An extract from the book...
In the sombre sunshine of 1940, almost before the last British soldier had waded
into the sea at Dunkirk, a secret organisation was set up in London. It was
apparently housed in Baker Street, in the Sherlock Holmes country. One of its
names was Special Operations Executive. It had many others. Its purpose was “to
co-ordinate all action by way of subversion and sabotage against the enemy
overseas”. Sir Winston Churchill’s directive was more terse. It was “Set Europe
Ablaze!”
A meagre handful of aircraft was put at the disposal of this organisation, and a
Flight came secretly into being. It was first lead by Wing-Commander ‘Mouse’
Fielden, now loaded with many honours, Captain of the Queen’s Flight. Whenever
the moon rose and waned, aircraft went out from an elaborately camouflaged
airfield that lay hidden in true English landscape. As the war went on, the
little force increased in numbers, strength and experience. The men who sat in
the cockpits and the crews who flew with them became the Scarlet Pimpernels of
the Twentieth Century. They cast the moonlit shadow of their wings over Europe,
from the Arctic Circle to the little warm wavelets of the Levant. They carried
organisers, couriers, wireless operators - affectionately they called these
secret people ‘the Joes’ - ferrying them forth and back with audacity, an
impudence that made even Hitler wonder if there was a quality in his enemies for
which he had not made allowances.
The epitaphs of the men who gave their lives in this hazardous undertaking lie
in the hearts of those whom they sustained, succoured and freed. To honour five
of them, these words are carved in stone on a cross by the village of St. Cyr de
Valorges.
“In memory of five British airmen found dead under the debris of their aircraft.
They were shot down in flames at this place on April 28th, 1944, while
parachuting arms to our secret army for the liberation of France and for the
restoration of our ideals.”
Hitherto the story of the Moon Squadrons has been heavily censored. Now in this
important and enthralling book, more than a corner of the curtain has at last
been lifted.