Sir Thomas McPherson's war was just as eventful but all true. He was 23 when, in August 1944, he was chosen by Special Operations Executive. To head a three-man team sent into France after D-Day 6th of June, with instructions to create as much disruption to Nazi plans as possible. This was one of many Jedbrugh teams as they were called, code name Quinine in a place called Allier, France.

Together with his young radio operator Sergeant O Brown, and Lieutenant M Burdon, and aided by the French Resistance. He waged a war of sabotage. Within weeks of his arrival in France, posters appeared in villages offering huge rewards for his arrest. "We were living in an atmosphere of sheer terror for most of the operation,"

He and his team ambushed German troops as they marched towards Normandy, booby-trapped roads, bridges and railways and set fire to telegraph poles and pylons to disrupt communications.

Dressed in full kilt and sporran, he and his team drove straight to the German Army HQ and ordered them to lay down their arms. "We drove in a captured German Red Cross car, straight through their lines," he recalls. "I told the Major-General that I had my battalion, a fleet of tanks and some guns across the river. I was very nervous; this was something we just had to do. If we failed, there would be a lot of bloodshed, myself included."

Amazingly the German Commander surrendered. "He agreed to sign documents". Both the General and his deputy passed across their weapons. That was the end of the war for 23,000 German troops.

His operational Jedburgh group was Quinine For this Sir Thomas McPherson, was knighted in 1992 PRO File HS 9/971