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Bezig met laden... Renegades: Hitler's Englishmendoor Adrian Weale
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At the end of the Second World War, nearly 200 British citizens were under investigation for assisting Nazi Germany. Some have remained notorious, such as William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) and John Amery who went to the gallows for High Treason, but as this meticulously researched study shows, men like Joyce and Amery are only the visible part of a much larger and more intriguing story below the surface. Renegades is drawn entirely from original documentary material, eyewitness accounts and intelligence files. Adrian Weale traces the course of treason in the Second World War from its roots in Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists, through the war and subsequent investigations by MI5, up to the trial, imprisonment and in some cases execution of the traitors. Since Renegades was first published in 1994, many files previously restricted by privileged access have been released into the Public Records Office, and a number of other files, including several from MI5, have become available. Adrian Weale has revised his book, incorporating this new material, making Renegades a more comprehensive and authoritative study. Much here will be new to historians, including the first complete account of the British Free Corps -- the Waffen-SS unit composed entirely of British subjects -- and the identity of all its members, some of whom have been interviewed for this book. Also revealed is the extraordinary career of the conman who joined the Special Air Service and who, after capture by the Germans, informed on his POW camp comrades before volunteering to fight with the Waffen-SS on the Russian front; and in France, the story of the middle-aged British spinster who joined the Gestapo. Though regarded as highly dangerous at the time, German efforts to cultivate traitors in British ranks were for the most part stunningly unsuccessful -- not least, as this book reveals, because much of that effort was entrusted to a British Fascist turned double agent at work in the heart of the Third Reich. Book jacket. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)364.131Social sciences Social problems and services; associations Criminology Crimes and Offenses State & Political Crimes Political offensesLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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These were young, able-bodied men who volunteered to fight for the Germans on the Eastern Front, committing horrendous atrocities in the process. After the war, the survivors were put on trial, but due to the fact that the Danish government had allowed if not encouraged the volunteers, their sentencing was often lenient.
This book covers the story - and the preface - to the lesser-known British equivalent, the British Free Corps. The idea was the same - establish a corps of volunteers to fight the Red Threat. The outcome, however, was entirely different. Comically so. Among the plethora of mind-boggling facts I learned from this was that the BFC never had a strength of more than 30 men - 30 being the magic number for deployment purposes. Weale does an excellent job of unravelling the frankly maddeningly convoluted chain of events that constitute the history of the BFC.
At the centre of the madhouse stood one man - John Amery, and after reading this, you get a picture in your head of a vain, pretentious man who had his head so far up his own backside - and his mind so deep in delusions - that he was ripe for the plucking. And then there's the sections on Mosley and Joyce. Mosley's story is quite well-known, but I was surprised to learn that the infamous "Lord Haw-Haw" tried to flee into Denmark(!) from Flensburg after Germany capitulated.
This is a compact little bomb of a book - perfect for commuter reading. Although some people give you weird looks if you read it on the morning bus - but I guess that is because of the cover photo. That aside, if you come across it - get your hands on it. You will not be let down if you like your history well-researched, well-narrated and colourful. ( )