Book announcement.
I am pleased to announce my following books are being published by Pen and Sword (Military publications) and pre-orders are now available.
Volume 1. SOE French Section: Organisation, Training and Operations, 1940-43
In 1940, with France overrun and Britain threatened with invasion, Churchill ordered the formation of a new organization to carry the war to the Germans and ‘set Europe ablaze’. This was the Special Operations Executive (SOE), whose French Section sent agents into occupied France to hinder the German war effort and help organize resistance to the invader. Despite a life expectancy of six weeks, these brave men and women did their duty in the most perilous circumstances, usually dropped in the middle of nowhere by brave pilots flying by moonlight and hoping the Gestapo were not waiting for them. Many were captured, tortured and either executed or incarcerated in dreadful conditions but many achieved valuable results. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including testimonies of agents who served in France and senior staff officers based at F Section’s HQ in London, Alan Malcher describes the founding and organization of the SOE, and specifically its French Section. The rigorous training regime, which included knife-fighting, sabotage and explosives handling, is described and, of course, the daring operations themselves. His thorough research corrects many inaccuracies included in earlier accounts and perpetuated by later historians to give the most accurate account of the SOE in France and their contribution to the war effort during the darkest days of the war.
Volume 2. SOE and D-Day: Operations in Support of Overlord and the Liberation of France, 1944-1945.
The SOE was formed in 1940 when Britain’s back was to the wall. Churchill ordered agents to be sent over the Channel to ‘set Europe ablaze’ by organizing local resistance, sabotaging factories and railways, and generally making life difficult for the German occupiers. This helped to maintain Allied morale while lowering that of the Germans and diverting their resources away from the battle front. By 1944 the Allies were ready to storm back into France and eject the Nazis for good and this was to prove the SOEs finest hour, helping to pave the way for the successful invasion by causing confusion behind German front lines, interrupting crucial communications and resupply and preventing or delaying the arrival of vital German reserves that might have turned the battle in the Germans’ favour. Alan Malcher draws on decades of research, including much first-hand testimony from SOE operatives, to narrate these significant events. He argues that the contribution of SOE and the Resistance units they supported to the success of the Allied invasion has been underestimated and corrects several inaccuracies and misconceptions. Furthermore, his own extensive experience of special operations and clandestine warfare allows him insights into the stresses and demands made of SOE agents, many of whom made the ultimate sacrifice for final victory.
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More information to be announced later.
