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Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Daily Mail
The most remarkable escape of WWII? SAS soldier's journey to safety through FIVE countries after unit was dropped over occupied Sicily too high and in the wrong place, historian DAMIEN LEWIS reveals
As Roy Bridgeman-Evans drifted down through the moonlit Sicilian sky, he could tell immediately that he and the rest of his men were in serious trouble. They'd been dropped far too high, and the rugged terrain below bore no resemblance to what he'd been told to expect. Worse still, the supply canisters carrying their weapons, food and explosives were nowhere to be seen. It was the evening of Monday 12 July, 1943, and Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily, was just three days old. To the south, British and American troops were engaged in brutal combat as they battled to wrestle the island from Axis control. Sicily was more than just a strategic target. It was the gateway to Italy, 'the soft underbelly of Europe' as Churchill famously described it. Opening a new front here was intended to stretch German forces thin, ahead of the ultimate objective - D-Day; the full-scale invasion of Nazi occupied France. But that operation was still a year away. In a mission codenamed Operation Chestnut, Bridgeman-Evans and his team of nine SAS troopers were being parachuted into enemy-held territory to cause havoc and mayhem. Their key objective was to disrupt enemy lines of communication by sabotaging radio installations, destroying fuel dumps and attacking supply lines. But without their all-important drop-canisters packed with their weapons and explosives, their mission was all but doomed from the moment they had dropped - as revealed in my latest book, SAS Great Escapes Four. Jumping from such a height made it near impossible to avoid being spotted by the enemy, while the winds scattered members of the stick - a group of paratroopers dropped from an aircraft – far and wide. By sunrise, Bridgeman-Evans had managed to find four of his men, but enemy forces could be seen closing in. Within hours they were surrounded and forced to surrender, being more or less unarmed as they were. Hailing from Richmond, Surrey, Bridgeman-Evans stood six feet tall, with brown hair and grey eyes. Already a seasoned special forces officer, before the war he'd worked in his father's cigar business. Like so many of his generation, he'd answered the call to serve and do his bit to rid the world of Nazi tyranny. Having been taken captive, he was not the kind of man to accept being a prisoner of war. Like all SAS, he was trained to resist and escape at every opportunity; it was ingrained in them. Interrogated by their Italian captors, and at times bound together with chains, the five 'dangerous' captives were ferried across the Strait of Messina, to mainland Italy. Bridgeman-Evans was already scanning the coastline, searching for a way to break free. Arriving in the town of Gioia Tauro, on Italy's western coast, they were herded into a railway yard to await transport, along with hundreds of other Allied POWs. When their Italian captors were momentarily distracted, Bridgeman-Evans seized the moment. With three of his men, including Sergeant Robert Lodge, aka Rudi Friedlander, a German Jew who was fluent in the enemy's language, they scaled the rail yard's wall and dropped into the shadows beyond. Dressed in SAS jumpsuits, and moving quickly, they were mistaken for a German patrol. Their guise was helped by Lodge jabbering away in German, as the others nodded vigorously and pretended to understand. Slipping along the dark-night coastline, Bridgeman-Evans sought out a tiny fishing village, which he'd spotted from the Italian ship that had brought them here. He'd noted the boats drawn up along the beach. His plan was to steal one, and row across the sea back to Sicily, to rejoin the advancing Allied forces. With bluff and daring to the fore, Lodge managed to use his fluent German to bluff their way across a heavily guarded bridge. Shortly, they reached the clifftop overlooking the beach. From there they watched troops enemy patrolling the sands below, and noted the machine-gun nests menacing the coastline. At sunset, the four men made their move. Silently, they crept down to the beach, their hearts pounding furiously. Italian sentries moved to and fro, but the men stayed low, keeping to the shadows. Shortly, they reached the fishing boat they were aiming for. Under the noses of the enemy and working in silence, they manhandled the vessel to the water's edge and pushed it in. Then disaster struck. In their haste to get moving, the sound of the oars in the rowlocks must have been heard. Moments later the night erupted with gunfire. Machine-gun rounds and rifle fire tore into the wooden hull, churning up the water all around. The only way to escape the murderous onslaught was to dive into the sea. With one man badly injured and the boat sinking, Bridgeman-Evans realised all was lost, and he struck out for shore. He had to stop the Italians from killing them all. As he swam for his life, bullets cut perilously close. Somehow, he reached the beach unscathed, shouting at the Italians to stop firing. The gunfire ceased. The injured man, Private Sharman, was rushed to hospital. For the rest, it was back into captivity. Of course, Bridgeman-Evans remained determined to break free. Taken to a POW camp at Capua, north of Naples, he discovered a kindred spirit in fellow prisoner Frederic Long, an officer of 3 Commando, who had also been captured in Sicily. The two joined in a daring tunnelling escape attempt. But before the underground shaft could be finished, the prisoners were moved on to another POW camp, this one just 120 miles short of the German border. As they were shipped further and further away from Allied lines, Bridgeman-Evans' desire to get free only grew stronger. Split up from the rest of his men – officers and other ranks were separated – September 8 offered another chance to break free. Italy had surrendered to the Allies, and the Italian guards had mostly abandoned their posts. The senior British officer at the camp, Brigadier Mountain, prepared to lead a mass breakout. With the gates unguarded, the prisoners rushed through en masse towards what they hoped would be freedom. But a large body of German troops had arrived to seize control. Spying the breakout, they opened fire. The escape attempt was crushed, with some Britons gunned down. For a third time, Bridgeman-Evans' attempted getaway had been foiled. Days later, the prisoners were on the move again, heading into Nazi Germany. They arrived at their new POW camp, Fort Bismarck, just outside Strasbourg, in north-eastern France. It was a grim, forbidding place that had been garrisoned by the French Army, until France's fall in June 1940. The Germans had converted the fort into a POW camp. Located to the west of the city, most of Fort Bismarck was set underground. Encircled by a dry moat, watchtowers and thick walls topped with razor-sharp barbed wire, it was said to be escape proof. Undeterred, Bridgeman-Evans, and his 3 Commando companion, Fred Long, began plotting their escape. Noticing a blind spot where the wall seemed screened from the guards, they devised a simple yet audacious plan, gaining the all-important backing of the camp's escape committee. On the evening of October 1, 1943, they scaled the wall, being screened by other prisoners who'd crowded all around, after which they dropped to the far side, slipping into bushes at the side of the guardhouse. 'The whole thing took about a minute,' Bridgeman-Evans would later recall. There they lay, awaiting nightfall, and being forced to lay stock still as guard dogs passed close by. As darkness fell, they stole away, heading deeper into France and further from Allied lines. But Bridgeman-Evans and Long had a plan: they'd seek out sympathetic locals, and make their way to Britain via France, Spain and Gibraltar. They had one major advantage: Bridgeman-Evans was married to a French woman, and he was pretty much fluent in the language. With help from friendly farmers, they managed to contact the French Resistance who had links to what was known as the Burgundy Escape Line – a well-established route for getting downed Allied airmen and escaped POWs back to Britain. Disguised as French civilians, they were on their way - first by train to Paris, and then south to the Pyrenees, dodging Gestapo patrols and SS checkpoints, and with their Resistance comrades risking all if they were unmasked. After a gruelling crossing over the snowbound mountains, the two men would finally make it to Gibraltar and, from there, back to Britain. In the process of escaping, Bridgeman-Evans had crossed five countries, covered thousands of miles on foot, by bicycle, truck, train, tunnel and boat, yet made it despite all the odds. Bridgeman-Evans embodied the spirit and essence of the SAS. From the moment of his capture, he refused to resign himself to spending the rest of the war as a POW. He constantly sought a means of escape, no matter the odds, driven by a fierce determination to make it back to Allied lines and get back into the fight. The full story is told in Damien Lewis's latest book, SAS Great Escapes Four, published by Quercus Books and available now. SAS Daggers Drawn has just been published in paperback by Quercus at £9.95.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The big, beautiful billionaire tax-cut bill will hasten America's decline
Protesters attend a "Hands Off" rally to demonstrate against U.S. President Donald Trump on the National Mall on April 5, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by) Ever since the defeat of the Axis Powers in World War II, America has been admired around the world as a beacon of equality, freedom and opportunity. That admiration helped the United States become the world's preeminent economic and military power over the last 80 years. While we have faced serious problems, like racial inequality, poverty and questionable wars, our elected representatives have usually been able to work together in an effort to address them. I fear that the era of America's economic and moral dominance is now faltering and headed into a period of decline. U.S. House-passed tax bill weakens accountability at for-profit colleges, advocates say The so-called big, beautiful bill, which the U.S. House of Representatives passed on May 22, is a symptom of the decline. It will greatly benefit the wealthy, while denying medical care, food assistance and other social safety-net programs to those on the lower income scale. The bill would substantially increase income inequality in the country and likely necessitate a $500 billion cut in Medicare spending. It is unfathomable that U.S. Reps. Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson voted for the bill and that Gov. Brad Little strongly supported its passage. Unless the U.S. Senate stops the bill in its tracks, the states will have to increase their budgetary outlays or let their voters go without vital services. The national debt consequences of the bill are also of great concern. It should be remembered that Trump added $8.4 trillion to the national debt during his first term, more than any other U.S. president. His big, beautiful bill would add an additional $3.8 trillion to the debt, which would raise the debt from its current $36.2 trillion to a whopping $40 trillion. That is a very serious problem in itself, but made substantially worse by other destructive actions he has taken that will seriously hinder the nation's ability to deal with that massive debt. The U.S. lives wildly beyond its means by borrowing against the future. Instead of requiring wealthy corporations and individuals to pay their fair share of taxes, we simply finance the deficits by issuing government bonds. Since the mid-1990s the GOP has forgotten that budget deficits can be prevented by raising adequate revenue. Thus, the national debt has ballooned from $5.6 trillion in 2000 to $36.2 trillion at the end of 2024. About $8.5 trillion of the debt is held by foreign governments and investors. Foreigners have helped finance our debt because the U.S. has been regarded as a steady, reliable trustworthy nation. Our dollar is the coin of the international realm, and our government bonds have always been seen as a safe, reliable investment, particularly in times of international economic turmoil. Donald Trump has shaken the world order by dumping on our friends and allies, including those closest to us – Canada, Mexico, the European Union, Japan and Korea. He has disregarded trading relationships that have made America the leader of the free world. Trump's latest threat to impose 50% tariffs on European nations seems designed to drive away our steadiest, most-reliable trading partners and military allies. His erratic and self-defeating tariff actions have shown America to be an unreliable partner. Our friends and allies have started forging stronger trading relationships among themselves and with China, our chief international adversary. This will reverberate against U.S. economic and security interests well into the future. The bond market has become increasingly edgy about Trump's erratic behavior. Investors are concerned about the safety of U.S. bonds, as evidenced by an increasing interest rate on our nation's bonded indebtedness. The big, beautiful bill promises to trigger a crisis in the bond market. A well-regarded economist has observed: 'The U.S. government bond markets are already shaky, long-term interest rates are rising, and it seems that foreign investors are fleeing the United States.' It is inconceivable that such chaos in the economic foundation of our country could have occurred since January. America has long been regarded as the moral beacon of the world. As President Ronald Reagan put it in his Farewell Address — 'The shining city upon a hill.' That perception is no longer the case. A recent survey discloses that America's worldwide popularity has suffered a collapse since January. China is now regarded more favorably than the United States. Trump is viewed more negatively (58%) than Vladimir Putin (49%) and Xi Jinping (31%). Those dismal numbers foretell a decline in America's ability to sustain its position as the premier moral, economic and military power in the world. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Announces Victory Day For WWII But Gets The Date Wrong: 'A Complete Moron'
President Donald Trump announced that the United States will join several nations in celebrating Victory Day on May 8, seemingly unaware that World War II only ended in Europe during that month in 1945 — as America continued fighting Japan until August. 'Many of our allies and friends are celebrating May 8th as Victory Day, but we did more than any other Country, by far, in producing a victorious result in World War II,' Trump wrote Thursday night in a lengthy post on his Truth Social platform. 'I am hereby renaming May 8th as Victory Day for World War II and November 11th as Victory Day for World War I,' he continued. Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allied forces on May 8, 1945, a little over a week after Adolf Hitler died by suicide inside his Berlin bunker. Russian forces had captured the German capital on May 2 after their former Soviet Union lost an estimated 24 million people to the war. Victory Day is celebrated annually on May 8 by several former members of the Allied Powers, such as France, Poland and the United Kingdom (which calls it VE Day). Other nations, including Belarus and Russia, however, commemorate the end of hostilities from the Axis Powers on May 9. Trump, who is reportedly eager to hold a 4-mile military parade on his birthday in June, argued Thursday in his post that the U.S. 'never' publicly marks its wartime victories — and appeared to blame current or former leaders for this supposed lack of patriotism. He wrote: 'We won both Wars, nobody was close to us in terms of strength, bravery, or military brilliance, but we never celebrate anything. That's because we don't have leaders anymore that know how to do so! We are going to start celebrating our victories again!' Frustrated social media users have since pointed out that Nov. 11 would apparently no longer honor all U.S. veterans under this newly announced plan, however, as has been the case for 70 years now, and only be dedicated to those who served during World War I. Former President Woodrow Wilson declared Nov. 11 Armistice Day in 1919 to celebrate the end of WWI after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. The date was officially replaced by Veterans Day in 1954 under former President Dwight Eisenhower. Trump himself has never served and reportedly avoided the Vietnam War draft with a diagnosis of bone spurs in his foot. The daughter of the doctor who provided the diagnosis later said he had made that determination as a favor to his landlord — Trump's father, Fred. The Victory Day announcement has sparked outrage and confusion on X, formerly Twitter. 'We won World War II on August 15, 1945 when the Japanese surrendered. Trump is a complete moron,' wrote former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann, with another user asking: 'Why is Trump … erasing all post WWII veterans and their accomplishments.' Bernie Sanders Fiercely Rejects 1 Notion About Trump-Era Democrats: 'Have The Courage' People Beg Trump To Ditch This 'Embarrassing' And 'Tired' Bit After Graduation Speech JD Vance Puts A Spin On Mike Waltz's Removal As National Security Adviser
Time Magazine
29-04-2025
- Business
- Time Magazine
Chinese Australians, Previously Scorned, Are Now Courted as Nation Nears Tight Election
It was deep into World War II when Mark Wang's father, who worked for China's military intelligence, left Shanghai to meet with U.S. General Douglas MacArthur in Melbourne, Australia. Since China had no functioning consulate in the city, they chose to talk in the home of a prominent local businessman, whose family had first emigrated from China in the mid-1830s. In between discussions on how best to expel the Axis Powers from China, the pretty daughter of his host caught the older Wang's eye. 'It was love at first sight,' says Mark Wang, the CEO of the Museum of Chinese Australian History in Melbourne, of his parents' first meeting. 'And that's why I'm here!' It's a sweet anecdote that also illustrates how the fates of Australia, China, and indeed the U.S. have long been intertwined. While Australia has been inhabited by Aboriginal peoples for at least 65,000 years, the first European settlers arrived in 1788, with the first Chinese following just 30 years later. It was not always a harmonious melding with periodic race riots culminating in the 1901 White Australia Policy, which effectively halted legal migration from Asia to the self-styled 'Lucky Country.' After that policy was repealed in 1975, Chinese immigration ebbed and flowed corresponding to the various crises that blighted the continent, from the Vietnam War, Tiananmen Square massacre, and recent crackdown on freedoms in Hong Kong. Today, persons of Chinese heritage comprise some 5.5% of Australia's 26 million people. 'The Chinese-Australian community are major contributors to our cultural life, economy, business, to every aspect,' Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told TIME in a February interview. 'Chinese Australians have been a large part of our multicultural community for 200 years.' And they may prove pivotal to Australia's future as federal elections approach on Saturday. Polls have Albanese's center-left Labor Party neck-and-neck with the opposition right-leaning Liberal-National Coalition, with observers believing a hung parliament—whereby no party reaches the 76 seats required to form government—remains a likely outcome. The tight race has led to a surge in political advertising and campaigning on popular prominently Chinese-language apps such as WeChat and Red Note targeting marginal, multicultural constituencies in recent weeks. Since January, the RECapture Project has found more than 220 authorized Liberal ads on WeChat and about 35 for Labor. Even non-ethnic Chinese candidates have embraced the platforms, sharing videos of themselves eating Sichuan hotpot and drinking bubble tea. Fan Yang, a University of Melbourne research fellow who leads RECapture, says that campaign posts are often sophisticated and appear tailored with the help of outside agencies. 'Red Note is known for lifestyle and e-commerce, which means political content is less prioritized by the platform algorithm,' she says. 'One way that politicians navigate the algorithm is to approach third party influencers to increase their online visibility.' The fact that some neighborhoods with the highest proportion of ethnically Chinese voters are also the closest fought is galvanizing this strategy. The Labor-held ultra-marginal Sydney seat of Bennelong has around 30% residents of Chinese heritage and is now notionally Liberal due to a redrawn boundary. According to RECapture, Liberal candidate Scott Yung has appeared in more than 100 authorized ads since January. Meanwhile, Sydney's Bradfield constituency has the fifth largest population of ethnically Chinese voters nationwide and has been inundated with WeChat ads for both main parties' candidates as well as independents. Attack ads targeting both party leaders have also proliferated as the election draws near. Still, the brazen courting of Chinese Australians—both Albanese and Coalition leader Peter Dutton have been recently filmed enjoying Chinese meals on the campaign trail—is a welcome departure from Australia's last federal election in 2022, when anti-Chinese sentiment had reached an unfortunate peak amid a severe chill in Sino-Australian relations as well as COVID-related racism. According to a 2021 report by the Lowy Institute, almost one in five Chinese Australians reported being physically threatened or attacked in the previous year. The pandemic marked a crescendo, but anti-Chinese bigotry had been building since around 2016, when then Australian Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull ordered an investigation into alleged Chinese Communist Party (CCP) interference, leading to an Espionage and Foreign Interference Bill the following year. A slew of high-ranking local and national politicians were subsequently accused of being in the pay of the Chinese government. The election of U.S. President Donald Trump on a Sinophobic ticket and his subsequent railings against the 'China virus' and 'kung flu' also helped normalize anti-Asian sentiment, say local community members. In October 2020, Liberal senator Eric Abetz sparked outrage when he asked three Chinese Australians called before the chamber to discuss non-White parliamentary under-representation 'whether they are willing to unconditionally condemn the Chinese Communist Party dictatorship' in what one of the participants subsequently denounced as a 'McCarthyist' loyalty test. Of course, anti-Chinese sentiment goes back to Australia's Gold Rush period. In 1855, the state of Victoria imposed a £10 levy on every Chinese immigrant arriving in the colony. To circumvent this 'poll tax,' many Chinese immigrants landed in South Australia and then walked the over 350 miles to Melbourne, which on the back of the mining boom was soon to become the richest city in the world. In 2017, Jimmy Li, president of the Chinese Community Council of Australia Victoria Chapter (CCCAV), helped organize a walk to retrace this epic journey to raise awareness of the historical injustice. 'One of the proudest aspects of Australia is our multiculturalism,' he says. 'People live peacefully together, maintain their cultures, but also we connect, interact, and work together.' It's a view that has broad public support, with a 2023 survey finding that nearly 90% of respondents believed that 'multiculturalism has been good for Australia.' Indeed, an internal review by the Liberal Party following their 2022 election defeat found that many Chinese Australians—which had traditionally backed the party—had shifted their support due to geopolitical tensions and the COVID backlash. Under the Albanese government, bilateral relations have warmed significantly, and Dutton has also toned down his hawkish rhetoric, saying last year that he was 'pro-China and the relationship we have with them.' Still, the pall of Chinese interference continues to dog this election. In recent weeks, both Yung, the Liberal Bennelong candidate, and independent lawmaker Monique Ryan have had to fend off allegations of CCP backing. The question remains how to get more Chinese Australians actually into political life rather than simply being courted by the nation's establishment. While Chinese Australians are active in philanthropy and local politics, the cohort remains underrepresented at the federal level. 'It's a work in progress,' says Yan Ma, a CCCAV committee member. 'Politicians from every part of every spectrum who care about multicultural communities are actively recruiting Chinese speaking or Chinese background staff members. So that's a good sign.'
South China Morning Post
23-03-2025
- General
- South China Morning Post
Lessons from the diary of a Chinese soldier who fought at D-Day
Imagine discovering secrets in a diary hidden within an old Hong Kong building. That is what happened to Angus Hui Chong-yin 10 years ago. The history enthusiast heard about the discovery of a diary written in the 1940s by a Chinese naval officer named Lam Ping-yu. Intrigued, Hui got digital copies of the pages so he could study them closely and uncover the stories hidden within. Lam's diary was special because he was part of D-Day. That is when brave soldiers from many countries stormed the beaches of France to fight against the Axis Powers during World War II. It was a huge turning point in the war, and Lam, a Chinese officer, was right there. 'I was amazed that someone local had been part of such a significant historical event,' Hui said. 'I was captivated by Lam and imagined what his life was like.' Lam's story At the time, Hui was studying history and culture at the University of Hong Kong. He studied the documents with another history lover, John Mak Hiu-fai. They discovered Lam was born in Indonesia, joined the Chinese navy, and went to England for training. His diary tells us what it was like for him to be part of D-Day. It is the only diary we know of from a Chinese officer who was there. After the war, Lam lived in Hong Kong for some time before moving away and leaving his diary behind. The documents revealed more than just war stories. They showed Lam's thoughts on war and peace. There was one letter that hinted at a love story. 'These are all very interesting stories that show Lam's thoughts and ask us to reflect on the cost of war,' Mak said. Lam's story also shows how Hong Kong has always been connected to the rest of the world. 'It shows that ... [Hong Kong] has a front-row seat bearing witness to the making of world history,' Mak said. John Mak (left) and Angus Hui (right) organised the exhibition 'Lost and Found in Hong Kong: The Unsung Chinese Heroes of D-Day'. Photo: Emily Tsang Curiosity is key Hui, who is now 30, recalls his parents questioning his choice to study history. But he was confident in his decision. 'History isn't just something that happened in the past; I love discovering how it matters to me. It affects how we see the world,' he said. Hui and Mak shared their research in an exhibition called 'Lost and Found in Hong Kong: The Unsung Chinese Heroes at D-Day'. They are now planning a trip to Britain and France to learn more about the Chinese soldiers who fought there in World War II. They hope to connect with war veterans and researchers. 'Extraordinary stories by ordinary people deserve to be explored and shared,' Hui said. Mak added: 'There are a lot of unknowns in every corner waiting to be uncovered. The most important thing is to be curious.' Use the puzzle below to test your knowledge of the vocabulary words in the story. Suggested answer Read and answer: Why was Lam's diary so important? Lam's diary described D-Day, which was an important event where soldiers came to France to battle in World War II. This was a turning point in the war! Stop and think: How did Hui feel finding this historic diary? Hui is a history enthusiast, and he felt 'amazed' to be a part of discovering this important historical artifact which gave insight on the event. Reflect: Why is it important to discover and share hidden stories from the past? These stories from the past give us information about historical moments. It can give historians today a clearer understanding of the action and events that took place. It can also honour important figures who may have gone unnoticed. (answers may vary)
