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Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: How Churchill's Secret Warriors Set Europe Ablaze and Gave Birth to Modern Black Ops
From the award-winning historian, war reporter, and author Damien Lewis (Zero Six Bravo, Judy) comes the incredible true story of the top-secret "butcher-and-bolt" black ops units Prime Minister Winston Churchill tasked with stopping the unstoppable German war machine. Criminals, rogues, and survivalists, the brutal tactics and grit of these "deniables" would define a military unit the likes of which the world had never seen.
When France fell to the Nazis in 1940, Churchill declared that Britain would resist the advance of the German army--alone if necessary. Churchill commanded the Special Operations Executive to secretly develop of a very special kind of military unit that would operate on their own initiative deep behind enemy lines. The units would be licensed to kill, fully deniable by the British government, and a ruthless force to meet the advancing Germans.
The very first of these "butcher-and-bolt" units--the innocuously named Maid Honour Force--was led by Gus March-Phillipps, a wild British eccentric of high birth, and an aristocratic, handsome, and bloodthirsty young Danish warrior, Anders Lassen. Amped up on amphetamines, these assorted renegades and sociopaths undertook the very first of Churchill's special operations--a top-secret, high-stakes mission to seize Nazi shipping in the far-distant port of Fernando Po, in West Africa.
Though few of these early desperadoes survived WWII, they took part in a series of fascinating, daring missions that changed the course of the war. It was the first stirrings of the modern special-ops team, and all of the men involved would be declared war heroes when it was all over.
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare focuses on a dozen of these extraordinary men, weaving their stories of brotherhood, comradely, and elite soldiering into a gripping narrative yarn, from the earliest missions to Anders Larssen's tragic death, just weeks before the end of the war.
When France fell to the Nazis in 1940, Churchill declared that Britain would resist the advance of the German army--alone if necessary. Churchill commanded the Special Operations Executive to secretly develop of a very special kind of military unit that would operate on their own initiative deep behind enemy lines. The units would be licensed to kill, fully deniable by the British government, and a ruthless force to meet the advancing Germans.
The very first of these "butcher-and-bolt" units--the innocuously named Maid Honour Force--was led by Gus March-Phillipps, a wild British eccentric of high birth, and an aristocratic, handsome, and bloodthirsty young Danish warrior, Anders Lassen. Amped up on amphetamines, these assorted renegades and sociopaths undertook the very first of Churchill's special operations--a top-secret, high-stakes mission to seize Nazi shipping in the far-distant port of Fernando Po, in West Africa.
Though few of these early desperadoes survived WWII, they took part in a series of fascinating, daring missions that changed the course of the war. It was the first stirrings of the modern special-ops team, and all of the men involved would be declared war heroes when it was all over.
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare focuses on a dozen of these extraordinary men, weaving their stories of brotherhood, comradely, and elite soldiering into a gripping narrative yarn, from the earliest missions to Anders Larssen's tragic death, just weeks before the end of the war.
352 pages, Paperback
First published September 8, 2015
About the author
Damien Lewis
89 books318 followersDamien Lewis became an author largely by accident, when a British publisher asked him if he'd be willing to turn a TV documentary he was working on into a book. That film was shot in the Sudan war zone, and told the story of how Arab tribes seized black African slaves in horrific slave raids. Lewis had been to the Sudan war zone dozens of times over the past decade, reporting on that conflict for the BBC, Channel 4 and US and European broadcasters.
His slavery documentary told the story of a young girl from the Nuba tribe, seized in a raid and sold into slavery in Khartoum, Sudan's capital city, and of her epic escape. The publisher asked Lewis if the Nuba girl would be willing to write her life story as a book, with his help as co-author. The book that they co-wrote was called 'Slave', and it was published to great acclaim, becoming a number one bestseller and being translated into some 30 lanc guages worldwide. It won several awards and has been made into a feature film.
Over the preceding fifteen years Lewis had reported from many war, conflict and disaster zones – including Sudan, Sierra Leone, Eritrea, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Iraq, Syria, Burma, Afghanistan and the Balkans (see Author's Gallery). He (and his film crew) traveled into such areas with aid workers, the British or allied military, UN forces or local military groups, or very much under their own steam. He reported on the horror and human impact of war, as well as the drama of conflict itself. Often, he worked alone. Often, he filmed his own material over extended periods of time living in the war or conflict zone.
During a decade spent reporting from around the world Lewis lived in deserts, rainforests, jungles and chaotic third world cities. In his work and travels he met and interviewed people smugglers, diamond miners, Catholic priests 'gone native', desert nomads, un-contacted tribes, aid workers, bush pilots, arms dealers, genocidal leaders, peacekeepers, game wardens, slum kids, world presidents, heroin traffickers, rebel warlords, child prostitutes, Islamist terrorists, Hindu holy men, mercenaries, bush doctors, soldiers, commanders and spies. He was injured, and was hospitalised with bizarre tropical diseases – including flesh-eating bacteria, worms that burrow through the skin and septicemia – but survived all that and continued to report.
It was only natural that having seen so much of global conflict he would be drawn to stories of war, terrorism, espionage and the often dark causes behind such conflicts when he started writing books. Having written a number of true stories, in 2006 he was chosen as one of the 'nation's 20 favourite authors' and wrote his first fiction, Desert Claw, for the British Government's Quick Read initiative. Desert Claw tells of a group of ex-Special Forces soldiers sent into Iraq to retrieve a looted Van Gogh painting, with a savage twist to the tale. That fiction was followed up by Cobra Gold, an equally compelling tale of global drama and intrigue and shadowy betrayal.
Damien Lewis's work, books and films have won the Index on Censorship (UK), CECRA (Spain), Project Censored (US), Commonwealth Relations (UK), Discovery-NHK BANFF (Canada), Rory Peck (UK), BBC One World (UK), BBC-WWF Wildscreen (UK), International Peace Prize (US), Elle Magazine Grande Prix (US), Victor Gollanz (Germany), and BBC One World (UK) Awards. He is a Fellow of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
His slavery documentary told the story of a young girl from the Nuba tribe, seized in a raid and sold into slavery in Khartoum, Sudan's capital city, and of her epic escape. The publisher asked Lewis if the Nuba girl would be willing to write her life story as a book, with his help as co-author. The book that they co-wrote was called 'Slave', and it was published to great acclaim, becoming a number one bestseller and being translated into some 30 lanc guages worldwide. It won several awards and has been made into a feature film.
Over the preceding fifteen years Lewis had reported from many war, conflict and disaster zones – including Sudan, Sierra Leone, Eritrea, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Iraq, Syria, Burma, Afghanistan and the Balkans (see Author's Gallery). He (and his film crew) traveled into such areas with aid workers, the British or allied military, UN forces or local military groups, or very much under their own steam. He reported on the horror and human impact of war, as well as the drama of conflict itself. Often, he worked alone. Often, he filmed his own material over extended periods of time living in the war or conflict zone.
During a decade spent reporting from around the world Lewis lived in deserts, rainforests, jungles and chaotic third world cities. In his work and travels he met and interviewed people smugglers, diamond miners, Catholic priests 'gone native', desert nomads, un-contacted tribes, aid workers, bush pilots, arms dealers, genocidal leaders, peacekeepers, game wardens, slum kids, world presidents, heroin traffickers, rebel warlords, child prostitutes, Islamist terrorists, Hindu holy men, mercenaries, bush doctors, soldiers, commanders and spies. He was injured, and was hospitalised with bizarre tropical diseases – including flesh-eating bacteria, worms that burrow through the skin and septicemia – but survived all that and continued to report.
It was only natural that having seen so much of global conflict he would be drawn to stories of war, terrorism, espionage and the often dark causes behind such conflicts when he started writing books. Having written a number of true stories, in 2006 he was chosen as one of the 'nation's 20 favourite authors' and wrote his first fiction, Desert Claw, for the British Government's Quick Read initiative. Desert Claw tells of a group of ex-Special Forces soldiers sent into Iraq to retrieve a looted Van Gogh painting, with a savage twist to the tale. That fiction was followed up by Cobra Gold, an equally compelling tale of global drama and intrigue and shadowy betrayal.
Damien Lewis's work, books and films have won the Index on Censorship (UK), CECRA (Spain), Project Censored (US), Commonwealth Relations (UK), Discovery-NHK BANFF (Canada), Rory Peck (UK), BBC One World (UK), BBC-WWF Wildscreen (UK), International Peace Prize (US), Elle Magazine Grande Prix (US), Victor Gollanz (Germany), and BBC One World (UK) Awards. He is a Fellow of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews
August 17, 2016
Problems include comic book action scenes (KABOOM, it actually says at one point) that in no way could the author have proven happened this way. An odd man-crush tone about Lassen (he had blue eyes. I heard you the first time). He says Gubbins was called "m" which Marks didn't ever do in his book, and you think he'd know as he was there, and I can't find a corroborating source in a quick Google of the claim, and he implies Ian Fleming based "M" on him, which a trip to Wikipedia will show you is not so. So I wonder what is true here. No footnotes, and a list of sources shorter than the books I have read on the topic.
The whole thing is something of a bait and switch, too. It seems to be, at most, about three operations early in SOE history. Cover copy suggests a wider scope.
The whole thing is something of a bait and switch, too. It seems to be, at most, about three operations early in SOE history. Cover copy suggests a wider scope.
February 25, 2018
SOE's weird and wonderful history
In this slightly uneven book, the author describes how as WW2 became a reality, new innovative and dirty ways of waging war were developed. The unit responsible for this new method of waging war was The Special Operations Executive (SOE). Its purpose was to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe (and later, also in occupied Southeast Asia) against the Axis powers. Its secondary objective was to help local resistance movements.
The SOE was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. One of the organisations from which SOE was created was also involved in the formation of the Auxiliary Units. This was a top secret "stay-behind" resistance organisation which would have been activated in the event of a German invasion of Britain.
Few people were aware of SOE's existence. Those who were part of it or liaised with it sometimes referred to as "the Baker Street Irregulars", after the location of its London headquarters. It was also known as "Churchill's Secret Army" or the "Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare". Its various branches, and sometimes the organisation as a whole, were concealed for security purposes behind names such as the "Joint Technical Board" or the "Inter-Service Research Bureau". Or fictitious branches of the Air Ministry, Admiralty or War Office.
SOE operated in all countries or former countries occupied by or attacked by the Axis forces. The exception was where demarcation lines were agreed with Britain's principal Allies (the Soviet Union and the United States). It also made use of neutral territory on occasion, or made plans and preparations in case neutral countries were attacked by the Axis.
All of this and more is described in this book. It makes it very clear that contrary to the beliefs of the old-school leadership of the armed forces at that time, you cannot win a major conflict by fighting strictly under Marquis of Queensberry rules. The assorted characters of the people involved in the development of the sabotage work are brilliantly portrayed. Their hopes and frustrations are a particular strength of the book. Their often irregular habits were thorns in the side of those who valued conventional standards in military life. The SOE used new weapons such as: the castrator, a lavatory explosive and the magnetic limpet mine. England poisoned, gassed, knifed, used shrapnel bombs, used bio-weapons and killed, maimed and generally blew up civilians and civilian targets with abandon. Some of the ideas behind these were culled from guerrilla tactics including those used by T.E. Lawrence, and Al Capone.
What the book lacks is a strong narrative thread. While most of the content of the book is factual, its is strung together with the author's words, so there is an element of selection. Sure, we get thrilling examples of the exploits of the brave men involved. And we also get continuity of some of the characters involved. But for me it needed to progress in a liner way through the war and connect events to bigger, more recognizable milestones from WW2 itself. That way the exploits could be set into context. And the reader could understand how the successes of the unit contributed to the war efforts? The chapters, I am sure, must be laid out in some logic, but I was left wondering why we’d started where we started. And then suddenly found myself in a stream in flood, fascinated by my surroundings but convinced all the while that I was being shown just one thread and was missing what must surely have been a wider picture. The various departments and people herein simply can’t have operated in such an apparent vacuum, surrounded on all sides by two-dimensional caricatures if surrounded by anything at all.
That said, this is an interesting, and unusual history of these unconventional soldiers and the missions they undertook. At one of the darkest times in British history. These brave soldiers proved their worth time and time again, in the face of conventional senior military commanders who believed them to be little better than ruffians. They fought with different rules than the rest of the army.
I highly recommend this book for anyone captivated by military history. Especially if you enjoy reading about unconventional warfare and marveling at the oddballs who dreamt them up.
In this slightly uneven book, the author describes how as WW2 became a reality, new innovative and dirty ways of waging war were developed. The unit responsible for this new method of waging war was The Special Operations Executive (SOE). Its purpose was to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe (and later, also in occupied Southeast Asia) against the Axis powers. Its secondary objective was to help local resistance movements.
The SOE was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. One of the organisations from which SOE was created was also involved in the formation of the Auxiliary Units. This was a top secret "stay-behind" resistance organisation which would have been activated in the event of a German invasion of Britain.
Few people were aware of SOE's existence. Those who were part of it or liaised with it sometimes referred to as "the Baker Street Irregulars", after the location of its London headquarters. It was also known as "Churchill's Secret Army" or the "Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare". Its various branches, and sometimes the organisation as a whole, were concealed for security purposes behind names such as the "Joint Technical Board" or the "Inter-Service Research Bureau". Or fictitious branches of the Air Ministry, Admiralty or War Office.
SOE operated in all countries or former countries occupied by or attacked by the Axis forces. The exception was where demarcation lines were agreed with Britain's principal Allies (the Soviet Union and the United States). It also made use of neutral territory on occasion, or made plans and preparations in case neutral countries were attacked by the Axis.
All of this and more is described in this book. It makes it very clear that contrary to the beliefs of the old-school leadership of the armed forces at that time, you cannot win a major conflict by fighting strictly under Marquis of Queensberry rules. The assorted characters of the people involved in the development of the sabotage work are brilliantly portrayed. Their hopes and frustrations are a particular strength of the book. Their often irregular habits were thorns in the side of those who valued conventional standards in military life. The SOE used new weapons such as: the castrator, a lavatory explosive and the magnetic limpet mine. England poisoned, gassed, knifed, used shrapnel bombs, used bio-weapons and killed, maimed and generally blew up civilians and civilian targets with abandon. Some of the ideas behind these were culled from guerrilla tactics including those used by T.E. Lawrence, and Al Capone.
What the book lacks is a strong narrative thread. While most of the content of the book is factual, its is strung together with the author's words, so there is an element of selection. Sure, we get thrilling examples of the exploits of the brave men involved. And we also get continuity of some of the characters involved. But for me it needed to progress in a liner way through the war and connect events to bigger, more recognizable milestones from WW2 itself. That way the exploits could be set into context. And the reader could understand how the successes of the unit contributed to the war efforts? The chapters, I am sure, must be laid out in some logic, but I was left wondering why we’d started where we started. And then suddenly found myself in a stream in flood, fascinated by my surroundings but convinced all the while that I was being shown just one thread and was missing what must surely have been a wider picture. The various departments and people herein simply can’t have operated in such an apparent vacuum, surrounded on all sides by two-dimensional caricatures if surrounded by anything at all.
That said, this is an interesting, and unusual history of these unconventional soldiers and the missions they undertook. At one of the darkest times in British history. These brave soldiers proved their worth time and time again, in the face of conventional senior military commanders who believed them to be little better than ruffians. They fought with different rules than the rest of the army.
I highly recommend this book for anyone captivated by military history. Especially if you enjoy reading about unconventional warfare and marveling at the oddballs who dreamt them up.
October 13, 2023
Loved the book but good lord do I hate the cringe accents that audiobook narrators feel are necessary to add to all dialogue / quotations
May 1, 2024
We just saw the great movie based on this book. Now I want to read it. What an awesome true story about WW II.
November 18, 2018
"Fight for all you hold dear. Die as if it counts. Life is not so hard Nor is death." - inscription on Major Anders Lassen's gravestone
WHO IS MAJOR ANDERS LASSEN?
- Short video on Anders Lassen: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UZOAi2o...
- A longer, more descriptive video about Lassen and the missions depicted: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eCOMPej...
- At the Special Air Service (SAS) base, in Hereford, there are two statues of the unit’s founding heroes: one is of David Stirling, the other of Anders Lassen, the two men who pioneered what was to become modern Special Forces soldiering.
SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE (SOE)
- In the summer of 1940, Britain’s wartime leader had given the green light for the founding of the highly secretive Special Operations Executive (SOE).
- The SOE wasn’t part of the wider military. It was formed under the Ministry of Economic Warfare, and it was more akin to a separate branch of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS).
- the force’s inaugural mission...the Royal Navy had managed to get them banned from all European theatres of operations—but not from Africa.
- Perhaps inevitably, some twelve months after its formation, the existence of the SOE had become known to Hitler, as had its mission to send agents deep into enemy territory. In a chilling order issued in response to its earliest activities, Hitler decreed that SOE operatives and their resistance colleagues were to disappear into the Nacht und Nebel—into the night and fog.
SANTA ISABEL MISSION
- while Franco’s Spain paid lip service to her much-vaunted neutrality, Fernando Po’s Santa Isabel port was suspected of being a clandestine German U-boat refueling and rearming depot.
- the assault—code named “Operation Postmaster”—
- It would be claimed that the Italian and German crews had mutinied, severing their own anchor chains and sailing away of their own accord. Officially, Violet would seize the ships and their crew in international waters and escort them into British custody at Lagos Harbor.
- We hope that SOE will be permitted to demonstrate that what was possible in Fernando Po is possible elsewhere...POSTMASTER was the first special operation of any scale to be undertaken by S.O.E. in a neutral port, and was therefore something of a test case—
SUCCESSFUL PROOF OF CONCEPT BECOMES "SSRF"
- a new unit that was to rise out of the ashes of the Maid Honour Force. Maid Honour was sacrificed on the altar of deniability: it was the unit that never was. In its place rose phoenixlike the Small Scale Raiding Force (SSRF).
OPERATION DRYAD
- Churchill’s subsequent words of praise for the mission—and similar cross-Channel raids—were telling: “There comes out of the sea from time to time a hand of steel which plucks the German sentries from their posts with growing efficiency.”
OPERATION AQUATINT
- The SSRF’s mission was to somehow infiltrate those defenses, raid an enemy billet, and seize as many prisoners as possible. Spiriting enemy soldiers away in the night was seen as being the means to spread ultimate terror among the German ranks—even more so than taking lives.
OPERATION BASALT
- Yet the aftermath of Operation Basalt would also leave the German hierarchy thirsting for blood.
- In the aftermath of Sark, any raiders caught by the enemy could expect no mercy.
- Sark, then, had sparked a murderous reaction from the Nazi hierarchy, one entirely out of proportion to the impact of the raid. It had yielded just a single prisoner, had caused barely a handful of casualties, and had done no lasting damage. Yet Hitler’s reaction to Operation Basalt reflected how the ability of British forces to emerge from the night and strike at German positions seemingly at will had shaken the enemy, exactly as Churchill had envisaged.
NOW TO ATTACK EUROPE'S "UNDERBELLY"...
- The next stage of the Allied offensive would involve seaborne sorties striking into the soft underbelly of Europe—Italy, Greece, Crete, and the Aegean Islands, butting up close to Turkey’s western coastline. As the SAS had little amphibious experience, officers would have to be drafted in from other units to help train and lead them in their intended missions—most notably from the Small Scale Raiding Force.
- It was from Crete’s dusty airstrips that the Axis powers were able to dominate the skies over the eastern Mediterranean. En route to Sicily, the Husky invasion convoys would pass close to the Crete coast, making them doubly vulnerable to warplanes based on the island.
OPERATION ALBUMEN
- It was June 1943 when the raid on the Cretan airbases—code named “Operation Albumen”—got the final go-ahead.
- When Allied forces had been driven out of Crete in 1941, the British had chosen to leave behind a scattering of men to help organize the Cretan resistance.
- He threatened to shoot them unless the “foreign saboteurs”—their blond, German-speaking leader first and foremost—were handed over. One by one they began to execute the villagers, but still none of the Cretans would talk.
- the key role the raids played in safeguarding the Operation Husky convoys from air attack: “As enemy aircraft known to be in the Athens area could have been transferred to Cretan airfields . . . , the patrols, apart from the destruction they wrought, provided a good insurance against such a danger. No air attack was made on the slow HUSKY convoys.”
OPERATION ROAST (ITALY)
- Lake Comacchio—in truth a “lake” in name only. Comacchio was but the most evil-smelling, treacherous, mud-choked patch of shallow bog water among many such swamplands in the Lower Romagna.
- Anders Lassen died at the age of twenty-five, less than a month before the end of the war in Europe. Operation Roast was the last mission to be undertaken by the SBS in the Second World War.
- For his part in Operation Roast, Lassen’s final action, he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. He is the only member of Britain’s SAS ever to have won that award.
SAS
- Special Air Service (SAS) founder David Stirling
- The highly mobile jeep-borne raiding operations of David Stirling’s Special Air Service (SAS)...aided by their sister unit, the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG).
- By nature of their clandestine status, the Maid Honour Force and the SSRF had had no specific insignia, while the SAS possessed its own unmistakable cap badge, one designed by David Stirling himself.
- At some stage this maritime wing of the SAS had been given its own name, the Special Boat Squadron (SBS), though none of the men had paid much attention to the rebranding exercise they’d been subjected to.
- the “train hard—fight easy” mentality—something that would become a catchphrase of the SAS.
- The SAS was disbanded immediately after the Second World War...In truth, immediately after the war the then ex-prime minister, Winston Churchill, became the chairman of a secret association that kept the SAS/ SBS alive until it could be formally and officially refounded in 1953.
INFO OPS EMPLOYED
- An information campaign would be wrapped around the raids, one orchestrated by the Political Warfare Executive (PWE)...The aim of the PWE was to win the information war by getting positive stories of the raid seeded into the British media at the earliest opportunity.
- That signal would trigger the PWE’s media campaign, which was designed to steal a march on the German’s propaganda machine.
- each patrol was ordered to carry with them a decoy. “A specially prepared flag will be left in the target area to indicate that the raid has been carried out by British troops.”
- As would become a common refrain with such operations, they would prove largely impossible without the succor and aid of the locals—and winning their hearts and minds would become a number one priority.
- The German media countered by downplaying the raids
- Next, Lassen sent an ultimatum to the German commander in Salonika. It warned him that a brigade of elite British troops had the city largely surrounded, being an advance force for the thirty thousand men...Though his force outnumbered Lassen’s many times over, it seemed he had bought the bluff. The following morning, a long column of German military vehicles began to pull out of the city as he evacuated it to the last man.
***
FACTOIDS
- The Channel Islands were the only part of the United Kingdom to have been taken by the Germans.
- March-Phillipps—the man braced at the Maid Honour’s wheel urging his men to a spirited, if hopeless defiance—was also known as SOE agent W. 01. ���W” stood for West Africa, the region to which he was deployed, and “01” denoted that he was the first SOE agent assigned to that territory. The “0” prefix also signified that March-Phillipps was a “zero”-rated agent, meaning that he was trained and licensed to use all means to liquidate the enemy.
- That German officer had been targeted by Lassen, for he commanded a Gestapo unit that terrorized Greek captives using a great black dog that ripped their throats out. Lassen made sure that the dog was hunted down and killed along with its Gestapo handlers.
***
BONUS
DRUGS TO GET THROUGH
- Benzedrine—more commonly known as “bennies”—is a powerful amphetamine....It was the Benzedrine that was keeping him and his men going.
- It was during such epic marches that the city slickers among them first introduced their fellow recruits to Benzedrine, an amphetamine then popular in London’s glitzier nightclubs and known colloquially as “bennies.” With its euphoric stimulant effect, Benzedrine could keep an operator alert and clear-headed for long periods without any need to sleep.
- The amphetamines would prove indispensible to those charged with such grueling behind-enemy-lines missions, but in time, Lassen for one would become virtually addicted to them.
FIGHTING TAKES A MENTAL TOLL
- Lassen confided most candidly his feelings upon first knifing to death a fellow human being: “The hardest and most difficult job I have ever done—used my knife for the first time.”
- Acute stress was a natural consequence of such relentless fighting, and over time even the most unlikely candidate might find himself in danger of what the raiders termed “crapping out”—not being able to take it anymore.
HAHA
- In his younger years Lippett had been something of a heavyweight boxing champion. Despite being weakened by malaria, he punched the living daylights out of the Spanish policeman and laid him out unconscious. As he neared the beach, he had to do the same to a second police officer before he was finally able to grab a dugout and push it into the foaming surf
- Lassen was likewise known to be quick to anger and quick with his fists. In time, he’d flatten his new commanding officer, Earl Jellicoe, throwing a punch utterly from out of the blue in a Tel Aviv bar.
- Pipo would become a constant feature of Lassen’s operations, the four-legged raider being carried on the most arduous treks and lifted up the worst cliffs and inclines. Pipo had a disgusting habit of peeing on the men’s clothing and even inside their sleeping bags.
- After each and every raid, the key commanders were supposed to file an operational report. These were useful documents that other raiders could potentially learn from. But Lassen, the man of action detested all such paperwork. His reports—famously—often consisted of no more than five words: “Landed. Killed Germans. Fucked off.”
- Lassen was loath to lose a second jeep, so he took to parking it in the only secure place he could think of: he drove it up the steps of the hotel, into the capacious elevator, and had it transported up to the floor his room was on. All was fine until one night the elevator got stuck. Lassen sent for some of his Irish Patrol, and together—via a combination of brute force, beer, and ignorance—they managed to free the elevator and get the jeep parked properly once again.
- “Now, if you’ve finished with my men, I’ll take them with me. We’ve got better things to do than dig fucking holes.” With that, he turned on his heels and strode away.
- Naturally, the war-bitten but handsome and supremely confident major proved the uncontested favorite with the ladies in Salonika. One night, as his men caroused in the hotel grounds, Lassen emerged naked apart from his boots, shouting: “Chaps, can’t you let your CO screw in peace?”
GREECE
- Dodecanese Islands (Greece): https://www.lonelyplanet.com/maps/eur...
- Ouzo (alcoholic beverage in Greece): https://vinepair.com/wine-blog/intro-...
- Caique (type of boat in Greece): https://www.tripsavvy.com/what-is-a-c...
GERMAN WEAPONRY
- Ju-87 Stuka dive bomber: https://militaryhistorynow.com/2015/0...
- (Stuka had sirens for psychological impact): https://m.warhistoryonline.com/instan...
- Ju-88 Schnellbomber: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schne...
- Kübelwagen (Jeep-like vehicle): http://www.tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww2...
- Walter G43: https://www.militaryfactory.com/small...
- MG42: https://medium.com/war-is-boring/the-...
ITALIAN WEAPONRY
- Breda Model 35: http://youtu.be/P4qBhQIwcEU
- Beretta MAB 38: https://www.forgottenweapons.com/subm...
BRITISH WEAPONRY
- Bren gun: https://medium.com/war-is-boring/the-...
- (The Bren Gun Girl): https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-E0KvWv...
- PIAT (anti-tank weapon): https://www.driveatank.com/featured/p...
- Lewes bomb: http://youtu.be/xNYHKegYK4M
- Q-ships: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q-ship
- Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife: https://www.defensemedianetwork.com/s...
- SAS badge: http://www.intriguing-history.com/cap...
- David Stirling (founder of SAS) in 1980s: http://youtu.be/nLOwX8qe0os
- Armstrong Whitworth Albemarle aircraft: https://www.tangmere-museum.org.uk/ai...
- Bristol Beaufighter: http://www.aviation-history.com/brist...
- Folbot (collapsible kayak): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foldi... (scroll to 'Second World War' section)
WHO IS MAJOR ANDERS LASSEN?
- Short video on Anders Lassen: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UZOAi2o...
- A longer, more descriptive video about Lassen and the missions depicted: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eCOMPej...
- At the Special Air Service (SAS) base, in Hereford, there are two statues of the unit’s founding heroes: one is of David Stirling, the other of Anders Lassen, the two men who pioneered what was to become modern Special Forces soldiering.
SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE (SOE)
- In the summer of 1940, Britain’s wartime leader had given the green light for the founding of the highly secretive Special Operations Executive (SOE).
- The SOE wasn’t part of the wider military. It was formed under the Ministry of Economic Warfare, and it was more akin to a separate branch of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS).
- the force’s inaugural mission...the Royal Navy had managed to get them banned from all European theatres of operations—but not from Africa.
- Perhaps inevitably, some twelve months after its formation, the existence of the SOE had become known to Hitler, as had its mission to send agents deep into enemy territory. In a chilling order issued in response to its earliest activities, Hitler decreed that SOE operatives and their resistance colleagues were to disappear into the Nacht und Nebel—into the night and fog.
SANTA ISABEL MISSION
- while Franco’s Spain paid lip service to her much-vaunted neutrality, Fernando Po’s Santa Isabel port was suspected of being a clandestine German U-boat refueling and rearming depot.
- the assault—code named “Operation Postmaster”—
- It would be claimed that the Italian and German crews had mutinied, severing their own anchor chains and sailing away of their own accord. Officially, Violet would seize the ships and their crew in international waters and escort them into British custody at Lagos Harbor.
- We hope that SOE will be permitted to demonstrate that what was possible in Fernando Po is possible elsewhere...POSTMASTER was the first special operation of any scale to be undertaken by S.O.E. in a neutral port, and was therefore something of a test case—
SUCCESSFUL PROOF OF CONCEPT BECOMES "SSRF"
- a new unit that was to rise out of the ashes of the Maid Honour Force. Maid Honour was sacrificed on the altar of deniability: it was the unit that never was. In its place rose phoenixlike the Small Scale Raiding Force (SSRF).
OPERATION DRYAD
- Churchill’s subsequent words of praise for the mission—and similar cross-Channel raids—were telling: “There comes out of the sea from time to time a hand of steel which plucks the German sentries from their posts with growing efficiency.”
OPERATION AQUATINT
- The SSRF’s mission was to somehow infiltrate those defenses, raid an enemy billet, and seize as many prisoners as possible. Spiriting enemy soldiers away in the night was seen as being the means to spread ultimate terror among the German ranks—even more so than taking lives.
OPERATION BASALT
- Yet the aftermath of Operation Basalt would also leave the German hierarchy thirsting for blood.
- In the aftermath of Sark, any raiders caught by the enemy could expect no mercy.
- Sark, then, had sparked a murderous reaction from the Nazi hierarchy, one entirely out of proportion to the impact of the raid. It had yielded just a single prisoner, had caused barely a handful of casualties, and had done no lasting damage. Yet Hitler’s reaction to Operation Basalt reflected how the ability of British forces to emerge from the night and strike at German positions seemingly at will had shaken the enemy, exactly as Churchill had envisaged.
NOW TO ATTACK EUROPE'S "UNDERBELLY"...
- The next stage of the Allied offensive would involve seaborne sorties striking into the soft underbelly of Europe—Italy, Greece, Crete, and the Aegean Islands, butting up close to Turkey’s western coastline. As the SAS had little amphibious experience, officers would have to be drafted in from other units to help train and lead them in their intended missions—most notably from the Small Scale Raiding Force.
- It was from Crete’s dusty airstrips that the Axis powers were able to dominate the skies over the eastern Mediterranean. En route to Sicily, the Husky invasion convoys would pass close to the Crete coast, making them doubly vulnerable to warplanes based on the island.
OPERATION ALBUMEN
- It was June 1943 when the raid on the Cretan airbases—code named “Operation Albumen”—got the final go-ahead.
- When Allied forces had been driven out of Crete in 1941, the British had chosen to leave behind a scattering of men to help organize the Cretan resistance.
- He threatened to shoot them unless the “foreign saboteurs”—their blond, German-speaking leader first and foremost—were handed over. One by one they began to execute the villagers, but still none of the Cretans would talk.
- the key role the raids played in safeguarding the Operation Husky convoys from air attack: “As enemy aircraft known to be in the Athens area could have been transferred to Cretan airfields . . . , the patrols, apart from the destruction they wrought, provided a good insurance against such a danger. No air attack was made on the slow HUSKY convoys.”
OPERATION ROAST (ITALY)
- Lake Comacchio—in truth a “lake” in name only. Comacchio was but the most evil-smelling, treacherous, mud-choked patch of shallow bog water among many such swamplands in the Lower Romagna.
- Anders Lassen died at the age of twenty-five, less than a month before the end of the war in Europe. Operation Roast was the last mission to be undertaken by the SBS in the Second World War.
- For his part in Operation Roast, Lassen’s final action, he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. He is the only member of Britain’s SAS ever to have won that award.
SAS
- Special Air Service (SAS) founder David Stirling
- The highly mobile jeep-borne raiding operations of David Stirling’s Special Air Service (SAS)...aided by their sister unit, the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG).
- By nature of their clandestine status, the Maid Honour Force and the SSRF had had no specific insignia, while the SAS possessed its own unmistakable cap badge, one designed by David Stirling himself.
- At some stage this maritime wing of the SAS had been given its own name, the Special Boat Squadron (SBS), though none of the men had paid much attention to the rebranding exercise they’d been subjected to.
- the “train hard—fight easy” mentality—something that would become a catchphrase of the SAS.
- The SAS was disbanded immediately after the Second World War...In truth, immediately after the war the then ex-prime minister, Winston Churchill, became the chairman of a secret association that kept the SAS/ SBS alive until it could be formally and officially refounded in 1953.
INFO OPS EMPLOYED
- An information campaign would be wrapped around the raids, one orchestrated by the Political Warfare Executive (PWE)...The aim of the PWE was to win the information war by getting positive stories of the raid seeded into the British media at the earliest opportunity.
- That signal would trigger the PWE’s media campaign, which was designed to steal a march on the German’s propaganda machine.
- each patrol was ordered to carry with them a decoy. “A specially prepared flag will be left in the target area to indicate that the raid has been carried out by British troops.”
- As would become a common refrain with such operations, they would prove largely impossible without the succor and aid of the locals—and winning their hearts and minds would become a number one priority.
- The German media countered by downplaying the raids
- Next, Lassen sent an ultimatum to the German commander in Salonika. It warned him that a brigade of elite British troops had the city largely surrounded, being an advance force for the thirty thousand men...Though his force outnumbered Lassen’s many times over, it seemed he had bought the bluff. The following morning, a long column of German military vehicles began to pull out of the city as he evacuated it to the last man.
***
FACTOIDS
- The Channel Islands were the only part of the United Kingdom to have been taken by the Germans.
- March-Phillipps—the man braced at the Maid Honour’s wheel urging his men to a spirited, if hopeless defiance—was also known as SOE agent W. 01. ���W” stood for West Africa, the region to which he was deployed, and “01” denoted that he was the first SOE agent assigned to that territory. The “0” prefix also signified that March-Phillipps was a “zero”-rated agent, meaning that he was trained and licensed to use all means to liquidate the enemy.
- That German officer had been targeted by Lassen, for he commanded a Gestapo unit that terrorized Greek captives using a great black dog that ripped their throats out. Lassen made sure that the dog was hunted down and killed along with its Gestapo handlers.
***
BONUS
DRUGS TO GET THROUGH
- Benzedrine—more commonly known as “bennies”—is a powerful amphetamine....It was the Benzedrine that was keeping him and his men going.
- It was during such epic marches that the city slickers among them first introduced their fellow recruits to Benzedrine, an amphetamine then popular in London’s glitzier nightclubs and known colloquially as “bennies.” With its euphoric stimulant effect, Benzedrine could keep an operator alert and clear-headed for long periods without any need to sleep.
- The amphetamines would prove indispensible to those charged with such grueling behind-enemy-lines missions, but in time, Lassen for one would become virtually addicted to them.
FIGHTING TAKES A MENTAL TOLL
- Lassen confided most candidly his feelings upon first knifing to death a fellow human being: “The hardest and most difficult job I have ever done—used my knife for the first time.”
- Acute stress was a natural consequence of such relentless fighting, and over time even the most unlikely candidate might find himself in danger of what the raiders termed “crapping out”—not being able to take it anymore.
HAHA
- In his younger years Lippett had been something of a heavyweight boxing champion. Despite being weakened by malaria, he punched the living daylights out of the Spanish policeman and laid him out unconscious. As he neared the beach, he had to do the same to a second police officer before he was finally able to grab a dugout and push it into the foaming surf
- Lassen was likewise known to be quick to anger and quick with his fists. In time, he’d flatten his new commanding officer, Earl Jellicoe, throwing a punch utterly from out of the blue in a Tel Aviv bar.
- Pipo would become a constant feature of Lassen’s operations, the four-legged raider being carried on the most arduous treks and lifted up the worst cliffs and inclines. Pipo had a disgusting habit of peeing on the men’s clothing and even inside their sleeping bags.
- After each and every raid, the key commanders were supposed to file an operational report. These were useful documents that other raiders could potentially learn from. But Lassen, the man of action detested all such paperwork. His reports—famously—often consisted of no more than five words: “Landed. Killed Germans. Fucked off.”
- Lassen was loath to lose a second jeep, so he took to parking it in the only secure place he could think of: he drove it up the steps of the hotel, into the capacious elevator, and had it transported up to the floor his room was on. All was fine until one night the elevator got stuck. Lassen sent for some of his Irish Patrol, and together—via a combination of brute force, beer, and ignorance—they managed to free the elevator and get the jeep parked properly once again.
- “Now, if you’ve finished with my men, I’ll take them with me. We’ve got better things to do than dig fucking holes.” With that, he turned on his heels and strode away.
- Naturally, the war-bitten but handsome and supremely confident major proved the uncontested favorite with the ladies in Salonika. One night, as his men caroused in the hotel grounds, Lassen emerged naked apart from his boots, shouting: “Chaps, can’t you let your CO screw in peace?”
GREECE
- Dodecanese Islands (Greece): https://www.lonelyplanet.com/maps/eur...
- Ouzo (alcoholic beverage in Greece): https://vinepair.com/wine-blog/intro-...
- Caique (type of boat in Greece): https://www.tripsavvy.com/what-is-a-c...
GERMAN WEAPONRY
- Ju-87 Stuka dive bomber: https://militaryhistorynow.com/2015/0...
- (Stuka had sirens for psychological impact): https://m.warhistoryonline.com/instan...
- Ju-88 Schnellbomber: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schne...
- Kübelwagen (Jeep-like vehicle): http://www.tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww2...
- Walter G43: https://www.militaryfactory.com/small...
- MG42: https://medium.com/war-is-boring/the-...
ITALIAN WEAPONRY
- Breda Model 35: http://youtu.be/P4qBhQIwcEU
- Beretta MAB 38: https://www.forgottenweapons.com/subm...
BRITISH WEAPONRY
- Bren gun: https://medium.com/war-is-boring/the-...
- (The Bren Gun Girl): https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-E0KvWv...
- PIAT (anti-tank weapon): https://www.driveatank.com/featured/p...
- Lewes bomb: http://youtu.be/xNYHKegYK4M
- Q-ships: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q-ship
- Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife: https://www.defensemedianetwork.com/s...
- SAS badge: http://www.intriguing-history.com/cap...
- David Stirling (founder of SAS) in 1980s: http://youtu.be/nLOwX8qe0os
- Armstrong Whitworth Albemarle aircraft: https://www.tangmere-museum.org.uk/ai...
- Bristol Beaufighter: http://www.aviation-history.com/brist...
- Folbot (collapsible kayak): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foldi... (scroll to 'Second World War' section)
October 6, 2015
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare was a teeter-totter book for me. The teeter (I always thought the teeter was when you went up!) was riveting and fast-paced during the novelization portions of the story, when the author made these historical figures come to life. The totter (the drop!) was when it read more like a history textbook, with lots of military terminology that went right over my head.
That's the crux of it, really. When I got to be up close on the sidelines with Lassen, I had a ball of a time. It felt more like an action movie, with lots of snarky balls-out comments and choreographed fighting. The author has a gift for writing these parts. Now I have no idea how accurate these are; I am sure there is some leniency to add a little drama, and I doubt the author has play-by-play transcripts of every single conversation the men had. It just never felt like he was going too far out of bounds--if we can safely say that all of the actions are accurate, I'm okay with a little bit of dramatization with the dialogue.
It was pretty rough seeing them each slowly drop off, too. Man by man they dropped off until no one from the original ship was left. It was worse too, knowing that they were real people who really did have these major events in their lives. They seemed all the more awesome and brave and insane because of it.
That's the crux of it, really. When I got to be up close on the sidelines with Lassen, I had a ball of a time. It felt more like an action movie, with lots of snarky balls-out comments and choreographed fighting. The author has a gift for writing these parts. Now I have no idea how accurate these are; I am sure there is some leniency to add a little drama, and I doubt the author has play-by-play transcripts of every single conversation the men had. It just never felt like he was going too far out of bounds--if we can safely say that all of the actions are accurate, I'm okay with a little bit of dramatization with the dialogue.
It was pretty rough seeing them each slowly drop off, too. Man by man they dropped off until no one from the original ship was left. It was worse too, knowing that they were real people who really did have these major events in their lives. They seemed all the more awesome and brave and insane because of it.
February 13, 2016
This book chronicles the beginnings of Special Operations forces in the British army during World War 2. They were backed by Winston Churchill and were set up so the government could disavow their actions if they were caught. These men fought with different rules than the rest of the army. One man stood out in this book -- a Dane named Anders Larson who joined the British forces and is featured in most of the action. This book would be of great interest to anyone captivated by military history.
September 24, 2017
Great read, Ian at Forgotten Weapons has done an excellent review of this book https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukdAF...
May 10, 2016
OK. Let me openly assert that Lewis deserves more than my niggardly three stars; his book is well written AND well researched. Recommended to me by a British military friend, I just never engaged with the tales, much as I was impressed by these heroes' adventures and accomplishments. If WWII and commando tales engross you, Lewis is your man. Sadly, I guess I'm not....
February 10, 2019
I liked this book, yes, it is a bit of a hagiography to the men in the SOE, it is obvious that Lewis was in awe of them, so it isn't as purely objective as it might have been..but anyone reading any of Lewis' other books would already know that is how he writes (my dad felt the same way about Stephen Ambrose' books about WWII, that he hero worshipped far too much and made the soldiers something they weren't..and he was a WWII veteran of Europe, so not surprising, most of them felt the same way about their experience, didn't make a big deal out of it, hated when others did).
I think it is an important book, both to remember what these brave men did, and also for me to remember that history is often made by the eight balls, screwballs, misfits and the like. It is not a surprise Churchill was a driving force behind the SOE and SAS (And later, after these units had been disbanded by the military and both the Labor and Lord Haw Haw branches saw them as 'revolting' and 'illegal' and "inhumane", Churchill was responsible when he became PM again in the 50's to making sure that special forces (the SAS, and others like it) became permanent part of the armed forces). The real point these books make is that war is ugly, and that the 'rules' people go on about, 'gentlemanly' warfare, you name it, is and always has been a crock, especially since the days of Napolean when soldiers still lined up in neat formations to die, didn't fight on Sundays or holidays and the like. Talk to anyone who has really been in combat, and they will tell you the nice, neat rules supposedly followed are a joke, in more ways than one, when you are fighting to survive.
The SOE was formed in the dark days of when Britain was alone (with its Empire troops) to face down the Nazis, who were one small gasp from taking Europe (and yes, later on the Russians were responsible for truly destroying the Nazis, but if the British had fallen, the USSR likely would have fallen as well, for a number of reasons). The SOE was how to tie up the Germans and their Italian allies, how to keep them on guard, never knowing where they would be hit. The SOE didn't win battles as such with 100,000 people killed, but their small guard actions scared the hell out of the Germans and Italians, as can be seen by how strongly the Germans reacted to the SOE and others like them, how brutally they treated them when captured (I kind of liked reading that after the war, Churchill and others aware of what had happened to captured SOE agents and people who worked for them among local populations, extra-governmentally made sure those responsible were tracked down and killed, unlike what happened with the filth that served in the SS and the like, many of whom were just left to lead their lives regardless of what they did)
It is also a good character study of the SOE people, and in that way was fascinating to read. Whether they were psychopaths or heroic, crazy or brilliant (or some mixture of the above), they were interesting and had a story that should be told. Along with other unconventional groups, like the SAS, or the deception warriors of the Allies, they played a big part in the war effort that isn't well know, and should be. The book, despite its flaws, tells that tale well and deserves to be read.
I think it is an important book, both to remember what these brave men did, and also for me to remember that history is often made by the eight balls, screwballs, misfits and the like. It is not a surprise Churchill was a driving force behind the SOE and SAS (And later, after these units had been disbanded by the military and both the Labor and Lord Haw Haw branches saw them as 'revolting' and 'illegal' and "inhumane", Churchill was responsible when he became PM again in the 50's to making sure that special forces (the SAS, and others like it) became permanent part of the armed forces). The real point these books make is that war is ugly, and that the 'rules' people go on about, 'gentlemanly' warfare, you name it, is and always has been a crock, especially since the days of Napolean when soldiers still lined up in neat formations to die, didn't fight on Sundays or holidays and the like. Talk to anyone who has really been in combat, and they will tell you the nice, neat rules supposedly followed are a joke, in more ways than one, when you are fighting to survive.
The SOE was formed in the dark days of when Britain was alone (with its Empire troops) to face down the Nazis, who were one small gasp from taking Europe (and yes, later on the Russians were responsible for truly destroying the Nazis, but if the British had fallen, the USSR likely would have fallen as well, for a number of reasons). The SOE was how to tie up the Germans and their Italian allies, how to keep them on guard, never knowing where they would be hit. The SOE didn't win battles as such with 100,000 people killed, but their small guard actions scared the hell out of the Germans and Italians, as can be seen by how strongly the Germans reacted to the SOE and others like them, how brutally they treated them when captured (I kind of liked reading that after the war, Churchill and others aware of what had happened to captured SOE agents and people who worked for them among local populations, extra-governmentally made sure those responsible were tracked down and killed, unlike what happened with the filth that served in the SS and the like, many of whom were just left to lead their lives regardless of what they did)
It is also a good character study of the SOE people, and in that way was fascinating to read. Whether they were psychopaths or heroic, crazy or brilliant (or some mixture of the above), they were interesting and had a story that should be told. Along with other unconventional groups, like the SAS, or the deception warriors of the Allies, they played a big part in the war effort that isn't well know, and should be. The book, despite its flaws, tells that tale well and deserves to be read.
March 22, 2018
I truly enjoyed this book. It was an easy read and fascinating as it follows the career of Major Anders Lassen of the SOE /SAS/ SBS. In 1940, Churchill had broken the deadlock and bureaucratic inertia of both the armed forces and the intelligence community to get men into action against Nazi Germany and her allies. I've read another book called Secret War by Max Hastings on the intelligence community, spies, and revolutionaries during World War 2. It was a great book but Hastings' book was dry and documented the actions of dozens of spies and spy catchers. In Hasting's book you were reading about people and what they did. But with Lewis's accounts of Lassen in action, it felt you were IN the action with Lassen and his team. You could feel the bullets whizzing by, the smell of German cigarettes, and one larger than life action figure.
I bring up Hasting's books because Hastings mentioned over and over how the intelligence community - MI5 and MI6 - were run; the directors chose the "right" people, that means they went to Eton, Cambridge, Oxford, and came from the upper crust. They disregarded things like competency and even "treason" all so that the "right" people were staff. This would bite them in 5 well publicized and embarrassing discovery of Burgess, McLean, Philby, Cairncross and even one with a knighthood - Sir Anthony Blunt. And regardless, the directors protected fiercely their turf and prerogatives as Britain's leading intelligence agency. For Churchill to create the SOE and its action groups, it meant going against and around the establishment.
The British Army and Navy were likewise opposed to the special forces Churchill envisioned. The men that the SOE/SAS/SBS were eventually staffed with came from those in the military with the right skill set and the "wrong" attitude. They were more like Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin's Dirty Dozen in real life than the Coldstream Guards. With the US Global War on Terror in its 17th year, all the militaries in the world know the value of special forces but it was a new thing in World War 2 and thus different and ungentlemanly compared to the spit and polish of the military establishment in Britain.
That was perhaps Lassen and his commanding officers' biggest achievement; it was not on the battlefield but in Whitehall and the CIGS. And as the blurb suggests rightly, Lassen paved the way for a new way of warfare. Lassen is one of the heroes of the war; no doubt about it.
I bring up Hasting's books because Hastings mentioned over and over how the intelligence community - MI5 and MI6 - were run; the directors chose the "right" people, that means they went to Eton, Cambridge, Oxford, and came from the upper crust. They disregarded things like competency and even "treason" all so that the "right" people were staff. This would bite them in 5 well publicized and embarrassing discovery of Burgess, McLean, Philby, Cairncross and even one with a knighthood - Sir Anthony Blunt. And regardless, the directors protected fiercely their turf and prerogatives as Britain's leading intelligence agency. For Churchill to create the SOE and its action groups, it meant going against and around the establishment.
The British Army and Navy were likewise opposed to the special forces Churchill envisioned. The men that the SOE/SAS/SBS were eventually staffed with came from those in the military with the right skill set and the "wrong" attitude. They were more like Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin's Dirty Dozen in real life than the Coldstream Guards. With the US Global War on Terror in its 17th year, all the militaries in the world know the value of special forces but it was a new thing in World War 2 and thus different and ungentlemanly compared to the spit and polish of the military establishment in Britain.
That was perhaps Lassen and his commanding officers' biggest achievement; it was not on the battlefield but in Whitehall and the CIGS. And as the blurb suggests rightly, Lassen paved the way for a new way of warfare. Lassen is one of the heroes of the war; no doubt about it.
April 14, 2018
Damien Lewis’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2015) is an historical account of operations by Britain’s Special Operations Executive (S.O.E. or “Special Forces”) during WWII. This is the organization on which the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (the OSS) was modeled. That the S.O.E. was called an organization of ungentlemanly warfare is oh-so British; the OSS was simply engaged in dirty works.
World War II is a cornucopia of interesting stories about people, issues, murder and mayhem, courage and cowardice. The narrators range from the policy makers in Washington down to the grunts in a war zone. It was the last time the world pulled together into a contest between good and evil. Those who fought in it have earned the sobriquet “the greatest generation.”
Why are wars such a source of interest? It’s not jus the war stories—though those are often interesting, they usually tell very similar tales. Perhaps its because in wars we see contests that stretch the fabric of humanity, contests over things that really matter—or were thought to really matter. Matters like national futures, with emphasis on land, resources, and culture; matters like self-sufficiency and autonomy. Matters like life and death of states as well as individuals.
The problem is that we never know the counterfactual—what would have happened had there not been an armed conflict.
But not all war stories are interesting, and the ones in this book are in the Meh class. The S.O.E (and the OSS) were certainly useful organizations, but one wonders if the most interesting tales remain untold. This book suggests some truth in that.
We begin with the seminal S.O.E. case of the Maid Honour, a tugboat rebuilt by the S.O.E. for a secret mission in West Africa—the cutting out of an Italian cruise ship redraped for war and two smaller German boats by the six-man crew of the Maid Honour. The captured ships were transported to Nigeria where they became British booty. The mission was considered suicidal but became a minor triumph, at least in the public mind. And it’s success led to more O.S.S. missions.
And that is where I left the ship.
Three Stars.
World War II is a cornucopia of interesting stories about people, issues, murder and mayhem, courage and cowardice. The narrators range from the policy makers in Washington down to the grunts in a war zone. It was the last time the world pulled together into a contest between good and evil. Those who fought in it have earned the sobriquet “the greatest generation.”
Why are wars such a source of interest? It’s not jus the war stories—though those are often interesting, they usually tell very similar tales. Perhaps its because in wars we see contests that stretch the fabric of humanity, contests over things that really matter—or were thought to really matter. Matters like national futures, with emphasis on land, resources, and culture; matters like self-sufficiency and autonomy. Matters like life and death of states as well as individuals.
The problem is that we never know the counterfactual—what would have happened had there not been an armed conflict.
But not all war stories are interesting, and the ones in this book are in the Meh class. The S.O.E (and the OSS) were certainly useful organizations, but one wonders if the most interesting tales remain untold. This book suggests some truth in that.
We begin with the seminal S.O.E. case of the Maid Honour, a tugboat rebuilt by the S.O.E. for a secret mission in West Africa—the cutting out of an Italian cruise ship redraped for war and two smaller German boats by the six-man crew of the Maid Honour. The captured ships were transported to Nigeria where they became British booty. The mission was considered suicidal but became a minor triumph, at least in the public mind. And it’s success led to more O.S.S. missions.
And that is where I left the ship.
Three Stars.
August 25, 2022
This book was recommended by a friend of a cousin and took a priority spot in my reading sequence this month. After some time immersed in fictional accounts of war intrigues and moralities across the universe, this one promises a unique revelation of one of the most secret groups of specialized warfare in World War II. It is a scholarly work as well as an intriguing story, with fully one-quarter of the book dedicated to acknowledgments, source notes, and references.
Besides the intended stories of critical feats of bravery and engineering, the book is replete with the unfortunately common examples of political and professional conflict that too often interfere with the effective achievement of the overall objectives. Another interesting slant was how the emphasis on the necessary imposition of the country’s needs (as interpreted by the government) became an almost sympathetic desire for continued autocracy.
The lack of post-war acknowledgment for many of the key individuals (well, it WAS top secret) is bemoaned (rightfully), but the return of battered properties to rightful owners deprived of them for “the war effort” is mentioned as more of a shame for the temporary boarders than a significant service of the owners. This is not the only book researching and discussing the topic of the development of guerilla warfare in World War II, but it is highly recommended as an excellent short history.
Besides the intended stories of critical feats of bravery and engineering, the book is replete with the unfortunately common examples of political and professional conflict that too often interfere with the effective achievement of the overall objectives. Another interesting slant was how the emphasis on the necessary imposition of the country’s needs (as interpreted by the government) became an almost sympathetic desire for continued autocracy.
The lack of post-war acknowledgment for many of the key individuals (well, it WAS top secret) is bemoaned (rightfully), but the return of battered properties to rightful owners deprived of them for “the war effort” is mentioned as more of a shame for the temporary boarders than a significant service of the owners. This is not the only book researching and discussing the topic of the development of guerilla warfare in World War II, but it is highly recommended as an excellent short history.
September 1, 2017
Interesting take on a fascinating aspect of WWII. Rather than concentrate on the special forces at the spear point, this is about the engineers and planners and trainers who made the missions possible. It focuses on research and development - into weapons and technologies, but also doctrine and training. In a way, the sabotage operations reflect the brutally effective hand-to-hand training provided by the terrifying old gentlemen Sykes and Fairbairn, inventors of the "commando knife". Clinical strikes, inflicting maximum damage at key points, completely pragmatic. There is also an argument that commandos lost in action or even civilians killed in reprisals, were an acceptable loss compared to the greater casualties risked by not undertaking the missions.
Gave me a new insight into quite a few operations, and I learned about several of the fascinating characters wars throw up who I wasn't familiar with before.
Gave me a new insight into quite a few operations, and I learned about several of the fascinating characters wars throw up who I wasn't familiar with before.
April 9, 2024
Without the approval of much of the British military, Prime Minister Winston Churchill tasked the Special Operations Executive to create a team of operatives to wreak mayhem behind enemy lines. Led by Gus March-Phillipps, an aristocratic who kept his background secret from his troop and fearless Danish Viking Anders Lassen, the tiny band of extraordinarily tough troops did just that, sneaking onto airbases to blow up planes, kill Germans, and destroy whatever they could. With remarkable effect. Too many of them lost their lives instilling fear in the German troops, particularly those stationed on the many Greek islands later in the war, but the marvel is that any of them survived their mad missions.
A compelling read about a group of incredibly brave British soldiers who contributed towards the defeat of the German military in World War II. And, yes, soon to be a movie directed by Guy Ritchie.
A compelling read about a group of incredibly brave British soldiers who contributed towards the defeat of the German military in World War II. And, yes, soon to be a movie directed by Guy Ritchie.
March 25, 2020
Follows the daring adventures of a brave British squad in enemy territory during WWII. While these episodes are tense and exciting, I think it would make a better movie than a book. Especially the center piece chapters, where the squad manages to steal German ships in a harbor off the coast of Africa. The focal point of the book is Andrew Lassen, a Danish warrior with nerves and balls of steel, who leads the squad for four years, up to the very end of the war. Lassen is, indeed, a little-known hero of the war who deserves all of the attention afforded him in this book.
Admittedly, this book isn't well written, but the narrative will do. I do wish that Lewis had spent a little more time (one short chapter) focused on Churchill and how the unit was created. Instead, he jumps right into action in a somewhat disorienting manner.
Admittedly, this book isn't well written, but the narrative will do. I do wish that Lewis had spent a little more time (one short chapter) focused on Churchill and how the unit was created. Instead, he jumps right into action in a somewhat disorienting manner.
February 16, 2023
An okay overview of events but it mainly focuses on one man. This very well could have just been a biography about Anders Lassen, as it is quite obvious the author favors him throughout the entire book. For an overall book about this subject I prefer Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare by Giles Milton. Milton gets into the nitty gritty and logistics of not only how these units were formed but how they were trained and how a lot of their equipment was invented in the first place, as well as more of the backroom politics that took place to allow them to continue to operate as they did. If you like reading something like an action movie this is the book for you. If you want more details, read Giles Milton.
March 7, 2024
Amazing job collecting this information and presenting it in this format. However, my reading style didn't sync with Lewis' writing style. I found myself drifting even during important action sequences just by existing completely in that 3rd person POV. I completely understand the choice since it's literal history and the "he did this" while "other he did that" are all warranted, I guess I just prefer inner monologue at times like that, which would have been out of place in this story. It's not a true reflection of the book too give it 3 stars because it's for reasons outside the scope of the author, but I gotta rate it how I feel and it's not getting a 4th star from me. But I would recommend to nonfiction readers and WW2 history buffs.
April 8, 2024
Confused whether this specific book became a newer edition of Lewis' "Churchill's Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII", or if these are in fact two distinct texts (if someone knows, I'd greatly appreciate any clarity on the matter). I'll believe in the former until otherwise informed.
Regardless, a generally thrilling read that ably keeps one's attention. A multi-year war epic of tremendous detail, one that illuminates a side of WWII's European Theater that I had little knowledge of prior. Fascinating action, and a thrilling real-life cast that are each given their deadly due.
Regardless, a generally thrilling read that ably keeps one's attention. A multi-year war epic of tremendous detail, one that illuminates a side of WWII's European Theater that I had little knowledge of prior. Fascinating action, and a thrilling real-life cast that are each given their deadly due.
March 4, 2024
This was a fascinating history that I had no idea about prior to seeing the movie trailer for a movie based on this group coming out in April 2024. The narrative of this history is superbly done, with excellent focus on the people who were part of this group.
Now, the hard part of this is to see how this grew into special forces in the modern day, which is terrifying in its own right. Also, the author makes no secret of how personal some of this became for the different people and how vengeance creates chaos with a lot of collateral damage.
Now, the hard part of this is to see how this grew into special forces in the modern day, which is terrifying in its own right. Also, the author makes no secret of how personal some of this became for the different people and how vengeance creates chaos with a lot of collateral damage.
April 20, 2024
The SOE units played a pivotal role in World War II, operating behind enemy lines (common MO: zero sense of self preservation, wink-into-the-void humour, and a smidge of lunacy). While conventional forces engaged in open combat, these rogue agents worked covertly, gathering intelligence (mostly walking in), sabotaging enemy operations (straight up audacity), and aiding resistance movements (redistributing plundered loot). Their contributions were instrumental in disrupting Axis strategy and ultimately contributed to the Allied victory. Mavericks change the world.
July 4, 2017
This is a top notch thriller. The excitement begins on the first page and goes all the way to the end. The amazing thing is that it is actually history and not fiction. It covers a part of WWII that is not normally described in detail by most history books. How much do you know about the war to recover Greece from axis control? If you think you know it all .......... do you know about Fernando Po?
Buy it! Read it! Enjoy it!
Buy it! Read it! Enjoy it!
April 19, 2018
I don’t usually read non-fiction in the “War” category, but this book was exciting and easy to follow; it reads like fiction but the reality of it made it compelling. Andy Lassen was such an interesting character—some of the reader reviews here implied author Damien Lewis had a “man crush” on him—and his leadership really inspired his men. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this tale of the creation of Special Ops.
August 8, 2019
A decent read overall, but it spent far more time talking about Anders Lassen than was maybe fully appropriate. While he does come across as a larger-than-life personality, he wasn't the only hero in the SBS, and Lewis could have given more time to the successes of the other soldiers who fought in the conflict alongside him. I'd have liked to hear more about the events of Comacchio and what other contributions the unit made before the end of the war.
May 10, 2018
Very interesting read. Unlike many books that are about history, where there is no “story” but a regurgitation of the facts, this book told an interesting story about history, through the eyes of the various characters. I learned a lot about WW II and plan to do some more reading on the subject. Great job Giles Milton !
July 17, 2019
This is a book that rivals any spy mystery you’ve ever read. What these men did to aid the war effort, and remained largely unknown for their efforts, changed the course of the war. The author weaves together the stories of not only the me. I charge but also individuals who risked their lives or lost them. If you are interested in WWII history, you should not miss this book.
July 30, 2023
Interesting story of yet another aspect of WWII I had no idea about. Reads a little documentary-ish, but author writes it into an interesting story and captures the essence of his main character, Anders Lassen.
Picked this one up because it's coming out in a movie, which I am now really looking forward to.
Picked this one up because it's coming out in a movie, which I am now really looking forward to.
March 17, 2024
I read this in anticipation of the movie coming out! It was very good and entertaining. I can’t wait to see the movie.
For those complaining that it centered mostly around Anders Lassen, I actually really liked that, because it felt more like a story rather than being thrown information about a million different people.
3.5/5 stars
PG-13(the movie will be R, i believe)
For those complaining that it centered mostly around Anders Lassen, I actually really liked that, because it felt more like a story rather than being thrown information about a million different people.
3.5/5 stars
PG-13(the movie will be R, i believe)
January 2, 2021
Illuminating, eye-opening and thoroughly good fun. The things that the British secret departments and services achieved (and got away with) before, during and after WW2 should have a much higher stock in the history of WW2.
January 7, 2023
Excellent book much devoted to the heroic Dane Anders Lassen VC who is the only winner of the Victoria Cross from the British SBS. This was an excellent book very well written with much detail and I would highly recommend it to anybody interested in military history.
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