Monopoli Blues
Tim Clark and Nick Cook tell the intertwined SOE stories of para-naval officer Robert Clark and FANY wireless operator Marjorie Lewis.
- Author
- Tim Clark and Nick Cook
- Publisher
- Unbound
- Price
- £12.99
- ISBN
- 9781912618514
- Published
- 2019
Monopoli Blues by Tim Clark and Nick Cook
Robert Clark joined the RNVR in 1942, escorting convoys in the western Mediterranean before SOE recruited him for para-naval operations. Training at Achnacarry and Helford prepared him for clandestine insertions along the Italian coast, running agents and supplies to Yugoslavia and recovering Allied POWs. In November 1943 he reached 1 Special Force headquarters at Monopoli near Bari—and met FANY wireless operator Marjorie Lewis, whose signals guided his missions.
Clark’s story moves from commando raids and Popski’s Private Army beach recces to parachute training and the Clarion mission behind German lines. Captured in December 1944, he endured prisons from Cuneo to Moorsburg and Milag Nord before liberation. The authors balance his wartime odyssey with Marjorie’s parallel service, showing the breadth of SOE activity in Italy and the unusual partnership between naval officer and FANY signaller who later married.
Unbound. £12.99. ISBN 9781912618514.