28 Jul 1939 - Oct 1939When the Second World War opened, the Duke de Richleau and his friends Simon Aron, Rex van Ryn and Richard Eaton–the indomitable four–were in Poland. Here is the story of how they came to be there and found themselves even before the outbreak of hostilities involved in a most damnable conspiracy. In Codeword–Golden Fleece the scenes of intrigue, violence and escape in Warsaw are exceeded only by those which follow in Bucharest–whence the friends are carried in a desperate attempt to sabotage Hitler's war economy and force Germany to ask for peace before she can muster her full might for an assault on Western Europe.(1963 Arrow): It can now be revealed that the plot of Codeword–Golden Fleece is based on fact. Actually, it was given to Dennis Wheatley when he was a member of the Joint Planning Staff of the War Cabinet by a Foreign Office colleague there. On behalf of the Allied governments a French nobleman did actually succeed in acquiring a controlling interest in the Danube oil barges and their tugs. The Germans failed with the Vichy government in an action for its return and half the Fleet had been got out to Turkish waters. Supplies of fuel for the Luftwaffe were seriously crippled by this ingenious secret stroke.