| Accession Number | P02614.002 |
|---|---|
| Collection type | Photograph |
| Object type | Colour, Portrait |
| Physical description | Colour, Portrait |
| Conflict |
Second World War, 1939-1945 |
| Copyright |
Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain
|
Cancaval, France. April 1980. Noel Eliot (left) with Virginia and Philippe d'Albert-Lake outside ...
Description
Cancaval, France. April 1980. Noel Eliot (left) with Virginia and Philippe d'Albert-Lake outside their home. Virginia, an American, wife of Philippe, one of the chiefs of the Resistance in Paris and one of the leaders of the Comet (Comete) escape route which included a camp in the Freteval Forest set up by the Underground, assisted many allied airmen to escape. Virginia was caught leading six airmen to the camp and interrogated by the Gestapo, never divulging the whereabouts of the Freteval camps. She was sent to the Ravensbruck concentration camp, put into a workgroup of 250 people and she was among twenty five who survived at the end of the war. Nine Australian airmen hid in the Freteval Forest camps, including 415242 Flight Lieutenant Noel Stirling Eliot RAAF, pilot of No. 218 Squadron RAF, who had escaped by parachute from his Stirling bomber which was shot down on 1 May 1944 while on a bombing raid over the Chambly railway marshalling yards, north of Paris. (Donor N. Eliot)