Clandestine radio operators had one of the most dangerous jobs of World War 2. Those in Nazi-occupied Europe for the SOE, MI6 and the OSS had a life-expectancy of just six weeks. In the Gilbert Islands the Japanese decapitated 17 New Zealand ‘Coastwatchers’. These ‘behind the lines’ highly skilled agents’ main tasks were to maintain regular contact with their home base and pass vital intelligence back. As this meticulously researched book reveals, many operators did more than that. Norwegian Odd Starheim hi-jacked a ship and sailed it to the Shetlands. In the Solomon Islands Jack Read and Paul Mason warned the defenders of Guadalcanal about incoming enemy air raids giving American fighters a chance to inflict irreversible damage on the Japanese Air Force. In 1944 Arthur Brown was central to Operation Jedburgh’s success delaying the arrival of the SS Das Reich armoured division at the Normandy beach-heads. The author also explains in layman’s terms the technology of 1940s radios and the ingenious codes used. Most importantly, Covert Radio Agents tells the dramatic human stories of these gallant behind-the-lines radio agents. Who were they? How were they trained? How did they survive against the odds? This is both a highly informative and uplifting work about unsung heroes. AUTHOR: David Hebditch is an award-winning author and documentary film-maker. His first book for the general reader was about the smuggling of sensitive western technology to the Soviet Union (Techno-Bandits, 1983). In 2001 he produced and directed Allies and Lies, an investigation into covert operations in Bosnia, for BBC2. From 2003 he worked for NRK Television, Norway, on Stealing History about the looting of antiquities from war zones. Subsequently David and Ola Flyum won the 2005 Skup (Scoop) and ICIJ awards for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting. Between 2006 and 2016 he was involved in the production of Sarajevo Ricochet, A Town Betrayed and Taliban Oil. David is also the author (with SAS veteran Ken Connor) of How to Stage a Military Coup.
180 b/w illustrations