Bravest of the Brave: The True Story of Wing-Commander "Tommy" Yeo-Thomas Soe Secret Agent Codename "the White Rabbit" [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Mark Seaman (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Isis Large Print Books; Lrg edition (September 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0753150492
• ISBN-13: 978-0753150498
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,974,561 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The title is no misnomer!, May 5, 2000

By 

Donal A. O'Neill - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bravest of the Brave: The True Story of Wing-Commander "Tommy" Yeo-Thomas Soe Secret Agent Codename "the White Rabbit" (Hardcover)

This book deserves to be on the curriculum of every school in the Western World for it delineates in merciless detail just what was the price of the freedoms we take so much for granted today and what the much-devalued word "hero" actually means. One hopes that similar sacrifices will never be required again by the ordinary citizens of free nations, but if they are, the courage, self-sacrifice and indomitability of Yeo-Thomas and so many others whose lives, and often also deaths, are touched on here will serve as an example and as an inspiration. Mr.Seaman tells the story of a man, ordinary in many ways, who, when confronted with absolute evil, and at an age when serving in a less active role would have evoked no disgrace, never hesitated to accept missions of the utmost danger. He proved the ideal combination of organiser, diplomat and man of action before capture and in detention proved an inspiring leader for his companions in misery. He was under no illusions as to the consequences of arrest by a barbarous enemy and when the worst happened he endured unspeakable suffering under interrogation, torture and slave-labour in concentration camps. Throughout all this his dedication to victory never failed and even in the squalid hell of Buchenwald he continued to resist. The most moving moment detailed in the book is when Yeo-Thomas, a filthy scarecrow in striped concentration-camp uniform, is recognised in a regular POW camp to which he has been sent on menial errands, and a group of British NCOs and men stand to attention before him, honouring him for a few moments before he returns to the abyss. Though Yeo-Thomas was assiduous in supporting prosecution of his tormentors after the war, his fairmindedness was such that he was willing to rise to the defence of Otto Skorzeny, whom he considered an honourable foe. This book is not only inspiring in itself, but it provides much more detail than the earlier "The White Rabbit" on Yeo Thomas's earlier life, and on the organisation of the French Resistance. Those who enjoy it will be equally impressed, and touched, by Rita Kramer's "Flames in the Field", which tells the stories of four women agents who did not survive wartime missions in France. My own daughters have been inspired by both books and they would make ideal and inspirational birthday gifts for young persons.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Man Who Would Not Give Up !, March 12, 2000

By 

Black Prince "micron7800" (England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bravest of the Brave: The True Story of Wing-Commander "Tommy" Yeo-Thomas Soe Secret Agent Codename "the White Rabbit" (Hardcover)

I have read this book, and its predecessor The White Rabbit. Tommy Yeo-Thomas BUILT the French Resistance, the Maquis. It was he who persuaded Churchill to arm them; it was he who went into Occupied Paris in support of his Free French friends under de Gaulle. It was he who was captured, tortured, and sent to Buchenwald KZ where fellow officers such as Desmond Hubble from Block 17 were hanged/strangulated and immediately cremated. He, with few others, swapped places in a typhus experiment in the camp; and as a 'corpse' escaped emaciated from Buchenwald. He testified at Nuemberg, and had been on his own mission to hunt down and execute KZ guards from Buchenwald in 1945.

Returning postwar to hunt down camp guards for liquidation. A true War Hero, but his suffering and the loss of those around him - Captain Desmond Hubble, Pierre Brosselette, Violette Szabo - make one realise the price. As a teenager fighting the Russians with Pilsudski in Poland he was sentenced to death; escaped from Zhitomir. as a man he ran Molyneux couturier of Paris; in 1939 he joined #.308 Krakowski Squadron of the Polish Air Force in England; then to SOE and life as an agent in Occupied Paris - sitting on a train with Klaus Barbie, Butcher of Lyon.

A remarkable man, an amazing story, he escaped the Concentration Camp but died in 1964 of its after-effects. A book to be read as much as a testament to human endurance, as to think of a truly remarkable man enduring great travails for his friends and comrades.