One of my reads last month was a non-fiction book called Churchill’s Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: the mavericks who plotted Hitler’s defeat.
The book had been recommended to me by one of the members of my reading group.
I am not usually someone who would read war history but I thought I would give it a try. I am so glad I did as that book provided humour as well as history and it was a real spy thriller to boot.
The synopsis reads as follows:
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 of the Second World War: a cohort hand-picked by Winston Churchill, whom he called his Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.
I absolutely loved that this reads like a novel, full of intrigue. I had no idea just how little I knew about the massive impact that these brave saboteurs had on the outcome of the war. I came away feeling I had been party to some of the secrets of World War II.
A terrific read.
I need to mention that the author has written several books as can be seen on the back cover of this book.
Gippsland Granny 