No Colours or Crest: The Secret Struggle for Europe (Peter Kemp War Trilogy)

Yes, parachuting behind German lines into wartime Albania on a mission for the Special Operations Executive sounds exciting and the stuff of many a novel. And it was exciting for Kemp.But it was also full of tedium, treachery, and frustration.Kemp’s frustration started in September 1939 when war broke out. Kemp had only been back from his time in Franco’s Spanish Army for a month. Kemp had been severely wounded in the Spanish Civil War and admits his nerves were rather shot when he heard the air raid sirens now sounding in London.Being patriotic, he wanted to go to war again, this time for his own country. His older brother had already been in the British Navy several years. But Kemp’s past with the Nationalist Army in Spain worked against him.The local draft board took a look at his recent wounds and told him to come back in six months.But, in the way of British society then, word got around that Kemp wanted to serve, and, one day, he found a summons to the War Office. It was looking for men with his “special experience”. They could offer a “more interesting experience” than a regular regiment.In January 1940, Kemp found himself with a group of men at the cavalry barracks in Weedon undergoing abbreviated military training – the most useful element being horsemanship.In April 1940, he got his first assignment: a sabotage mission against a Norwegian rail line.But, here, we first see the divergence between sensational thrillers and reality. The mission was cancelled after the submarine carrying the commandoes had to return to base after suffering damage from enemy depth charges.The Allies withdrew from Norway before the mission could be rescheduled.The group’s leader decided to establish a new school for partisan warfare and asked Kempt to join it. The training camp was at Inverailort House in the Scottish Highlands, and, in May 1940, Kemp himself undergoing further training there in map reading, fieldcraft, and demolitions. The first students in June 1940.But it wasn’t until February 1941 that Kemp found himself in the newly created S.O.E. It was then more training for Kemp including from someone who sounds like the famous William Fairbairn.It was then a secret deployment to Gibralter in preparation for covert action in Spain if Franco allowed German forces to enter the country. Kemp had to contemplate possibly fighting against his former comrades.The mission, of course, never came about, and, in August 1941, Kemp found himself back in England for more training including the first of many parachute jumps that didn’t go to plan. At last, in August 1942, he finally saw action as part of a Small-Scale Raiding Force that landed on the Normandy coast and later on a raid on the German occupied island of the Casquets. Kemp was again wounded – accidentally by the knife of a fellow soldier as they exfiltrated in a boat.Kemp did three missions altogether with the Small-Scale Raiding Force including its last one in November 1942.In May 1943, Kemp found himself involved with the Jugoslav Section of the SOE headquartered out of Cairo.The first hint of how things were going to go wrong later was when he met the intelligence officer for that section, a former secretary of the Cambridge University Communists. “I had innocently supposed the Communists were strictly excluded from the S.O.E.”, he remarks.S.O.E. operations in Rumania, Bulgaria, Jugoslavia, and Greece hadn’t fared well. But Albania, untroubled by civil war, was thought to be a better theater for operations.After rather useless language training and a briefing on the country’s history and current political situation, Kemp was scheduled to drop into Albania in July 1943. But, since this isn’t an action novel, his plans were delayed by an attack of gout.Finally, about a third of the way into the book, four three-man teams (officer, wireless operator, and demolitions expert) were dropped into the country in August 1943. Kemp incurred another of his jump-related injuries, this time a concussion.The frustrations of Kemp’s time in Albania are summed up by a chapter heading: “Partisans and Parasites”.Kemp, as always, vividly describes his few combat actions in Albania, but most of his time in the book depicts the frustrations of operating in an environment where his alleged partisan allies spent a great deal of time asking for more weapons and gold while putting forth a minimum effort to actually fight Germans. The partisans of the Enver Hoxha and Mehmet Shebu camps were more interested in preparing to fight with each other after (and sometimes before) the Germans were pushed out of the country. Others were not even sure they wanted the Germans to leave since they dreaded Communist subjugation when that happened. Kemp dutifully passed on Hoxha’s request for additional aid. As with the case of Greek Communist partisans, the aid found its way into the party’s coffers and not the struggle to resist an invasion. Clan feuds also complicated matters.Kemp and the rest of the S.O.E. men had to move around quite a bit. There is a lot of walking and riding through the mountains of Albania, a country whose beauty impressed Kemp.Eventually Kemp found himself in the disputed region of Kossovo where no help was to be had for his mission.By Feburary 1944, Kemp was out of Albania for good, and he takes time out to detail how many of his Albanian friends and comrades were killed by the Communists after they took over.He returned to Italy in March, and there another famous name shows up, Anthony Quayle, who had a harrowing time during his S.O.E. mission in Albania.Kemp was not pleased to see another Communist as his unit’s intelligence officer, John Eyre. They were to cross paths later in Indochina. He also got to meet Albanian King Zog.In July 1944, Kemp was sent for a refresher course on “’cloak and dagger’ technique”. His next mission was to be to Poland.Kemp reminds us the Soviets deliberately stalled its advance to Warsaw so that an uprising there in August 1944 would be crushed – along with the politically troublesome Polish Underground Army. The USSR protested against any British intelligence mission to report on the fighting in Poland. The Poles were “’Fascists’ and ‘bandits’”.Finally, after more preparations including language lessons, Kemp arrived in Poland in December 1944.Kemp has praise for the Poles as a “gallant people who had done so much to help themselves” – unlike many Albanians.But, while the Poles “produced no Quislings”, they were not united in their resistance. There were four resistance groups, and, occasionally, they fought each other to the death. They also didn’t have that much respect for their putative leaders in exile.The Germans were aware of his party parachuting in, so Kemp had to spend a lot of time moving from place to place and hiding among the locals. But the Germans never captured them. On the 16th of January 1945, the Soviets arrived.There was much boasting of Soviet prowse in the war and assurances the Russians really would leave Poland. Kemp notes the Soviet’s army’s mobility would not have been possible without mobility enabled by the Lend-Lease program.Some of the officers declared that, when they were through with Germany, they would fight Britain. Kemp and his men were held as prisoners for about a month and even interrogated. They were then taken to Moscow. There the N.K.V.D. tried to run a honey-pot operation on them.Eventually, in March 1945, they were sent back to England.While combat takes up relatively few pages in this book, this is a fascinating glimpse of the feel of S.O.E. operations, the frustrations of partisan warfare, and Communist treachery. Throughout it, Kemp gives us vivid pictures of the many people he met and his life there.This and the earlier Mine Were of Trouble are fascinating looks at some most important events of Europe’s 20th century history from an unusual perspective.

A good read, buy and read all of Kemp's books. It's only three, you can do it

Practically a day to day account of the author’s experience and rapid travel through the Balkans and Poland during WWII.Often horrifying and/or ignorant of the situations they were in. Miles and miles of fast walking! Always in hiding; tremendous description of the personal, local, national, wartime and political conditions that existed at the time.This memoir really dovetails with the broader impersonal histories of WWII in Eastern Europe that I’ve read.

Great WW2 first-hand account of SOE (the precursor to MI6) operations in the Balkans (primarily Albania) and Poland. Lots of detail into Albania and how Enver Hoxha & his Communist Partisans had no intention of fighting the Axis (or even helping their own people) unless they could claim direct credit. Was absolutely floored by how little they engaged the enemy and how they had the same plan that communists in France and China had under Axis occupation: accept Allied supplies and hoard it until the threat leaves so they can use the guns and material to win the ensuing civil war.Very disturbing to read accounts of how infiltrated SOE was by communist "fellow travelers" who were more than willing to aid and abet these deranged communist groups, and for their non-compromised fellow agents like Peter Kemp who were discovering this fact while on active assignment.Great prelude to Alms for Oblivion where the same issue rears its head again in Southeast Asia and with the US' own OSS (precursor to CIA)."I was surprised to find Klugmann occupying such a confidential position, because when I had last seen him, in 1936, he had been the secretary and inspiration of the Cambridge University Communists. I had innocently supposed that Communists were strictly excluded from S.O.E., for I myself had been required to sign a declaration that I belonged to no Communist or Fascist party before I was enrolled in the organization. However, among my acquaintances at Cambridge there were a number of young men who had joined the Party in a spirit of idealism, only to leave it after the Soviet-German pact of 1939; I assumed that Klugmann was one of them.But I was wrong: like his contemporary, Guy Burgess, he was one of the hard core and today he is a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Although it was impressed upon me from the moment of my arrival in Cairo that when I went into the field I must regard myself simply as a soldier, whose task would be the prosecution of military operations to the exclusion of politics, I could not fail to be aware of the strong political differences which divided the staff officers both in London and Cairo. Nowhere were they more evident than in the Jugoslav Section." (Kemp, No Colours or Crest)

A thoughtful memoir of a British officer serving behind enemy lines in France, Albania, and Poland. He spent time detained by the Russians before off to his next adventure in volume three. Well worth the read to discover another side of the war.

An honest account of the real experience by the author of operations behind the ennemy lines in Central Europe. Better to be read after the first part of the trylogy that gives a better understanding of Peter Kemp attitudes and values. A rare combination of a true warrior and splendid writerAlex , Madrid, Spain.

Peter Kemp continues his life of adventure by helping found the Special Operations Executive, participating on several commando raids across the English channel before dropping into the Balkans to organize resistance to the Axis. I found the entire book pretty engaging, though some of the sections in Albania are tough to keep track of due to the sheer profusion of names and places, as well as the number of important figures involved.The perfidity of communist insurgents, and later, the Red Army, are on full display here. Enver Hoxha and later the Polish Communist partisans were more interested in advancing their own political agendas than fighting the axis powers in good faith. Indeed, the book ends on a tragic high note as Kemp drops into Poland at the end of the war. Highly recommended for fans of cloak and dagger war when the stakes could not have been higher.

Frisch aus dem spanischen Bürgerkrieg kommt Peter Kemp und erzählt die Geschichte einer weniger bekannten Front des Zweiten Weltkriegs. Zugegeben, ich fand es weniger aufregend als das erste Buch, jedoch immer noch eine großartige Lektüre. Vorsicht: das Lesen dieses Buches kann Ihr Risiko von albanischen Nationalisten angegriffen zu werden messbar erhöhen.

Top-quality content from a remarkably insistent salesman 10/10. Suitable for all fans of freedom and democracy would make an excellent gift

Peter Kemp’s second memoir of his work during WW2 is something fascinating, and a perspective I have never experienced before.From his time in the pre-SAS special forces raids into France, into his time in the Balkans (Albania and Montenegro), his experience in Poland, and his imprisonment by the Soviets are all very distinct from what we are taught in schools.Through reading this, readers will find that working with partisans was hell, and probably is very similar to the situation the US military deals with throughout the Middle East and Africa.Some scenes are very similar to what happened in Benghazi, where the perceived allies mostly just lie, get drunk, and steal stuff.ケンプ氏の二つ目の伝記は彼の第二次世界大戦時の経験の話です。ヴィシー政フランスへの襲撃、バルカン半島でのパルティザン行動、ポーランドでの国内軍との行動、と最終的にソビエットに捕虜にされる話です。ケンプ氏の味方への期待とその絶望のみでなく、彼の人間関係がとても読むのが楽しいところです。