In 1942, the Allies were losing, Germany seemed unstoppable, and every able man in England was on the front lines. To “set Europe ablaze,” in the words of Winston Churchill, the Special Operations Executive (SOE), whose spies were trained in everything from demolition to sharpshooting, was forced to do something unprecedented: recruit women. Thirty-nine answered the call, leaving their lives and families to become saboteurs in France.
In D-Day Girls, Sarah Rose draws on recently declassified files, diaries, and oral histories to tell the thrilling story of three of these remarkable women.
Join us for a conversation with Sarah Rose to hear about Andree Borrel, a scrappy and streetwise Parisian who blew up power lines, Odette Sansom, an unhappily married suburban mother who saw the SOE as her ticket out, and many other women whose involvement influenced the war.
Sarah Rose is the author of For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World’s Favorite Drink and Changed History. She has written for the Wall Street Journal, Outside, The Saturday Evening Post, and Men’s Journal. In 2014, she was awarded a Lowell Thomas Prize in Travel Writing.
16 окт 2024