Marines donʼt hold their horses

Description:

This is the story of Colonel Allan Ferguson Warren, Royal Marines, one of the great unsung heros of WW2. One of the founders of SOE he went back to occupied France after Dunkirk to look for survivors. He was to be taken off by submarine but when it failed to arive he and two companions stole a dinghy and rowed back to Dover. Appointed Head of Combined Operations Far East he was posted to Singapore where he arranged behind the lines missions, often following his men in to make sure they were safe. When Singapore fell, shamed by the cowardly behaviour of senior oficers he arranged an escape route across Sumatra with hijacked boats along the Irrawaday. When all the men, some thousands, were safely transported he arranged his own escape. When he reached Penang he found that all the senior officers had fled leaving behind hundreds of soldiers. He gave up his place in the dhow in which he planned to escape to a young major, appointed himself Commanding Officer, Malaya, organised the formal surrender and chose to go into the Death Camps with his men. After the war he was appointed Deputy Adjutant General Royal Marines and serve as Combined Ops representative on the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee in the Pentagon. Demoblised he stayed in the US teaching English and driving the school bus at Flint Hill Private School.

subjects: Biography,  World War, 1939-1945,  Fiction,  Fiction, war & military,  World war, 1939-1945, fiction

People: Colonel Alan ""Cocky"" Ferguson Warren

Places: Europe,  Singapore,  Burma

Times: 1939-45