Shadow Knights

In the summer of 1940, Winston Churchill, faced with complete German domination of Western Europe, created a secret organization with the instructions to “set Europe ablaze.“ Ordinary citizens, men and women, were recruited and smuggled into occupied nations to carry out assassinations, attack munitions plants, engage in economic warfare, and, of course, aid local resistance movements. The operatives were a diverse group with a variety of talents; some were effective and some were tragically reckless or careless, but almost all were brave. Their stories are told via an interesting new genre, referred to by the publishers as “pulp history,” combining solid research, well-written if sometimes over-the-top narratives, and color illustrations that give a comic-book quality to the work. The often-garish drawings, which include eye gouging and other forms of mayhem, may entice some readers, but they can also detract from a serious effort to describe the successes and failures of these men and women. Professional historians may cringe, but this effort will usefully inform general readers about some relatively obscure aspects of WWII.