Behind Enemy Lines

Behind Enemy Lines: The World War Two Diary of British Secret Agent Hugh Dormer, first published in 1948 as Hugh Dormer's Diaries, is the gripping wartime account of Captain Hugh Everard Dormer, D.S.O., Irish Guards. Dormer twice parachuted into Nazi-occupied France with the objective of destroying an important shale oil processing plant. After each mission, Dormer made his way back to England by crossing into Spain on foot via the Pyrenees Mountains. Following the Normandy invasion, Dormer commanded a British tank crew, which was shelled at close-range by a German tank. Dormer and two crewmen managed to escape the burning tank but Dormer was killed by machine-gun fire as he and the crewmen attempted to escape across an open meadow (the other two men were wounded and taken prisoner). Dormer, who was only 25 years old at the time of his death, was remembered fondly by all those who served with him, and had hoped to become a priest following the war. His dedication and heartfelt belief in the moral justness of the Allied cause provide a timeless story of courage and inspiration.