Krystyna Skarbek, GM, OBE, Croix de guerre (Polish pronunciation: [krɨˈstɨna ˈskarbɛk]; born 1 May 1908^[1] in Warsaw, Poland; died 15 June 1952 in London,England) was a Polish Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent. She became celebrated especially for her daring exploits in intelligence and irregular-warfare missions in Nazi-occupied Poland and France.

She became a British agent months before the SOE was founded in July 1940 and was one of the longest-serving of all Britain’s wartime women agents. Her resourcefulness and success have been credited with influencing the organization’s policy of recruiting increasing numbers of women.^[2]

In 1941, she began using the nom de guerre Christine Granville, which she legally adopted on naturalisation as a British citizen in February 1947.^[3]

Although there is no reliable evidence that she was a friend of Ian Fleming, Skarbek is said, by some, to have been the inspiration for Bond girls Tatiana Romanova and Vesper Lynd.^[4]

-Stabbed to death by a jealous lover in a hotel in June 1952.

thestuartkings:

George Stuart (or Stewart), 9th Seigneur d’Aubigny

Scottish nobleman and Royalist commander in the English Civil War. George Stuarts father, the Duke of Lennox, died in 1624 when George was just six, and he became a ward of his cousin, King Charles I of England.  

In 1638 he secretly married Katherine Howard, the daughter of Theophilus Howard, 2nd Earl of Suffolk, and Elizabeth Home, without her father’s consent, offending his guardian the king.

The portrait of Stewart by Anthony van Dyck, now in the National Portrait Gallery, London, may have been painted to mark his marriage; the Latin inscription can be translated “Love is stronger than I am” which may allude to his conflicting loyalties.

Napoleon Bonaparte 

So check this guy out. Mistah Napoleon, stylish motherfucker, and one of the greatest military leaders in history and emperor of France. He wasn’t even really that short, contrary to popular belief [around 5’7” (1.7 metres) or so]. This guy knew how to wear a jacket. And look, even his tights were embroidered. That is dedication to image right there. He didn’t look too shabby either; I happen to think he had a very nice strong nose. Not to mention he has the most epic and famous horse ride of any guy ever.

So Napoleon grew up learning how to run a military and in 1796, was made commander of the French army in Italy, where he forced Austria and its allies to be friends. Then he hung out in Egypt for a while, but the British were all “little man don’t you touch our Indian trade routes” so that didn’t work out too well.

Eventually he made it back to Paris where he became emperor and did cool things like oversee the centralization of government, create the Bank of France and make a civil code that he named after himself because he is that fabulous.

Then Napoleon got pretty busy with his wars. For a few years he managed to get the kids to stop fighting while papa France ruled the continent, but then in 1803 Britain threw a fit again, gathered her buddies Russia and Austria, and attacked. Britain started beating up France on the seas, so Napoleon was all like “okay plan B” and smacked down the Austro-Russian forces instead.

So during all this he got a shit ton of territory, including annexation of Prussian lands which ostensibly gave him control of Europe. The Holy Roman Empire was dissolved, Holland and Westphalia created, and Napoleon’s relatives and loyalists became leaders in Holland, Westphalia, Italy, Naples, Spain and Sweden. Little dude had taken the world by storm.

AND THEN. The Peninsular War, 1808. Things start to go downhill for him as France starts to suck again. And later he was all “hey Russia, would you mind if I just-” and Russia was like “no, get out.” As if things couldn’t get worse, in March 1814, Paris fell and Napoleon went into exile on the island of Elba. This made him pretty sad, but at least he was still an emperor. Technically. Of Elba, that is.

In March 1815 he put his badassery to the test. He escaped Elba and freaking marched onto the French capital alone. And guess what, France took him back. So then he kicked some butts for 100 days, but unfortunately The Battle of Waterloo put an end to that second reign pretty quickly. In the end, the British finally imprisoned him on the remote Atlantic island of St Helena, where he died on May 5th, 1821.

And so ends the impressive life story of Mr. Bonaparte.

lostsplendor:

Hazel Lee [1912-1944] 

Experienced women pilots, like Lee, were eager to join the WASP, and responded to interview requests by Cochran. Members of the WASP reported to Avenger Field, in wind swept Sweetwater, Texas for an arduous 6-month training program. Lee was accepted into the 4th class, 43 W 4.^[2] Hazel Ying Lee was the first Chinese American woman to fly for the United States military.

Although flying under military command, the women pilots of the WASP were classified as civilians. They were paid through the civil service. No military benefits were offered. Even if killed in the line of duty, no military funerals were allowed. The WASPs were often assigned the least desirable missions, such as winter trips in open cockpit airplanes. Commanding officers were reluctant to give women any flying deliveries. It took an order from the head of the Air Transport Command to improve the situation.

Upon graduation, Lee was assigned to the third Ferrying Group at Romulus, Michigan. Their assignment was critical to the war effort; Deliver aircraft, pouring out of converted automobile factories, to points of embarkation, where they would then be shipped to the European and Pacific War fronts. In a letter to her sister, Lee described Romulus as “a 7-day workweek, with little time off.” When asked to describe Lee’s attitude, a fellow member of the WASP summed it up in Lee’s own words, “I’ll take and deliver anything.”

Described by her fellow pilots as “calm and fearless,” Lee had two forced landings. One landing took place in a Kansas wheat field. A farmer, pitchfork in hand, chased her around the plane while shouting to his neighbors that the Japanese had invaded Kansas. Alternately running and ducking under her wing, Lee finally stood her ground. She told the farmer who she was and demanded that he put the pitchfork down. He complied.

Lee was a favorite with just about all of her fellow pilots. She had a great sense of humor and a marvelous sense of mischief. Lee used her lipstick to inscribe Chinese characters on the tail of her plane and the planes of her fellow pilots. One lucky fellow who happened to be a bit on the chubby side, had his plane dubbed (unknown to him) “Fat Ass.”

Lee was in demand when a mission was RON (Remaining Overnight) In a big city or in a small country town, she could always find a Chinese restaurant, supervise the menu, and often cook the food herself. She was a great cook. Fellow WASP pilot Sylvia Dahmes Clayton observed that “Hazel provided me with an opportunity to learn about a different culture at a time when I did not know anything else. She expanded my world and my outlook on life.”

Lee and the others were the first women to pilot fighter aircraft for the United States military.

Image (via World War II Database)

Text [click for full article] (via Wikipedia)

lostsplendor:

General Douglas MacArthur, France c. 1918 (via World War II Database)

Daaang.

Billie Burke, known to many as the beautiful Glinda in The Wizard of Oz, was the only child of a famous circus clown. After her stage debut in London at eighteen, she was an overnight sensation. She went onto New York to become “the toast of Broadway” as a musical comedy star, as well as the wife of Florenz Ziegfeld himself. At the time of filming The Wizard of Oz in 1939, she was every bit of 53 years old, but as she said, “Age is something that doesn’t matter, unless you are a cheese.” Throughout her lifetime, she appeared in more than 80 films and was said to be “the most photographed woman in the world.”

Hedy Lamaart, co-invented frequency hopping spread-spectrum, allowing for wifi, cell phones, and hotter than the surface of the sun.