Obituaries

Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules

Hi everyone

I live on the Isle of Wight and am honoured to of met Mary who lived at the Sandown airfield of course, as per your excellent obituary. I volunteer at the Wight Aviation Museum on the Sandown airfield. I can tell you that we are in the process of building a display at our museum to Mary with many personal effects to display. Also we hope to have a gathering of Spitfires and vintage planes next year to honour Mary, many she would of flown .
She, as all these women were, were a tribute to their countries and should not be forgotten as all our veterans.
Regards
Perry Clifton.
Sandown Isle of Wight


 
Last edited:
James A. Cotten,
a member of the fabled Tuskegee Airmen, 332nd Fighter Group, died on August 14. He was 93.

Cotten spent 21 years in the U.S. Air Force before beginning a 45-year career as a contract administrator for the U.S. Department of Defense at Joint Base McGuire-Dix. He retired in 2012 at age 85.

"We were really doing something in the interest of the nation," Cotton said in 2017 interview "We were considered to be elite personnel. We were taught every day that this was another day to excel."

In 2012, Cotten was presented the Congressional Gold Medal for his service with the Tuskegee Airmen. The following year, he was one of six veterans present when President Barack Obama paid tribute to the famed unit.

Cotten joined the elite, all Black Air Force unit in 1945, after he turned 18. In 1949, he was assigned to the 334th Fighter Interceptor Squadron 4th Fighter Group as the Air Operations non-commissioned officer.

He spent more than 20 years on the Board of Directors of the New Jersey Credit Union League Board of Directors and served on the Veteran's Advisory Committee. Cotten was a Willingboro resident.

Cotten is survived by his wife of 73 years, Oteria, 10 children, 15 grandchildren, 21 great-grandchildren, and 2 great-great-grandchildren.

 
Kazimiera Mika dies at 93

The girl whom Julien Bryan's iconic photographs from German-besieged Warsaw turned into a symbol of war suffering, passed away on 28 August, having outlived her sister, a victim of German crimes, by 81 years.
In these images, the teenager is grieving over the dead body of 14-year-old Anna, murdered by a Luftwaffe pilot who targeted a group of women collecting potatoes on the outskirts of Warsaw. The scene was witnessed and recorded by American photojournalist Julien Bryan; he managed to capture Kazia's disbelief, shock and pain, and then put the camera away.
"The child looked at us in bewilderment. I threw my arm about her and held her tightly, trying to comfort her. She cried. So did I and the two Polish officers who were with me. But what could we tell her? What could anyone tell that child?" he recalled. Kazia was beyond consolation, but the stranger nevertheless managed to gain a little bit of her trust.
As the only foreign journalist in bombed, shelled and burning Warsaw, he often won the trust of civilians because he stood for normality and represented a friendly foreign power, which gave them a glimmer of hope in their ordeal. The Poles wanted the world to know what was happening, and needed to believe that someone would come to their assistance.
Bryan wanted that too, and went beyond his role as a witness. Via Polish Radio he addressed President Roosevelt and his fellow Americans, speaking about German atrocities, describing the tragedy of the Polish capital, and calling on his countrymen to take action. The footage he made in Warsaw shocked Eleanor Roosevelt and became the first newsreel of WWII.
After the war, he returned to Poland a few times, and met with Kazia, who recovered from her tragedy but never forgot it. She recalled his light suit, his comforting hug, and, as something of an oddity, that relentless drive which forced him to walk into destruction - when everyone else wanted to be as far from it as possible - and record it, the way he recorded her tragedy.
Apart from Julien, Kazimiera Mika also met Sam, who accompanied his father on his last visit to Poland, who came again in 2019 for the opening of the IPN's "Siege of Warsaw 1939. Photographs by Julien Bryan" exhibition – and who is participating online in the IPN's press conference on the release of "The Most Mysterious of Countries. The Soviet Union in the Photographs and Writings of Julien H. Bryan 1930–1959" on 22 September.

 
So much for the Knights of the Air myth.

I believe that if you were a young fellow here in the States and started seeing these images in the news/newsreels, it would be hard to have much empathy for the Germans you'd be fighting once the U.S. got in the war. I remember seeing Don Blakeslee in an interview where he said something to the effect of him hating the German sons a bitch's. You certainly cannot condemn an entire people on the actions of a few but you see this and you can understand his point.

One wonders what motivated the Luftwaffe pilot to strafe women picking potatoes in a field, I find it hard to believe it was a case of mistaken identity.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)
Menu
Log in
Register