Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: The Mavericks Who Plotted Hitler's Defeat

by Giles Milton

Overview

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.

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250119032
Publisher:	Picador
Publication date:	02/06/2018
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	30,927
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Giles Milton is the internationally bestselling author of a dozen works of narrative history, including Soldier, Sailor, Frogman, Spy, Airman, Gangster, Kill or Die: How the Allies Won on D-Day. His book, Churchill’s Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, is the basis for a major TV series. Milton’s other works—published in twenty-five languages—include Nathaniel’s Nutmeg, serialized by the BBC. He lives in London and Burgundy.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS


Prologue 1

1. The Third Man 5
2. Thinking Dirty 20
3. Making Bangs for Churchill 34
4. Sweet Fanny Adams 49
5. The Wild Guerrillas of Kent 64
6. The Enemy Within 80
7. The First Big Bang 96
8. Killing School 111
9. Gubbins’s Pirates 128
10. A Deadly Bang 146
11. Masters of Sabotage 163
12. Czech-Mate 176
13. Sabotage in the Mountains 193
14. Man of Steel 211
15. In the Bleak Midwinter 227
16. Enter Uncle Sam 245
17. Gubbins’s Trojan War 256
18. Fighting with Hedgehogs 269
19. Operation Gubbins 276

Epilogue 295
Acknowledgements 307
Illustration Credits 311
Notes and Sources 313
Bibliography 335
Index 341

Editorial Reviews

"Milton is a meticulous researcher and masterful storyteller. Churchill’s Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, with its ghastly details and dollops of droll British humor, will reward readers who appreciate military history and good writing."—USA Today (3.5 star out of 4)

"A magnificent story, brilliantly told. Read it!"—Anthony Horowitz, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Alex Rider Adventure series

“A rousing account–and celebration–of World War II’s most insidious and devious heroes.”—The Wall Street Journal

“An exciting, suspenseful tale of international intrigue.”—Kirkus

“An entertaining read that will keep readers turning the page.”—Library Journal

From the Publisher

11/01/2016
Former British prime minister Winston Churchill (1874–1965) was an early advocate of unconventional warfare as an adjunct to standard military units. He supported, often against stiff resistance by conventional military leaders, a Special Operations Executive unofficially referred to as the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. The ministry generated a variety of measures to spy on Germany and raise occupied populaces. Some attempts were spectacular successes; others were less productive. Using mostly secondary sources, Milton (When Hitler Took Cocaine and Lenin Lost His Brain) documents the six-year effort that resulted in numerous instruments of sabotage, specialized weapons, and several high-profile missions with significant consequences. The well-footnoted book concentrates on six men who spearheaded Churchill's pet projects and navigated bureaucratic, scientific, and manpower snags throughout World War II. Included are lengthy sections on the Norwegian heavy water sabotage in the 1940s; the St. Nazaire Raid and the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, both in 1942; with thinner material on events such as Operation Jedburgh. VERDICT While this work is heavy on superlatives and light on analysis, overall it is an entertaining read that will keep readers turning the page. For medium to large World War II collections.—Edwin Burgess, Kansas City, KS

Library Journal

Giles Milton’s narration of his history of Britain’s guerrilla actions during WWII may not appeal to every ear, but it has a vintage authenticity that no polished reader could match. Sounding gruff and a little hard of hearing, Milton puts forth as if determined to be heard above a barroom roar, or to the back row of a cramped lecture hall. His impossible-but-true tales of mayhem inflicted upon the Nazis are still thrilling today, tales of enterprise and daring told with the brisk lack of sentimentality of someone who sounds like he could have been there. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

MAY 2017 - AudioFile

Giles Milton’s narration of his history of Britain’s guerrilla actions during WWII may not appeal to every ear, but it has a vintage authenticity that no polished reader could match. Sounding gruff and a little hard of hearing, Milton puts forth as if determined to be heard above a barroom roar, or to the back row of a cramped lecture hall. His impossible-but-true tales of mayhem inflicted upon the Nazis are still thrilling today, tales of enterprise and daring told with the brisk lack of sentimentality of someone who sounds like he could have been there. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

MAY 2017 - AudioFile

2016-11-01
An elegant presentation of Winston Churchill's special guerrilla operations force, which consistently met the dirty exigencies of war.Prolific British author Milton (When Hitler Took Cocaine and Lenin Lost His Brain: History's Unknown Chapters, 2016, etc.) manages to offer a fresh take on the undercover work of a small specialty unit of the British War Office, begun as MI(R) before becoming the Special Operations Executive, or known simply as Baker Street. Led by the canny Scotsman and former Indian Army officer Colin Gubbins and the engineering genius Millis Jefferis, this group of "pirates" was carefully selected for their mental and physical toughness for under-the-radar guerrilla operations to trip up the swiftly advancing Germans in Norway, France, and, potentially, Britain. Using unconventional, powerful new inventions of destruction, such as a "monstrous hydraulic digger" engineered by Cecil Clarke, the so-called limpet mine, L-Delay fuse, and the anti-U-boat Hedgehog mortar, the unit employed effective sabotage against the German war machine. Milton engagingly re-creates some of these spectacular operations, including the destruction of the Pessac, France, transformer station (Operation Josephine B), the dismantling of the Normandie Dock, where the formidable Tirpitz was moored, and the strike on the Norsk Hydro station in Norway, which eliminated the possibility of Hitler using heavy water for atomic weapons. Although assassination was officially frowned upon in Whitehall, Gubbins' unit worked with Czech intelligence to execute the ruthless Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, Reinhard Heydrich. Milton sets up each of these extraordinary sabotages in skillful fashion, underscoring the training, planning, and personnel involved. Gubbins eventually had highly trained agents all over the continent and, once the Americans were involved, had to compete with the work of William "Wild Bill" Donovan. The author also introduces some of the key women in the operation, including Joan Bright. An exciting, suspenseful tale of international intrigue.

Kirkus Reviews