AN UNDERWORLD AT WAR Spivs, Deserters, Racketeers and Civilians in the Second World War

Hardback. While the Second World War produced numerous acts of self-sacrifice, it also made many people rich. The criminal activities of the underworld that extended from the civilian population right through to the armed forces constitute one of the great untold stories of the war. The Blitz of 1940 may have made a nation of heroes, but in the shadows the shelter gangs and looters prowled. The profits of civilians racketeering dwarfed the rewards of smash-and-grab or safebreaking, though these continued apace. Between 1940 and 1941 a Liverpool ship-repairer cheated the government of the modern equivalent of £20,000,000, while £80,000,000 a month was looted from relief supplies at the port of Trieste. Professional gangs raided government offices for ration books, and underground presses counterfeited petrol and clothing coupons in their tens of thousands. Illegal food supplies threatened the nation's health - a consignment of black-market sausages in Hackney contained tuberculous meat, while the industrial alcohol or 'hooch' served to pilots in West End clubs could produce blindness and brain damage. The scale of theft in the army was also colossal. Vehicles would arrive at front-line railheads stripped of tools, spare parts and removable components, and whole consignments of cigarettes, razor-blades and NAAFI stores disappeared. The author draws on extensive archive material to tell the extraordinary and frequently ludicrous story of these less-than-heroic Britons. Illus., Notes and Index. 429pp. lge 8vo. h/back. Small mks. to top edge o/w Vg+ in Vg+ dw which has a scratch mk. to fr. cover. A fairly heavy book which may require additional postage. …