Schoolmasters War Harry Ree A British Agent in the French Resistance

A school teacher at the start of the war, Harry R e renounced his former pacifism with the fall of France in 1940. He was deployed into a secret branch of the British army and parachuted into central France in April 1943.

Harry showed a particular talent for winning the confidence of local resisters, and guided them in a series of dramatic sabotage operations, before getting into a hand-to-hand fight with an armed German officer, from which he was lucky to escape.

This might seem like a romantic story of heroism and derring-do, but Harry R e's own war writings, superbly edited and contextualized by his son, the philosopher Jonathan R e, are far more nuanced, shot through with doubts, regrets, and grief.

The wartime adventures of the legendary SOE agent Harry R e, told in his own words

A school teacher at the start of the war, Harry R e renounced his former pacifism with the fall of France in 1940. He was deployed into a secret branch of the British army and parachuted into central France in April 1943.

Harry showed a particular talent for winning the confidence of local resisters, and guided them in a series of dramatic sabotage operations, before getting into a hand-to-hand fight with an armed German officer, from which he was lucky to escape.

This might seem like a romantic story of heroism and derring-do, but Harry R e's own war writings, superbly edited and contextualized by his son, the philosopher Jonathan R e, are far more nuanced, shot through with doubts, regrets, and grief.

The wartime adventures of the legendary SOE agent Harry R e, told in his own words

"A beautiful collection of writings by schoolmaster-turned-secret agent Harry R e. . . . Memoirs, postwar broadcasts and letters from French comrades combine to paint a picture of everyday heroism, treachery and tragedy."--Robert Gildea, author of Fighters in the Shadows: A New History of the French Resistance

"In a book devoted to heroism in its true, self-effacing form, that modesty seems entirely appropriate, and is a tribute both to Ree and to the son who put it together."--Andrew Holgate, The Sunday Times

A pacifist school teacher at the start of the war, Harry R e changed his mind with the fall of France in 1940. He was deployed into a secret branch of the British army and parachuted into central France in April 1943. He soon won the confidence of local resisters and directed a series of dramatic sabotage operations. R e's memoirs, superbly edited by his son, the philosopher Jonathan R e, offer unique insights into life in the French Resistance, and into the anxiety, folly and pity of war.