'MAQUIS, The Secret War of Joseph Quantock' by Bing Taylor
This Guest Post was written by Bing Taylor, author of 'MAQUIS, The Secret War of Joseph Quantock'.
Set in Occupied France during 1943-1944, MAQUIS is the account of a young American's conversion from Conscientious Objector to become one of the most successful agents for Churchill's Secret Army, the Special Operations Executive (SOE).
Based on a true story, it recounts the lives, loves, tragedies and victories of the brave men and women of the French Resistance and the agents, dropped behind enemy lines, who trained them in the ungentlemanly arts of warfare.
The book follows Joey Quantock (code named Luc) as he recruits and trains young men and women who live as Maquis hiding in the hills and towns of France while committing dangerous acts of sabotage and subterfuge to rid their country of the Nazi occupiers.
But as Luc moves from place to place causing mayhem and murder he is relentlessly followed by Karl Metzger, the Abwehr sergeant intent on capturing him, or killing him.
" Somewhere over France, March 1943
The Luftwaffe pilots don’t seem to notice the distinctive carrot shape of the unlit Lysander a thousand feet below.
On board the tiny plane are two secret agents on their way to be dropped inside Occupied France.
The older man is Charles Decosse, head of the Lyon circuit of the French Resistance.
The younger man is Joseph Quantock, a 26-year-old American. This is his first mission as an agent of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), the ungentlemanly warfare department set up in great secrecy by Winston Churchill in July 1940.
Its mission is sabotage and subversion behind enemy lines.
Within three days Decosse will be dead and Quantock will be a hunted man. "
Bing Taylor
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