Shadow Warriors of World War II: The Daring Women of the OSS and SOE

by Gordon Thomas, Greg Lewis

They were told that the only crime they must never commit was to be caught. Women of enormous cunning and strength of will, the Shadow Warriors stories have remained largely untold until now. In a dramatic tale of espionage and conspiracy in World War II, Shadow Warriors of World War II unveils the history of the courageous women who volunteered to work behind enemy lines. Sent into Nazi-occupied Europe by the United States Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and Britain s Special Operations Executive (SOE), these women helped establish a web of resistance groups across the continent. Their extraordinary heroism, initiative, and resourcefulness contributed to the Allied breakout of the Normandy beachheads and even infiltrated Nazi Germany at the height of the war, into the very heart of Hitler s citadel Berlin. Young and daring, the female agents accepted that they could be captured, tortured, or killed, but others were always readied to take their place. So effective did the female agents become in their efforts, the Germans placed a price of a million francs on the heads of operatives who were successfully disrupting their troops.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War II, War, Womens, Audiobook, Feminism

1 pages, Audio CD

First published January 1, 2017

About the author

Gordon Thomas (born 1933) is a Welsh author who has written more than fifty books.
Thomas was born in Wales, in a cemetery keeper's cottage where his grandmother lived. He had his first story published at nine years old in a Boy's Own Paper competition. With his father in the RAF, he traveled widely and was educated at the Cairo High School, the Maritz Brothers (in Port Elizabeth, South Africa) and, lastly, at Bedford Modern School. His first book, completed at the age of seventeen, is the story of a British spy in Russia during World War II, titled Descent Into Danger. He refused the offer of a job at a university in order to accompany a traveling fair for a year: he used those experiences for his novel, Bed of Nails. Since then his books have been published worldwide. He has been a foreign correspondent beginning with the Suez Crisis and ending with the first Gulf War. He was a BBC writer/producer for three flagship BBC programmes: Man Alive, Tomorrow's World and Horizon.

He is a regular contributor to Facta, the respected monthly Japanese news magazine, and he lectures widely on the secret world of intelligence. He also provides expert analysis on intelligence for US and European television and radio programs.His book Gideon's Spies: Mossad's Secret Warriors became a major documentary for Channel Four that he wrote and narrated: The Spy Machine. It followed three years of research during which he was given unprecedented access to Mossad’s main personnel. The documentary was co-produced by Open Media and Israfilm.

Gideon's Spies: Mossad's Secret Warriors has so far been published in 16 languages. A source for this book was Ari Ben-Menashe, a former Israeli intelligence agent, and legendary Israeli spy Rafi Eitan. According to Charles Foster in Contemporary Review: "Writers who know their place are few and far between: fortunately Mr Thomas is one of them. By keeping to his place as a tremendous storyteller without a preacher's pretensions, he has put his book amongst the important chronicles of the state of Israel."

Reviews

[Wilde Sky · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book details some of the action completed by female secret agents during WWII.

Probably only about a third of this book was actually about the woman involved and the writing was very dry.

Overall rating 2.5

[Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps because I've read so many thrillers and World War II stories, I found this absolutely fascinating. It's a group biography of the women recruited as agents during WWII--as couriers, spies, analysts, cryptographers, resistance fighters, and more. They were thoroughly trained--as carefully as the men were--in survival skills, safecracking, forging documents, and parachuting from airplanes. The historical details are fascinating--a quick course in spycraft and subterfuge (for example, they copied keys in a bar of soap)--and the women themselves enormously interesting and diverse. An epilogue details their fates. This history moves at a brisk pace--there's a lot happening; detailed, vivid biographies of involving characters called in one review "ingenious and fearless;" a storyline with historical details and lots of action in addition to the characters; richly detailed writing, informative, authentic, well-researched; dramatic and edgy tone. Kate Reading's marvelous narration creates fully realized characters with flaws and quirks but women who shared initiative, resourcefulness, and bravery. A book for fans of military history and spy novels, especially those starring women. Or anyone who appreciates a good story well told.

[Kris (My Novelesque Life) · Rating 2 out of 5]

RATING: 2 STARS
2017; Chicago Review Press
(Review Not on Blog)

I was expecting something more focused on women in the war. I also found it hard to get through. I put it down a few times and found it hard to pick back up. It was a bit more dense then I imagined so I started skimming the last 3/4 of the book.

***I received an eARC from EDELWEISS***

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was surprised at how poorly organized this book was - I really expected more from the authors. Others have noted that the first 1/3 of the book is dedicated to Churchill, FDR, and Bill Donovan, which would have been fine had other writers not addressed this period better, in books that were not ostensibly dedicated to female combatants. All of this backstory could have been summarized in a 2 page forward. It not only felt excessive, it felt irrelevant.

Unfortunately, the rest was not much better. There seemed to be no thought given to narrative structure. The women were described in vignettes, and I couldn't seem to make sense of the organizational process. They were somewhat chronological, but often skipped from country to country and person to person without finishing what they'd started. As a result, it was difficult to keep track of who they were talking about, even when the subjects were familiar.

They also didn't use footnotes (at least there were none in the edition I read). And since some of the details they presented differ from other sources I've read, this made me more than a little suspicious.

Since this was a recent book, I was expecting some new information. But frankly, it seemed like they were relying on the research of other authors - many of whom did a far better job (or who had editors that actually *did* the job) recounting the heroism and sacrifices of women in the OSS and SOE. This read more like a high schooler's summary than a historian's perspective.

tl;dr skip this one, there are better books about this subject.

[Julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title of this book is misleading. Most of the book isn't about the women. There are large sections about the men who set up the SOE and the OSS, and about the history of the war. The last few chapters have vignettes of specific women, but they all run together and jump back and forth so it's difficult to follow which women did what. Perhaps if I knew more French geography it would have been easier to follow the different Resistance groups and the agents.
2.5 stars

[Lady Wesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review of the audiobook narrated by Kate Reading.

This book tells the amazing story of the women who fought in Europe during World War II. That’s right. “Fought!” They worked for British MI5 and 6, the SOE, and the American OSS. After training that was as grueling as any soldier would have endured, they were smuggled into France where they joined with the underground to fight the Nazis and their collaborators. Many of them were wireless operators who were electronically stalked by the Nazis, and at one point before the Allied invasion their life expectancy averaged eight weeks. Some of them became what amounted to commanding officers of resistance groups. Many, perhaps most, did not survive. And after the war ended, almost none received the honors they deserved — because they were civilians and (mostly) because they were women.

It was quite humbling to read about their sacrifice and bravery. Would I have been able to do what they did? I don’t know, and I hope I never am faced with having to decide.

If I had a daughter, I would urge her to read this book

And I think my next book will be Spymistress: The True Story of the Greatest Female Secret Agent of World War II. Rather than trying to describe what she did, I’ll just quote her wartime colleague Ian Fleming, “In the real world of spies, Vera Atkins was the boss.”

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

The women involved in World War II espionage work, many of whom paid with their lives for their courageous contributions towards achieving victory over Nazi Germany, are a fascinating subject of which this book gives a decent overview. While much of the first half makes one wonder if it might not have been helpful for someone to remind the authors what the focus of their book was meant to be, they did get around to concentrating on the female agents supposedly at the heart of this work eventually, albeit it in a rather unorganized fashion.

[Frances · Rating 1 out of 5]

What an important story! However, it was poorly told. The book felt fragmented, did not have a logical flow and really did not give as much attention to the women who stepped up in WWII and made a difference. Very disappointed.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This title appealed because of interest piqued by the Maggie Hope mystery series of Susan Elia MacNeal. Reading this title verifies how accurate those fictional titles are as they detail activities of British and American intelligence agents being dropped into France and Germany to conduct surveillance on the Nazis. It was amazing to read the accounts in this volume of the individual brave female agents from all over Europe, including some Russian agents, and the US and how much they risked for the war effort. In some cases, the risk was for excitement and adrenaline rush. Sometimes it was to be part of the effort of doing something rather than nothing, and at times agents volunteered as an act of retribution against some Nazi brutality on an agent's family. The many details that come out in this volume about agent training, the attention to details the women had to pay, the risks and results of their involvement all make absorbing reading. People such as Ian Fleming and Kim Philby feature in the training of these agents and in the evolving history of the OSS (eventually the CIA) and the SOE in Britain.

Some GR reviewers felt there was too much about the men who organized the OSS, and I would agree that that part could have been abbreviated. But I have not personally read much historical background on the formation of these secret intelligence agencies, and so I found some of that detail interesting in and of itself. My larger complaint would be about the writing style. The authors gave a great deal of personal background on many of the more important individual agents, but the way the details were laid out was often a bit jumpy and made it hard to figure out when the agents were doing what. Many times dates of major events were left out, and it was hard to know where some of the agent activities fit in to the larger timeline of the war in western Europe. A few maps would also have helped, and there were absolutely no photos of anyone, even Wild Bill Donovan. That would have added a lot.

Still, an interesting read because it shows the mettle of many brave women in a body of military history which tends to focus on the men.

[Brad Kirbyson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was a bit scattered. There was a lot on the formation of the SOE & OSS that has already been extensively covered and doesn't add anything but length to the book. A lot of the womens' stories are fascinating but it is interspersed with a lot of things men did, most of which is covered elsewhere

[Dee Miller]

Audible.com 11 hours 33 min. Narrated by Kate Reading (B)

There were 13 chapters (about 2 hours 30 min.) devoted to the actual women AND men who were the actual agents of espionage. Of that material 30 minutes or more was devoted to women who were a part of NKGB Soviet's spies trained by Britain's SOE. The first 10 chapters are devoted to the history of Britain's SOE and America's OSS under Bill Donavan. If you are familiar with either, skip the first ten chapters to gain something about the lives of the brave women who did so much to organize the resistence in France during the war and impeding the Nazi army after D Day. Vera Atkins would be brokenhearted to find that her courageous women would merit so little attention. 2 stars

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having read so many historical fiction books dealing with the SOE, I thought it about time I picked up a non-fiction work on the group along with the OSS involvement. Recognized many of the names that have shown up in other WWII histories I have read and from the historical fiction.

It was a detailed read in some ways but could have been improved by having a couple additional items: the cast of characters and the organizations they represented, a map of the training areas in England and the key regions of France.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do not understand why 2/3 of this book talks about the men involved instead of the women, or why we get random snippets of things the women did instead of an actual story about what they did, or why the events are in no particular order and are so hard to follow. As a WWII history nerd, I'm glad I stuck with it, but as a feminist, I'm annoyed.

[Cindy B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting historical facts and stories. Rereading - rating was lost. Narrator is clear and engaging.

[Katherine Wacker · Rating 5 out of 5]

In their book, Shadow Warriors of World War II: The Daring Women of OSS and OSE, Gordon Thomas and Greg Lewis trace the beginnings of The Office of Strategic Services and Special Operations Executive, and the vital role that women played in each organization. Knowing that information is the key to winning wars, the United States and Great Britain founded these intelligence groups to hasten the end of hostilities. Women, who were less likely to draw the attention of the Germans, were dropped behind Nazi lines in Germany and France. These spies accepted the risk of torture and death if they fell into the wrong hands. And, as the book details, many did give their lives for freedom. Because of the failure to adjust to enemy tactics, the closing chapters document the many failures of these missions.

Shadow Warriors of World War II is well-written, fast-paced, and easy to follow. Although nonfiction, it seems like a cloak-and-dagger thriller. However, toward the end of the narrative, the book reads like an information drop, and is somewhat compartmentalized, disrupting the flow. I found Shadow Warriors of World War II fascinating and abounding with courageous women who were willing to fight for the freedom of future generations. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the events of the Second World War.

[Tammy Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars for the solid research. The authors did a pretty good job of making the exploits of the women agents feel genuinely exciting, such as Virginia Hall and Nancy Wake, however because of the many agents that were featured, the day-to-day activities were glossed over in favour of the 'big' moments.

The issue I had with the book was that the title and the blurb make it pretty obvious the book is going to be ALL ABOUT the female agents of the OSS and SOE.

This is mostly a lie.

The majority of the book was about the history of the two organisations, how they came to be established, the activities of the people in charge, how they ran the operations. It took a very long time for any female agents to be mentioned. It took even longer for the activities of female agents in France to become the focus.

Not to say that the book was bad because of this. But the blurb needs to be honest about what the book is about. I would have read it either way. The backgrounds of the training instructors were interesting, and so were the lengths the SOE went to, in order to disguise its airfield from which the agents were sent off. But I spent a very long time wondering why it was taking so long for the 'daring women' of the two agencies to appear.

[Margaret Elder · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was frustrating to read. It took about the first 1/3 of the book to finally get to the stories about women in the spy agencies. I'm not sure the readers needed to know all the background of setting up the OSS, etc. The stories about the women themselves (almost all were SOE), were very interesting but often hard to follow because names would be brought up out of nowhere and often not explained. There is a guide to acronyms used in the back of the book, but their meaning should have been explained within the text (at least when first mentioned by the author). The book would have been so much better if it had been edited better, both for flow and continuity and for sentences with modifiers that dangled, etc., and made sentences harder to interpret. However, the stories of the women themselves and their male counterparts were fascinating. What heroes they all were! Also, I have to admit that the book had interest for me because of David K. E. Bruce and his wife, characters mentioned repeatedly, whose ancestral home is in the rural county where I live. I learned a great deal from this book even though I have reservations about its organization and writing.

[Michele · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book more than I did. The authors did a great job researching the beginnings of the spy organizations in Great Britain and the US, but spent way too many pages/chapters discussing the men who formed the SOE and OSS instead of profiling the women agents. It took until the middle of the book to get to the heart of the matter. I understand that many of these women were captured and killed by the Germans so there may not be much material on their service, but this is a really a sketch covering the course of the war. Some of the agents are only briefly mentioned. And there's not much about the actual work these women did in the field with the exception of a couple of the US agents who have either written about their experiences or who were so famous among the French resistance that there have been other books written about their service. It's an admirable book, shining light on the lesser or unknown agents, but it's lacking substance.

[Danielle Dandreaux · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to this book while commuting to and from work. This book was full of a lot of detail and listening to the book may have made it harder to follow all of the acronyms and people described in the book. The book was really interesting, but I thought that the title was a slight misrepresentation of the book. I expected the book to solely focus on women spies. The book gives very thorough background on the development of the OSS and the SOE. These parts of the book give a lot of details about the creation of these organizations and the men who created them. It was interesting, but I thought the sole focus would be on the women. Some of the women stories included very extensive background, but some were only mentioned in passing. I would be interested in hearing more about the women who went undercover and risked their lives for the war effort.

[victor harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A high 4 rating for the story of women who faced great peril to operate undercover in Europe during the German occupation. They would act as saboteurs, contacts with the Resistance and other anti-Nazi operatives on the continent, and be a vital source for supplying information to the Allies in preparation for the D-Day invasion. Even the slightest slip-up or mishap could compromise them and some, along with their male counterparts, would be captured, tortured, and executed by the Nazis. The early parts of the narrative which included the extensive training preparation and coordination of the American and British spy services made for the best segment of the book. Unfortunately, despite their heroics, most of the women would not be adequately recognized or compensated for their efforts.

[Readnponder · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is full of interesting vignettes of women's roles in the work of the American Office of Strategic Services and the British Special Operations Executive. However, the percentage of the book focusing on women seemed to be 50% or less to me. Much more space was given to the origin and development of the two spy/resistance departments. I also found the structural organization of the book to be confusing. It jumped from the SOE to OSS and back and forth. It jumped from training exercises to operations in various countries. Perhaps the two authors wrote separate chapters and then joined them together without sufficient segues.

[Dave Walls · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book describing the recruitment, training, and operations of female agents for England and the US during WW2. The book follows a number of women (and men connected to the operations) somewhat chronologically. The last fourth of the book is easily the most tense describing operations that went awry, or people who informed on agents, leading to some spies' capture and execution. A noble account of these heroes, and in at least two cases (one male and one female), a fair description of personal shortcomings.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

How I admire these women who sacrificed much and had tremendous courage in France during World War 2. The author writes about different men involved with the OSS and SOE (intelligence groups) at the beginning and one reviewer mentioned that. But as the book progresses, she writes much more about the many women who really did amazing feats helping the Resistance, and downed pilots. Many died but the stories are inspiring. They had difficult training but the will they had, the courage and risk-taking is remarkable.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were perhaps two chapters that actually focused on women and even those chapters talked a lot about men. This is not inherently bad, except that this is a book subtitled that it is about the women of the OSS and SOE. But three quarters of the book was really about the men behind the women and that last sentence doesn't make up for the neglect of focus or the rushing through these women's accomplishments that resulted.

[Michael Kerr · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great companion piece to Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, this book covers the decision-making that led to the inclusion of women in the (mostly) French spy networks during World War II. It includes some of the disasters and idiotic failings, and covers a lot of little-known operations and spy-network activities. The book works best when focused on the extraordinary women who dropped into France and risked their lives - other parts are a little more pedestrian.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspiring true stories of the female agents of the OSE and OSS sent into France to organize and arm the resistance and commit acts of sabotage. They risked, and many lost their lives - yet they were not recognized with military medals because at the time women were not eligible. A hugely important piece of history!

Fav quote:
“Never again would a counterintelligence force naively assume that a woman could not be a dangerous agent”.

[Nissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Engrossing read!

I love WWII history and have always had a fascination with espionage so this book is the perfect mix. It's an account of many of the female spies during WWII. The stories of these amazing women read like a movie! Highly recommended.

I liked the book so much that I purchased the book and audio version.

[Slmstanley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informal, chatty, and infinitely interesting, this book is a series of stories about the very brave women who parachuted into France to aid the Resistance in WWII. I found it absorbing, and was astonished by the ordinary bravery these women exhibited, but the disdain they faced from men. Their names should be household words.

[Monical · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really interesting book including a number of details of which I wasn't aware. I was turned off by the episodic organization-- the stories get broken up into many chapters, frequently with other intervening information, making it hard to grasp the whole. and reducing the interest in many interesting characters!

[Andrea Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating! So many details about the spy side of WWII. I’ll be reading this one again sometime, to glean even more information.

Content: profanity, expletives, at least one homosexual reference, some sexual content (including a “joke” and a body part), suicides