Posted by Vicky | Comments : (0)
Category : Archive Stories, Kay Summersby
Tags: 101st Airborne Division, Addison Road Station, Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, Air Ministry, Algiers, American Red Cross, Anthony Eden, Anvil, Anzio, Army Group's Bryanston, Associated Press, Aussies, B-17, B-29, Belgians, Berkeley Square, Bovington, Bovington Airport, Britain's West Point, British Military Assistant, British War Cabinet, Bryanston Square, Cairo, Canadians, Capri, Chesterfield Hill, Churchill, Col Ivan Cobbald, Court Calendar, Czechs, Darmouth, Dominion Prime Ministers, Duke of Norfolk, Dutch, Edgeware Road, Edward Stettinius, England, European Theater Ribbon, Field Marshal Jan Christiaan Smuts, Free French, Gen Charles Corlett, Gen Charles de Gaulle, Gen Maxwell Taylor, Grosvenor Square, Hackbridge Kennels, Hampton Court, Harvey Gibson, Hays Lodge, House of Lords, Hyde Park, Indians, Ireland, Irish, Italy, Kensington, King of England, LCT, London, LST, Lt Col Jimmy Gault, Luxor, Marrakech, Mayfair, Montgomery, New Zealanders, Newbury, Norfolk House, North-Africa, Norwegians, Overlord, Palestine, Paris, Park West, Piccadilly Circus, Poles, President Roosevelt, Prestwick, Richmond Park, Russian, Ruth Briggs, Salisbury, Sandhurst, Scots, Scots Guards, Sicily, Sir Louis Gregg, Snuffy Nixon, South Americans, Telegraph Cottage, Tenby, Times Square, Tooey Spaatz, Torch, Tunisia, Tunisian Victory Lunch, Welsh, Wes Gallagher, World War I, XIX Corps, Yorkshiremen
Suddenly the plane shot upward, roaring away from the airfield. We all smashed back against our seats. Maybe the wheels won’t come down, someone said in a small voice. Snuffy Nixon, the navigator, stuck his head in the cabin and broke the silence. Don’t worry, folks. I just got mixed up in my figuring and picked the wrong country. Not France ! we cried. No, said Snuffy, it’s not France. But it’s not England, either. He grinned over at me. This is Kay’s home. We almost landed in southern Ireland !
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Posted by Vicky | Comments : (0)
Category : Archive Stories, Kay Summersby
Tags: Admiral Ernest J. King, Admiral William P. Leahy, Advance CP, AFHQ, Algiers, Allied Supreme Commander, American Secret Service, Amilcar, Archive Stories, Bay of Tunis, Bizerte, Cairo, Commander-in-Chief, Eisenhower, El Aouina Airstrip, Falla, Gen George C. Marshall, King of England, La Marsa, Mike Reilly, Mr. Harry Hopkins, Oran, President of the United States, Prime Minister, Roosevelt, Ruth Briggs, Tunisia, USS Iowa
General Eisenhower told me about it as we drove down from the villa, where I picked him up every morning, to the hotel headquarters of AFHQ in Algiers : It’s a top level secret, he confided, but I can tell you because you’re in on it. He smiled. In a week or so you’re going to be driving the President of the United States.
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Posted by Vicky | Comments : (0)
Category : Archive Stories, Kay Summersby
Tags: 3rd Inf Div, AFHQ, Algiers, Army Air Force, Eisenhower, II US Corps, King of England, Mateur, Mussolini, North-Africa, Oran, Pantelleria, Royal Navy, Sgt Huntll, Sicily, Supreme Commander, Truscott, Tunis, US Navy, West Point
For Me, that strange late Spring was filled with the scent of orange blossoms. I couldn’t smell the ordinary jasmine, the poppy fields; I could neither see nor hear the war being readied against Mussolini. I expected to be married before June melted into the African summer. Dick, now a full colonel, was in Oran with II Corps HQs. Gen Eisenhower not only promised each of us at least several days’ leave after our marriage, already approved by the Army after its usual ninety-day waiting period; he also offered, as a sort of refuge from the war, the use of his little farm outside Algiers. We would have a full-fledged honeymoon in North Africa. Dick arrived in Algiers the last week of May, en route to Gen Truscott’s 3rd Inf Div’ Hqs at Mateur. Ive got a command, at last, he told me. Got what I always wanted, a regiment and actual field duty.
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Posted by Snafu | Comments : (0)
Category : Archive Stories, Kay Summersby
Tags: 3rd Infantry Division's Hqs, Admiral Cunningham, Air Chief Marshal Tedder, Algiers, Ambassador Winant, Bournemouth, Brig Eric Mockler-Ferryman, Clyde, Col Julius Holmes, Dorchester, Eisenhower, Elspeth Duncan, Freeman Mathews, French Morocco, Gen Truscott, General Eisenhower, Greenock, Grosvenor Square, Harriman, Hendon, Huston Station, II Corps HQs, Inveteracy, Kensington Close, Kentallen, King of England, Lt Craig Campbell, Maison Blanche, Mateur, Mr. William H. B. Mack, Mussolini, Norfolk House, North Africa 40-45, North-Africa, Oran, Pantelleria, President Roosevelt, Road to Morocco, Robert Murphy, Scotland, Sicily, Telegraph Cottage, Torch Operation, Wardour Street
Inevitably, I had heard of the impending North African invasion. Talk in the back seat of my staff car was more Top Secret than anything on paper. In general, I knew about as much about Torch Operation as most senior commanders in the early autumn of 1942. One month before the birthday party I had taken Gen Eisenhower out to Telegraph Cottage in a hurry. For once he seemed preoccupied. He obviously didn’t want to talk; I had long made it a habit not to ask questions, ever. As we sped through Kensington he mumbled something about ‘big doings for a colonel’. The rest of the ride was in heavy silence. But Generals, three-star Generals don’t usually get excited over colonels. I knew something big was up. I don’t know how long we’ll be here, the General said as he got out at the cottage.
Mickey will look after you.
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