Free Downloads No Cloak, No Dagger: Allied Spycraft In Occupied France
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 title!!
File Size: 525 KB
Print Length: 224 pages
Publisher: Frontline Books (May 30, 2009)
Publication Date: October 6, 2013
Sold by: Digital Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B00FOGG3AQ
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray: Not Enabled
Word Wise: Enabled
Lending: Not Enabled
Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
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SOE SpycraftBenjamin, 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.
I bought this book for several reasons. As an amateur WW2 historian, I was interested in the mechanics of the clandestine Resistance efforts against the Nazis. As a clandestine ham radio operator, I was particularly interested in how the Allied clandestine "pianists" set up and operated their wireless transmitter (W/T). Comparing the chapter "Pianists and Mutes" (pp.154-164) with information gleaned from "Spy Princess", Shrabani Basu's biography on Noor Inayat Khan, it is now evident that SOE "pianists" used both indoor and outdoor stealth antennas to avoid German detection.The book gives a bird's eye view of the SOE effort against the Germans. There are other books that go into greater detail but Cowburn gave a general account from his perspective. REQUIRED READING.
This story does a very good job of expressing the mix of much hum-drum with a modicum of terror. The unconventional railway rides must have been as frightening as the parachute jumps, but to Mr. Coburn it was all part of the day's work. Those who like military history, or the more factual parts of modern military fiction, will certainly appreciate this account. Well done, Mr. Coburn.
Mr Cowburn tells an unvarnished story of life in un-occupied and occupied France. I enjoyed it immensely and recommend it to those who enjoy reading about amateur espionage as practiced by SOE. They did a magnificent job.
No Cloak, No Dagger: Allied Spycraft in Occupied France A Train in Winter: An Extraordinary Story of Women, Friendship, and Resistance in Occupied France (The Resistance Trilogy) Francis Parkman : France and England in North America : Vol. 2: Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV, A Half-Century of Conflict, Montcalm and Wolfe (Library of America) The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the College de France, 1978-1979 (Lectures at the Collège de France) The Government of Self and Others: Lectures at the College de France, 1982-1983 (Lectures at the Collège de France) Security, Territory, Population: Lectures at the College De France, 1977 - 78 (Michel Foucault, Lectures at the Collège de France) Lard, Lice and Longevity: The Standard of Living in Occupied Denmark and the Netherlands, 1940-1945 (Studies of the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation) The Hunger Winter: Occupied Holland 1944-1945 Folklore Fights the Nazis: Humor in Occupied Norway, 1940–1945 Occupied Medieval And Renaissance Dagger Combat Father Mine: Zsadist and Bella's Story: A Black Dagger Brotherhood Novella The Black Dagger Brotherhood: An Insider's Guide Gladio, NATO's Dagger at the Heart of Europe: The Pentagon-Nazi-Mafia Terror Axis The Chosen: A Novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood Blood Vow: Black Dagger Legacy The Beast (Black Dagger Brotherhood) Allied Combat Medals of World War 2: Britain, the Commonwealth and Western European Nations (Modern weapons of the world) Allied Power: Mobilizing Hydro-electricity during Canada's Second World War Crimes & Mercies: The Fate of German Civilians Under Allied Occupation, 1944-1950
