Foursquare: The Last Parachutist

This is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. Brilliantly researched and obviously written as a labor of love. I literally could not put it down. I started it at the beginning of a long flight thinking I’d just read a couple of chapters and six hours later I had almost finished it. I finished it the next morning.The book combines fascinating and deeply researched history with anecdotes and actions on individuals. The book serves to remind us that, as my mother used to say, “There were indeed heroes during a time of darkness.”

I really enjoyed reading "FOURSQUARE:THE LAST PARACHUTIST" it reminded me of the joy of reading "War and Remembrance" by Herman Wouk. Both of these WWII stories were told in a style where the richly developed characters' stories unfold with parallel chapters describing what was happening in the war at that time. The style brings both the characters and the history to life.

This was an incredible read! Foursquare: the Last Parachutist is an excellent history of Czechoslovakia's role in WWII that reads like a biography with documents, personal pictures, and personal accounts from Bearfield's own grandfather and others who participated in the missions. A must own, especially for those with WWII libraries.

Not much of a story

This is a fascinating look at the little-known Czechoslovak anti-Nazi intelligence operations run from the U.K. during World War II. Those operations included dropping parachutists into Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. The parachute missions were to maintain radio communications between the U.K. headquarters and the underground, and/or perform active sabotage. The author was lucky enough to talk with his grandfather and other veterans of those operations late in their lives. He has crafted an engaging book filled with their recollections, photos and personal documents, supplement them with research putting those memories into context. And he has an intriguing explanation for the “cancellation” of the very last parachute drop, which his grandfather commanded. That explanation involves the Americans – and that is all I’m telling you. Read the book!

Such an interesting, informative read. A moving story of a grandson delving into his grandfather's past and unveiling information not previously recorded in public, as well as a very comprehensive account of Czech intelligence and resistance during the 2nd World War.

A fascinating story into the real-life heroics of those fighting the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in the second world war. The book was a compelling read with three narratives closely interwoven to provide a rich picture with a human touch. The personal narrative from the author, explaining the evidence trails and interviews, is contextualised with the global political situation and complemented with the detailed stories of the author’s grandfather and colleagues, both in England and in occupied Czechoslovakia.I really enjoyed this, it was informative, interesting and quite personal. You really got a sense of the author’s own journey and the meticulous research he has undertaken, making this a life’s passion. The book also provides a memorial for the amazing efforts of those fighting a truly atrocious regime – it’s hard to image just how bad life was for many Czechs under German occupation.I highly recommend this, even if you have little interest in the events of World War 2; when you’ve read it, I guarantee you’ll be more interested and you’ll have enjoyed a good book!

Foursquare is a fascinating combination of history and family memoir. Author George Bearfield manages to interweave the (previously unknown to me) story of the Czechoslovakian resistance during WWII with conversations with his late Grandfather, Jaroslav Bublik, an unlikely-seeming hero of that resistance, as a radio operator instructor based in rural Bedfordshire for most of the war, yet a key member of the Czech army. Operation Foursquare was a secret mission, which was apparently expunged from all official military records after the war, making the author's research into his Grandad's participation in it extremely difficult. It was the final planned parachute mission into Czechoslovakia, in 1945, but many of Bublik's comrades from England had preceded him in earlier missions, most of them meeting untimely deaths. Discovering what exactly was the mission's goal proved very elusive, but the complex journey on which we are taken involves intrigue, subterfuge, secret identities, assassination and the importance of family. The combination of the historical with the intensely personal gives this book a unique texture, and opens up an entire area of recent European history with which most of us will be unfamiliar. Highly recommended.

When I started Foursquare I wasnt too sure what to expect; possibly a re-telling of the legendary operation anthropoid, with a personal twist; or a book that shone a light on some of the less celebrated acts of bravery by Czech and Slovak men and women during the 2nd World War. In the end it turned out to do both of those things but much more. The unearthing of a mission, the details of which it seems clear, would have been completely lost to the Czech people without George Bearfield's diligence. I am sure this book will be seen as a hugely valuable resource in understanding the history of the Czech republic for many years to come.

What a story! Czechoslovakia during the Second World War - a government and army in exile, secret parachute missions, underground resistance, the attempt to restore the independent state at the end of the war. The author unfolds the history as he explores his grandfather’s involvement in it, unearthing secrets that might otherwise have been lost. This is an important book and beautifully written.