THEY FOUGHT ALONE

Sub-titled 'The True Story of the Starr Brothers, British Secret Agents in Nazi-Occupied France.' Here for the first time is the astounding story of the greatest clandestine organisation and of two heroic brothers whose ordeals during and after the war challenged accepted myths of wartime resistance in occupied France. As far as the public knew, SOE did not exist, but in July 1940 during the darkest days, Prime Minister Winston Churchill created a top-secret operation to 'set Europe ablaze.' Special Operations Executive would not only change the course of the war but the nature of combat itself. Parachuting behind enemy lines and hiding in plain sight, the agents infiltrated Nazi-occupied territory to recruit and arm local French résistants. The Starr brothers stood out to become legendary figures to the guerrillas, assassins and saboteurs they led. Both brothers were sent across the channel to organise resistance to the Nazis. George commanded networks of resistance fighters in Southwest France, cutting German communications and delaying the arrival of Nazi tanks to Normandy after D-day by 17 days. Younger brother John laid the groundwork for the Resistance in Burgundy until he was captured, tortured and imprisoned by the Nazis. Feats of boldness and bravado were many, but appalling scandals including George's supposed torture and execution of prisoners, and John's alleged collaboration with his German captors, overshadowed them all. At the end of the war Britain, France and the US awarded the Starr brothers medals for heroism, yet their battle honours did little to allay post-war allegations against them. On their return to Britain, military authorities accused one brother of heinous war crimes and the other of treason. The book is written with complete access to only recently declassified documents alongside interviews with surviving wartime Resistance fighters. It is a dramatic tale of spies, sabotage and daring with list of characters and their codenames, men and women infiltrating, arriving by parachute, submarine, sailboat and Westland Lysander light aircraft that landed on occupied soil at great risk. The typical SOE team consisted of an organiser, a radio operator (W/T for wireless telegrapher), and a courier. Wireless telegraphers tapped out letters in Morse code to maintain links with London, while couriers carried messages on bicycles, buses, trains and cars from organisers to field agents. Couriers were often women, whom the Germans scrutinised less than military-age men. The Starr brothers could rely on only a handful of men and women whose patriotism and stubbornness made them risk savage torture, execution, or slow, humiliating and anonymous death in concentration camps. The occupation set Frenchman against Frenchman. British agents like the Starr brothers learned how to kill; training skills could not teach them whom to trust. 322pp, 16 pages of photos.