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Scholars Of Mayhem - My Father's Secret War in Nazi-Occupied France (Hardcover)
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Scholars Of Mayhem - My Father's Secret War in Nazi-Occupied France (Hardcover)
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List price R611
Loot Price R503
Discovery Miles 5 030
You Save R108 (18%)
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The astonishing untold story of the author's father, the lone
American on a 4-person SOE commando team dropped behind German
lines in France, whose epic feats of irregular warfare proved vital
in keeping Nazi tanks away from Normandy after D-Day. When Daniel
Guiet was a child and his family moved country, as they frequently
did, his father had one possession, a tin bread box, that always
made the trip. Daniel was admonished never to touch the box, but
one day he couldn't resist. What he found astonished him: a .45
automatic and five full clips; three slim knives; a length of wire
with a wooden handle at each end; thin pieces of paper with random
numbers on them; several passports with his father's photograph,
each bearing a different name; and a large silk square with eight
flags, with a message underneath each flag in the language
corresponding to it. The one in English read: "I am an American.
Help me. You will be well paid." Eventually Jean Claude Guiet
revealed to his family that he had been in the CIA, but it was only
at the very end of his life that he spoke of the mission during
World War II that marked the beginning of his career in clandestine
service. It is one of the last great untold stories of the war, and
Daniel Guiet and his collaborator, the writer Tim Smith, have spent
several years bringing it to life. Jean Claude was an American
citizen but a child of France, and fluent in the language; he was
also extremely bright. The American military was on the lookout for
native French speakers to be seconded to a secret British special
operations commando operation, dropping saboteurs behind German
lines in France to coordinate aid to the French Resistance and lead
missions wreaking havoc on Germany's military efforts across the
entire country. Jean Claude was recruited, and his life was changed
forever. Though the human cost was terrible, the mission succeeded
beyond the Allies' wildest dreams. Scholars of Mayhem tells the
story of Jean Claude and the other three agents in his "circuit,"
codenamed Salesman, a unit of Britain's Special Operations
Executive, the secret service ordered by Churchill to "Set Europe
ablaze." Parachuted into France the day after D-Day, the Salesman
team organized, armed, and commanded a ghostly army of 10,000
French Resistance fighters. National pride has kept the story of
SOE in France obscure, but of this there is no doubt: While the
Resistance had plenty of heart, it was SOE that gave it teeth and
claws. Scholars of Mayhem adds brilliantly to that picture, and
further underscores what a close-run thing the success of the
Allied breakout from the Normandy landings actually was.
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