The Next Moon: The Remarkable True Story of a British Agent Behind the Lines in Wartime France (Penguin World War II Collection). This item is unavailable.The Next Moon: The Remarkable True Story of a British Agent Behind the Lines in Wartime France (Penguin World War II Collection)

Andre Hue was something of a daredevil. By the age of twenty the Anglo-Frenchman had survived shipwreck and years undercover in France, sabotaging German supply lines. Returning to Britain, he was recruited by SOE to parachute behind enemy lines on 5 June 1944, to unite resistance forces in Brittany and paralyze local German troops during the Allied invasion. Though Hue's mission was fraught with difficulty—he missed his landing site, his secret base camp became the site of a pitch battle and a band of Cossacks tried to hunt him down—he knew that thousands of lives depended on his success or failure.

When the war in Europe ended Andre Hue was parachuted into Burma. Like many other members of SOE, he became an MI6 officer and, eventually, the British Military Attache in Phnom Phen, where he met his wife Maureen. He retired as a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Parachute Regiment with a DSO, Legion d'Honneur and Croix de Guerre—all earned within the three-month period covered by this book and when he was no older than 21. Back in England he became a founder member of the Special Forces Club. He and his wife live in west Sussex.

Ewan Southby-Tailyour served for 32 years with the Royal Marines, before retiring as a Lieutenant-Colonel in 1992; he was also seconded to the French Commandos and the Sultan of Muscat’s Armed Forces. Subsequently, he served with the Foreign Office in the Former Yugoslavia and established a consultancy specialising in amphibious matters. He is an amateur explorer with a penchant for sailing to high latitudes in his twelve-ton, gaff cutter, Black Velvet.