“It is hot in Suez”---'The dice is on the carpet'

Discussion in 'All Anniversaries' started by CL1, Jun 6, 2019.

  1. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    Anne-Marie Trégouët was 19-years-old when Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944. Yet her memories of this day are of a different fight some 300 kilometres away in Brittany, where she was a member of the French Resistance.

    “I was recruited at the end of 1943. I was eager to join the Resistance. My family couldn’t stand to see the Germans. We wanted only one thing, and that was to see them leave,” Trégouët said.

    On June 5, 1944 – a day before D-Day – a coded message was broadcast on the BBC: “It is hot in Suez”. These few words unleashed an all-out assault on the Germans. In the Morbihan area, where Ploërmel is situated, Resistance fighters knew they needed to regroup before taking action.

    The local head of the French Forces of the Interior (Les Forces françaises de l'intérieur or FFI) Resistance group, Colonel Morice, gave orders to meet at La Nouette farm in the nearby village of Saint-Marcel, which had already served for the last several months as a drop site for parachute operations.
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    D-Day: The forgotten battles beyond the beaches of Normandy
     
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  2. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    Coded sentences were necessary to keep French resistance workers in the know before D-Day. 'The dice is on the carpet' was an order to destroy trains and railway lines, whilst 'It's hot in Suez' instructed them to destroy cable and telephone lines.


    BBC - Press Office - D-Day facts
     
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  3. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    The area you speak off comes under the SOE Agent Andre Hue - and if you want a taste of what that clandestine life was like the I would suggest reading the book about his life/experiences entitled 'The Next Moon' its an exceptional read

    André Hue - Wikipedia

    TD
     
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