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Bezig met laden... Behind the Lines: The Oral History of Special Operations in World War IIdoor Russell Miller
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 Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek.  jmkemp | Jul 5, 2016 |  geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
Compiled from interviews, diaries, letters and contemporaneous first-person accounts - many never before published - this oral history follows the adventures of the courageous men and women who volunteered for service with Britain's Special Operations Executives and the United States' Office of Strategic Services. They parachuted behind enemy lines, often alone, with orders to cause mayhem. Arrest almost always resulted in torture and emprisonment; sometimes in execution. In occupied France, equipped with false identities, they played a deadly game of cat and mouse with the Gestapo; in the Balkans they discovered that the fiery politics of the region were as dangerous as the enemy; in the Burmese jungle they led native marauders in surprise attacks against the Japanese. Supported by a team of back-room boffins who dreamed up ingenious devices like exploding rats and invisible ink, the special agents of World War Two really were a breed apart. This is their extraordinary story, in their own words. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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 Google Books — Bezig met laden...GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)940.5486History and Geography Europe Europe 1918- Military History Of World War II Other Topics Unconventional warfare of AlliesLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde: (4.5)
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Almost all of the book is in the direct quotation from the various special operations personnel. This shows the attitudes they had to the work and the people that they dealt with. A number of the accounts talked about vetting people, both before operations in the UK and in the field overseas. What struck me was that the methods used in the field are similar to those used by terrorist organisations. I'd always sort of knew it, but this made it a little more real.
The other revelation for me was the lack of vindictiveness against the Gestapo in Europe. A couple of the agents talked about incidents where they could have killed or seriously wounded Gestapo officers, yet they didn't. Reading between the lines the implication is that doing so would have had a huge negative impact on the local populace. It may also have contributed to a surprising number of SOE agents surving over a year in captivity.
The book covers setting up SOE & OSS (a chapter each). Preparing agents to be deployed, operations in France, the Balkans, Norway, the Far East and also the post war wrap up in Germany. (