History's Secret Heroes: Series 2: Andrée De Jongh and the Comet Line

History's Heroes

BBC

Documentary, History, Society & Culture

4.8 • 704 Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2024

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A 24-year-old Belgian woman masterminds an escape line, spanning eight hundred miles of Nazi-occupied territory, stretching from Belgium to Spain. Can Andrée de Jongh save the lives of hundreds of stranded airmen?

Helena Bonham Carter shines a light on extraordinary stories from World War Two. Join her for incredible tales of deception, acts of resistance and courage.

A BBC Studios Audio production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

Producer: Suniti Somaiya Edit Producer: Melvin Rickarby Assistant Producer: Lorna Reader Executive Producer: Paul Smith Written by Alex von Tunzelmann Commissioning editor for Radio 4: Rhian Roberts

Transcript

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0:00.0	Did you know that you can listen to many of your favourite podcasts first on BBC Sounds?
0:06.6	Like Desert Island Discs, where you can hear castaways like Cher, Gareth Southgate and Nick Cave,
0:12.7	and enjoy longer versions of the music they've picked.
0:15.7	Good things come to those who don't wait.
0:18.7	Listen to your favourite podcasts first on BBC Sounds.
0:23.8	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:28.5	June 1940, the outskirts of Paris, two women who had fled the German invasion shortly before were making their way back to the city.
0:38.6	They came across a man, sheltering in a tavern. He was a pilot. He had tried to reach Dunkirk
0:45.9	to join the British evacuation of France, but had been unable to get through German lines.
0:52.0	He would be in great danger if he was found by German soldiers and anyone
0:56.3	who helped him would be too. He wanted to get south beyond the German advance to escape,
1:02.3	but he told the women he needed help and civilian clothes. So they put him in the boot of their car,
1:08.4	drove him up to Paris and managed to smuggle him into their flat,
1:13.1	and then wondered what an earth they were going to do.
1:16.5	They called on a friend.
1:17.6	Who had a friend, who had a friend, and gradually organised a very impromptu escape line to get this man into southern France.
1:29.8	They put the pilot back in the boot of their car again and smuggled himself.
1:34.1	But he did make its back safely.
1:37.4	Similar acts of resistance were happening all across Europe.
1:42.1	Networks of ordinary people, often informal and improvised, cooperating to rescue and
1:48.5	transport stranded servicemen back to safety.
1:52.3	These were the escape lines.
	...

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