They Fought Alone: The True Story of the Starr Brothers, British Secret Agents in Nazi-Occupied France

Glass (The Deserters: A Hidden History of World War II), former chief Mideast correspondent for ABC News, tells the story of George and John Starr, British brothers of American descent who worked with partisans in France during WWII. George spearheaded a Resistance network in southwest France that overcame numerous obstacles to seriously hamper the German war effort, with achievements that included blowing up a gunpowder factory in Toulouse and rendering 900 sections of railroad inoperable for German trains. John was active for a far shorter period of time in eastern France before he was betrayed in 1943 and imprisoned in Paris for 11 months; he cooperated somewhat with his captors, hoping to gain information from them, but ultimately was sent to concentration camps. After the war, both brothers fell under suspicion; George was charged with the particularly brutal torture of Gestapo agents and John with cooperating with the Germans. While both were exonerated, their careers in British intelligence were finished. Glass’s vividly written work adds an important chapter to the story of the Resistance. [em]Agent: Ed Victor, Ed Victor Ltd. (Sept.) [/em]