Susan Travers
Susan Travers (September 23, 1909 - December 18, 2003) was a British subject and daughter of a Royal Navy admiral who, during World War II, was informally part of the French Foreign Legion and became the chauffeur for Free French General Pierre Koenig. Prior to the war, she was a semi-pro tennis player. For her actions in the Battle of Bir Hakeim (1942), Travers was awarded the Croix de Guerre.
Early war
Prior to the invasion of France (1940), Travers served as an ambulance driver in Finland. With the German invasion of Denmark and Norway, she had retreated from Denmark through to Finland. She escaped then by ship to Iceland and returned from there to England where she joined General De Gaulles' forces. By 1941, she was the chauffeur for a medical officer of the Légion Étrangère, during the Syrian campaign in which Vichy French legionnaires fought Free French legionnaires. She then travelled to North Africa via Dahomey and the Congo.
Bir Hakeim
In late May 1942, as the Afrika Korps prepared to attack Bir Hakeim, General Koenig ordered Travers and other females out of the area. The Germans attacked on May 26. Not long after, Travers joined a convoy into the rear area and Koenig agreed to her requests to return to Bir Hakeim, since he felt the German attack was a failure. However, during the following fortnight, the Luftwaffe flew 1,400 sorties against the defences of Bir Hakeim, whilst four German/Italian divisions attacked on the ground. During the bombing, a piece of shrapnel tore a hole in the General's car and Travers (with the assistance of a Vietnamese driver) carried the part to a field workshop where mechanics fixed it.
On June 10, Travers drove the General's staff car during the retreat. The retreating column ran into minefields and German machine gun fire. Koenig ordered Travers to drive at the front of the column. Travers states, "He said, 'We have to get in front. If we go the rest will follow.' It is a delightful feeling, going as fast as you can in the dark. My main concern was that the engine would stall." At 1030, on June 11, the column entered British lines. Travers' vehicle had been hit by 11 bullets with a shock absorber destroyed, and the brakes unserviceable.
The rest of WWII and the post-war years
Later in the war, Travers was wounded when Koenig drove over a mine. She went on to serve in Italy, France, and Germany, where she respectively drove an ambulance, lorry, and a self-propelled anti-tank gun. After the war she was formally enrolled in the Légion Étrangère, as an Adjudant Chef. Travers served in Vietnam, during the Indo-China War. She married Adjudant Chef Nicolas Schlegelmilch, who had fought at Bir Hakeim with the 13th Foreign Legion Demi-Brigade. As of 2000, she was living near Paris, France.
In 2000, at the age of 91, assisted by Wendy Holden she wrote her autobiography Tomorrow to Be Brave: A Memoir of the Only Woman Ever to Serve in the French Foreign Legion, having waited for all the other principals in her life story to die before writing it.
Susan Travers is survived by a son, Thomas, and two grand daughters who live in Hobart.
Quotes
- General Marie Pierre Koenig -- "She was exceptionally brave."
External link
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