Sublime

Special Forces and Central Intelligence Agency operatives teamed up with indigenous Afghan irregular forces of the Northern Alliance to battle Taliban militia. The U.S. military bolstered the war effort with heavy doses of air power and a conventional infantry unit, the 10th Mountain Division. This hybrid combination proved extremely effective at

Other men with imperial experience, among them Ralph A. Bagnold and Dudley Clarke, who were instrumental in the creation of the Long Range Desert Group and the Commandos, respectively, served as intellectual conduits to their organizations. But with regard to SOE itself, Gubbins’s influence was unrivaled.

Another superb study of a special operation gone wrong is Mark G. Davis’s “Operation Anaconda: Command and Confusion in Joint Warfare” (Davis 2004).

Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and the Schutztruppe