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A War of Shadows

W. Stanley Moss

really liked it 4.00 · Rating details · 16 ratings · 2 reviews

“One of the finest memoirs of behind-the-lines work during the Second World War. Honest, powerful, and authentic.”—Dr. Roderick Bailey, SOE author and historian

A War of Shadows is W. Stanley Moss’s sequel to his classic Ill Met by Moonlight. A former British operative who, along with Patrick Leigh Fermor, once kidnapped a Nazi general (as told in Ill Met), Moss offers this ...more

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Paperback, 258 pages

Published January 13th 2015 by Paul Dry Books (first published April 15th 2014)

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Nov 13, 2014 Ian rated it really liked it

Shelves: greece, memoir, modern-history, wwii, war-history, thailand, 4-star-non-fiction

A WWII memoir, and a book that, in mood, is at times light hearted and at times grim, but one which is very readable throughout.

William Stanley Moss is perhaps best known for "Ill Met By Moonlight", his account of the successful mission to kidnap a German general from the occupied island of Crete in 1944, a mission in which he was second in command to Patrick Leigh Fermor, who himself became a renowned travel writer after the War. Chronologically this book follows on from that incident. When rea A WWII memoir, and a book that, in mood, is at times light hearted and at times grim, but one which is very readable throughout.

William Stanley Moss is perhaps best known for "Ill Met By Moonlight", his account of the successful mission to kidnap a German general from the occupied island of Crete in 1944, a mission in which he was second in command to Patrick Leigh Fermor, who himself became a renowned travel writer after the War. Chronologically this book follows on from that incident. When reading this it probably helps to have read "Ill Met..." since part of the book is also set in Crete and features some of the same Cretan resistance fighters.

At this stage of the War Capt Moss worked for the Special Operations Executive, a wartime British organisation that specialised in sabotage and in promoting resistance in enemy occupied countries. The author himself describes "A War of Shadows" as "a story of war on a low level, dealing not with command decisions or major strategy, but telling only of what was seen and remembered during the course of one year by a young soldier." The bulk of the book is structured into three parts. Initially the author returns to Crete to carry out more missions with a mixture of Cretan resistance fighters and escaped Soviet POWs. Subsequently, and to his own disappointment, he is then posted to Northern Greece, and to an area dominated by the communist resistance, who were suspicious of the British and Americans and generally obstructive towards them. It's fairly clear that Capt Moss did not especially enjoy this posting, which took him up to the end of the War in Europe. In contrast to many of his colleagues, who on VE Day looked forward to a return to normality, the author was keen for a further adventure, and succeeded in getting a posting to Thailand, then known as Siam. To avoid spoilers I won't go into much detail about this section, except to say that the War against Japan came to an end rather more quickly than he had anticipated.

This book gives a more rounded picture of the author's experiences than the single remarkable incident set out in "Ill Met By Moonlight." Some missions were very successful, others were failures as a result of bad luck or over-ambitious objectives. Parts of the book have an almost farcical feel, particularly the Macedonia section where the local communist commander, General Melas, is at times almost a caricature. However at other points the author describes incidents such as the execution of German prisoners by the Greeks; or witnessing a British sergeant, crying for help whilst lying in a minefield with both legs blown off. Although described in a matter of fact way, it is very obvious that these incidents, and others related in the book, left the author with some deep mental scars. The final section of the book is an afterword that provides a short biography of the author, who was clearly an exceptional human being. ...more

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Jun 06, 2018 Bob rated it really liked it

Why this book: I read Ill Met by Moonlight by the same author and really liked the man and loved his writing style. I did some research and found that this book is his story of what he did for the remainder of WWII, fighting as a member of the British SOE (Special Operations Executive) in Crete Macedonia, and Thailand. I was not disappointed.

Summary in 3 Sentences: After the author's successful abduction of General Kreipe from Crete described in Ill Met by Moonlight, he was sent back to Crete Why this book: I read Ill Met by Moonlight by the same author and really liked the man and loved his writing style. I did some research and found that this book is his story of what he did for the remainder of WWII, fighting as a member of the British SOE (Special Operations Executive) in Crete Macedonia, and Thailand. I was not disappointed.

Summary in 3 Sentences: After the author's successful abduction of General Kreipe from Crete described in Ill Met by Moonlight, he was sent back to Crete to continue working with Cretan partisans to harass and interdict Nazi forces on the Island. He was happy there and loved his Cretan fighters but was recalled to Cairo and sent work with Greek partisans in the mountains of Macedonia fighting the Nazis. Though they had some successes, this was a less-than-satisfying experience for a number of reasons, and as the German forces were withdrawing toward the end of the war, he was recalled and was sent with two other SOE comrades to parachute into Thailand (then called Siam), to support the Siamese partisans fighting the Japanese and ultimately to negotiate their surrender, prevent atrocities against allied prisoners, and assert the authority of the Allies to help restore order in a country that had been occupied by the Japanese for five years.

My Impressions: If you liked Ill Met by Moonlight because you liked the man who told the story, and the manner in which he told it, you will also like A War of Shadows. This book is not as exciting, is not the story behind a single uniquely successful special operation, filled with danger, amazing resourcefulness and close calls. But it is the same man, with the same sensibilities, the same clear and engaging writing style, telling about how he spent the rest of the war, sharing his observations, frustrations, and perspectives in less glamorous special operations operating with little support in remote areas. The voice of Billy Moss in this book is less enthusiastic, less aggressive, sadder but wiser, than in Ill Met. Whereas Ill Met by Moonlight was his diary as a young idealistic and hard charging officer new to special operations and loving his work, A War of Shadows is written after the war, and one can sense an air of disillusion and disenchantment after seeing so much death, suffering and the absurdities of war. Though still a disciplined and competent officer, he and his SOE partners are at the mercy of incompetent staffs, decisions they get no voice in, and the vagaries of war.
To read the rest of my review, go to: https://bobsbeenreading.wordpress.com... ...more

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About W. Stanley Moss

W. Stanley Moss

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Major Ivan William Stanley "Billy" Moss, MC was a British army officer in World War II, and later a successful writer, broadcaster, journalist and traveller. He served with the Coldstream Guards and the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and is best known for the Kidnap of General Kreipe. He was a best-selling author in the 1950s, based both on his novels and books about his wartime service. ...more