Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: The Mavericks Who Plotted Hitler's Defeat

This is a wonderful read, an account of the sabotage/guerilla operations installed by the British during WWII. Anyone interested in WWII, Churchill, ‘ungentlemanly warfare’, early connections with the OSS (to become the CIA), et al. will love this book. It is, simultaneously, the account of a group of men/women (Colin Gubbins, Millis Jefferis, Joan Bright, Cecil Clarke, Stuart Macrae, Eric Sykes, William Fairbairn, Gus March-Phillipps, Eddie Myers, Chris ‘Monty’ Woodhouse, Harry Ree and Tommy Macpherson) and major achievements/operations (the development of the 1939 limpet mine, the sticky bomb, the aero-switch, the Hedgehog mortar; the destruction of the St Nazaire dock (on which the Tirpitz depended for servicing), the Gorgopotamos viaduct (on which Rommel depended as a supply route), the assassination of the ‘Butcher of Prague’, Reinhard Heydrich, the destruction of the Norsk Hydro heavy water plant in Norway (on which Hitler depended for his nuclear weapons program), the disabling of the Peugeot factory which had been converted for the making of tanks and the harassing/obstruction of the ‘Das Reich’ division’s attempts to get to Normandy after Operation Overlord. This is all heady stuff and the Brits and Scots at the center of things are all over-the-top adventurers with suitably British nicknames and the capacity to work 16-hour days (before retiring to the pub and club bars for a systematic unwinding). The illustrations are very helpful, with pictures of particular weapons, pictures of the pertinent men and women and photographs of their operational centers where weapons were developed and tested and where commandos were trained in silent killing and explosives. The personal stories range from the sad to the quirky/superheroic. The book is enormously informative, written like a thriller and guaranteed to bring a tear or two to the eye at crucial moments. And it is true. Highly recommended.

On page one you meet Joan Bright in 1939, “a jaunty 29-year-old with swept-up hair and a button-down dress who traveled to London in serious need of secretarial work, having just turned down a job in Germany as governess to the children of Rudolf Hess, Deputy Führer or the Third Reich.” Late in the War she rose to be in charge of Secret Intelligence in the Cabinet War Rooms working closely with Winston Churchill with whom she traveled to the Yalta Summit to meet with Stalin and Roosevelt as well as Teheran and Potsdam. Later she had a brief fling with Ian Fleming and became the model for the legendary Miss Moneypenny, M’s iconic secretary in the outer office who spent years pining for James Bond. Joan was one of the first employees of SOE—Special Operations Executive—responsible for behind-enemy-lines parachute drops, sabotage, counter-terrorism, devilishly ingenious weaponry, dirty tricks and myriad exploits that shaved years off the length of World War II. The mantra: “If you can cripple a bridge, you can stop an entire army in its tracks. Among the riveting adventures you’ll savor: • The ambush and assassination in Prague of Reinhard Heydrich, one of the principal architects of the extermination of the Jews. • The audacious St. Nazaire Raid that blew up the largest ship dry dock in the world rendering the mighty German battleship Tirpitz useless. • Bringing down the rail line on the massive Roumeli viaduct in Greece depriving Rommel’s Afrika Corps of more than 2,000 trainloads of supplies. • If you ever saw “Heroes of Telemark” here is the gripping real-life saga of a tiny band of Norwegian saboteurs who skied to the Norsk Hydro plant at Rjuka and scaled a 700-foot shaft of vertical rock to blow it up and prevent the Germans acquiring the atom bomb. • Raising merry hell with air drops prior to the D-Day landings and stalling 1,400 Panzar tanks a full 17 days from reaching Normandy, thus assuring the allied victory. Every chapter is a vivid short story made up of extraordinary characters, intense planning, exhausting rehearsals, crazy new weaponry and heart-stopping action. Gen. George S. Patton, Jr. said, “Compared to war, all other forms of human endeavor shrink to insignificance. God help me, I do love it so.” By the time you reluctantly put down (with a contented sigh) “CHURCHILL’S MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE: The Mavericks Who Plotted Hitler’s Defeat,” you’ll come away agreeing with Patton.

Fantastisch boek over de verrichtingen van de onbekende saboteurs in de tweede wereld oorlog. In begrijpelijk Engels geschreven en erg informatief. Dit waren een aantal uren heerlijk leesplezier!

Written in 2016, Giles Milton’s book highlights a fascinating facet of WWII, a facet about which not many people are aware. For many people who believe WWII was won “simply” by D-Day and other major battles, this well-written, three hundred and fifty page book will come as a great surprise; written about the central figures of this hidden war, it illustrates various rich strands of the period. Winston Churchill was undoubtedly an eccentric, individualistic genius in the right place, at the right time - a time for which he said his whole life had been a prelude. He gathered around him equally eccentric, maverick thinkers “outside the box”. While Barnes Wallace (bouncing bombs), Reginald Mitchell (Spitfires) and other great inventors/designers worked on “conventional” warfare projects, a small group of eccentrics engineers and explosive experts developed smaller weapons for less conventional conflicts. Colonel Stuart Macrae and Major-General Sir Millis Jefferis -were the founder member of Ministry of Defence 1, (MD1) which had an unconventional beginning in the MoD and, over time, became a thorn in its flesh because of its unconventional approach to procedures, development, authority and bureaucracy. Its ability to create unusual weapons “to order” for the Resistance, commandos and other special operations’ groups in a very short time earned it the unstinting support of Winston Churchill, to whom MD1 became directly accountable throughout the war; this also explained the enmity of the MoD civil servants and bureaucrats. MD1 developed anti-tank, sticky bombs, anti-ship limpet mines, a wide range of “small arms” detonators, the PIAT, lone-man anti-tank weapon and many others. This excellent, well-written and thoroughly researched book, opens windows on the British, eccentric genius and MD1’s battles with red-taped bureaucracy as well as the Nazi war machine. Like Bletchley Park, its effects on the war and the ways in which it shortened WWII and saved lives, has been shrouded in secrecy; both were closed down immediately and their personnel disbanded after the war having signed the official secrets’ acts. “In due course, all the beautiful tools and fixtures we had set up a Whitchurch for making this really remarkable bomb and fuse [K delay bomb] were, like the rest of our apparatus, taken away and thrown on the scrap heap.” “Churchill’s Toyshop” as MD1 was quickly named, exemplifies so many very British traits and is testament to the talented engineers who pioneered and created these unconventional weapons. It is a well-written, very readable book which opens a window on a very well deserving - and for too long-hidden - group of people.

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I don't know why I have never heard of this amazing World War II story that shaped the outcome of the war and the defeat of Hitler. It is a fascinating must read for anyone interested in the true history of the Fall of the Nazis. The book is meticulously researched and very well written. I will be searching for other books by this author.

Great read and account of how the commandos and saboteurs bravery played an instrumental role in winning world war 2.