During the Second World War, 10,000 Germans and Austrians volunteered to join the British Forces from the UK. Most were refugees, but there were others also. From 1939 until 1943 most served in the 18 so-called Alien Companies of the Pioneer Corps. After that almost all branches of the services were opened to them and they used this chance to its fullest extent. In this period they were spread over the whole of the Navy, the Army, and the RAF. To write the history of the Alien Pioneers is not difficult. The history of the men who in 1943 were dispersed over all the rest of the services however is the history of the Services as a whole. Peter Leighton-Langer, himself one of the 10,000, has tried to solve this by concentrating on the fate and the actions of individuals, who may or may not be typical for all the others. To do this he has been in direct or indirect contact with some 600 of his former colleagues, whose adventures he cites, often in their own words, to give a picture of the