Product Description

One of the most determined and courageous secret agents of the Second World War, Harry Peulevé joined the BEF in 1940 before volunteering for F Section of the Special Operations Executive. On his first mission to occupied France to set up the SCIENTIST circuit, he broke his leg on landing and, after numerous close calls, made an heroic crossing of the Pyrenees on sticks in December 1942. Imprisoned, he escaped and eventually returned to England in May 1943.

He formed a close friendship with Violette Szabo before setting out to train a Maquis group in central France. Despite the Gestapo's repeated attempts to catch him he built up a secret army of several thousand resistance fighters. Eventually betrayed and captured, he was tortured at Avenue Foch but never broken. By coincidence he and Violette met while in captivity before Harry was sent to Buchenwald where he not only avoided execution but also managed to escape reaching American lines in April 1945. Sadly Peulevé never fully recovered from his wartime traumas but nothing can detract from his outstanding courage and contribution.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #127236 in Books
• Published on: 2008-11-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

Review
'Anyone who wants to understand why...many apparently ordinary people displayed such extraordinary courage and determination should read Perrin's book' --Times Literary Supplement

Review
'Quite simply the most outstanding study of a special forces hero to appear in years'

Review
'Nigel Perrin's telling of the life of Harry Peulevé...makes for arresting reading...an engaging and useful work'

Customer Reviews

The title tells you all.
For a first book, I cannot praise the author more for the research done on this little known hero.
A wonderful story with all the background of the war in France and the political background in UK. Harry was a man of true grit but I felt he was overwhelmed by his experiences so much that he did not speak of them..as many of his generation.
Nearly too late, he wrote them down and passed them on.
Although he went on to have another Career after the war he was obviously haunted by WW11.

A TRUE HERO
A MAN WHO IS A HERO IN THE PROPER SENSE OF THE WORD. A GREAT BRITAN, A GREAT MAN. HIS NAME SHOULD BE KNOWN TO ALOT MORE PEOPLE

A Well-Writtten and Researched Book Showing Just What True Courage Is
Immediately after the war there appered many books about the S.O.E. (Special Operations Executive), especially in France. These were mainly books of great "derring-do" which gave a flavour of a saboteurs life behind enemy lines but which, in many cases, rather exaggerated the individual's own contribution and importance.

In 1966 the official history of S.O.E. in France was published and a whole new raft of agents such as Harry Peuleve and Francis Cammaerts, were brought into the public domain. Harry Peuleve's first mention was of how in 1942 he was dropped by parachute far too low and sustained multiple fractures of his leg, rendering him useless for clandestine operations. Despite his injuries he still managed to make his escape back to England (after imprisonment in Spain) by crossing the Pyrenees. After recovery and recuperation he returned to duty in France.

It gives little away to say that he was eventually betrayed to the Germans and ended up in Buchenwald from which he eventually escaped returning to the Allied lines with two SS prisoners!!

It is entirely characteristic of this man that he did not seek to profit from his experiences in war. The book was written many years after his death and is based on Harry Peuleve's own unpublished memoirs together with the memories of his family, friends, and others involved in clandestine warfare, together with official sources. Unlike those books written shortly after the war this (and Francis Cammaert's story) continues into peacetime re-adjustment. Suffice to say that up to the time of his death in 1963 he was still experiencing nightmares of his time in Buchenwald and there was the likelihood that he was using alcohol increasingly to enable him to cope with his psychological trauma. He died alone aged 47 in a hotel bedroom in Spain where he had just arrived on business. Bravery clearly came at a price for Harry Peuleve, and demonstrates the reality of what that over-used diagnosis, P.T.S.D. (post-traumatic stress disorder) really is all about.

This book is well-written and will hold your attention. I would find it difficult to believe that anybody could read this book without an increasing respect for Harry Peuleve's courage and determination which for me is entirely humbling.