World War II ‘white angel’ nun dies

Dieppe (France): A French nun who was called “the white angel” by Canadian soldiers she saved during one of the worst single disasters to befall Allied armies during World War II has died aged 103, authorities said on Saturday. Sister Agnes-Marie Valois in a monastery, officials in the northern town of Dieppe said. She tended to wounded soldiers in the Dieppe Raid of August 19, 1942, when a 6,000-strong force of Canadian and British troops lost 4,131 men — they were killed, wounded or captured in just six hours while briefly seizing a Channel port held by the Germans. Valois saved several lives by persuading German officials to tend to some of the wounded and also stole German rations to feed the injured. The raid, codenamed Operation Jubilee, was the first time the Canadian army had engaged in the European theatre of the war.  —AFP