{"id":7313,"date":"2023-03-12T15:37:19","date_gmt":"2023-03-12T15:37:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bilyreid.com\/?p=7313"},"modified":"2023-03-13T19:07:53","modified_gmt":"2023-03-13T19:07:53","slug":"international-womens-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/?p=7313","title":{"rendered":"INTERNATIONAL WOMEN&#8217;S DAY"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>THE CLASS OF &#8217;43<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Women who broke so much more than mere glass ceilings.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 400px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-7313-1\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"http:\/\/bilyreid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Heroines.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/bilyreid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Heroines.mp4\">http:\/\/bilyreid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Heroines.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n<p><strong>WOMEN FERRY PILOTS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Women ferry pilots flew more than nine million miles in 72 different aircraft for the Ferrying Division, US Air Transport Command during WWII.\u00a0 Unorthodox women who billiantly helped sustain the vital flow of military aircraft around the country at the height of WWII.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bilyreid.com\/?attachment_id=7315\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-7315\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7315\" src=\"http:\/\/bilyreid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/VIOLETTE-SZABO.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2400\" height=\"2455\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/VIOLETTE-SZABO.jpg 2400w, https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/VIOLETTE-SZABO-293x300.jpg 293w, https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/VIOLETTE-SZABO-768x786.jpg 768w, https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/VIOLETTE-SZABO-1001x1024.jpg 1001w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2400px) 100vw, 2400px\" \/><\/a><strong>VIOLETTE SZABO, SOE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Special Operations Executive\u00a0 (SOE) was the brainchild of Winston Churchill to take the fight behind enemy lines in WWII.\u00a0 Violette Szabo was one such SOE agent. She was captured and executed in the infamous Ravensbruck women&#8217;s prison on 5 Feb. 1945. She was posthumously awarded the George Cross and the Croix de Guerre.\u00a0 Fittingly, her statue stands alongside Lambeth Palace in central London.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The inevitable rivalry and conflict between the SOE and MI6 is brilliantly depicted in one of my favourite television series, <em>Foyle&#8217;s War<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bilyreid.com\/?attachment_id=7316\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-7316\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7316\" src=\"http:\/\/bilyreid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/DORSET-SQUARE.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"4912\" height=\"6320\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/DORSET-SQUARE.jpg 4912w, https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/DORSET-SQUARE-233x300.jpg 233w, https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/DORSET-SQUARE-768x988.jpg 768w, https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/DORSET-SQUARE-796x1024.jpg 796w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 4912px) 100vw, 4912px\" \/><\/a><strong>ONE DORSET SQUARE, LONDON<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>SOE safe house where many agents spent their last night in London prior to being dropped into France via parachute or Lysander aircraft. To those in the know, the SOE was to become known as the &#8220;Baker Street Irregulars&#8221; since the agency occupied several pieces of real estate in the nearby Baker Street area.\u00a0 The large exhibition halls of the Natural History Museum were used for their basic parachute training.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong> I spent the first few months of a diplomatic posting\u00a0 living\u00a0 just a half block away in Dorset House and became quite familiar with the area.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bilyreid.com\/?attachment_id=7317\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-7317\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7317\" src=\"http:\/\/bilyreid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/DORSET-SQUARE-PLAQUE.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"3758\" height=\"3566\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/DORSET-SQUARE-PLAQUE.jpg 3758w, https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/DORSET-SQUARE-PLAQUE-300x285.jpg 300w, https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/DORSET-SQUARE-PLAQUE-768x729.jpg 768w, https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/DORSET-SQUARE-PLAQUE-1024x972.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 3758px) 100vw, 3758px\" \/><\/a><strong>MEMORIAL PLAQUE, ONE DORSET SQUARE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Today,\u00a0 One Dorset Square is suitably the\u00a0 home of the Alliance Francaise in London.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bilyreid.com\/?attachment_id=7318\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-7318\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7318\" src=\"http:\/\/bilyreid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/QUEEN-ELIZABETH.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"750\" height=\"522\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/QUEEN-ELIZABETH.jpg 750w, https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/QUEEN-ELIZABETH-300x209.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>In what is possibly a hat tip to the role played by Queen Elizabeth in WWII, the inestimable British actress, Honeysuckle Weeks, plays the uniformed driver\/mechanic for detective Foyle in the eponymous TV series.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>As the song says, &#8220;Bless &#8217;em all, the long, the short and the tall&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>What we do without them??<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>THE CLASS OF &#8217;43 Women who broke so much more than mere glass ceilings. WOMEN FERRY PILOTS Women ferry pilots flew more than nine million miles in 72 different aircraft for the Ferrying Division, US Air Transport Command during WWII.\u00a0 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/?p=7313\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,12,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-historical","category-people","category-touring"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7313"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7325,"href":"https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7313\/revisions\/7325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bilyreid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}