The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

Name: The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
Rating: 4.6 (3837 reviews)

by Damien Lewis

First published 2014

Amazon

4.6(3,837)

After the defeat of 1940, Winston Churchill supported the creation of small, deniable units capable of attacking Axis targets through sabotage, deception and raids conducted outside conventional military practice. The men recruited for this work used disguised vessels, enemy uniforms, improvised weapons and methods that regular forces could not always acknowledge publicly.

Damien Lewis follows the development of these special operations from their experimental beginnings through missions in occupied and neutral territory, including the seizure of Axis shipping at Fernando Po. The book examines the personalities who organised and carried out the raids, the political risks created by deniable warfare and the technical improvisation required when small teams operated without the resources of a conventional army. Their experience forms part of the wartime development of British special forces and of a broader strategy intended to attack German and Italian interests wherever vulnerable targets could be reached.