SOE men remembered

[Andy in West Oz]

WWII spies remembered in Germany | NEWS.com.au

LOOKING out across the tranquil fields of Flossenburg, Nigel Felangue finds it hard to believe the horrific death his father suffered here on the orders of Adolf Hitler.

After years of unanswered questions about his father's murder, Mr Felangue, 67, has made the emotional journey from Sydney to the picturesque Bavarian town to join dozens of relatives of other secret agents at a special ceremony commemorating their deaths at the hands of the Nazis.
Mr Felangue's British father, Eugene Francis Felangue, was one of 15 young officers who belonged to the elite Special Operations Executive (SOE) but were rounded up by the Gestapo and executed at Flossenburg's infamous concentration camp.
Watched by Mr Felangue and other relatives, British and German government officials unveiled a new memorial at the weekend dedicated to the dead secret agents killed at Flossenburg.
The SOE was formed by British prime minister Winston Churchill and tasked to "set Europe ablaze" in the years before the Normandy landings in 1944.
Betrayed by informers or caught by German counter-intelligence operatives, the agents were sent to Flossenburg, where 30,000 inmates were murdered during the course of world war II.
The memorial commemorates 15 young officers - four French, one Canadian, one American, the remainder British - most of whom were hanged one after another on March 29 1945, just a month before the Nazis surrendered.
Mr Felangue, who attended the ceremony with his Californian-based sister, Jacqueline, 71, was only six when his father was killed.
"It was certainly hard to have lost him so near to the end of the war, we found out later his execution was personally ordered by Hitler," he said.
"Coming here now has been a very moving experience.
"Obviously it's nothing like what it was then, it's more like a park really.
"You would not guess what my father went through from just looking at what is here now.
"There were rows of dark cells with no toilets or water and they were only ever allowed out to be tortured. It was not a way to end your days."
Each of the dead soldiers volunteered to become agents of the French section of SOE, which conducted operations in support of resistance groups.
All were sent into Nazi-ruled France on various missions, some more than once.
They were captured in different areas of the country during 1943 and 1944, imprisoned and interrogated, most brutally and repeatedly tortured.
Finally, they were executed without any trial.
Mr Felangue, who lives at Erskine Park in Sydney's west, struggled for years with a hatred of Germany because of what happened to his father.
"It was very hard as a child to understand why I had lost my father so near to the end," he said.
"I only have vague memories of him, I did not see him a lot because he was in the army and very rarely had home leave, that is how it was then, but despite that there was much that he left behind that has helped me to know the kind of man he was.
"Yes, he gave his life in the fight to free Europe from the Nazis, but he was also intelligent and educated and very gifted in many ways."

[Ron Goldstein]

Thank you Andy

Lest we forget

[Harry Ree]

The SOE operatives who died in the cause of freedom are remembered by the excellent memorial at Valencay in the Indre Department which was unveiled in May 1991.I think 105 agents are remembered on the memorial out of over 400 agents who were in "F Section".

The memorial take the form of a temporary flare path and is erected in the middle of a roundabout with the memorial plaque at the edge of the roundabout.

The background to how some of those who were caught is still outstanding.A matter of counter intelligence involving some senior and external to the SOE.

Eugene Francis Felangue. What was his field name?

[Peter Clare]

Thanks Andy.