British Free Corps - Sources of Confusion

Sources of Confusion

Over the years, reliable information about the British Free Corps has been remarkably difficult to obtain. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, prior to the 1990s, British Public Records law allowed British government departments to impose long periods of closure on official documents which prevented them from being released into the archives. Secondly, the private publication, in 1970 of a book entitled Yeomen of Valhalla by a Jersey-born author using the pseudonym "The Marquis de Slade". Yeomen of Valhalla is a broadly accurate account of the formation and activities of the British Free Corps and its membership; however, the author chose to apply pseudonyms to almost everyone mentioned in the book. "De Slade"'s book was subsequently effectively re-written by the British spy writer Ronald Seth as The Jackals of the Reich (New English Library, 1974). He also chose to use the same pseudonyms. Neither of these books included references or a bibliography; as a result, some subsequent writers have taken the pseudonyms to be real names.

Read more about this topic:  British Free Corps

Famous quotes containing the words sources of, sources and/or confusion:

    I count him a great man who inhabits a higher sphere of thought, into which other men rise with labor and difficulty; he has but to open his eyes to see things in a true light, and in large relations; whilst they must make painful corrections, and keep a vigilant eye on many sources of error.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    The sources of poetry are in the spirit seeking completeness.
    Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980)

    Behind her was confusion in the room,
    Of chairs turned upside down to sit like people
    In other chairs, and something, come to look,
    For every room a house has parlor, bedroom,
    And dining room thrown pell-mell in the kitchen.
    Robert Frost (1874–1963)