The first subject of what AirshipJungleman promises will be a series of articles on the leading women of the Mongol Empire, Hö'elün (1162–1210) was the mother of Temüjin, better known as Genghis Khan. She is therefore the progenitor of the House of Borjigin, and played a major role in Temüjin's rise to power, giving him advice and helping to manage his camp even after his marriage to Börte, as well as arranging marriages and maintaining alliances.
An Australian soldier awarded the George Cross for his actions as a prisoner of war during the Korean War, Madden had served in the Australian Army during World War II and reenlisted to fight in Korea in 1950. After capture in April 1951 he obstinately resisted his captors, verbally abused them when they beat him, and maintained an unbroken spirit while assisting fellow prisoners. He died as a result of ill-treatment in November 1951, and was posthumously awarded the GC in 1956; this was the highest decoration awarded to an Australian in Korea.
Another in Nick's series on Allied operations against the German battleship Tirpitz, this was a valiant failure that took place in October 1942. The plan was out of a thriller, with a Norwegian boat smuggling two British manned torpedoes through heavily defended waters. The torpedo crews were superbly trained and might well have crippled Tirpitz but the operation went south at the last moment when shoddy workmanship led to both the craft being lost when they separated from the bottom of the trawler during a storm. The Allied personnel attempted to escape overland to Sweden; one of the British seamen was captured and murdered by the Germans but the others made it across the border.
