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They Fought Alone: The True Story of SOE's Agents in Wartime France by Maurice Buckmaster
Excellent Book
Paperback
Published January 1, 1800
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 14, 2024
My 72nd book of 2024 was this recent reprint of a 1958 book by the controversial figure in charge of SOE's F (for France) section in WW2. The subtitle is, The True Story of SOE's Agents in Wartime France, though there is also a new introduction by Michael Smith that defends Buckmaster against incompetence.
We'll return to that matter, but I want to spend some time talking about the book itself. While Pippa Latour's book was clearly ghostwritten, there's no evidence of ghosting here, but it is an odd one. The author writes about operations and events, giving novelistic descriptive details of incidents that he did not witness first hand. He's clearly basing what he writes on subsequent debriefs, interviews, and conversations. As a result, there are parts of this that are quite gripping, for example the section concerning the attack on the railway sheds in Lille, or the sabotage of the Peugeot factory. There's even a scene of two agents escaping across a river into Switzerland under fire.
On the one hand, you want to cry foul, because this "true story" seems to pack in too much fancy detail. On the other hand, he does acknowledge when he can't tell you what happens because the individuals concerned did not survive. For example, a particular bridge is destroyed at a crucial moment for Overlord, but all we know is that an agent was told to blow it up. He is never seen again, but the bridge was blown.
The author makes a strong case for the imprortance of SOE in the war, characterising it not as a branch of the secret service but as a military unit with military objectives. The harrassment of the German army around D-Day was surely crucial. On the other hand, he doesn't mention in much detail the reprisals that resulted, such as the massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane. Perhaps because the citizens of that village hadn't actually been helping the maquis? Or because it would spoil the picture he's trying to paint.
Which brings us to the question, was Buckmaster a chinless Old Etonian whose incompetence got a lot of people killed? Or was he the empathetic and wily leader of a guerrilla warfare unit that turned the tide of the war? (Clearly the correct answer is probably a bit of both). He admits that many of the SOE circuits were blown, especially in areas like Paris, where the concentration of Nazis and collaborators was high. He also points out that those crucial radio messages with missing/wrong confirmation codes were often picked up after they had started, were often rushed, garbled, incoherent, full of mistakes at the best of times. Unless you yourself have sat up in a hayloft trying to bang out a series of code groups on a suitcase radio while the Gestapo are closing in, I think it's hard to argue the point. So, yes, he admits, there were missing confirmation codes, but there often were. And he sometimes kept communicating with agents he knew were blown in an attempt to keep them alive.
There are some extraordinary stories here, of bravery and heroism in the darkest of times. The agent whose leg was broken when he landed by parachute. The woman who marched into a Colonel's office and demanded that he release his prisoner (a resistance cell leader) because the Americans were just hours away (they weren't). The people who blew up tracks and trains and fuel depots and barges and canal gates.
That they were doing all this with improvised equipment, in the face of certain death if caught (out of uniform, they were not treated as prisoners of war), with garbled or uncertain communications, never knowing who they could trust, is breathtaking.
An interesting book, written like a novel at times, but corroborated enough, by now, with lots of other evidence to attest to its truth.
We'll return to that matter, but I want to spend some time talking about the book itself. While Pippa Latour's book was clearly ghostwritten, there's no evidence of ghosting here, but it is an odd one. The author writes about operations and events, giving novelistic descriptive details of incidents that he did not witness first hand. He's clearly basing what he writes on subsequent debriefs, interviews, and conversations. As a result, there are parts of this that are quite gripping, for example the section concerning the attack on the railway sheds in Lille, or the sabotage of the Peugeot factory. There's even a scene of two agents escaping across a river into Switzerland under fire.
On the one hand, you want to cry foul, because this "true story" seems to pack in too much fancy detail. On the other hand, he does acknowledge when he can't tell you what happens because the individuals concerned did not survive. For example, a particular bridge is destroyed at a crucial moment for Overlord, but all we know is that an agent was told to blow it up. He is never seen again, but the bridge was blown.
The author makes a strong case for the imprortance of SOE in the war, characterising it not as a branch of the secret service but as a military unit with military objectives. The harrassment of the German army around D-Day was surely crucial. On the other hand, he doesn't mention in much detail the reprisals that resulted, such as the massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane. Perhaps because the citizens of that village hadn't actually been helping the maquis? Or because it would spoil the picture he's trying to paint.
Which brings us to the question, was Buckmaster a chinless Old Etonian whose incompetence got a lot of people killed? Or was he the empathetic and wily leader of a guerrilla warfare unit that turned the tide of the war? (Clearly the correct answer is probably a bit of both). He admits that many of the SOE circuits were blown, especially in areas like Paris, where the concentration of Nazis and collaborators was high. He also points out that those crucial radio messages with missing/wrong confirmation codes were often picked up after they had started, were often rushed, garbled, incoherent, full of mistakes at the best of times. Unless you yourself have sat up in a hayloft trying to bang out a series of code groups on a suitcase radio while the Gestapo are closing in, I think it's hard to argue the point. So, yes, he admits, there were missing confirmation codes, but there often were. And he sometimes kept communicating with agents he knew were blown in an attempt to keep them alive.
There are some extraordinary stories here, of bravery and heroism in the darkest of times. The agent whose leg was broken when he landed by parachute. The woman who marched into a Colonel's office and demanded that he release his prisoner (a resistance cell leader) because the Americans were just hours away (they weren't). The people who blew up tracks and trains and fuel depots and barges and canal gates.
That they were doing all this with improvised equipment, in the face of certain death if caught (out of uniform, they were not treated as prisoners of war), with garbled or uncertain communications, never knowing who they could trust, is breathtaking.
An interesting book, written like a novel at times, but corroborated enough, by now, with lots of other evidence to attest to its truth.
February 21, 2026
I picked up ‘They Fought Alone’ after a friend mentioned the Social Operations Executive (SOE) in conversation, and I’m so glad I did — 5 stars without hesitation.
The book follows the extraordinary efforts of SOE agents and the French Resistance during WWII, and it genuinely changed my perspective on the French war years and the civilians who risked everything.
It’s so finely written that I found myself hoping against history for impossible escapes and cheering the resistance’s victories. The personal stories will stay with me for a long time; what was achieved through such sacrifice deserves to be remembered. It’s surprising these stories aren’t better known 80 years on.
I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys non-fiction, WWII history, or even spy novels.
The book follows the extraordinary efforts of SOE agents and the French Resistance during WWII, and it genuinely changed my perspective on the French war years and the civilians who risked everything.
It’s so finely written that I found myself hoping against history for impossible escapes and cheering the resistance’s victories. The personal stories will stay with me for a long time; what was achieved through such sacrifice deserves to be remembered. It’s surprising these stories aren’t better known 80 years on.
I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys non-fiction, WWII history, or even spy novels.
January 14, 2026
There is a line in this book where Buckmaster extols the actions of the French Resistance and their British coordinators, basically citing those who undertook perilous missions as the bravest of the brave. I would heartily recommend the lessons of this book to any jingoistic ill-informed Anglo-centric moron who delights in the French running from the Germans in 1940. The men and women who joined the resistance or who were parachuted into France knew that getting caught meant torture and death, or the lesser of two evils, transportation to death camps like Dachau and Ravensbruck. Not only that, those same Résistants had to contend with collaborators and informants everywhere - even in their own ranks. The title of this book - They Fought Alone - is entirely apt, because that is exactly what they did. Respect.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews