Free French vehicle pennant : Flying Officer W B Kaus, RAAF, 161 Squadron RAF

Double sided painted steel vehicle pennant. The triangular pennant has even stripes representing the French tricolour, blue (hoist end), white, red. Each white stripe bears a gold painted Cross of Lorraine, the symbol of the Free French (Forces Francaises Libres or FFL). Two blue painted steel bands are rivetted to the pennant's hoist so that a rod can be threaded through them to enable it to be attached to a car. The steel rod is surmounted by a large red wooden knob. A 50mm length of copper tubing has been fitted over the lower end of the rod.

This pennant was removed from the Citroen car used by the commander of the French Resistance or Underground Movement in Toulouse, France, on 15 October 1944, by 414803 Flying Officer William (Bill) Bernard Kaus, an Australian who served as a Wireless Operator/Air Gunner with 161 Squadron RAF. The squadron operated clandestine flights behind enemy lines to drop in or extract British Special Operations Executive agents and materials to assist members of the local resistance. Kaus's crew, flying a Hudson aircraft, made numberous flights to Belgium and France from late 1943 to 1945, as well as some flights to Norway and a single flight into Germany in late 1944. Born in 1923 in Brisbane, Queensland, Bill Kaus enlisted in the RAAF in November 1941, training in Australia and Canada before being posted to 161 Squadron RAF in England. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1945 and was discharged on 1 October 1945.