An edition of Behind the Lines (2002)

Behind the Lines

The Oral History of Special Operations in World War II

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Last edited by ImportBot
November 17, 2022 | History
An edition of Behind the Lines (2002)

Behind the Lines

The Oral History of Special Operations in World War II

Armed with little more than cyanide pills, countless men and women parachuted behind enemy-held lines during WWII despite forebodings of the worst imaginable fate should they be captured. Miller tells how Britain's Special Operations Executive (SOE) got started and later worked with the US Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the latter the forerunner of the CIA. Modeled largely on Ireland's Sinn Fein, Chinese guerilla operations against Japan, Spanish irregulars, and the Nazis, both agencies fomented industrial and military sabotage, labor agitation, disinformation, attacks against leaders like Hitler and Heydrich, boycotts, and riots. Volunteers were secretly selected, with the ablest ones trained in martial arts, radio telegraphy, cryptography, and parachuting. Others made false passports, foreign-appearing clothing, and even stuffed disemboweled rats with explosives. Sixty-plus years after WWII, a hundred or so ex-participants in both SOE and OSS gave Miller firsthand accounts of their exploits. Both famous and obscure patriots tell all: the rigors of training, the horrors of landing in the wrong places, their treatment by traitors in France and elsewhere, the cruelties of Gestapo and Japanese interrogators, and the deprivations they faced from lack of food, horrible terrain, failed communications, and worse. Miller has edited this first-of-a-kind compilation of interviews with typical British wartime "chinupmanship" and has taken the unusual step of naming one Steve Sierros, secretary of Virginia's OSS Society, as nondeserving of thanks for ignoring the requests for returned phone calls, letters, or faxes. An excellent recounting of events worldwide that involved heroic doings beyondthe call of usual wartime service.

Publish Date
Publisher
Pimlico
Language
English
Pages
304

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Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: Behind the Lines
Behind the Lines: The Oral History of Special Operations in World War II
February 3, 2004, NAL Trade
in English
Cover of: Behind the Lines
Behind the Lines: The Oral History of Special Operations in World War II
2003, Pimlico
Paperback in English
Cover of: Behind the lines
Behind the lines: the oral history of Special Operations in World War II
2002, Secker & Warburg
in English
Cover of: Behind the lines
Behind the lines: the oral history of Special Operations in World War II
2002, St.Martin's Press
in English - 1st U.S. ed.

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Book Details


First Sentence

"BY THE hot summer of 1940, much of mainland Europe had succumbed to the Nazi blitzkrieg."

The Physical Object

Format
Paperback
Number of pages
304
Dimensions
7.7 x 5 x 0.9 inches
Weight
7.8 ounces

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL7794512M
ISBN 10
0712667369
ISBN 13
9780712667364
Library Thing
836315
Goodreads
2329488

Source records

Better World Books record

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History

Download catalog record: RDF / JSON / OPDS | Wikipedia citation
November 17, 2022 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
August 6, 2010 Edited by IdentifierBot added LibraryThing ID
April 24, 2010 Edited by Open Library Bot Fixed duplicate goodreads IDs.
April 16, 2010 Edited by bgimpertBot Added goodreads ID.
April 29, 2008 Created by an anonymous user Imported from amazon.com record