Nicola Trahan, who has died aged 97, joined the French resistance as a schoolgirl and was awarded the Croix de Guerre avec Palme for her bravery during “numerous dangerous missions”, in particular a series of battles between her Maquis and the notorious 2nd SS Panzerdivision Das Reich. After the second world war she settled in the UK, where she served with the Soldiers’, Sailors’ and Airmen’s Families Association (SSAFA) for 50 years.
Aged 16, while still at school in Valençay, Indre, in central France, she joined the Forces Françaises de l’Intérieur (FFI), the resistance organisation run by the Gaullist French authorities in London and known as the Armée Secrète.
According to her French military file, Trahan became a member of the North Indre Maquis, led by Francis Perdriset, a former French army officer who took charge of FFI resistance operations in that area in July 1943. Her main role was as a courier delivering messages twice daily between the various resistance teams.
She also worked as part of the Maquis’ medical team and, amid a heavy German military presence, used her trips cycling between the teams to collect intelligence. A note in a file has one resistance fighter telling another that Trahan would sometimes be late because she liked to sit by the road watching the Germans while eating her lunch. “Don’t worry,” he said. “It provides us with valuable information.”
In an interview with a French newspaper following the liberation of France, Trahan said that once when she was stopped by the Germans she screwed up her FFI identity pass into a ball and swallowed it to avoid arrest. She also recalled taking part in firefights and on one occasion shooting and wounding two German soldiers: “I really liked ambushes; when we put together a team and went off in full truckloads. I had a revolver and a machine gun.”
In July 1944, Perdriset and his Maquis began working closely with a British Special Operations Executive (SOE) officer Pearl Witherington (later Cornioley), who was also based in North Indre.
Witherington had set up the SOE’s Wrestler circuit in May that year. But on 11 June, five days after the D-day landings, she and the small number of resistance fighters she had assembled were attacked by a much larger German force. They fought them off but Witherington decided she needed an experienced military officer to help her to reorganise her forces.
“Finally, on 25 July [1944], after I had asked repeatedly for a military commander, to my great relief one arrived,” she recalled in her memoirs. “He was an army captain called Francis Perdriset.”
From that point on, the North Indre Maquis was closely integrated with the SOE Wrestler team. Trahan recalled meeting Witherington once, at a parachute drop of weapons and other supplies, where resistance members would have been called upon to remove the supplies to a safe location.
Shortly after Perdriset took over as Witherington’s military commander, elements of the German 2nd SS Panzerdivision Das Reich arrived in the region on their way north to Normandy, having been ordered to destroy the resistance along the way.
They had previously massacred an entire village at Oradour-sur-Glane and, from mid-August, launched a series of attacks against resistance groups in the Indre area, most notably in Valençay itself, where Perdriset was present.
“The Germans did a lot of damage in Valençay,” Witherington recalled. “I wasn’t there but Francis was. He was told to stand against a wall, he really thought he had had it. The Germans set fire to things, shot, killed. It wasn’t as bad as Oradour-sur-Glane but it wasn’t a pretty sight.”
In his recommendation for the award of the Croix de Guerre, Perdriset said Trahan, then only 17, “notably distinguished herself at Valençay from 20 to 30 August 1944 by bringing her commander valuable information which she gathered at the heart of enemy operations”.
Born Nicole in Berck-sur-Mer, in the Pas de Calais, she was the daughter of André Trahan, who worked in the insurance industry, and Jeanne (nee Bourzes), a professor of English.
Nicole initially boarded at the Collège Cévenol at Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in south-central France. She later recalled that her parents took her to the UK when the Germans occupied northern France in 1940, but by 1942 she was at Cours Guynemer, a private school in Valençay.
After the war, Trahan went to the Sorbonne to study philosophy but, having decided that it was not for her, she trained as a nurse at the Ecole d’Infirmières des Associations Diaconesses in Paris, and at Brighton General hospital, in East Sussex, qualifying in 1953. She subsequently worked as a health visitor in Cheshire. She anglicised her name from Nicole to Nicola and was naturalised British in 1957.
The following year she joined SSAFA, first as a member of its nursing service, then as a health visitor working with service families in Germany, Belgium and Hong Kong. Trahan served with the association for 30 years and after retirement continued to work for them as a volunteer for a further 20 years.
Trahan settled in Orcheston, Wiltshire, where she was also a volunteer at Salisbury Cathedral, and enjoyed swimming and walking her dog.
In 2005, she was invited to the unveiling by Queen Elizabeth II of the monument in Whitehall to The Women of World War II, followed by a lunch for female veterans at Buckingham Palace. In 2008 she was appointed MBE.
Nicola (Nicole) Marie Pauline Trahan, resistance fighter and nurse, born 21 December 1926; died 18 January 2024
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2022 best of
best parts
Nick Matthews - Venture x Uprise / Nike x HUF
Mason Coletti - RIGHT HERE FOR PABLO . Deep Fried Pescado
Eddie Cernicky - Deep Fried Pescado . RIGHT HERE FOR PABLO
Tiago Lemos - Primitive DEFINE.
Gustav Tønnesen - SOUR SOLUTION III
Leonardo Bodelazzi - Leozinho
Juan Virues - Hotel Blue pro ‘penthouse suite’
Cyrus & Max - Limosine Promaster . “Toes Down” . i just took a bite of dirt
Diego Todd - Hockey X
Braden Hoban - emerica Emerge
Tristan Funkhouser - Baker 420 . Deep Fried x Baker
Nyjah Huston - Need That . Shine On . “DISRUPTION”
Tyshawn Jones - “Play Dead” . KINGDOM COME . ‘The General’
Carlos Ribeiro - Primitive DEFINE.
Gilbert Crockett - DENIM CAR
Grant Taylor - Fantastic Voyage
Will Marshall - Alltimers You Deserve It
Lucien Clarke - LAUST IN TRANSLATION
Shaun Paul - DC ‘NorthUnda’
Noah Nayef - April
Elijah Odom - Alltimers You Deserve It . Andrew RASCAL
Brian Reid - Brian, Brandon & Will . DGK Zeitgeist
Shin Sanbongi - adidas
Jordan Trahan - Ace ‘Fais Low Low’
Bobby de Keyzer - Bobby
Brian Delatorre - Live & Direct
Vincent Milou - SOLO: You Changed
Jaakko Ojanen - Manana . E.S.P. vol. 2
Ryan Lay - DR in Color . Sci-Fi Fantasy
Myles Willard - Bones Bearings . ”Myles and The Machine”
Will Mazzari - Brian, Brandon & Will . DGK Zeitgeist
Marcello Campanello - Maxallure pro
Heitor da Silva - Vice Versa Love
Jake Wooten - Big Sky
Felipe Gustavo - CODE
Ishod Wair - REAL
Ish Cepeda - AD ASTRA
Louie Lopez - As You Wish . “Honor Roll” . FA, Again & Again
Danny Renaud - Brass Tacks
Silas Baxter-Neal - Portland Public Skating 3 . Burrow
Brian Delatorre - Habitat Live & Direct
Keiran Zimmerman - Jenny x Emerica
best full-lengths
Polar - Sounds Like You Guys Are Crushing It
Antihero - Fantastic Voyage
GX1000 - RIGHT HERE FOR PABLO
The Sour Solution III
Primitive - DEFINE.
Hockey X
Supreme - “Play Dead”
Alltimers - You Deserve It
Shake Junt - Shrimp Blunt
Bronze TV Channel 56
Element - E.S.P. vol. 2
Deep Fried - Pescado
Cafe - TENOR
Rassvet - “I Missed You”
Homies - Fun Raiser
DGK - Zeitgeist
Plan B - CODE
Emerica - EMPOWER
Bleach USA - “SPIKE”
Foundation - Splendor
best breakout parts
Vince Guzaldo - Bleach USA “SPIKE” . Immortality Research
Davide Holzknecht - Baglady. Pack Light . Hélas
Arthur Ribeiro - Vento Bravo
Blake Norris - FULLER HOUSE
Alan Bell - be honest
Johnny Cumaoglu - Mind How You Go
Joe Campos - Hockey X
Brian O’Dwyer - She’s Cheating
Shane Farber - CONS One-Star Pro x RIDING A HORSE NAKED
Jake Yanko - “MOSQUITO”
Christoph Friedmann - LOBBY DREAMS
Donovan Wildfong - Glue ‘wick & spit’
Marley Humphrey - “DIME BAG”
Jason Nam - carousel
Sam Fairweather - Indy Raw Ams
Shogo Zama - MAGENTAPES
best women’s parts
Breana Geering - Spitifre
Nelly Morville - Limosine Promaster . “Toes Down” . i just took a bite of dirt
Mariah Duran - Thunder
Adrianne Sloboh - Krux
Mami Tezuka - Blood Wizard “Destiny”
Nicole Hause - REAL
Reese Nelson - Birdhouse welcome
best independents
Tim Savage - Brian, Brandon & Will
Fritte Söderström - Jante 5:33 x Jante 11:00
Tor Ström - Is This The Place?
Gray Area: Push Button to Destroy the World
Mettz Quest 2 (nyc)
Eryk Burton - THE TALE OF A TOXIC KING (nyc)
Harry Bergenfield - She’s Cheating (Philly)
Nicolas Marti - be honest (nyc)
Neema Joorabchi - limp x okay then (nyc)
Jeff Cecere - Mind How You Go (nyc)
Felix Soto - “ANGEL” (LA)
Calvin Millar - THE SQUAD (Austin)
Emilio Dufour - MAL CIUDADANO (Uruguay)
My Favorite Things - 31 (Helsinki)
Andrew Meyer - flinch (Philly VX)
Widdip - RIDING A HORSE NAKED (ATL)
Viktor Kretsis - Down Low (Manchester)
gang international - WITH ALL DUE (DC)
Chris Mulhern - [untitled] 006 (Philly)
Leando Chocho - HANDYCAPS_2
Tyler Bamdas - V3
Alex Doyle - CLUB BANGERS 3 (Vancouver)
Portland Public Skating 3
DUPLEX 3 (West Palm Beach FL)
HITTIT 3 (Kopenhagen)
Tristan Warren - MONEY TIME (LA)
Zach Fuller - FULLER HOUSE (SF)
Get Lesta - Darling (UK)
James Morley - GOD BLESS (Toronto)
andres garcia - MILO (LA)
James Cruikshank - SENSIBLES (Paris)
Brian Hunter - SLANG (Long Beach)
Daniel Dent - faith in bro (LA)
best promo / medium-length / squad
Limosine - Promaster . “Toes Down” . i just took a bite of dirt
Free x Vans - Full Circle
The Union Square Video
Game On - Mark Suciu SOTY Trip
Chocolate - Upper Cruster
Primitive x Independent
Austin Bristow - LAUST IN TRANSLATION
eS Terminal 002
Bronze x DC What If God Said
Pangea Jeans - POCKET DIAL
adidas - The Sky Ain’t Falling
Pass~Port Nike
Internet Birthday ep.1
Thunder: Pleather Jacket
SCREWLOOSE - EXILE
Last Resort AB - Alv’s Angels
Thrasher Germany Vacation
RACKZ Gallery - Pandora
adidas Australia - Light Years
Sunday Hardware - LUV YA LOTS x x
Baglady - Pack Light
HUF x Thrasher Brazil
Sk8land Skateshop - Veinte
Cowtown - TWENTY FIVE
Am Scramble 2021
Girl - ‘Desesh Mode’ Euro Tour
CPH OPEN 2021
Poolroom - RUNNER UP
Brick & Mortar - Autumn
Maxallure “INT CIRCLE” . “Beautiful Thoughts”
Dime comp vol 7 - Alexis Lacroix
SLP - KARI
Vans - Scandis
Kadence - DAIS
WKND - BOTTLE NECK SEWAGE . Street Fighters 2 . Alan Gelfand High
WORBLE III: Rough & Tough
Tree skateshop x Delivxry Buenos Aires - TREENIDAD
THE VIOLET PROMO
Stussy - Car Pool
Frog x Thunder
another massive year in skateboarding. hope things are good in your world. tell your friends you love em & let’s persevere to make 2023 even better
extended youtube playlist here
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