Name Susan Travers | Parents Guy Leon | |
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Spouse Nicolas Schlegelmilch (m. 1947) Books Tomorrow to Be Brave, Tant que dure le jour People also search for Linden Travers, Sally Linden Holman, Florence Wheatley, William Halton Lindon-Travers | ||
Portrait de susan travers
Susan Mary Gillian Travers (23 September 1909 – 18 December 2003) was a Englishwoman who served in the French Red Cross as a nurse and ambulance driver during Second World War. She later became the only British military woman to be matriculated in the French Foreign Legion, having also served in Vietnam, during the First Indochina War.
Contents
- Portrait de susan travers
- Susan travers the angry vagina from the vagina monologues mov
- Early life
- Early war
- World War II
- Post war
- Decorations
- References
Susan travers the angry vagina from the vagina monologues mov
Early life
Travers was born in London and spent her early years in England, the daughter of Francis Eaton Travers a Royal Navy Admiral and his wife Eleanor Catherine (née Turnbull).
Early war
At the outbreak of the Second World War, Travers joined the French Red Cross as a nurse, but later became an ambulance driver with the French Expeditionary Force to Finland in 1940. In 1941, she drove a medical doctor of the 1st Free French Division during Operation Exporter in Syria and Lebanon, during which the allied forces with invaded and Liberated Syria and Lebanon. She served in the 13e demi-brigade de Légion étrangère as a driver for the medical officer, where she gained the nick name "La Miss".
She then travelled to North Africa via Dahomey and the Congo.
World War II
In late May 1942, as the Afrika Korps prepared to attack Bir Hakeim, Koenig ordered all women out of the area. The Germans attacked on 26 May. Not long after, Travers joined a convoy into the rear area and Koenig agreed to her requests to return to Bir Hakeim, since he felt the German attack was a failure. However, during the following fortnight, the Luftwaffe flew 1,400 sorties against the defences of Bir Hakeim, whilst four German/Italian divisions attacked on the ground. During the bombardment, a shell tore off the roof of the car of général Kœnig, whose driver, Susan Travers, aided by a Vietnamese driver, fixed it on the spot immediately.
On 10 June, Travers drove Koenig's staff car during the evacuation of the camp. The column ran into minefields and German machine gun fire. Koenig ordered Travers to drive at the front of the column. Travers stated:
He said, "We have to get in front. If we go the rest will follow." It is a delightful feeling, going as fast as you can in the dark. My main concern was that the engine would stall.
At 10:30 on 11 June, the column entered British lines. Travers' vehicle had been hit by eleven impacts, with a shock absorber destroyed and the brakes unserviceable.
Travers went on to serve in Italy, France, and Germany.
Post-war
After the war, her military status was regularized and she applied to and was formally enrolled in the Légion Étrangère, as an Adjudant-chef.
Travers served in Indochina. She married Legion Adjudant-chef Nicolas Schlegelmilch, who had fought at Bir Hakeim with the 13th Demi-Brigade of the Foreign Legion. In retirement, they lived on the outskirts of Paris. The couple are survived by two sons.
In 2000, aged 91, assisted by Wendy Holden, she wrote her autobiography, Tomorrow to Be Brave: A Memoir of the Only Woman Ever to Serve in the French Foreign Legion (ISBN 0552148148), having waited for all the other principals in her life story to die before writing it.