The memoir of SOE agent Benjamin Cowburn is rightly regarded as a classic of wartime literature. In simple, gripping detail Cowburn explains the methods of special agents who were dropped into France during the war and the ways that agents would set about establishing secure networks with the French Resistance. He also shows how agents were able to travel across France, how they set up transmitters and contacted their British headquarters for orders, and how they arranged airplane pick-ups and deliveries of supplies. His account sheds light on the views of both the Resistance fighters facing torture at the hands of the Gestapo and their besieged French countrymen. He notes the tensions within the different command centres, in particular between the French leader-in-exile Charles de Gaulle and his British counterparts, who were all eager to control the efforts of the Resistance. Cowburn gives fascinating general lessons in the art of spying from establishing a worthy target to executing an operation but also tells the full story of his own sabotage operations, including the effective destruction of cylinders for thirteen locomotives in the dead of night. As in so many operations, mistakes were made which could have led to numerous arrests. In this case, the details of the operation had accidentally been left on a blackboard in the school where they had planned the raid, but were luckily scrubbed out by the headmaster's wife. On another occasion, Cowburn snuck itching powder into the laundry of Luftwaffe agents to cause a disruption.This new edition contains an Introduction by M.R.D Foot and a Foreword by Sebastian Faulks.A top 500 Amazon title!!
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I'd read Ben Cowburn's book several years ago in its original form; I was impressed then, as I am now, with the wonderfully descriptive and self-deprecating style he possessed. In particular, I loved the description of when Cowburn was cycling along, his panniers packed with high-explosive, when two members of the Feldgendarmarie leapt out at him; the only reason for them doing so, was to test the efficiency of the bicycle's brakes! But I think this latest version benefits from MRD Foot's introduction in which he laments the fact that despite Cowburn's heroic and breathtakingly dangerous exploits as an operative from SOE's `F' Section in wartime, occupied France, he was `fobbed-off' with a military cross; sentiments with which I happen to agree.
If there is a criticism, it's a slight one; I wish Cowburn had given a fuller description of how he adjusted to life in the post-war years and since the original book was written in 1960, there's no reason why he shouldn't have done.
But that criticism shouldn't detract from the book - it's the wartime memoirs of a very brave and resourceful man and worth every penny.
If there is a criticism, it's a slight one; I wish Cowburn had given a fuller description of how he adjusted to life in the post-war years and since the original book was written in 1960, there's no reason why he shouldn't have done.
But that criticism shouldn't detract from the book - it's the wartime memoirs of a very brave and resourceful man and worth every penny.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By scafftag
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book, unlike many others written before and since about SOE, has the merit of being a first-hand account by a former agent. While I think his views on the strength of french resistance are coloured by his own experiences, the circles in which he moved in France, and the attitudes of the post-war era in which he wrote, (and certainly they do not entirely agree with my own researches on the subject), this is a well and entertainingly written book, which makes light of his own very real heroism and expertise. Well worth a read
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SOE Spycraft
15 Nov 2012
By Troy A. Lettieri
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
SOE Spycraft
Benjamin, Cowburn's book "No Cloak, No Dagger" is an accurate and detailed descriptions of Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent activities in occupied and unoccupied France, including details of air drops, line crossing techniques, network communications, and rendezvous techniques. Cowburn was also working the Tinker evasion and escape network lines moving evaders to friendly forces. Well worth the read for insight to WWII special warfare.
Benjamin, Cowburn's book "No Cloak, No Dagger" is an accurate and detailed descriptions of Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent activities in occupied and unoccupied France, including details of air drops, line crossing techniques, network communications, and rendezvous techniques. Cowburn was also working the Tinker evasion and escape network lines moving evaders to friendly forces. Well worth the read for insight to WWII special warfare.
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