The Secret Force Behind Britain's Resistance Alistair Moffat explores the little-known stories of the British Resistance, including the Auxiliary Units and amateur radio listeners who played a crucial role in Britain's war effort. In the summer of 1940, France had fallen and Hitler's armies were massed across the Channel. Britain was braced for invasion. While Churchill rallied the nation to resist, a secret force was preparing to wage war behind enemy lines if the worst happened and the Germans landed. Alistair Moffat tells the story of two largely invisible forces. The first comprised the Auxiliary Units, recruited from gamekeepers, miners, farmers and others who knew the countryside intimately. Their task was to sabotage the invaders by destroying ammunition dumps, bridges, railways and transport depots. The second was a network of amateur radio hams who intercepted German messages, harvesting vital intelligence about enemy movements.Auxiliaries Disappear Into Concealed BunkersThe Auxiliaries' story is the more disturbing. In the event of invasion, these men were to disappear into bunkers ingeniously concealed beneath earth mounds or in woodland, emerging to attack the occupiers with explosives and knives. Once activated, they were expected to survive for only two weeks. More chilling still were their orders concerning the British population.Moffat writes that the Auxiliaries, nicknamed 'the Assassins', were under instructions to eliminate anyone who might compromise their operations by passing information to the Germans. These could include Nazi sympathisers and even local police chiefs who might be tortured by the Gestapo into disclosing vital co-ordinates. The radio listeners fought a quieter battle, intercepting German Morse transmissions from their bedrooms, attics and garden sheds and forwarding the messages for analysis to Bletchley Park.One listener was a man bedridden by severe injuries sustained in the First World War. From his bed, he intercepted a lengthy message sent by German spies in New York to their handlers in Berlin. This work earned him a letter of thanks from Churchill and a medal from the King. It is the book's most moving episode, in a story packed with extraordinary acts of courage.Uncredited Sources Mar Well-Researched BookAlthough the book is well-researched, the author's extensive sources remain uncredited, and the absence of footnotes makes it difficult to verify the evidence behind individual stories. Alistair Moffat did bring a unique perspective to this project by visiting the surviving bunkers scattered across the British landscape, uncovering remnants of the secret war. These encounters brought the book vividly to life.