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A Foreign Field: A True Story of Love and Betrayal in the Great War
A Foreign Field A True Story of Love and Betrayal in the Great War Author:Ben Macintyre In August 1914, four young British soldiers find themselves trapped behind enemy lines at the height of the fighting on the Western Front. Unable to get back to their Units, they shlter in the tiny French village of Villeret. Living in a daily fear of capture and execution, they are fed, clothed, and protected by the villagers, including the b... more »aker and his wife, and the local matriarch Madame Dessenne.
The enigmatic leader of the band of fugitives, Private Robert Digby, falls in love with Claire Dessenne, the nineteen-year-old daughter of one of his protectors. In November 1915, with war raging a few miles away, she gives birth to a baby girl. The child is just six months old when someone betrays the men to the Germans.
They are captured.
Using the testimonies of the villagers, the daughter who survives to this day, and most moving the soldiers last letters, Ben Macintyre reconstructs an extraordinary story of love and duplicity set against the compelling backdrop of German-occupied Picardy. After decades of village rumour he asks the question: Who betrayed Private Digby and his men?« less