“Churchill’s Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: The Mavericks Who Plotted Hitler’s Defeat”, by Giles Milton

 

384 pages, Picador, ISBN-13: 978-1250119032

When I reviewed Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS, Britain’s Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War by Ben Macintyre on January 8th, 2019, amongst my complaints was that the book had no narrative arc or central character or even a group of central characters (I should also add that it seemed to have been written for an Eighth Grade audience, to boot). Well, we have non of these deficiencies in Giles Milton’s Churchill’s Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: The Mavericks Who Plotted Hitler’s Defeat. The narrative arc follows the “ministry” through its foundation, its evolution, its triumphs and tragedies, and finally to its transformation into the modern-day British special forces. As for central characters, well, hell, take your pick: Winston Churchill, Cecil Clarke, Colin Gubbins, Millis Jefferis, Stuart Macrae, Joan Bright, Eric “Bill” Sykes, William Fairbairn, Norman Angier, Ralph Tarrant, Gus March-Phillipps, Eddie Myers, Chris “Monty” Woodhouse, Harry Ree, Tommy Macpherson - this is as complete a list of British eccentrics as you can find, and the story of their mad plans and plots to disrupt Hitler and his thousand-year Reich using what were really homemade devices and off-the-shelf explosives would seem outrageous and unbelievable if it all hadn’t actually happened.

And it wouldn’t have happened if Churchill hadn’t brought his maverick tendencies to No. 10 Downing Street: in the face of what seemed certain defeat in 1940, he immediately sought out and encouraged other lateral thinkers, men willing to be “ungentlemanly” by fighting off what seemed their inevitable doom with any and every ingenious new trick possible; these men, in turn, recruited other like-minded men and women - each of them gifted with fiendishly clever imaginations - to devise new weapons and techniques of with which to fight some of the greatest criminals and thugs of the 20th Century in an underhanded (read: ungentlemanly) manner. These weapons (often made from benign over-the-counter items like candies and condoms) were then put into the hands of men who had been trained in unexpected ways to murder and maim their enemies. Its been said that all’s fair in love and war, and Churchill and the men of his special ministry set out to prove the axiom right, as the men of this special and not-well-known branch of the intelligence services brought the war to Hitler and the Nazis in their own backyard.

Need some examples of what I’m talking ‘bout? ‘kay:

• The ambush and assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in Prague, one of Hitler’s most feared and ruthless executioners;
• The audacious St. Nazaire Raid that blew up the largest ship dry dock in the world, leaving the mighty German battleship Tirpitz quite marooned in it’s Norwegian fjord;
• The destruction of the Gorgopotamos Viaduct in Greece, thus depriving Rommel’s Afrika Corps of its principle supply link;
• The sabotage of the Norsk Hydro plant at Rjuka in Norway, keeping heavy water and, thus, the atomic bomb out of Hitler’s hands;
• The pre-invasion drops into Normandy where the men raised all sorts of hell, including delaying up to 1400 Panzers for a full 17 days;

And so on and so forth. Every chapter of Milton’s book works as a vivid short story made up of extraordinary characters, intense planning, exhausting rehearsals, crazy new weaponry and heart-stopping action; anyone interested in this little-known aspect of the Second World War, Churchill’s motivations and the founding of western Special Forces will love this book. While it doesn’t take away from the bravery, sacrifices and courage of the regular forces of the Allied nations, it does shine a light on the shadow warriors who helped to ease the way for their conventional brethren utilizing their ungentlemanly ways, while also rescuing these men and women from obscurity, which was their government’s intention when they were summarily dismissed without so much as a how do you do (a knighthood here and a check there just doesn't cut it in my book). A wonderful addition to one’s knowledge of the worst war of the 20th Century.