varsity gyms, had been a political activist in Germany, was hauled into court and tried by Judge E.T.A Hoffman who was also a writer of macabre fantasay stories featuring ghosts and the undead.  Bedtime reading for the nervous it was not.

Edgar Allen Poe

One of his stories, was the inspiration for the po-faced  Edgar Allen Poe’s, ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue.’  

Edgar Allen Poe

He also wrote ‘The Bells’ which became the basis for Rachmaninov’s symphony of the same name.

Rachmaninov fled Russia after the revolution and at a party in Long Island, heard about a fellow Rusian emigre  who was looking for a backer for his inventions.

Rachmaninov visits him, is very impressed by the machine and agrees to loan him the modern equivaletn of $200,000.

He is well rewarded because by 1937, this invention,  a 4-engine flying boat, is being used by PanAm to transport people to Europe.

The next invention, the dream machine he’d been working on since he was a boy back in Russia, is destined to become even more of a hit and Igor Sikorky goes down in history as the inventor of the helicopter. 

 

Over the years, helicopters are improved and today, the AH-64D Apache is the direct descendant of Sikorksy's original.

 So there we are, from Mozart to helicopters and I am indebted to James Burke, whose Knowledge Web inspired me to sit up until 2am researching all this fascinating information.