Blood in the Snow: Treachery, Torture, Murder and Massacre - France 1944

Douglas Boyd

Jul 2012 · The History Press

About this ebook

Nearing D-Day, Allied intelligence used thousands of young men hiding in France's forests and hill country to avoid compulsory labour service in Germany as bait to draw German forces away from the Normandy beaches. There are two principles of guerilla warfare: never to concentrate your forces or rish a pitched battle. But with RAF airdrops of pistols and Sten guns came British, American and French liaison officers who concentrated these untrained civilians in remote areas of France. They thought Allied airborne foreces would land and help them drive the Germans out of their country, but instead were hunted down by collaborationist French paramilitaries, Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS troops. They died in the snows of winter through high midsummer. Those taken prisoner were raped, tortured and shot or deported to death camps in Germany. Many of their killers were themselves murdered after the liberation, when thousands of French women were also publicly humiliated as sexual traitors.

About the author

DOUGLAS BOYD was trained as a Russian language snooper on Warsaw Pact air forces, based at a secret RAF SIGINT base in Berlin. He first put his lifelong fascination with history to professional use when scripting and directing historical reconstructions as a BBC Television producer, and he is a well-published author of books such as 'Moscow Rules' and 'The Other First World War'.