Daring wartime special operations fire the imagination. Stories of secret missions behind enemy lines are the stuff of legends. This is especially true of the many remarkable operations undertaken by British special forces during the Second World War, and these are the subject of Malcolm Atkin’s gripping and thought-provoking study. As well as describing the operations themselves in graphic detail, he sets them within their strategic context and looks at how they developed out of the innovative work of Jo Holland of the Military Intelligence (Research) Department of the War Office in 1940. These accounts demonstrate extraordinary bravery and self-sacrifice, but the analysis cuts through the drama and does not shy away from considering their impact on the course of the war.

Each chapter tells the story of one or more of these special operations, and a broad range of different types of operation are covered. They were carried out by many different units, including the Commandos, Long Range Desert Group, Special Boat Section, Small-Scale Raiding Force and the Special Air Service. Among the actions featuring prominently in the narrative are the first Norwegian missions of 1940, the Cockleshell Heroes, the assassination of Heydrich, the desert raids of the LRDG, the Jedburgh teams, the SAS missions before D-Day, the glider attack on Pegasus Bridge and RAF flights to drop agents and free resistance fighters in occupied Europe.

The book does not simply record individual operations in isolation. While the skill, commitment and audacity of the men involved are not in doubt, there is a realistic assessment of their actual contribution to the Allied cause.