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Flames in the Field
The true story of four brave women secretly sent into the darkness of Nazi-occupied France to carry out Winston Churchill's plan to "set Europe ablaze." Caught in a web of deception surrounding the preparations for the D-Day invasion, their mission ended in betrayal and sacrifice. An engrossing history based on first-hand interviews with agents of the Special Operations Executive and revelations about the secret organization and the courageous women who served it.
There was the French working-class courier who helped downed pilots and escaped POWs on their way to freedom; the fashionable parisienne who returned thinking she could outwit the Gestapo; the upper-crust English member of the Auxiliary Transport Service who volunteered to join SOE because she loved France; and the Romanian Jewish refugee who told her mother, "If we don't help ourselves, no one will help us" and fell in love with the leader of her resistance group.
Each of them, the men they worked with under cover of darkness, and the enigmatic woman who saw them off into the unknown, was a remarkable character, their stories told here in vivid detail for the first time.
There was the French working-class courier who helped downed pilots and escaped POWs on their way to freedom; the fashionable parisienne who returned thinking she could outwit the Gestapo; the upper-crust English member of the Auxiliary Transport Service who volunteered to join SOE because she loved France; and the Romanian Jewish refugee who told her mother, "If we don't help ourselves, no one will help us" and fell in love with the leader of her resistance group.
Each of them, the men they worked with under cover of darkness, and the enigmatic woman who saw them off into the unknown, was a remarkable character, their stories told here in vivid detail for the first time.
370 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 15, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
December 4, 2021
This is an excellent book which focuses on the fates of four women sent into occupied France by the Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.). By detailing these four brave women's selection, training, and deployment to France to aid the Resistance and try to outwit the Gestapo, the reader learns general lessons about how the SOE tried to get agents into France before D-Day. In many cases SOE made poor choices and was almost throwing lives away, and that comes through in the book. But the thing that really struck me was what it took, the sheer nerve it took to go where they went and to do what they did. Andree Borrell and Elizabeth Rowden in particular knew exactly how dangerous their lives in France would be, and they went anyway. The average SOE operative survived less than three months in the Paris area. Some areas, like southwest France, were safer for the Resistance fighters, but in Paris the Gestapo maintained a force of over 30,000 officers and men, and this was an overwhelming and deadly obstacle to the Resistance operatives in Paris. Ultimately this is a heartbreaking book, but so well written and researched.
Reading this book led me to later read some of the other classic SOE histories and narratives, like The White Rabbit, Maquisard, and M.R.D. Foot's histories. The story of the resistance movements in the occupied countries still has not received the attention it deserves, particularly with respect to how the Resistance significantly helped the success of the D-Day landings by hindering the German heavy divisions from reaching Normandy until the Allies were established in their beachheads. The work that people like these women did to keep the Resistance networks alive prior to D-Day was critical, and Rita Kramer fully gives them their due in her book.
Reading this book led me to later read some of the other classic SOE histories and narratives, like The White Rabbit, Maquisard, and M.R.D. Foot's histories. The story of the resistance movements in the occupied countries still has not received the attention it deserves, particularly with respect to how the Resistance significantly helped the success of the D-Day landings by hindering the German heavy divisions from reaching Normandy until the Allies were established in their beachheads. The work that people like these women did to keep the Resistance networks alive prior to D-Day was critical, and Rita Kramer fully gives them their due in her book.
September 2, 2014
While this has lots of fascinating information about SOE Operations in France in WW2 it needs a better editor. The nature of the story, primarily of the secret operations in German occupied France in 1943 and the SD penetration of the SOE network, is one of many parallel threads and the uncovering of a mystery. So this makes it hard to just write a linear narrative, and the author has done a pretty good job of writing very readable prose that clearly explains what is going on. However there are a few places where the ordering of the material goes backwards within a few paragraphs and crucial pieces of information are given out of order.
The book shows an awful lot of research was done by the author, over a period of what seems to be years, and building on the work done by a number of predecessors. There is an academic level of referencing and footnotes. There are several distinct parts to the book. The first is a narrative on four women SOE agents killed by the nazis at Natzweiler, which then widens to encompass the others that were arrested around the same time and that shared their captivity in Fresnes and then Karlsruhe. Each of these women is identified and has their life story before joining SOE told. Where it is known this then leads up to how they were captured.
Another piece of the narrative are the attempts by others (initally Vera Atkins in 1945-6 and then Jean Overton Fuller) to find out what happened to the women after they were arrested. This then leads nicely into attempts to work out whether or not the women were betrayed, and if so by whom. There has been a lot of controversy about this, and many of the participants in the events have competing theories. Traitors in SOE, strategic deception and sacrifice by the British, french informers, poor operational security of the SOE agents, German counter-intelligence competence. Each of these is disected in turn, sometimes adding new perspectives to help rule them in/out.
Lastly there is some discussion of the post-war discoveries as the secrets kept for 20-30 years following the war started to come out. How the revelations around both Ultra intelligence and the British strategic deception plans changed how the events of 1943 are interpreted to modern eyes.
On a content basis this should be a five star book, it draws together all the earlier sources and is well written. However the structure lets it down, and makes it harder to assimilate. It reads like the collected notes of the author more than as a structured narrative.
The book shows an awful lot of research was done by the author, over a period of what seems to be years, and building on the work done by a number of predecessors. There is an academic level of referencing and footnotes. There are several distinct parts to the book. The first is a narrative on four women SOE agents killed by the nazis at Natzweiler, which then widens to encompass the others that were arrested around the same time and that shared their captivity in Fresnes and then Karlsruhe. Each of these women is identified and has their life story before joining SOE told. Where it is known this then leads up to how they were captured.
Another piece of the narrative are the attempts by others (initally Vera Atkins in 1945-6 and then Jean Overton Fuller) to find out what happened to the women after they were arrested. This then leads nicely into attempts to work out whether or not the women were betrayed, and if so by whom. There has been a lot of controversy about this, and many of the participants in the events have competing theories. Traitors in SOE, strategic deception and sacrifice by the British, french informers, poor operational security of the SOE agents, German counter-intelligence competence. Each of these is disected in turn, sometimes adding new perspectives to help rule them in/out.
Lastly there is some discussion of the post-war discoveries as the secrets kept for 20-30 years following the war started to come out. How the revelations around both Ultra intelligence and the British strategic deception plans changed how the events of 1943 are interpreted to modern eyes.
On a content basis this should be a five star book, it draws together all the earlier sources and is well written. However the structure lets it down, and makes it harder to assimilate. It reads like the collected notes of the author more than as a structured narrative.
January 6, 2018
Ms Rita Kramer’s Flames in the Field is a solid if occasionally stodgy history of England’s Secret Operations Executive (SOE) in World War II occupied France. The title is aptly taken from the technique of using fires to layout clandestine, nighttime landing fields for the insertion and removal of secret operatives. The subtitle implies that the purpose of the book is to tell the stories of four female agents who were caught by the Germans and later murdered together at the Nazi slave camp at Natzweiler. The stories of these four women is the center of a larger exploration into a number of interrelated spy rings operated by SOE. In a sense this subtitle is misleading but the result is that the reader gets much more context and history than promised. Over all this is a well written history book, well research and accessible to a more general audience.
Some context:
Espionage was and remains to be a method of conducting war. Spies, when caught ‘our’ or ‘theirs’ knew to expect that capture is likely to result in physical mistreatment and summary execution. In this sense the death of these women was not in itself murder. The particularly inhuman and arbitrary nature of their deaths is too much like too many cruel deaths that was the typical behavior of Nazi German.
A comprehensive and open history of the SOE does not exist. Ms Kramer lists those that had been attempted by the time of her research and makes it clear that at best they are agency friendly and at worst they reflect less than full access to the original documents, The evidence suggests that large parts of that archive are missing even as the number of persons who were there go missing to time.
The lack of such a complete wartime diary and the presences of so much operational failure by the SOE has fed a number of emotional suspicions by survivors of ill managed, staffed and compromised circuits.
Within the larger accounting of the dead by the luck of war and the mismanagement of any number of wartime decision makers, the losses within the SOE however important to the people, family and friends involved is another casualty list.
Not unique to espionage, failure in the techniques, so called trade craft by any person in a combat zone increases the likelihood of capture, death or both.
To her credit as a reporter, Ms. Kramer relates these ‘conspiracy’ theories as well failures by agents in the field and reminds us of the larger context of World War 2 deaths. She does not demand of the reader to take any particular side.
Ms. Kramer also makes it clear that the SOE was one of several competing agencies seeking to run clandestine operations in Occupied Europe. It was a relatively thrown together agency and under the press of missions did not always compete the training of filed agents. A particularly difficult aspect of these missions was to keep local resistance partisans, equipped and motivated without having them go into open rebellion before they could expect relief from invading allied soldiers. The date and location of the Normandy landings were among the most closely kept secrets of the war and it is possible that a cold decision was made to allow some missions to fail rather than allow this secret into occupied territory.
It is proper that Ms Kramer gives special credit to early missions that went into France. These people could have little certainty of a safe reception. This fact is poignant. Flames in the Field is one of the first WW II books I have read that states that especially in the early years but throughout the occupation of France, there were among the French active supporters of the occupation who worked against any suspected to be part of the Underground. It is common in the post war narrative to stick to the many, vital achievements of the French Resistance. Ms Kramer documents that as many or more French people actively and violently collaborated with the occupation.
Also going against the common narrative, Ms. Kramer relates that when it suited German Security Officers treatment of prisoner could appear to others in the same facility as very humane. Simply, it was understood that the information from a co opted and cooperating prisoner was likely to be more reliable than the product of torture. Both methods were exercised. In espionage the longevity of a prisoner could be analyzed into two general categories. Captured agents may have use to the Germans and are therefore allowed to live, or they have nothing to tell and would be killed.
Some context:
Espionage was and remains to be a method of conducting war. Spies, when caught ‘our’ or ‘theirs’ knew to expect that capture is likely to result in physical mistreatment and summary execution. In this sense the death of these women was not in itself murder. The particularly inhuman and arbitrary nature of their deaths is too much like too many cruel deaths that was the typical behavior of Nazi German.
A comprehensive and open history of the SOE does not exist. Ms Kramer lists those that had been attempted by the time of her research and makes it clear that at best they are agency friendly and at worst they reflect less than full access to the original documents, The evidence suggests that large parts of that archive are missing even as the number of persons who were there go missing to time.
The lack of such a complete wartime diary and the presences of so much operational failure by the SOE has fed a number of emotional suspicions by survivors of ill managed, staffed and compromised circuits.
Within the larger accounting of the dead by the luck of war and the mismanagement of any number of wartime decision makers, the losses within the SOE however important to the people, family and friends involved is another casualty list.
Not unique to espionage, failure in the techniques, so called trade craft by any person in a combat zone increases the likelihood of capture, death or both.
To her credit as a reporter, Ms. Kramer relates these ‘conspiracy’ theories as well failures by agents in the field and reminds us of the larger context of World War 2 deaths. She does not demand of the reader to take any particular side.
Ms. Kramer also makes it clear that the SOE was one of several competing agencies seeking to run clandestine operations in Occupied Europe. It was a relatively thrown together agency and under the press of missions did not always compete the training of filed agents. A particularly difficult aspect of these missions was to keep local resistance partisans, equipped and motivated without having them go into open rebellion before they could expect relief from invading allied soldiers. The date and location of the Normandy landings were among the most closely kept secrets of the war and it is possible that a cold decision was made to allow some missions to fail rather than allow this secret into occupied territory.
It is proper that Ms Kramer gives special credit to early missions that went into France. These people could have little certainty of a safe reception. This fact is poignant. Flames in the Field is one of the first WW II books I have read that states that especially in the early years but throughout the occupation of France, there were among the French active supporters of the occupation who worked against any suspected to be part of the Underground. It is common in the post war narrative to stick to the many, vital achievements of the French Resistance. Ms Kramer documents that as many or more French people actively and violently collaborated with the occupation.
Also going against the common narrative, Ms. Kramer relates that when it suited German Security Officers treatment of prisoner could appear to others in the same facility as very humane. Simply, it was understood that the information from a co opted and cooperating prisoner was likely to be more reliable than the product of torture. Both methods were exercised. In espionage the longevity of a prisoner could be analyzed into two general categories. Captured agents may have use to the Germans and are therefore allowed to live, or they have nothing to tell and would be killed.
July 15, 2010
Although the title suggests this to be the biography of four female agents of Special Operations Executive (the British WWII espionage organization), Kramer delves deeper into the subject and asks why these women -- along with many other SOE agents -- were captured by the Germans. "Flames" is the culmination of meticulous research, interviews with surviving pertinent players associated with the F- (French) section of the SOE, and is a fascinating read.
February 21, 2017
By far the most professional and most thoroughly researched of all the books on the women of SOE's F section that I've read thus far. The writing was clear and engaging, and not in any way sensationalised, which I'm realising is a rare treat in books on this subject.
The back half of the book that looks into the various failures of SOE and the political fallout from the same was especially useful in a field of writing that tends towards the hagiography.
Highly recommended.
For further reading, try Churchill's Angels by Bernard O'Connor, which provides meticulously researched accounts for each of the 39 SOE F section women. Also, She Landed by Moonlight by Carole Seymour-Jones, while further in the sensationalised arena, does provide some information that makes an interesting contrast to the views presented in Flames in the Field.
The back half of the book that looks into the various failures of SOE and the political fallout from the same was especially useful in a field of writing that tends towards the hagiography.
Highly recommended.
For further reading, try Churchill's Angels by Bernard O'Connor, which provides meticulously researched accounts for each of the 39 SOE F section women. Also, She Landed by Moonlight by Carole Seymour-Jones, while further in the sensationalised arena, does provide some information that makes an interesting contrast to the views presented in Flames in the Field.
March 18, 2016
Interesting subject
This is an interesting and important subject, but I have to confess I found the book difficult to get through. While the rather matter of fact delivery makes good history, I never felt a connection to any of the women it was about.
This is an interesting and important subject, but I have to confess I found the book difficult to get through. While the rather matter of fact delivery makes good history, I never felt a connection to any of the women it was about.
January 21, 2018
As I read this, I found myself whispering "oh, noooo" over and over, each time stupidly surprised that the lives of these daring, fascinating women ended in a concentration camp. Flames In the Field is really a gut punch, but also a great read.
In Flames, Rita Kramer tries to unravel the knotty tale of the French Section of the SOE (Special Operations Executive) during World War II. Basically, SOE was the weirdo cousin of the legit security services in Britain, and the French Section consisted of agents dropped (literally, via bomber jets) into occupied France in order to perform sabotage and provide intelligence on the Nazis.
History is written by the victors and, I'll admit, I went into Flames thinking I'd find a simple tale of bravery and valour. The reality (of the situation, and of this book) is much more complicated.
Kramer depicts the spies of SOE not as suave, trained assassins, but as everyday people whose foibles and quirks either led them to suceed in their mission or helped doom them. These agents were mostly women in their 20s, deemed less conspicuous to be roaming occupied France than military-age men. Their #1 neccessity was to be able to speak French like a native and therefore blend in. Understandably, this reduced the pool of, er, job applicants substantively. What the SOE's French Section therefore consisted of were young, inexperienced secretaries and shopworkers and dancers, who were given a few weeks' training in spycraft and then sent into enemy territory. Most of them went to their death.
While reading Flames, it's alarmingly easy to put yourself in their place. Many agents were perhaps doomed by the actions of their higher-ups (more on that later), but others were caught because they hung around with their mates (other spies) in public and spoke English to each other. In that kind of horrifically stressful situation, wouldn't you do the same?
As well as telling the stories of the brave, underserved women and men of SOE's French Section, Kramer also digs in deep to reveal the machinations going on up the food chain in London. Either the British intelligence services were dangerously muddled (foregoing security procedures willy nilly and allowing double-agents to run rampant) or horrifyingly Machievelian (choosing to sacrifice great swathes of their agents to the concentration camps in the name of pulling off larger acts of subterfuge). I honestly found this part of the book pretty convoluted and, what's more, I tend to subscribe to the Occam's razor philosophy. But if even part of what Kramer alleges is true, well... geez. Did I mention this book is a gut punch?
As far as the writing goes, I found Flames pretty workmanlike. The pacing's a little off, with a tendency to dwell on minutiae and speed past the most exciting parts. But the best compliment I can give is that, once I finished this book, I immediately wanted to flip it over and start reading it all over again. It also reignited my interest in WWII in a way I did not expect. History! Yes! Give me all the history books!
In Flames, Rita Kramer tries to unravel the knotty tale of the French Section of the SOE (Special Operations Executive) during World War II. Basically, SOE was the weirdo cousin of the legit security services in Britain, and the French Section consisted of agents dropped (literally, via bomber jets) into occupied France in order to perform sabotage and provide intelligence on the Nazis.
History is written by the victors and, I'll admit, I went into Flames thinking I'd find a simple tale of bravery and valour. The reality (of the situation, and of this book) is much more complicated.
Kramer depicts the spies of SOE not as suave, trained assassins, but as everyday people whose foibles and quirks either led them to suceed in their mission or helped doom them. These agents were mostly women in their 20s, deemed less conspicuous to be roaming occupied France than military-age men. Their #1 neccessity was to be able to speak French like a native and therefore blend in. Understandably, this reduced the pool of, er, job applicants substantively. What the SOE's French Section therefore consisted of were young, inexperienced secretaries and shopworkers and dancers, who were given a few weeks' training in spycraft and then sent into enemy territory. Most of them went to their death.
While reading Flames, it's alarmingly easy to put yourself in their place. Many agents were perhaps doomed by the actions of their higher-ups (more on that later), but others were caught because they hung around with their mates (other spies) in public and spoke English to each other. In that kind of horrifically stressful situation, wouldn't you do the same?
As well as telling the stories of the brave, underserved women and men of SOE's French Section, Kramer also digs in deep to reveal the machinations going on up the food chain in London. Either the British intelligence services were dangerously muddled (foregoing security procedures willy nilly and allowing double-agents to run rampant) or horrifyingly Machievelian (choosing to sacrifice great swathes of their agents to the concentration camps in the name of pulling off larger acts of subterfuge). I honestly found this part of the book pretty convoluted and, what's more, I tend to subscribe to the Occam's razor philosophy. But if even part of what Kramer alleges is true, well... geez. Did I mention this book is a gut punch?
As far as the writing goes, I found Flames pretty workmanlike. The pacing's a little off, with a tendency to dwell on minutiae and speed past the most exciting parts. But the best compliment I can give is that, once I finished this book, I immediately wanted to flip it over and start reading it all over again. It also reignited my interest in WWII in a way I did not expect. History! Yes! Give me all the history books!
October 19, 2025
According to the cover, this is the story of four SOE agents in France. For those who aren't aware, SOE refers to the Special Operations Executive, a British-run organization during WW2 that was tasked with gathering intelligence, performing sabotage, etc. in German occupied territories. I had been looking for a good book about the French Resistance, and honestly there don't seem to be many out there (at least in English).
The book itself is...somewhat about those four agents. They definitely are front and center through the first third or so of the book. The main difficulty with covering them, however, is that they were selected as subjects because they all were executed in a concentration camp during the war. In addition, there aren't many people around or verified sources that can describe what they did in France before they were captured. The author puts together the sources that are available, and I think does fine with representing what's there, but honestly it isn't enough to really fill a book.
After the first chunk of the book, the author expands the story to talk about the SOE in general, and the circumstances that lead to the capture and eventually execution of these women in particular. The book extensively covers the ideas out there that the agents were deliberately sacrificed as part of a "double game" to let the Germans think they were winning the espionage war. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell the author didn't have access to a lot of solid information, so much of this is speculation and hearsay. Some of it could certainly be true, but I didn't feel that it was backed up by enough original source material. Interestingly, the book "Between Silk and Cyanide" by Leo Marks came out just a few years after this book and while I haven't read it in quite a few years I remember it covering these topics much more effectively from the perspective of someone who was directly involved.
Overall, the book itself was fine to read. There were some pacing issues, and I felt like some of the chapters could have been reorganized to make things more clear, but all in all it was well written and kept my attention. I'd be more interested to learn about the actual activities of agents in France if anyone knows of a good book that I should pick up.
The book itself is...somewhat about those four agents. They definitely are front and center through the first third or so of the book. The main difficulty with covering them, however, is that they were selected as subjects because they all were executed in a concentration camp during the war. In addition, there aren't many people around or verified sources that can describe what they did in France before they were captured. The author puts together the sources that are available, and I think does fine with representing what's there, but honestly it isn't enough to really fill a book.
After the first chunk of the book, the author expands the story to talk about the SOE in general, and the circumstances that lead to the capture and eventually execution of these women in particular. The book extensively covers the ideas out there that the agents were deliberately sacrificed as part of a "double game" to let the Germans think they were winning the espionage war. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell the author didn't have access to a lot of solid information, so much of this is speculation and hearsay. Some of it could certainly be true, but I didn't feel that it was backed up by enough original source material. Interestingly, the book "Between Silk and Cyanide" by Leo Marks came out just a few years after this book and while I haven't read it in quite a few years I remember it covering these topics much more effectively from the perspective of someone who was directly involved.
Overall, the book itself was fine to read. There were some pacing issues, and I felt like some of the chapters could have been reorganized to make things more clear, but all in all it was well written and kept my attention. I'd be more interested to learn about the actual activities of agents in France if anyone knows of a good book that I should pick up.
March 5, 2020
Rita Kramer has done a great deal of research over a number of years, building upon the work done by a number of her predecessors who have written about the Resistance during WWII by SOE agents in occupied France. The book is a narrative account of four SOE agents killed by the Nazis after they were captured by the Gestapo. Using her extensive research, the author expands the scope of this fine study to include interesting biographical histories of these four agents and their backgrounds prior to joining British war efforts.
The book is also a fascinating study of the rivalries between British intelligence agencies for domination and control of espionage in France, as well as Europe. In addition, Rita Kramer offers insightful peeks inside the personalities of some of the major leaders of the Second World War, in particular, Charles DeGaulle.
Using information that was only released in the 1990's, Rita Kramer looks into the possibility that there were several double agents working inside the British intelligence system. It raises lingering questions about the cost of victory, in terms of sacrificed lives that may have been unnecessarily wasted.
I highly recommend this compelling story for anyone interested in World War II espionage, and the attempts to create turmoil and confusion within the Nazi organizational structure, particularly their transportation and key manufacturing sites, using heroic men and women willing to risk their lives in occupied Nazi Europe.
The book is also a fascinating study of the rivalries between British intelligence agencies for domination and control of espionage in France, as well as Europe. In addition, Rita Kramer offers insightful peeks inside the personalities of some of the major leaders of the Second World War, in particular, Charles DeGaulle.
Using information that was only released in the 1990's, Rita Kramer looks into the possibility that there were several double agents working inside the British intelligence system. It raises lingering questions about the cost of victory, in terms of sacrificed lives that may have been unnecessarily wasted.
I highly recommend this compelling story for anyone interested in World War II espionage, and the attempts to create turmoil and confusion within the Nazi organizational structure, particularly their transportation and key manufacturing sites, using heroic men and women willing to risk their lives in occupied Nazi Europe.
September 10, 2017
A very good read which does illustrate the bravery of the women who served...The French Section, of the Special Operations Executive. All were very brave, to volunteer for such tasks, and able to carry out such clandestine work.
All were executed by the Nazi Regime in such a cruel manner. I did know in the case of Andree Borrel, the phenol injection did not take full effect and she did regain consciousness whilst being placed...in the crematorium oven.
I think the author should send a copy of this book to....Dreamworks Films, this story would make a good film.
All were executed by the Nazi Regime in such a cruel manner. I did know in the case of Andree Borrel, the phenol injection did not take full effect and she did regain consciousness whilst being placed...in the crematorium oven.
I think the author should send a copy of this book to....Dreamworks Films, this story would make a good film.
January 26, 2018
Lots of Data!
I struggled through about half of this book. Although the subject matter was interesting, I think I simply overloaded myself in this instance. I honestly had no real clue as to what actually occurred in this particular part of WWII. I'm more educated but quite a bit less naïve about the atrocities that people are capable of pouring on the heads of their fellow man. I think I will need to mourn that loss of innocence for a while.
I struggled through about half of this book. Although the subject matter was interesting, I think I simply overloaded myself in this instance. I honestly had no real clue as to what actually occurred in this particular part of WWII. I'm more educated but quite a bit less naïve about the atrocities that people are capable of pouring on the heads of their fellow man. I think I will need to mourn that loss of innocence for a while.
August 22, 2019
I am compelled to read this type of book because my father was an American POW in Germany during WWII.
He came home but lived in a VA hospital iI Illinois for two years after the war.
I thank the people who sacrificed their freedom and their lives as they were in part responsible for my dads survival and therefore my birth.
He came home but lived in a VA hospital iI Illinois for two years after the war.
I thank the people who sacrificed their freedom and their lives as they were in part responsible for my dads survival and therefore my birth.
July 10, 2020
A fascinating and very well researched book. Although the story of the four women is ultimately a tragic one, it is impossible not to be awed by their courage, as well as that of all those men and women who chose to do their bit for the war working for SOE. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in the subject.
April 27, 2019
History
A very good history book of French under cover agent s in France . Many were female and lived life to the end alone!
A very good history book of French under cover agent s in France . Many were female and lived life to the end alone!
June 16, 2019
I’ve read quite a few of these books about the brave Women sent to Europe by the SOE during WW II. It was a unprecedented move by the British. Much flack was received after a details were released. But, in fact, they were far more effective as they blended better than men. However, being sent there in that capacity also gave them a death sentence as if caught they would die. Their expectancy in the field was only a few weeks.
Much of details of their brave deeds was not been released until 50 years after the war ended.
Much of details of their brave deeds was not been released until 50 years after the war ended.
September 25, 2011
We Americans view the World Wars as these things that happened over there. Even with the advent of the History, Miltary, and History International Channels, we tend to sometimes view the wars as Churchill, Yanks, Japanese, and Nazis (and maybe those Italians).
It isn't that other historical parts are downplayed, though the War in Africia gets short shift, it's more like they are passed over too quickly for bored students to understand or question anything. I remember how surprised and then pleased I was to learn that (1) Russian women drove tanks (2) Russian women shot guns (3) women flew supply planes and (4) about the women in the French Resistence.
I learned this from watching PBS and the History Channel.
Perhaps today we spend too much focus on the women in the Resistance groups when the men were just as endangered and brave, and this is a subject that Rita Kramer lightly touches on in her book.
At first glance, the books appears to be about the four SOE agents depicted on the cover, but the book is far deeper than that and looks at the Prosper circuit, the use of SOE, the material that came out about SOE after the war, and the debates about who knew what. The book is compelling told and Kramer, who did a large amount of digging, is pretty objective. The reader not only learns about the use of SOE, the fate of the agents, Vera Atkins, but also the attitude of the French, in particular De Gaulle (I hope some Brit slapped him upside the head) after the liberation. The book raises questions not only about scarifice but also heroism, recognition, and, perhaps unintentionally, gender (is the French view of the women's compentence based on sexism?)
A must read for any interested in war time Europe.
It isn't that other historical parts are downplayed, though the War in Africia gets short shift, it's more like they are passed over too quickly for bored students to understand or question anything. I remember how surprised and then pleased I was to learn that (1) Russian women drove tanks (2) Russian women shot guns (3) women flew supply planes and (4) about the women in the French Resistence.
I learned this from watching PBS and the History Channel.
Perhaps today we spend too much focus on the women in the Resistance groups when the men were just as endangered and brave, and this is a subject that Rita Kramer lightly touches on in her book.
At first glance, the books appears to be about the four SOE agents depicted on the cover, but the book is far deeper than that and looks at the Prosper circuit, the use of SOE, the material that came out about SOE after the war, and the debates about who knew what. The book is compelling told and Kramer, who did a large amount of digging, is pretty objective. The reader not only learns about the use of SOE, the fate of the agents, Vera Atkins, but also the attitude of the French, in particular De Gaulle (I hope some Brit slapped him upside the head) after the liberation. The book raises questions not only about scarifice but also heroism, recognition, and, perhaps unintentionally, gender (is the French view of the women's compentence based on sexism?)
A must read for any interested in war time Europe.
May 15, 2015
For the past 20 years, every so often, a little old lady would quietly die in a British village or nursing home and everyone would be shocked to learn that the deceased had a secret trove of medals from World War Two service in something called the “S.O.E.” Great Britain’s top-secret Special Operations Executive was charged by Churchill to “set Europe ablaze.” Which it pretty much did, with the help of in-country resistance groups. FLAMES IN THE FIELD primarily focuses on the murky histories of four women whose names now appear on a plaque in a concentration camp crematorium. Andrée Borrel, Diana Rowden, Vera Leigh and Sonia Olschanezky. They were captured and eventually executed by the Nazis in 1944 at Natzweiler concentration camp. Possibly, the women were betrayed, and Rita Kramer lays out several theories and offers a broader discussion of the history of espionage and counter-intelligence in Nazi-occupied Europe. Of the S.O.E.’s 55 female field agents, 13--including the incredibly tough, brave and resourceful Noor Inayat Khan and Violette Szabo--were killed in action or died in Nazi concentration camps. FLAMES IN THE FIELD is an entirely readable but rather helter-skelter narrative, ripe with footnotes and featuring some muddy illustrations. However, the sheer drama of the story survives intact--and the author gives credit due to S.O.E. veteran Vera Atkins for initially investigating the fate of thse 4 heroic women and the PROSPER network.
January 27, 2016
For anyone interested in the secret operations of resistance in France during World War II, this is a must-read...especially if you're a woman. The stories are incredible, while the author's analysis of the events that lead to the eventual end of the four agents is very interesting. I was rivetted, though admit I had to read the book in stages as its difficult subject matter did overwhelm me at times. The central protagonists in this war-time tragedy were brave women whose stories are given the recognition they deserve. Equally important are those who served with them and, in some cases, survived to keep the memory of what happened during those dark years alive. Ms. Kramer provides extensive citation of her sources, as well as material drawn from her many interviews. I think this book she be assigned reading in high school history classes, especially as with every passing year, there are fewer and fewer people alive who remember how close Europe, and quite possibly the rest of the world, came to being lost to the insane ideas of a madman.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 14, 2016
Anyone interested in the SOE had best be prepared to read a number of books to arrive at some idea about the patriots, the informers, those who served, those who sacrificed and those who sacrificed them. Flames makes a case for deceit as a tool of war with collateral on all sides, but does not present it as definitive. I got the impression that the real story was still being suppressed, or perhaps, it was captured by Elizabeth Nicholas in "Death Be Not Proud" and buried again, since that book is out of print and very difficult to find.
In the meantime, four women and then some were parachuted into France, never to return. Some found the Gestapo waiting for them, some were allowed to work for the resistance and lasted longer than a soldier landing at Dunkirk, but none are telling their stories.
In the meantime, four women and then some were parachuted into France, never to return. Some found the Gestapo waiting for them, some were allowed to work for the resistance and lasted longer than a soldier landing at Dunkirk, but none are telling their stories.
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