Syd’s Secret War is part one of a novel that is part fiction and part fact; it is mainly fact, however, with many names and identities changed to protect those who may have been engaged in very similar events during WWII.

It revolves around the real-life story of an ordinary Northumbrian mine worker taken “prisoner of war” who finds himself embroiled in an extraordinary and extremely dangerous intelligence operation, set up to infiltrate the Third Reich’s desperate plan to recruit allied soldiers from the allied POW camps of WWII.

This was instigated by the Wehrmacht to create a corps of British soldiers to fight on Germany’s side against the overwhelming onslaught of the Russian advance on the Eastern front toward the closing stages of the war; had it been a success, the propaganda gains alone for Germany would have been tremendous.

The story brings focus upon the remarkable struggle, the enduring hardships, and the often unrecognized or even acknowledged sacrifice that the soldiers of the “Expeditionary Force” made from the early stages of the war right through to its culmination, and more so for those who sacrificed their lives and their freedom to ensure the majority of the British Army were evacuated at Dunkirk.

My thanks, respect, and admiration goes to Sydney Ryton; without his contribution, this story would have gone along with him to his grave.