Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
Books | History / Wars & Conflicts / World War II / General
4.3
Giles Milton
Six gentlemen, one goal: the destruction of Hitler's war machine In the spring of 1939, a top-secret organization was founded in London: its purpose was to plot the destruction of Hitler's war machine through spectacular acts of sabotage. The guerrilla campaign that followed was every bit as extraordinary as the six men who directed it. One of them, Cecil Clarke, was a maverick engineer who had spent the 1930s inventing futuristic caravans. Now, his talents were put to more devious use: he built the dirty bomb used to assassinate Hitler's favorite, Reinhard Heydrich. Another, William Fairbairn, was a portly pensioner with an unusual passion: he was the world's leading expert in silent killing, hired to train the guerrillas being parachuted behind enemy lines. Led by dapper Scotsman Colin Gubbins, these men—along with three others—formed a secret inner circle that, aided by a group of formidable ladies, single-handedly changed the course Second World War: a cohort hand-picked by Winston Churchill, whom he called his Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.Giles Milton's Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is a gripping and vivid narrative of adventure and derring-do that is also, perhaps, the last great untold story of the Second World War.
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More Details:
Author
Giles Milton
Pages
368
Publisher
Picador
Published Date
2017-02-07
ISBN
1250119049 9781250119049
Community ReviewsSee all
"I genuinely enjoyed this book about how the British finally figured out how to play dirty during wartime (during WWII, to be exact). The scope of the book gives a thorough idea of what it took to get secret agents and sabotage up and running- from the mind-blowing (and U-boat-blowing) inventions to the politics to the daredevils behind the scenes and on the ground. My only critique would be the lack of representation of female spies. To rectify this, I highly recommend “A Woman of No Importance”, by Sonia Purnell, to complement this book. Both books read like spy novels and give brilliant insight into the heroes behind the scenes of the war. "