French Resistance: de Gaulle in London.
(This posting originally released on 16 Dec 2007. Reposted and edited because of the subject’s death.)
Claire and Tereska
This is a BBC News article on the women of the French Resistance who worked with De Gaulle in London and then went to Paris with him for the Liberation.
Tereska and Claire visit de Gaulle's headquarters in London
Claire is one of our local SGI Buddhist group and she has told me many stories of those times. Recently she was musing on what she would have done and what would have happened to her if they she’d been asked to join SOE (like some were) and be dropped in France (because of her good French etc).
She also mentioned about a sniper’s bullet aimed at De Gaulle that just missed him (and her) while he walked down the Champs Elysée but hit a young man from their London party who had had a premonition that he’d die if he went back to France with them.
I must ask her if it’d be okay to write more of this down for her (and us). She’s eighty odd, you know.
Claire Chicoteau
Postscript Added 28/6/2010
Claire died this week, peacefully, with her family around her, in France. Bravo for her big, big, life. Too late to ask any more questions….
Information on her wartime exploits can be found here:
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7142424.stm
- http://genrehistoire.revues.org/index373.html#bodyftn29
- http://jcdurbant.wordpress.com/2006/03/27/comme-des-barbares-attention-une-face-cachee-peut-en-cacher-une-autre-d-day-for-french-revisionists/
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