First published in 1960, No Cloak, No Dagger tells the story of four missions undertaken by Cowburn in France between September 1941 and July 1944 for the Special Operations Executive. The purpose of that organization was to encourage and facilitate espionage and sabotage behind enemy lines, to ' set Europe ablaze' as Churchill ordered on its formation. It was a clandestine group of whose existence very few were aware. Some of the books action takes place in Vichy France, somewhere very much the subject of Cowburn's spleen - "truly the comic opera setting of officialdom wallowing in mediocrity" with the rest in the Occupied Zone and. briefly, Spain and Portugal.
What amazes me reading this is the understatement of Cowburn , "jumped out of airplane at 500 feet and got on with it." Even though Cowburn grew up in France the risks taken were unbelievable, while the attrition rate of his fellow agents was approximately 50%. Attrition here means captured and executed.
The biggest risk to the networks set up was infiltration by collaborators who then betrayed everyone.
This is not a James Bond book, its all very matter of fact. This however does not detract from the tension the author and his fellow agents lived under.
Amazing stuff.
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