SOE in France

XIII

Aftermath

 

A postwar rhymester, Lionel Hale, amusing himself as Baker Street was closing down, thought it would be

happy and handy

If Bodington baffled the coastguards

By smuggling in claret and brandy,

And super-de-luxe dirty postcards.¹

But in fact remarkably little on these lines was done in Great Britain after the war, a tribute to the unadventurous orderliness and to the absorbent qualities of British society. The British agents who returned to Great Britain seem to have remained on the right side of the law; though many of them revealed, sometimes years afterwards, scars made by the strains they had undergone. A few had nervous breakdowns; a number found themselves in the divorce court. Two foreigners had more summary treatment. ...