A Most Ungentlemanly Way of War

The SOE and the Canadian Connection

Colonel Bernd Horn (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

240 Seiten

2016
Dundurn Group Ltd (Verlag)
978-1-4597-3279-7 (ISBN)

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Created by Winston Churchill to sabotage and subvert the enemy in WWII, the Special Operations Executive (SOE) was an innovative and at times infamous group, a band fanatically devoted to the Allied cause and willing to do whatever it took to advance it and hamper the Axis — even operating within North America.

An examination of the SOE, its accomplishments, and the Canadian connection to the organization.

During the Second World War, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill created the Special Operations Executive (SOE) to conduct acts of sabotage and subversion, and raise secret armies of partisans in German-occupied Europe. With the directive to “set Europe ablaze,” the SOE undertook a dangerous game of cat and mouse with the Nazi Gestapo. An agent’s failure could result in indescribable torture, dispatch to a concentration camp, and, often, a death sentence.

While the SOE’s contribution to the Allied war effort is still debated, and many of its files remain classified, it was a unique wartime creation that reflected innovation, adventure, and a fanatical devotion on the part of its personnel to the Allied cause.

The SOE has an important Canadian connection: Canadians were among its operatives and agents behind enemy lines. Camp X, in Whitby, Ontario, was a special training school that trained agents for overseas duty, and an infamous Canadian codenamed “Intrepid” ran SOE operations in the Americas.

Colonel Bernd Horn is a retired Canadian Regular Force infantry officer and military educator. Dr. Horn has authored, co-authored, or edited more than forty books, including No Easy Task: Fighting in Afghanistan and No Lack of Courage: Operation Medusa, Afghanistan. He lives in Kingston, Ontario.

ForewordIntroduction
1 With Backs to the Wall: Taking Back the Initiative
2 "Setting Europe Ablaze": The Creation of the SOE

3 A Man Called Intrepid: The Beginning of the Canadian Connection

4 Out of Europe: BSC and SOE Operations in the Americas

5 Killing Two Birds with One Stone: The Creation of Camp X
6 Shrouded in Secrecy: Training and the Introduction of Hydra at Camp X

7 Down to Business: Operations in Europe
8 “The Simplest Things in War ...": Clausewitzian Frictions
9 Turning Theory to Reality: Canadians on SOE Operations
10 Reckoning: The Value of the SOE in the Second World War
11 Settling Accounts: The SOE at War’s End
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Notes
Index
About the Author

Erscheint lt. Verlag	7.4.2016
Zusatzinfo	Illustrations
Verlagsort	Toronto
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 228 mm
Gewicht	418 g
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► 1918 bis 1945
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Militärgeschichte
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung
ISBN-10	1-4597-3279-0 / 1459732790
ISBN-13	978-1-4597-3279-7 / 9781459732797
Zustand	Neuware