We all know how the war turned out, and in his introduction author Peter Jacobs gives a brief account of brothers Henry and Alfred Newton’s lives after the conflict was over – so we know they survived. Yet this is a book that gives such a close-hand description of what it’s like to work, under cover, in France, that you will read it on the edge of your seat. The brothers’ journey – from interwar cabaret stars and family men, to widowers hell-bent on doing anything they could to damage the Nazi cause – is a bleak and true tale. Following their entire close family (their parents, wives and children) perishing in the German U-boat attack against the SS Avoceta in the Atlantic, the brothers made a vow to return to France determined to have revenge.
The resourcefulness of men facing such a traumatic situation – that would have made many of us crumble – is admirable, and the attention to detail with which the author relates their SOE training, their network of contacts and sabotage work in France is absorbing. Despite their tough and hard-hearted reputation, the book gives you the sense that these were decent men caught up in terrible circumstances, with tragic consequences that would stay with them for the rest of their lives.
History Press, hardback £20 ISBN 9780750989831
HT