The Heroines of SOE

Download The Heroines of SOE PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : The History Press
ISBN 13 : 0752462458
Total Pages : 236 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (524 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Heroines of SOE by : Squadron Leader Beryl E Escott

Download or read book The Heroines of SOE written by Squadron Leader Beryl E Escott and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2010-12-26 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Britain's war in the shadows of male spies and subterfuge in the heart of occupied France is a story well known, but what of the women who also risked their lives for Britain and the liberation of France? In 1942 a desperate need for new recruits, saw SOE turn to a previously overlooked group – women. These extraordinary women came from different backgrounds, but were joined in their idealistic love of France and a desire to play a part in its liberation. They formed SOE's F Section. From the famous White Mouse, Nancy Wake, to the courageous, Noor Inayat Khan, they all risked their lives for King, Country and the Resistance. Many of them died bravely and painfully, and often those who survived, like Eileen Nearne, never told their stories, yet their secret missions of intelligence-gathering and sabotage undoubtedly helped the Resistance to drive out their occupiers and free France. Here, for the first time is the extraordinary account of all forty SOE F women agents. It is a story that deserves to be read by everyone. 'They were the war's bravest women, devoted to defeating the Nazis yet reluctant ever to reveal their heroic pasts. Now a new book tells their intrepid tales.' Daily Express Squadron Leader BERYL E. ESCOTT served in the RAF and is one of the foremost experts on the women of SOE.

Lonely Courage

Download Lonely Courage PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1471155676
Total Pages : 408 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (711 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Lonely Courage by : Rick Stroud

Download or read book Lonely Courage written by Rick Stroud and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-02-23 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘A fascinating, superbly researched and revelatory book – told with tremendous pace and excitement’ William Boyd ‘Rick Stroud writes brilliantly about war … an astonishing book … a wonderful story’ Ben Macintyre 'Enthralling, edge-of-smart exciting and also heart-breaking...Stroud's book is a reminder and fitting testimony to their immense bravery' James Holland On 18 June 1940 General de Gaulle broadcast from London to his countrymen in France about the catastrophe that had overtaken their nation – the victory of the invading Germans. He declared: ‘The flame of French Resistance must not and will not be extinguished.' The Resistance began almost immediately. At first it was made up of small, disorganised groups working in isolation. But by the time of the liberation in 1944 around 400,000 French citizens, nearly 2 per cent of the population, were involved. The Special Operations Executive (SOE) set up by Winston Churchill in 1941 saw its role in France as helping the Resistance by recruiting and organising guerrilla fighters; supplying and training them; and then disrupting the invaders by any means necessary. The aim of this work was to prepare for the invasion of Europe by Allied forces and the eventual liberation of France. It was soon decided that women would play a vital role. There were 39 female agents recruited from all walks of life, ranging from a London shop assistant to a Polish aristocrat. They all knew France well, were fluent in French and were prepared to sacrifice everything. The women trained alongside the men, learning how to disappear into the background, how to operate a radio transmitter and how to kill a man with their bare hands. Once trained, they were infiltrated behind the lines; some went on to lead thousands of Resistance fighters, while others were arrested, brutally interrogated and sent to concentration camps. Lonely Courage tells their remarkable story and sheds new light on what life was really like for these brave women.

SOE Heroines

Download SOE Heroines PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781398103382
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (33 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis SOE Heroines by : Bernard O'Connor

Download or read book SOE Heroines written by Bernard O'Connor and published by . This book was released on 2021-10-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New B-format paperback - The amazing stories of 38 female spies who operated in occupied France and Vichy France, many told for the very first time.

I Heard My Country Calling

Download I Heard My Country Calling PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : The History Press
ISBN 13 : 0750966491
Total Pages : 298 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (59 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis I Heard My Country Calling by : Sue Elliott

Download or read book I Heard My Country Calling written by Sue Elliott and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2015-10-05 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After a tragic childhood among the Great War cemeteries of Flanders Fields, a troubled young woman searches for love and meaning in war-ravaged Europe. Elaine Madden's quest takes her from occupied Belgium through the chaos of Dunkirk, where she flees disguised as a British soldier, into the London Blitz, where she finally begins to discover herself. Recruited to T Section of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) as a 'fast courier', she is parachuted back to the country of her birth to undertake a top-secret political mission and help speed its liberation from Nazi oppression. Elaine Madden never claimed to be a heroine, but her story proves otherwise. Its centrepiece – war service as one of only two women SOE agents parachuted into enemy-occupied Belgium – is just one episode in an extraordinary real-life drama of highs and lows, love, loss and betrayal. Relayed to the author in the final years of her life, Elaine's true story of courage and humour in testing times is more intriguing, more compelling than fiction.

Mission France

Download Mission France PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300258844
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (2 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Mission France by : Kate Vigurs

Download or read book Mission France written by Kate Vigurs and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2021-05-18 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The full story of the thirty-nine female SOE agents who went undercover in France Formed in 1940, Special Operations Executive was to coordinate Resistance work overseas. The organization’s F section sent more than four hundred agents into France, thirty-nine of whom were women. But while some are widely known—Violette Szabo, Odette Sansom, Noor Inayat Khan—others have had their stories largely overlooked. Kate Vigurs interweaves for the first time the stories of all thirty-nine female agents. Tracing their journeys from early recruitment to work undertaken in the field, to evasion from, or capture by, the Gestapo, Vigurs shows just how greatly missions varied. Some agents were more adept at parachuting. Some agents’ missions lasted for years, others’ less than a few hours. Some survived, others were murdered. By placing the women in the context of their work with the SOE and the wider war, this history reveals the true extent of the differences in their abilities and attitudes while underlining how they nonetheless shared a common mission and, ultimately, deserve recognition.

Nancy Wake

Download Nancy Wake PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (222 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Nancy Wake by : Russell Braddon

Download or read book Nancy Wake written by Russell Braddon and published by . This book was released on 1956 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Woman in Arms

Download Woman in Arms PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 232 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Woman in Arms by : Russell Braddon

Download or read book Woman in Arms written by Russell Braddon and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Spymistress

Download Spymistress PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1628721863
Total Pages : 476 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (287 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Spymistress by : William Stevenson

Download or read book Spymistress written by William Stevenson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-10-11 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New York Times Bestseller by the Author of A Man Called Intrepid Ideal for fans of Nancy Wake, Virginia Hall, The Last Goodnight by Howard Blum, The Woman Who Smashed Codes, The Wolves at the Door by Judith Pearson, and similar works Shares the story of Vera Atkins, legendary spy and holder of the Legion of Honor Written by William Stevenson, the only person whom she trusted to write her biography She was stunning. She was ruthless. She was brilliant and had a will of iron. Born Vera Maria Rosenberg in Bucharest, she became Vera Atkins. William Stphenson, the spymaster who would later be known as “Intrepid”, recruited her when she was twenty-three. Vera spent most of the 1930s running too many dangerous espionage missions to count. When war was declared in 1939, her many skills made her one of the leaders of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), a covert intelligence agency formed by, and reporting to, Winston Churchill. She trained and recruited hundreds of agents, including dozens of women. Their job was to seamlessly penetrate deep behind the enemy lines. As General Dwight D. Eisenhower said, the fantastic exploits and extraordinary courage of the SOE agents and the French Resistance fighters “shortened the war by many months.”They are celebrated, as they should be. But Vera Atkins’s central role has been hidden until after she died; William Stevenson promised to wait and publish her story posthumously. Now, Vera Atkins can be celebrated and known for the hero she was: the woman whose beauty, intelligence, and unwavering dedication proved key in turning the tide of World War II.

The Spy Who Loved

Download The Spy Who Loved PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
ISBN 13 : 1250030331
Total Pages : 448 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (5 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Spy Who Loved by : Clare Mulley

Download or read book The Spy Who Loved written by Clare Mulley and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2013-06-11 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Untold Story of Britain's First Female Special Agent of World War II In June 1952, a woman was murdered by an obsessed colleague in a hotel in the South Kensington district of London. Her name was Christine Granville. That she died young was perhaps unsurprising; that she had survived the Second World War was remarkable. The daughter of a feckless Polish aristocrat and his wealthy Jewish wife, Granville would become one of Britain's most daring and highly decorated special agents. Having fled to Britain on the outbreak of war, she was recruited by the intelligence services and took on mission after mission. She skied over the hazardous High Tatras into occupied Poland, served in Egypt and North Africa, and was later parachuted behind enemy lines into France, where an agent's life expectancy was only six weeks. Her courage, quick wit, and determination won her release from arrest more than once, and saved the lives of several fellow officers—including one of her many lovers—just hours before their execution by the Gestapo. More importantly, the intelligence she gathered in her espionage was a significant contribution to the Allied war effort, and she was awarded the George Medal, the OBE, and the Croix de Guerre. Granville exercised a mesmeric power on those who knew her. In The Spy Who Loved, acclaimed biographer Clare Mulley tells the extraordinary history of this charismatic, difficult, fearless, and altogether extraordinary woman.

Code Name Pauline

Download Code Name Pauline PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Chicago Review Press
ISBN 13 : 1613744900
Total Pages : 218 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (137 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Code Name Pauline by : Pearl Witherington Cornioley

Download or read book Code Name Pauline written by Pearl Witherington Cornioley and published by Chicago Review Press. This book was released on 2013-08-01 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pearl Witherington Cornioley, one of the most celebrated female World War II resistance fighters, shares her remarkable story in this firsthand account of her experience as a special agent for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE). Told through a series of reminiscences—from a difficult childhood spent in the shadow of World War I and her family's harrowing escape from France as the Germans approached in 1940 to her recruitment and training as a special agent and the logistics of parachuting into a remote rural area of occupied France and hiding in a wheat field from enemy fire—each chapter also includes helpful opening remarks to provide context and background on the SOE and the French Resistance. With an annotated list of key figures, an appendix of original unedited interview extracts—including Pearl's fiancé Henri's story—and fascinating photographs and documents from Pearl's personal collection, this memoir will captivate World War II buffs of any age.

A Life in Secrets

Download A Life in Secrets PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Anchor
ISBN 13 : 0307487474
Total Pages : 546 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (74 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis A Life in Secrets by : Sarah Helm

Download or read book A Life in Secrets written by Sarah Helm and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2008-12-10 with total page 546 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From an award-winning journalist comes this real-life cloak-and-dagger tale of Vera Atkins, one of Britain’s premiere secret agents during World War II. As the head of the French Section of the British Special Operations Executive, Vera Atkins recruited, trained, and mentored special operatives whose job was to organize and arm the resistance in Nazi-occupied France. After the war, Atkins courageously committed herself to a dangerous search for twelve of her most cherished women spies who had gone missing in action. Drawing on previously unavailable sources, Sarah Helm chronicles Atkins’s extraordinary life and her singular journey through the chaos of post-war Europe. Brimming with intrigue, heroics, honor, and the horrors of war, A Life in Secrets is the story of a grand, elusive woman and a tour de force of investigative journalism.

Spy Princess

Download Spy Princess PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : The History Press
ISBN 13 : 0752463683
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (524 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Spy Princess by : Shrabani Basu

Download or read book Spy Princess written by Shrabani Basu and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2011-04-11 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the riveting story of Noor Inayat Khan, a descendant of an Indian prince, Tipu Sultan (the Tiger of Mysore), who became a British secret agent for SOE during World War II. Shrabani Basu tells the moving story of Noor's life, from her birth in Moscow – where her father was a Sufi preacher – to her capture by the Germans. Noor was one of only three women SOE agents awarded the George Cross and, under torture, revealed nothing, not even her real name. Kept in solitary confinement, her hands and feet chained together, Noor was starved and beaten, but the Germans could not break her spirit. Ten months after she was captured, she was taken to Dachau concentration camp and, on 13 September 1944, she was shot. Her last word was 'Liberté.'

SOE in France, 1941–1945

Download SOE in France, 1941–1945 PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Frontline Books
ISBN 13 : 1473882052
Total Pages : 369 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (738 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis SOE in France, 1941–1945 by : Robert Bourne-Patterson

Download or read book SOE in France, 1941–1945 written by Robert Bourne-Patterson and published by Frontline Books. This book was released on 2016-10-31 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the archives of the Special Operations Executive lay a report compiled by a staff officer and former member of SOE's French Section, Major Robert Bourne-Patterson, that until recently could not be published. Because of the highly sensitive nature of the work undertaken by the SOE, the paper was treated as confidential and its circulation was strictly limited to selected personnel. Now, at last, it can be made available to the general public.Limited, also, was the time available to Bourne-Patterson in compiling his report in 1946 as the SOE was being wound up and many documents were being weeded from the files. Nevertheless, the paper he wrote gives a good picture of the work of the SOE in France, the country where its operations were most extensive. It contains an overview of operations in France by the Special Operations Executive during the Second World War with detailed records of individual circuits from their inception onwards, containing much information concerning individual agents and their contacts, calendars of subversive activity against the Germans and the names and addresses of personnel connected with the circuits who had survived the war. In writing his account, Bourne-Patterson drew heavily on personal interviews and wartime debriefings by agents.

Operation EBENSBURG: SOE’s Austrian ‘Bonzos’ and the rescue of looted European art

Download Operation EBENSBURG: SOE’s Austrian ‘Bonzos’ and the rescue of looted European art PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Lulu.com
ISBN 13 : 0244380899
Total Pages : 116 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (443 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Operation EBENSBURG: SOE’s Austrian ‘Bonzos’ and the rescue of looted European art by : Bernard O'Connor

Download or read book Operation EBENSBURG: SOE’s Austrian ‘Bonzos’ and the rescue of looted European art written by Bernard O'Connor and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2018-04-16 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Some captured German and Austrian personnel were brought to Britain as prisoners of war. Those who were identified as anti-Nazi were 'turned' and, codenamed 'Bonzos', were trained in paramilitary and clandestine warfare to be sent back into occupied Europe on top secret missions. The British Special Operations Executive arranged the infiltration of four Austrians, Albrecht Gaiswinkler, Joseph Grafl, Karl Standhartinger and Karl Lzicar, into the Salzkammergut area of northwestern Austria. This book tells the story of Operation EBENSBURG, their mission to kidnap or assassinate Joseph Goebbels, the Reich's Minister of Propaganda, to organise resistance groups before the arrival of American forces and to protect the looted works of art hidden in the Altaussee salt mine.

D-Day Girls

Download D-Day Girls PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Crown
ISBN 13 : 0451495098
Total Pages : 418 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (514 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis D-Day Girls by : Sarah Rose

Download or read book D-Day Girls written by Sarah Rose and published by Crown. This book was released on 2020-03-17 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The dramatic, untold history of the heroic women recruited by Britain’s elite spy agency to help pave the way for Allied victory in World War II “Gripping. Spies, romance, Gestapo thugs, blown-up trains, courage, and treachery (lots of treachery)—and all of it true.”—Erik Larson, author of The Devil in the White City and Dead Wake In 1942, the Allies were losing, Germany seemed unstoppable, and every able man in England was on the front lines. To “set Europe ablaze,” in the words of Winston Churchill, the Special Operations Executive (SOE), whose spies were trained in everything from demolition to sharpshooting, was forced to do something unprecedented: recruit women. Thirty-nine answered the call, leaving their lives and families to become saboteurs in France. In D-Day Girls, Sarah Rose draws on recently de­classified files, diaries, and oral histories to tell the thrilling story of three of these remarkable women. There’s Andrée Borrel, a scrappy and streetwise Parisian who blew up power lines with the Gestapo hot on her heels; Odette Sansom, an unhappily married suburban mother who saw the SOE as her ticket out of domestic life and into a meaningful adventure; and Lise de Baissac, a fiercely independent member of French colonial high society and the SOE’s unflap­pable “queen.” Together, they destroyed train lines, ambushed Nazis, plotted prison breaks, and gathered crucial intelligence—laying the groundwork for the D-Day invasion that proved to be the turning point in the war. Rigorously researched and written with razor-sharp wit, D-Day Girls is an inspiring story for our own moment of resistance: a reminder of what courage—and the energy of politically animated women—can accomplish when the stakes seem incalculably high. Praise for D-Day Girls “Rigorously researched . . . [a] thriller in the form of a non-fiction book.”—Refinery29 “Equal parts espionage-romance thriller and historical narrative, D-Day Girls traces the lives and secret activities of the 39 women who answered the call to infiltrate France. . . . While chronicling the James Bond-worthy missions and love affairs of these women, Rose vividly captures the broken landscape of war.”—The Washington Post “Gripping history . . . thoroughly researched and written as smoothly as a good thriller, this is a mesmerizing story of creativity, perseverance, and astonishing heroism.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Shadow Knights

Download Shadow Knights PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1451683596
Total Pages : 176 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (516 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Shadow Knights by : Gary Kamiya

Download or read book Shadow Knights written by Gary Kamiya and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-12-06 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pulp History brings to life extraordinary feats of bravery, violence, and redemption that history has forgotten. These stories are so dramatic and thrilling they have to be true. In SHADOW KNIGHTS, everyday men and women risk their lives on top-secret missions to sabotage Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich. Hell-bent on conquering Europe, Hitler had just set his sights on England when Winston Churchill reached into his bag of tricks and invented a secret spy network of ordinary citizens. These schoolteachers, housewives, prostitutes, and farmers abandoned their former lives, trained in covert black ops, and set Europe ablaze. Parachuting into Nazi territory under the cover of night, they destroyed factories, armed resistance networks, and turned Hitler’s juggernaut on its head.

Wolves at the Door

Download Wolves at the Door PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1493078682
Total Pages : 289 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (93 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Wolves at the Door by : Judith Pearson

Download or read book Wolves at the Door written by Judith Pearson and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2023-05-01 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Virginia Hall left her Baltimore home in 1931 to enter the Foreign Service and went to work for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) when Hitler was building toward the peak of his power in Europe. She was assigned to France, where she helped the Resistance movement, escaped prisoners of war, and American Allied paratroopers. By 1942 she was considered so dangerous to the Gestapo that she had to escape over the Pyrenees mountains—on an artificial leg, no less. When she got to England, she was reassigned to France by the OSS, disguised as an old peasant woman. She helped capture 500 German soldiers and kill more than 150, while she sabotaged Nazi communications and transportation. Hitler's forces were hot on her trail, however, and her daring intelligence activities and indomitable spirit defied the expectations of even the Allies until the very end of the war. Her story was ignored for more than fifty years, and this book now brings Virginia Hall's story to patriots young and old.