Remembrance Sunday

[kay]

Maartendas. Your post was so moving. For them to be Honoured in such a way is a tribute to them that is way above what mere words can even begin to say. As for Brother-in-law, what a terrible waste of a young, extremely brave, life. March 12, when another 6 weeks or so and it was all over. Thank you for posting what must have been so hard to write and I hope you get to visit those statues soon.

[TullyBascombe]

My Great Aunt was a spy. She worked on the team that won the Battle of the Atlantic.

[Yorkie]

My Great Aunt was a spy. She worked on the team that won the Battle of the Atlantic.

Was your Great Aunt British Tully? Are you hiding Limey blood?

[TullyBascombe]

My Great Aunt was a spy. She worked on the team that won the Battle of the Atlantic.

Was your Great Aunt British Tully? Are you hiding Limey blood?

Pffftttttt........... Please. My first American ancestor arrived in the New World on the Susan Constant in 1607.

Aunt Cathy had quite a story to her. She was a math teacher in Western Tennessee in the 1920s, but she complained when she discovered that a new male teacher was being paid considerably more than she was. They didn't just fire her, they black-balled her from teaching ever again ..... and not just in Tennessee. Barred from teaching in public schools she obtained her master's degree while supporting herself by tutoring. She hoped that with a higher degree she might find employment at a college, but she still found doors shut to her. When FDR was elected her brother, a dean at Memphis State University, helped her apply for a position in the foreign service and she wound up teaching at the embassy school in Brazil. While she was there she learned Portugese. After Pearl Harbor she volunteered for the Navy and wsa placed in Naval Intelligence. It had long been suspected that the Germans had been using Portugal as a base for sending spies to Allied nations. Her group discovered that the Germans were using Portugese sailors to relay information about convoy movements from New York. The system was very simple, the sailor would sign on with a ship, then use the trans-Atlantic telegraph to post a advertisement a Lisbon newspaper requesting posting on a ship for the return voyage back across the Atlantic. The date of requested employment would tell the Germans when the convoy was expected to reach Britain, the wording would reveal whether it was a fast or slow convoy. The Germans could figure out the rest. Her group recommended that the Merchant Marine change the procedures for assigning crew to ships, from then on crews were hired within a day or two of the ships' departure and when a sailor signed on for a ship he would be immediately sequestered in barracks and not allowed to communicate with the outside world. Merchant Marine losses declined sharply.