Describes the role of the 2,000 young women of the FANY who made a major contribution to the secret war effort. The author concentrates on SOE operations in the mediterranean theatre, where she and her colleagues served. A previously untold piece of wartime history.
The Rhineland, scene of European conflict for generations, remained an intensely contentious area following the end of the hostilities of World War I. Under the Treaty of Versailles the Rhineland remained German but was to be occupied by Allied troops for fifteen years -- a controversial and uncomfortable situation which inevitably caused great friction between rival European powers. The Watch on the Rhine deals with this eventful period of German history and the actions of the Inter-Allied Rhineland High Commission, which was set up to administer the Allied Armies from its headquarters at Koblenz. Drawing on personal memories of her own years spent in the British zone and on the Annual Reports of the Commission, in which her father played a prominent part, Margaret Pawley provides a unique insider view of the work of the Commission up to its disbandment. She vividly evokes the atmosphere of growing resentment at the continuing occupation of German soil and the rise of Hitler that was to lead inexorably to his re-militarisation of the Rhineland in 1936. The Watch on the Rhine is the first book to examine fully the contributions of all four occupying forces and offers a compelling and comprehensive history of a critical phase of European history.