This eye witness account delivers a great true story. The main theme of the book is doing underground operations while having constant above board dealings with the enemy. The writing style is very readable, although I got lost a little when references were made to various towns.

It starts with Andre being in manufacturing in support of the war effort, and a description of the German invasion as seen locally. There was a German anti-aircraft installation near where he lived which shot down several Allied planes throughout the war. Andre gets involved with the Underground when he decides to harbor some evading airmen. This involvement was not thrust upon him, he seeked it out. As his activities became known to people in the area, many of whom were sympathetic to the Allies, he became more involved with harboring downed airmen. He also became involved with the Passive Defense, an above ground French organization that did what they could to fight fires, discourage French and German looters, etc. While patrolling the town for the Passive Defense, they would simultaneously participate in Resistance functions like putting nails on the road at night to sabotage German vehicles and removing the nails in the morning. The looting and sabotage intensified during the chaos of the Allied Normandy invasion. The most violent thing he did in the book was to set a German truck on fire. I get the feeling that Andre may have participated in some violent acts but did not include them in the book.

In 1944 he was fingered by informers and arrested by the Gestapo, who beat him up very badly. The Gestapo gathered up other suspected Resistance members, and sent them together to the Buchenwald concentration camp. He and another prisoner were able to escape during a bomb raid while being transfered to another camp, and after a couple of weeks made contact with the Allied front.

I wish there had been more follow up on what became of the participants in the book after the war, and especially what became of the informants and collaborators. Maybe a later edition could add an appendix dealing with this.