Soldiers, Airmen, Spies, and Whisperers: The Gold Coast In World War II (review)

This study of the Gold Coast during World War II is a major contribution to Gold Coast and West African historiography in its examination of espionage networks and activities in West Africa, as well as the importance of Takoradi (Gold Coast) as a site for the assembly of British war planes destined for North Africa and the Middle East. It takes an intriguing approach to history, exploring the counter factual possibility that the Gold Coast may have been invaded by the Axis powers had it not been for British wartime propaganda, as well as the rallying of Gold Coasters through the Home Guard to the Allied cause. "In a sense the Gold Coast had a war, but nobody came" (p. 229), Lawler observes.

In the preface, Lawler raises two fundamental questions: (1) What was done in the Gold Coast to deter invasion; and (2) was it what was done that deterred an invasion of the Gold Coast by French West Africa under the Vichy regime or by the Axis powers? The rest of the book is divided into nine chapters. The story begins with the fall of France to Germany in June 1940, the establishment of the Vichy government, and the emergence of a little known General called de Gaulle. Whereas French Equatorial Africa declared support for De Gaulle in late 1940, it would not be until November 1942 that French West Africa moved tentatively into the Allied camp. With the onset of war, the Gold Coast Regiment was dispatched to East Africa in early June 1940 to protect British East Africa against the threat of Italian invasion. Then France fell and the Gold Coast and British West Africa were surrounded by potentially hostile French colonies. Home defense became a pressing issue and new regiments were built up and the Home Guard formed. The Mediterranean quickly became a hostile sea, and an alternative air route was crucial if British aircraft losses were to be replenished in the North African and Middle Eastern theater of war. From late 1940 the West African Reinforcement Route became operational, and British planes were assembled in Takoradi and flown over West Africa to Egypt.

An important coup on the Gold Coast front was the crossing of the King of Gyaman, his family, several important chiefs, and numerous subjects from Côte d'Ivoire to the Gold Coast in early 1942, and their resettlement in Wenchi (ch. 7). The propaganda value of this to the Allied war effort and the Free French cause was enormous. That it had taken place in itself was nothing short of a miracle, considering the wrangling between various branches of government during the war—the Colonial Office, the Foreign Office, the army, the Special Intelligence Services, and the Special Operations Executive (chs. 4-6). The end of the war in Africa and the fate of the various agencies spawned by the war effort are examined in chapter 8. The concluding chapter (ch. 9) indulges in hypothetical scenarios of "what-ifs," a realm, perhaps, better left to the imagination of the reader.

A significant contribution of the book is its examination of how important the Gold Coast was to the Free French cause. In a sense the nucleus of de Gaulle's African army was forged in the Gold Coast, where French officers and African soldiers unwilling to accept the French capitulation to Germany gathered, and the Free French Intelligence Service found a home. Also revealing is the colonial mind, as British wartime propaganda reflected more of the imperial mentality than that of the colonial subjects they ruled. The material for the book is rich, and Lawler certainly plumbed the depths of several archives. The oral evidence, though not as abundant as the archival material, was equally...