Helen Fry’s book The King’s Most Loyal Enemy Aliens tells the story of German and Austrian nationals who contributed to the British war effort in various ways including fighting in the army – she acknowledges the existence of other people from enemy nationalities but restricts this narrative to keep the book to a reasonable length. Many of the people about whom she writes were Jewish refugees who managed to escape the Nazi regime before the outbreak of war and found refuge in Great Britain but some were politically opposed to Nazism and had to flee before they also were imprisoned, or worse. They were then classified as enemy aliens and interned in 1940 with little or no opportunity for release other than to join the Pioneer Corps of the British Army which was based in the UK and performed menial tasks on air bases and in army encampments. Many young men ultimately chose to transfer to fighting regiments and risk their lives for the sake of a country that hadn’t always welcomed them and didn’t always treat them very well.
The book gives individual accounts of the lives, service and the exploits of individual male and female members of the armed forces. The book also highlights the enormous value of German speaking military personnel both during and after the end of the war in assisting the British to interrogate and bring to trial many war criminals.
This is a well-written and researched account of the subject. The individual stories are extremely interesting and give an excellent insight into the many different ways in which these “enemy aliens” assisted the war effort. At times it did feel like you were reading one person’s story after another which rather merged together in my mind but the author did her best to group these and to try to draw some overall conclusions from the collective experiences. There are also a lot of good photographs to illustrate the narrative.
This is a fascinating account of a little known group of people who contributed significantly to the war effort. I found it very interesting.
Anne Is Reading 