Roderick Bailey - The Wildest Province: SOE in the Land of the Eagle

From the summer of 1943, small teams of elite British soldiers began to parachute into Axis-occupied Albania. They were members of Britains Special Operations Executive, and their task was to find and support bands of local guerrillas and harass the Axis as best they could. None had been to Albania before, or knew what awaited them.

Trying to survive in extreme conditions and formidable terrain, SOE troops lived in constant danger of capture and death, and were plagued by illness, lice and frostbite. Casualties were appalling and most guerrillas seemed keener to kill each other than fight Italians and Germans. In his extraordinary new book, Roderick Bailey draws on interviews with survivors, long-hidden diaries and recently declassified files to tell the full story of this remarkable corner of SOE history and finally settle the question of whether or not British communists in the SOE, perhaps even colleagues of the Cambridge spies, had conspired to lead British policy astray.

Born in 1974, Roderick Bailey is a graduate of Cambridge and Edinburgh universities and a former Alistair Horne Fellow at St Antonys College, Oxford. In 2003 he was appointed to run a major project to acquire new material for the Imperial War Museums SOE collections.

. Margaret Hasluck (Crown Copyright: supplied by the SOE Adviser at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office)

. Philip Leake (courtesy of Kenneth Martin Leake)

. David Smiley and Billy Mclean at Biza, October 1943 (Imperial War Museum)

. Alan Hare, Peter Kemp and Richard Riddell (courtesy of Richard Riddell)

. Andy Hands (courtesy of Nigel Hands)

. George Seymour (courtesy of Home Headquarters, Royal Highland Fusiliers)

. Bill Tilman (courtesy of Lynette Croudace)

. Myslim Peza and Baba Faja (The National Archives)

. Mustafa Gjinishi (courtesy of Marcus Lyon)

. Female Partisans (courtesy of Robin Bruford-Davies)

. Nexhip Vinani with David Smiley (The National Archives)

. Balli Kombtar delegation at Biza (Imperial War Museum)

. Arthur Nicholls (courtesy of Richard Riddell)

. Trotsky Davies at Biza (Imperial War Museum)

. Frank Smyth, Trotsky Davies, Alan Hare, Arthur Nicholls, Billy McLean and David Smiley at Biza, 23 October 1943 (Imperial War Museum)

. Cigarette case, sovereign and silk escape map carried by Trotsky Davies and showing bullet damage and blood stains (courtesy of Robin Bruford-Davies)

. John Hibberdine, March 1944 (The National Archives)

. Ian Merrett (authors collection)

. Reginald Hibbert (courtesy of Richard Riddell)

. Muharrem Bajraktar (The National Archives)

. Abas Kupi (courtesy of Rafal Brzeski)

. Jerry Field (Crown Copyright: supplied by the SOE Adviser at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office)

. Giuseppe Manzitti (courtesy of the Quayle family)

. In the cave at Seaview (courtesy of the Quayle family)

. Men of Dukati visiting Seaview (courtesy of the Quayle family)

. Anthony Quayle, February 1944 (The National Archives)

. The first ten nurses reach Bari, January 1944 (2. The National Archives; 3. courtesy of Robin Bruford-Davies)

. courtesy of Robin Bruford-Davies)

. Marcus Lyon (The National Archives)

. Johnny Shaw (courtesy of Bruce Johnston)

. Jack Dumoulin (Crown Copyright: supplied by the SOE Adviser at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office)

. Brian Ensor and Gordon Layzell (courtesy of the Quayle family)