A01=Helen Fry
allied forces
Author_Helen Fry
belgium
Category=JPSH
Category=NHD
Category=NHWR5
Category=NHWR7
churchill
clarence service
dame blanche
england
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
forthcoming
france
germany
intelligence
mi6
oral history
security service
sis
spy networks
top secret
troop movements
UK
women in espionage
world war
Product details
- ISBN 9780300297188
- Dimensions: 127 x 197mm
- Publication Date: 22 Sep 2026
- Publisher: Yale University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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A major new history of the two most important British secret service networks in the First and Second World Wars
Intelligence gathering was essential to both sides in the First and Second World Wars. At the heart of MI6’s efforts were two key networks in Belgium. Agents in The White Lady acted as couriers, radio operators and spies to facilitate the end of German control. And, when war broke out again two decades later, the leaders of the network regrouped and established a successor: The Clarence Service.
Helen Fry charts the history of these pivotal intelligence networks. Drawing on recently declassified information, Fry examines who the agents were, how they were recruited, and how the intelligence they gathered directly impacted the outcome of both wars. Operators in the field sent over eight hundred radio messages to London and delivered more than a thousand reports, including groundbreaking information on Hitler’s secret weapon the V-1. This is a compelling account of the agents who risked their lives and found ingenious ways to smuggle intelligence out of occupied Belgium.
Intelligence gathering was essential to both sides in the First and Second World Wars. At the heart of MI6’s efforts were two key networks in Belgium. Agents in The White Lady acted as couriers, radio operators and spies to facilitate the end of German control. And, when war broke out again two decades later, the leaders of the network regrouped and established a successor: The Clarence Service.
Helen Fry charts the history of these pivotal intelligence networks. Drawing on recently declassified information, Fry examines who the agents were, how they were recruited, and how the intelligence they gathered directly impacted the outcome of both wars. Operators in the field sent over eight hundred radio messages to London and delivered more than a thousand reports, including groundbreaking information on Hitler’s secret weapon the V-1. This is a compelling account of the agents who risked their lives and found ingenious ways to smuggle intelligence out of occupied Belgium.
