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Six Faces of Courage
Professor Michael Foot is indisputably the greatest authority on the activities of SOE in Europe during WW2. In Six Faces of Courage he selects six of the bravest of the brave agents and describes their backgrounds, activities and characters. Truly inspiring reading complemented by an updated introduction that sets the scene superbly. This excellent and successful book gives the reader a real insight to what it meant to be a SOE agent in Nazi-occupied Europe.
- GenresHistory
224 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1978
About the author
M.R.D. Foot
36 books14 followersMichael Richard Daniell Foot, CBE, TD, known as M. R. D. Foot — was a British military historian and former British Army intelligence officer and special operations operative during World War II.
The son of a career soldier, Foot was educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford, where he became involved romantically with Iris Murdoch. He joined the British Army on the outbreak of World War II and was commissioned into a Royal Engineers searchlight battalion. In 1941 searchlight units transferred to the Royal Artillery. By 1942, he was serving at Combined Operations Headquarters, but wanting to see action he joined the SAS as an intelligence officer and was parachuted into France after D-Day. He was for a time a prisoner of war, and was severely injured during one of his attempts to escape. For his service with the French Resistance he was twice mentioned in despatches and awarded the Croix de Guerre. He ended the war as a major. After the war he remained in the Territorial Army, transferring to the Intelligence Corps in 1950.
After the war Foot taught at Oxford University for eight years before becoming Professor of Modern History at Manchester University. His experiences during the war gave him a lifelong interest in the European resistance movements, intelligence matters and the experiences of prisoners of war. This led him to become the official historian of SOE, with privileged access to its records, allowing him to write some of the first, and still definitive, accounts of its wartime work, especially in France. Even so, SOE in France took four years to get clearance.
Foot left the Labour Party while his namesake Michael Foot — to whom he was very distantly related — was leading it, and joined the SDP (Social Democratic Party).
Foot was the great-great-great-grandson of Benjamin Fayle who built Dorset's first railway, the Middlebere Plateway in 1806. Fayle was the great-great-grandson of William Edmunson, the First Irish Quaker.
He was at one time married to the British philosopher Philippa Foot (née Bosanquet), the granddaughter of U.S. President Grover Cleveland. Foot's second was wife was Elizabeth King, with whom he had a son and a daughter. In 1972 Foot married Mirjam Romme.
M.R.D. Foot was appointed a CBE in 2001. He also received the Territorial Decoration for Long Service in the Territorial Army.
See also his obituaries at:
1) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obitu... accessed 26 May 2012.
2) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/... accessed 26 May 2012.
The son of a career soldier, Foot was educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford, where he became involved romantically with Iris Murdoch. He joined the British Army on the outbreak of World War II and was commissioned into a Royal Engineers searchlight battalion. In 1941 searchlight units transferred to the Royal Artillery. By 1942, he was serving at Combined Operations Headquarters, but wanting to see action he joined the SAS as an intelligence officer and was parachuted into France after D-Day. He was for a time a prisoner of war, and was severely injured during one of his attempts to escape. For his service with the French Resistance he was twice mentioned in despatches and awarded the Croix de Guerre. He ended the war as a major. After the war he remained in the Territorial Army, transferring to the Intelligence Corps in 1950.
After the war Foot taught at Oxford University for eight years before becoming Professor of Modern History at Manchester University. His experiences during the war gave him a lifelong interest in the European resistance movements, intelligence matters and the experiences of prisoners of war. This led him to become the official historian of SOE, with privileged access to its records, allowing him to write some of the first, and still definitive, accounts of its wartime work, especially in France. Even so, SOE in France took four years to get clearance.
Foot left the Labour Party while his namesake Michael Foot — to whom he was very distantly related — was leading it, and joined the SDP (Social Democratic Party).
Foot was the great-great-great-grandson of Benjamin Fayle who built Dorset's first railway, the Middlebere Plateway in 1806. Fayle was the great-great-grandson of William Edmunson, the First Irish Quaker.
He was at one time married to the British philosopher Philippa Foot (née Bosanquet), the granddaughter of U.S. President Grover Cleveland. Foot's second was wife was Elizabeth King, with whom he had a son and a daughter. In 1972 Foot married Mirjam Romme.
M.R.D. Foot was appointed a CBE in 2001. He also received the Territorial Decoration for Long Service in the Territorial Army.
See also his obituaries at:
1) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obitu... accessed 26 May 2012.
2) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/... accessed 26 May 2012.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 24, 2024
Really did not care for this book. Certainly the six chosen men and women were courageous in the efforts to thwart the Nazis but the writing was dry and the narrative all over the place. Some great books out there devoted to some of these characters individually would be better reads.
December 28, 2011
This was an average book that contained incredible stories of resistance heroes from WWII. All six of the individuals profiled in this book took incredible risks against the German occupation in their country, ranging from intelligence gathering to smuggling allied bomber crews out after they were shot down. One person even volunteered to be sent to Auschwitz in order to gather intelligence on what the Germans were doing there and to organize the resistance inside the camp.
Overall, these stories read like fiction and it's almost hard to believe that you're reading stories about real individuals and not just some James Bond-esque fiction.
Overall, these stories read like fiction and it's almost hard to believe that you're reading stories about real individuals and not just some James Bond-esque fiction.
June 6, 2011
Not for the person who knows nothing about SOE. I enjoy Foot.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews