A Schoolmaster's War
Author | : Jonathan Rée |
Publisher | : Yale University Press |
Total Pages | : 251 |
Release | : 2020-03-03 |
ISBN-10 | : 9780300252590 |
ISBN-13 | : 0300252595 |
Rating | : 4/5 (90 Downloads) |
Download or read book A Schoolmaster's War written by Jonathan Rée and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-03 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The wartime adventures of the legendary SOE agent Harry Rée, told in his own words A school teacher at the start of the war, Harry Rée renounced his former pacifism with the fall of France in 1940. He was deployed into a secret branch of the British army and parachuted into central France in April 1943. Harry showed a particular talent for winning the confidence of local resisters, and guided them in a series of dramatic sabotage operations, before getting into a hand-to-hand fight with an armed German officer, from which he was lucky to escape. This might seem like a romantic story of heroism and derring-do, but Harry Rée's own war writings, superbly edited and contextualized by his son, the philosopher Jonathan Rée, are far more nuanced, shot through with doubts, regrets, and grief.