The King's Own Loyal Enemy Aliens

About this book

"During the Second World War some 10,000 Germans and Austrians volunteered to join the British Forces. Most were refugees, but there were also others. From 1939 to 1943 most served in the eighteen so-called Alien Companies of the Pioneer Corps. After 1943 almost all branches of the services were opened to them and they used the opportunity to its fullest extent." "To write the history of these eighteen companies is not difficult. The history of the men who in 1943 were dispersed throughout the services, however, is the history of the services as a whole. Peter Leighton-Langer, himself one of these volunteers, has resolved this by concentrating on the fate and the actions of individuals. He has been in direct or indirect contact with some 600 of his former colleagues, whose adventures he cites, often in their own words, to give a picture of the whole."--Jacket.