Shorter' Notice
The Silent Company. By Remy. (Arthur Barker. 15s.) " REmv " was the nom de guerre of Gilbert Renault, a young Frenchman who, after. escaping to. England in the tragic summer of 1940, volunteered to work as a secret agent in Occupied- .France ; and The Sum, Company is an impressive account of his two years of clandestine life, during which he built up from literally nothing an intelligence network whose ramifications coxered almost the whole of the occupied zone. What makes the .book a major Con- tribution to the literature of underground warfare is not so much the quality of the writing—which, in this translation at any rate, seems rather undistinguished—as the simplicity and modesty with which the author handles his intensely moving and dramatic story. By letting the facts speak for themselves, he produces an effect of rare authenticity. He brings out well the amateurishness of the Resistance pioneers (fortunately compensated by Gestapo inefficiency in the early days). For he and his companions were no professional spies. "They were ordinary Frenchmen doing their ,duty. in the only way that was open to them—a dangerous, exacting and unrewarding one. They made mistakes that more experienced conapiratOrs_ would have known how to avoid—over-Centralisation, for .exan3ple, which meant that one arrest followed by torture sometimes led to a- Whok series of them. This is what actually happened-in the spring of 1942, when Remy, with • the Gestapo at his heels,: was obliged' to flee to England, with his wife and children—but not before his organisation had 'rendered invaluable service to the lAllied cause. The sinking Of Gentian' submarines and cargo ships tiff 'Bordeaux, the -interception by British bombers of the Scharnhorst,' the raids on St. Nizaire, Dieppe and Bruneval—all these would have been impossible but for the infoimation provided by Retny's agents-, • And the greatest achievement of all was the theft, of the German plan for the coastal defences in Normandy—a docuinent which, in the words - of General Omar Bradley; "was of, such value that our landing operation succeeded with the minimum loss of men and material."
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