Churchill's Shadow Raiders

In the days after Dunkirk, Clarke had founded the Commandos – units charged to take the fight to the victorious enemy at Britain’s darkest hour. With Churchill’s visionary backing, just weeks after Dunkirk the first boatloads of Clarke’s Commandos raided the coast of Nazi-occupied France. All Clarke’s recruits were volunteers and he referred to the

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Niven had pulled over and changed into uniform, so he could proceed relatively unmolested. Unfortunately, two eagle-eyed Home Guard officers had spied him doing so, overpowering Niven before his change of clothing was complete. Clarke had duly taken a call from Scotland Yard, but had managed to convince them that their prisoner was indeed the famou

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To Clarke, they were the antithesis of modern European armies, and the stories of their thrilling exploits were burned into his mind. As Clarke reflected upon such memories, it occurred to him that the Boer Commandos could be ‘reborn’ in Britain, to aim ‘mosquito stings upon the ponderous bulk of a German Army’. Hurriedly, he noted down the main co

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