Sublime

All of these special operators made critical use of modern inventions such as the airplane and radio. But they were also inspired by the timeless lessons of history. SOE’s first leaders, the army officers J. C. F. Holland and Colin Gubbins, had fought against the IRA. In addition, Holland had served with the Arab irregulars in World War I and had

The five members of MI(R)c were hard at work on the afternoon of 10 November when Jefferis’s telephone rang unexpectedly. The caller did not identify himself and nor did he give any indication as to why he was phoning. He simply ordered Jefferis to attend an important meeting in Whitehall. When Jefferis pressed for further information, he was told

Of all of Germany’s senior commanders, including Rommel and von Rundstedt, few were more eager to attack than Kesselring, and none had his ability to combine air and ground operations.

Lieutenant General Walter Krueger, Eisenhower’s new commander, was an amalgam of Fox Conner and Kenyon Joyce—a military intellectual who relished leading troops in the field. Universally regarded as “a soldier’s soldier,” Krueger was a combat infantryman at heart. He was also widely respected as one of the Army’s best educated and most perceptive

The two young intelligence officers became guerrilla fighters based in Bodö, in a bay backed by snow-capped mountains, going on small raids up the fjords in a sixty-foot diesel-engined Norwegian ‘puffer’ fishing boat. In the shortening nights the ‘Gubbins flotilla’ blew up bridges and destroyed petrol dumps, but in the end they had to assist the

George Marshall was the US Army chief of staff during World War II, meaning that he essentially ran the entire war effort. His name might not be as well known as Dwight Eisenhower (whom Marshall hand-selected for advancement), but those who were involved in the war credit Marshall as a key figure—if not the key figure—in coordinating the Allies’

“A ticket to sure fire danger and excitement in the most explosive form is furnished every man who volunteers for the Seabee demolition units,” said a military publication in October 1943. When it is over “he is an expert in destruction, qualified to blow up everything from a milk bottle to a man.” So qualified, each graduate was assigned to a

The inaugural parade of 30 Commando Information Exploitation Group Royal Marines took place on a very cold, bright morning, 13 December 2010, at Stonehouse Barracks in Plymouth. The name 30 Commando was chosen in tribute to the forgotten men of Fleming’s 30 Commando/30 Assault Unit, and the secretary of the 30AU old comrades’ association, Mrs