Behind the Lines: The Oral History of Special Operations in World War II

By Russell Miller

Book Overview

This is the story of special operations in the second world war as it has never been told before-directly by those who took part. Compiled from interviews, diaries, letters and contemporaneous first-person accounts-many unpublished until now-this oral history follows the adventures of the courageous men and women who volunteered for service with the Untied States' Office of Strategic Services and Britain's Special Operations Executive. They parachuted behind enemy lines, often alone, with orders to cause mayhem. Arrest almost always resulted in torture and imprisonment; sometimes in execution Trained in the black arts of warfare-sabotage, subversion, espionage, guerrilla tactics and undermining enemy morale by the distribution of insidious propaganda-theirs was a war fought in the shadows. Their activities extended to every theatre of operations: 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, in some of the worst combat conditions of the war, they led native marauders in surprise attacks against the Japanese. From Britain they were supported by a team of back-room inventors who produced expertly forged documents and 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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312266421
• ISBN13: 9780312266424
• Release Date: December 2002
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.9" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Fascinante = Fascinating

Though Iám spanish and not proficiency writter, my interest for Second World War spy and intelligence operations had found in this book, a perfect source of intrigue and action relates. With several chapters refered to different war stages; divided theiselves into lots of personal descriptions, subsume yourself into risk operations and secret files once upon a time. The writting style it's dinamical, fast, manage to wake up yourself inside the same action. It's not able similar book in spanish language, what a pity !

Special operations & resistance fighters, first hand accounts!

This book chonicles the experiences of various people who served in Special Operations Executive, Office of Strategic Services, and the various resistance groups in occupied Europe, in World War II. Most of the events described take place in Western Europe, particularly France. There is a brief chapter on activities in South-east Asia as well. The veterans tell of their experiences in training for SOE/OSS missions, and harrowing events while deployed overseas. Read about recruitment and training, with several recollections of learning hand-to-hand combat, use of weapons, and other survival skills, from such famous instructors as Fairbairn, Sykes, and Applegate. Read about the missions in occupied Europe, leading up to the D-Day invasion. There is also a chapter devoted to those who worked in the cryptography sections, breaking codes, and intercepting enemy communications. Most of the people interviewed appear only once in the book, some at least twice, and this is the only disappointment. Many of these interviews leave you wanting to know more about what happened next, and what became of these people in the end! One wants to hear the entire account. In fact, every interviewed subject could very well produce a book of their own, with the individual's entire story!

Flawed but fun

This book had its flaws, but it was a fun read. The balance between male and female agents was the real charm. Recommended!

Terrific oral history

This is exactly what it purports to be, a compendium of personal narratives of World War II era spies. The previous reviewer's opinion might be given more weight if the word "awful" were spelled correctly. Five stars to help balance the previous negative review: real rating, about 4 stars.