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Who is this Vera Lynn? I need to check her out. She seems to know more than Bing Crosby.

Vera Lynn was the "Forces Sweetheart" in World War Two. Vera Lynn was one of Britain's premier entertainers during the war and along with the likes of Max Miller, Gracie Fields and Tommy Trinder kept up the spirits of the public when times were difficult, such as in the Blitz.

Vera Lynn was born in March 1917 in London. By the age of seven she was singing on a regular basis in working men's clubs and she joined a dancing troupe in which she stayed until the age of fifteen. Vera Lynn made her first broadcast in 1935 when she san with the famous Joe Loss Orchestra. Before the war, she also worked with such luminaries as Charlie Kunz. However, it was during the war that Vera Lynn found fame.

In 1940, now married to Harry Lewis who acted as her manager, Vera Lynn decided to go solo. Along with the help of producer Howard Thomas, she started her own BBC radio show called "Sincerely Yours". During this show, Vera Lynn would read out messages from loved ones and she was seen as the link between the men fighting abroad and their wives, girl friends etc. at home. She also released such songs as "We'll Meet Again" and "White Cliffs of Dover". Both these songs, and some others such as "Yours", catapulted Vera Lynn into what would now be referred to as superstardom. She became the "Forces Sweetheart" and the most popular female entertainer in Britain. Vera Lynn also went abroad to entertain troops - such as Burma. By doing this she further cemented her status as Burma was hardly the most pleasant of environments to work in, and the journey out there would have been considered debilitating by some.

During the war, Vera Lynn also made three films:

* [b]We'll Meet Again[/b] (made in 1942) * Rhythm Serenade (made in 1943) * One Exciting Night (made in 1944)

After the war ended in 1945, Vera Lynn returned to the variety circuit. Still Britain's most popular female singer, she easily filled out halls and theatres. Vera Lynn also holds the distinction of being the first British artist to get to Number 1 in the American charts - a feat she achieved with the song "Auf Wiedersehn Sweetheart". The song was also a huge hit in Great Britain - though it was released before record charts were compiled in the UK.

Throughout the 1950's and 1960's, Vera Lynn was a regular on both the radio and television. Her status in the world of entertainment was firmly established and in 1969, Vera Lynn was awarded the OBE. In 1975, in recognition of all that she had done in entertainment, Vera Lynn was made a Dame of the British Empire. She continues to do charitable work for organisations like the Burma Star.

Hey, Tico. Thanks for that background! Vera Lynn was to Britain, what Axis Sally and Tokyo Rose were to Germany and Japan. As a matter of record, Martha Stewart and Tokyo were both imprisoned at the Women's prison in Alderson, West Virginia. What happened to Axis Sally, I wonder?

After the defeat of Germany, Gillars was not immediately apprehended but blended into the throngs of displaced persons in occupied Germany seeking assistance from the Western Allies in obtaining food, shelter, medical treatment, location of relatives and friends, and possible employment. She spent three weeks in an American hospital in 1946, then was taken to an internment camp in Wansel, Germany. About Christmastime 1946, when she was granted amnesty and released, she obtained a pass to live in the French Zone of Berlin. Later, when she traveled to Frankfurt to get her pass renewed, she was arrested by the Army and kept there for more than a year. At the end of that detention she was flown to the United States and incarcerated in the Washington, D.C., District Jail on August 21, 1948. She was held there without bond. Later she was charged with 10 counts of treason (eventually reduced to eight to speed up the trial) by a federal grand jury. Her trial began on January 25, 1949, in the district court of the nation's capital, with Judge Edward M. Curran presiding. The chief prosecutor was John M. Kelley, Jr., and Gillars' attorney was James J. Laughlin.
[...]At 6:25 a.m. on June 10, 1961, she walked out the gate of Alderson prison a free woman.

Gillars taught for a while in a Roman Catholic school for girls in Columbus, Ohio, and then returned to her old college, Ohio Wesleyan. She received a bachelor's degree in speech in 1973. Gillars died June 25, 1988, at the age of 87.