Overview

As the fall of France took place, almost the entire coastline of Western Europe was in German hands. Clandestine sea transport operations provided lines of vital intelligence for wartime Britain. These ""secret flotillas"" landed and picked up agents in and from France, and ferried Allied evaders and escapees. This activity was crucial to the SIS (Secret Intelligence Service) and the SOE (Special Operations Executive). This authoritative publication by the official historian, the late Sir Brooks Richards, vividly describes and analyses the clandestine naval operations that took place during WWII. The account has been made possible through Sir Brooks' access to closed government archives, combined with his own wartime experiences and the recollections of many of those involved. First published in 1996, the original edition included descriptions of naval operations off French North Africa. The history has now been amended and expanded by Sir Brooks and is now published in two volumes. This first volume concentrates on the sea lines to Brittany.

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9781781590805

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Reviews

Fluent in French and with a very well-developed political nose, Richards opens with a brilliant account of the politics of the Fall of France and how de Gaulle came to lead those Frenchmen who sought to carry on the fight. Brooks also explains the genesis of the SOE and SIS and their often prickly relationship, and difficulties of working with the Free French, whose initial amateurishness and woefully poor grasp of security caused endless problems. There are a number of photographs of people and boats that put flesh on the bones of the stories recounted. This is an important, permanent work of naval history - Army Rumour Service

Author Information

Brook Richards is an author and historian.

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