SAS Italian Job

During the winter fighting of 1944–45, the Allied advance in Italy is blocked by the Gothic Line. A small raiding force is parachuted behind German positions to attack a heavily protected headquarters and disrupt the command system supporting the mountain defences.

The mission develops despite orders to stand down when senior commanders judge the chance of success to be negligible. Lewis follows the raiders, Italian partisans and David ‘The Mad Piper’ Kilpatrick through the assault, showing how local resistance and deliberate theatricality were used to make a small force appear more powerful and to limit reprisals.