Sons of Odysseus

In this follow-up to his acclaimed A Spur Called Courage, military historian Alan Ogden repeats the formula of picking exceptional WWII Special Operations Executive heroes—this time 19 who operated behind enemy lines in Greece. Using research from original unseen sources, Sons of Odysseus highlights many of the extraordinary acts of sabotage carried out by 19 heroic SOE personal against the German occupation forces in Greece in WW2. Sons of Odysseus highlights many of the extraordinary acts of sabotage carried out by SOE personnel against German occupation forces and examines the difficulties SOE Missions experienced in working with a resistance torn apart by irreconcilable political divisions. Also, there are unexpected stories emerge of humanitarian aid dispensed to starving children in the Peloponnese and of the struggle to safeguard 11,000 Italian POWs after their surrender in 1943. Some of the episodes in this book are quite well known—Patrick Leigh Fermor's capture of the German general on Crete and Gordon-Creed's blowing up of the Asopis viaduct—but many others are untold until now, and were equally daring acts of heroism.