The Times - Beatrice Jackman - Danish Section Obituary

Discussion in 'SOE & OSS' started by Jedburgh22, Apr 27, 2012.

  1. Jedburgh22

    Jedburgh22 Very Senior Member

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    Beatrice Jackman - SOE translator and courier for the Danish Resistance who helped downed RAF crews to escape to Sweden
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    Times, The (London, England)-April 24, 2012

    English-born but the stepdaughter of a Danish aristocrat, Beatrice Jackman was a courier for the Danish Resistance during the Second World War until coming to the notice of the Gestapo. She escaped to neutral Sweden, where she was recruited by the British legation section of the Special Operations Executive (SOE).

    Her father, Captain John Darlow, died when she was 12 and her mother married Count Fredrik Brockenhuus-Schack and joined him on his country estate in South Zealand, Denmark. Beatrice continued her education at Eastfield, Ascot, but by spending her holidays in Denmark and through contact with the estate staff and her stepfather's friends she soon became bilingual.

    The German invasion of Denmark and Norway on April 9, 1940, took both countries by surprise because they had sought to remain neutral in the war declared by Britain and France against Germany the previous September. Indications that the Western Allies were planning to occupy Norwegian ports to prevent their use by Germany precipitated a pre-emptive strike ordered by Hitler. Denmark was occupied in 24 hours and Norway in a matter of weeks.

    Unlike Norway, where experienced skiers could take refuge on the snow-covered Hardanger Vidda, Denmark's agricultural landscape was illsuited to Resistance operations, which were consequently slow to start. After RAF aircraft began to crash in Denmark on return from missions over Germany, however, an organisation sprang up to hide and shelter surviving crews until they could be smuggled to safety by sea to Sweden.

    At the time of the German invasion, the 19-year-old Beatrice had a leg in plaster as a result of a skiing accident in Norway. As soon as she was able to discard the cast, she resumed her custom of riding around her stepfather's estate and in the autumn of 1941 went to Copenhagen University to study English. In Copenhagen she met Eric Münte, a pioneer of the Danish Resistance, who needed couriers able to travel inconspicuously around Zealand with messages concerning help and shelter for fugitive airmen without arousing suspicion. Invited by Münte to join his escape line organisation, Beatrice went home each weekend and carried messages on horseback or bicycle in the districts adjacent to the Brockenhuu s-Schack estate, where friends of her stepfather were sheltering airmen until they could be shipped out. Her English was also helpful in explaining to the airmen the strict routine that they needed to follow while in hiding and the plans for their eventual escape.

    March 1943 marked the end of a comparatively benign German occupation when, supported by a small cell of the SOE, the Resistance movement began a programme of sabotage against factories, shipyards and shipping supporting the German war effort. Then in August Danish Jews were rounded up for deportation to Germany. Both events led to an upsurge of support for the Danish Resistance, but Jackman was warned that she had fallen under the suspicion of the Gestapo for her courier activities, and she was advised to leave for Sweden.

    Münte, although himself hunted by the occupying power, arranged for her to be hidden aboard a fishing boat with other refugees and taken to the Swedish port of Trelleborg. She was met there by a representative of the SOE working in the British legation in Stockholm, and was taken on as a Danish-English translator and for the debriefing of Resistance workers who were forced to leave Denmark for safety in Sweden.

    At the end of the war in Europe, she returned to Denmark, where she met the ADC to General Sir Evelyn "Bubbles" Barker commanding the British Army in Schleswig-Holstein, which had supervised the German Army's evacuation from Denmark. The ADC had "liberated" from the German Army a large Mercedes convertible and also a red-and-black Nazi flag, allegedly from the ruined Reichstag building in Berlin, which he gave to Jackman.

    In the absence of material of comparable quality, she and a friend unpicked the swastika and had the flag made into a ball dress which she wore with pride on a number of occasions.

    She returned to England in 1948 and married Squadron Leader Edward Jackman, formerly of the RAF Pathfinder Force, by whom she had a daughter. In 2011, she put the dress that she had kept but seldom worn up for auction, accompanied by the story of its provenance. As reported in The Times on September 22, 2011, the dress was sold for £2,100 to an anonymous buyer.

    She is survived by her daughter.

    Beatrice Jackman, courier for the Danish Resistance and SOE translator, was born on February 10, 1921. She died on April 20, 2012, aged 91

    Jackman with the Mercedes convertible "liberated" from the German Army in 1945. Her ball dress, below, which was crafted from a Nazi flag, sold for £2,100 in 2011
     
    Harry Ree likes this.
  2. Recce_Mitch

    Recce_Mitch Very Senior Member

    :poppy: Beatrice Jackman RIP :poppy:

    Paul
     

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