This book investigates the role played by William Donovan, the OSS mission in London and the Carpetbaggers, the US Squadron which was sent to RAF Tempsford to be trained by the 'Moon Squadrons' before undertaking their own missions from Harrington. Not only does it describe the work of pilots and crew members, it also details some of the missions and gives insight into their social life. It includes the story of Owen Johnson and Elizabeth Devereaux Rochester, the first American agents to be parachuted into France, and Juup Kappius, Hilde Meisel and Ann Bayer, the first OSS agents to be sent...

Designed by illusionist Jasper Maskelyne, RAF Tempsford was constructed to give overflying enemy aircraft the impression it was disused. Nothing could be further from the truth - just after dusk on moonlit nights either side of the full moon, planes from the 138 and 161 Squadrons would take off on top secret missions to the heart of the war-torn Continent. They had to fly low and without lights in order to identify drop zones and deliver the supplies and secret agents that would help the resistance forces liberate Europe. But despite the attention of Churchill and George VI, the airfield's...

Nearly forty female agents were sent out by the French section of Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the Second World War. The youngest was 19 and the oldest 53. Most were trained in paramilitary warfare, fieldcraft, the use of weapons and explosives, sabotage, silent killing, parachuting, codes and cyphers, wireless transmission and receiving, and general spycraft. These women – as well as others from clandestine Allied organisations – were flown out and parachuted or landed into France on vital and highly dangerous missions: their task, to work with resistance...