In June 1940, the invasion of Great Britain by the Nazi war
machine was imminent. But in the midst of plans to defend
the country from the might of Hitler's Wehrmacht, Winston
Churchill's vision was to take the fight to the enemy -
harass them in Europe with small, specially trained raiding
parties that would boldly attack targets along the extended
Nazi-held European coastline, from Norway to France. Named
`commando' after the Boer irregular troops who fought and
often defeated the British in the South African war of 1899-
1902, these unconventional British warriors were the
forerunners of today's SAS. Author James Dunning was one of
the original Commandos. In his historic memoir, he describes
the gruelling training that each soldier endured. He records
how they conducted daring missions behind enemy lines,
including the famous St Nazaire raid, widely believed to be
the boldest raid of the Second World War. This book reminds
us that irregular warfare is not new and that the winners
are often those who `train hard, fight easy'.
