Book
Harkaway’s Sixth Column
First published 1983
In the summer of 1940, Italian forces invade British Somaliland while a small British detachment is sent into the desert to destroy an enemy supply dump. An air attack kills the young officer commanding the mission and leaves four non-commissioned soldiers and a civilian driver cut off behind enemy lines with a useless radio and little prospect of rescue.
Corporal Harkaway takes command and turns the captured stores into the basis for an improvised resistance. Working with local tribes whose interests do not always coincide with British plans, the group raids Italian positions and attempts to disrupt the invasion from the rear. The novel uses the isolated East African campaign to focus on small-unit leadership, irregular warfare and the uneasy alliances on which survival behind enemy lines depends.
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