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I don't read military history that often, but the title of this book was too good to pass up, and let's face it, the shenanigans of unconventional units during World War II remain irresistible even some seventy years later. Like a lot of popular military history, the action described is fascinating and the writing is not the best.
This is the story of how British created a "deniable" special force under the Special Operations Executive to run the equivalent of black ops during World War II. It's not entirely clear, but this unit functioned kind of like the Special Boat Service, as far as I can tell (not being well-versed in all the intricacies of the various units). In any event, this history is pegged to a larger-than-life soldier who was in at the formation of the first unit, present for its greatest triumphs, and was killed in action near the end of the war. The book is very much the story of Anders Lassen (VC,MC), a Danish volunteer who had all the bearing of a modern-day pirate.
Through him, the reader is taken through the first mission at Fernando Po (aka Bioko) off the coast of present-day Cameroon, then some dirty work in the Channel Islands, before moving to a wide range of raids across the Greek islands (including a particularly spectacular airfield raid in Crete), and then finally a calamitous mission as part of the Allied push up Italy. The exploits are very engaging, the bravery astonishing, the personalities colorful -- perhaps all best summed up by the kind of nonstandard after action reports Larsen would file: ""Landed, killed Germans, f****d off." Solidly entertaining read for WWII buffs.
Note: This book was published under a slightly different title in the UK: Churchill's Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII
This is the story of how British created a "deniable" special force under the Special Operations Executive to run the equivalent of black ops during World War II. It's not entirely clear, but this unit functioned kind of like the Special Boat Service, as far as I can tell (not being well-versed in all the intricacies of the various units). In any event, this history is pegged to a larger-than-life soldier who was in at the formation of the first unit, present for its greatest triumphs, and was killed in action near the end of the war. The book is very much the story of Anders Lassen (VC,MC), a Danish volunteer who had all the bearing of a modern-day pirate.
Through him, the reader is taken through the first mission at Fernando Po (aka Bioko) off the coast of present-day Cameroon, then some dirty work in the Channel Islands, before moving to a wide range of raids across the Greek islands (including a particularly spectacular airfield raid in Crete), and then finally a calamitous mission as part of the Allied push up Italy. The exploits are very engaging, the bravery astonishing, the personalities colorful -- perhaps all best summed up by the kind of nonstandard after action reports Larsen would file: ""Landed, killed Germans, f****d off." Solidly entertaining read for WWII buffs.
Note: This book was published under a slightly different title in the UK: Churchill's Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII