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Overlooked Important WWII Figures from History

Khalid Elhassan October 20, 2019 31 min

28. The Jailbird Who Double-Crossed the French Resistance

English career criminal Harold Cole (1906 – 1946) had the dubious distinction of serving during WWII in the British Army, the French Resistance – and double-crossing both by working for Germans. During his extraordinary wartime career, he lied and conned his way across France, joined the Nazis, and snitched on the Resistance, resulting in the arrest and execution of many.

Cole got started on crime early, and by his teens, he was a burglar, check forger, and embezzler. No criminal mastermind, by 1939 Cole had served multiple stints in prison. When WWII began, he lied about his criminal history to enlist in the British Army and was sent to France. Promoted to sergeant, he was arrested for stealing money from the Sergeants’ Mess to splurge on prostitutes. He ended up as a POW in May of 1940, when the Germans captured the guardhouse where he was locked up.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.