Chapter 2
Special Operations Executive was the first national-level government-sponsored guerilla warfare agency in history. It was designed to overthrow enemy governments by special means. They were charged by Churchill to “set Europe ablaze.”
Chapter 3
The chief of the security detachment was rotating his men through No. 1 British Parachute Training School and the Special Warfare Training Center at Achnacarry, Scotland, two at a time so they would be as well trained as the men they were charged with providing security for.
Chapter 5
Vice Admiral Randolph “Razor” Ransom, VC, KCB, DSO, OBE, DSC, was a legendary retired naval officer who had recently been recalled to active duty to act as commodore to merchant convoys on the “suicide run” to Malta.
On Operation Tomcat, ordered at the last minute to “blow the lighthouse,” Lieutenant Percy Stirling had ignited the fuse on 125 pounds of guncotton that had been wedged under a two-story-tall acetylene fuel tank. This unwittingly created what might arguably have been the largest incendiary device on the continent of Europe, which when it exploded made him an instant living legend and earned him the nickname “Pyro.”
After Raiding Forces’ first raid—where in a stroke of fantastic good luck they captured Panzer General Ernest von Rittenhauser parked in his staff car on the beach with a French girl of questionable morals—Churchill went on radio and warned all Germans serving everywhere that they must be ever vigilant because there was a “hand of steel” that would come from the sea to pluck them from their post.
Chapter 10
It was later determined that the shots that killed Commander Sprague were the first fired between England and France in 125 years.
Chapter 11
Colonel Menzies, Lieutenant Commander Fleming, and Captain Stone were all graduates of Eton. Colonel Menzies and Captain Stone were also members of Pop, the 2nd Life Guards, and the Beauford Hunt.
In the quirky British military, what were described as German E-boats (the E standing for enemy) were called S-boats by the Kriegsmarine (the S standing for schnell, or fast). E-boats (S-boats) were equivalent to motor gunboats or motor torpedo boats. They had a crew of twenty-five-plus men.
R-boats (Raumboots) were small minesweepers, with a crew of forty-plus men.
M-boats (Minensuchboots) were minesweepers, with a crew of eighty-plus men.
Chapter 14
During No. 1 Parachute School, the men of Raiding Forces learned the Rebel Yell from Major John Randal. However, they confused the name and began calling it a Comanche Yell. No matter how hard he tried, Major Randal could never get the Raiders to refer to the Yeeeeeehaaaaaa!—which literally drove the instructors crazy—by the correct name. In the military, once a nickname is given, it sticks.
Raiding Forces had not had an opportunity to improve its woefully lacking training in demolitions. No one really knew how to blow up an E-boat. It was powered by diesel engines and diesel fuel was not thought to be particularly explosive.
Chapter 20
Operation Lounge Lizard was named in honor of Captain Terry “Zorro” Stone. Lady Jane had once described the legendary lothario by that term in pre-war days.
Chapter 23
The governor was called home to England within the next few months, and he retired from the service involuntarily. A worse assignment was eventually found for General Giffard in the China-Burma-India Theatre.
Chapter 28
Not one word of the disappearance of SS Colonel Doctor von Himmel and his wife ever leaked out publicly. The German couple had simply vanished. As for the Gyaman tribe crossing into the Gold Coast Colony causing an international incident, it infuriated the Vichy French, but no one in the Third Reich gave it so much as a passing thought.
Chapter 42
The Knight’s Cross was worn on a red, white, and black choker around the recipient’s neck. Receiving the coveted award was called “getting a sore throat.”
Chapter 43
In the Great War, then Sub-Lieutenant Richard Seaborn had been ashore buying vegetables for the officers’ mess when his ship sailed without him to fight the Battle of Jutland.