Churchill's Great Escapes

Churchill's Great Escapes PDF

Author: Damien Lewis

Publisher: Citadel Press

Published: 2022-04-26

Total Pages: 343

ISBN-13: 080654211X

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From Damien Lewis, bestselling author and award-winning historian and war reporter, comes the thrillingly told stories of seven dramatic and epic WWII escapes executed by members of one of the world’s legendary military fighting forces: the British Special Air Service. No food. No water. Out of ammo. Hunted and on the run. The dreaded certainty of discovery looming between recapture and safe haven. What would you do? Give up? For the seven heroes of Churchill’s Great Escapes the answer was simple: keep moving against all odds. These are the extraordinary stories of the bravery and endurance of the men of SAS, legendary pioneers of escape and evasion who, through the darkest of days and nights of World War II, endeavored and succeeded in slipping through the clutches of the enemy. Based on in-the-moment personal diaries and notebooks, mission reports, debriefings and letters, Damien Lewis recounts the most terrifying and adrenaline-fueled days and nights in the lives of men for whom survival was the only option. We follow every desperate step, facing unknowable threats and death around every corner, and share in the breathtaking endurance that brought them freedom against the most formidable of threats: the seemingly invincible Nazi war machine.

Summary of Damien Lewis's Churchill's Great Escapes

Summary of Damien Lewis's Churchill's Great Escapes PDF

Author: Everest Media,

Publisher: Everest Media LLC

Published: 2022-08-08T22:59:00Z

Total Pages: 40

ISBN-13:

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Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The first Allied airborne operation was codenamed Operation Colossus, and it took place in September 1943. It involved the British Special Air Service dropping into the heart of Mussolini’s Fascist Italy to blow up the country’s life-giving watercourse, the Aqueduct Pugliese. #2 The mission was successful, and the aqueduct was destroyed. However, the mission commander, Pritchard, brought the team of sappers up to speed on two matters: the Whitley carrying the main team of sappers was missing, along with the majority of their explosives; and as the raiders gathered together all their explosives, the total amounted to just seven hundred pounds. #3 The British raiders were captured and taken to a small village. They were handed over to the Italian military police, and transported to Naples. They were interrogated by the Questura, Fascist Italy’s secret police. But despite their many attempts to extract information, Paterson maintained a rigid silence. #4 The Colossus prisoners were transferred to a camp in the mountains, at Sulmona. They were given half a litre of wine per day, and most saved it up to have a party. But Paterson was appointed Dominion House Wine Secretary, and he tried to limit their consumption.

SAS Great Escapes

SAS Great Escapes PDF

Author: Damien Lewis

Publisher:

Published: 2022-02-03

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781787475304

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'Riveting. Extraordinary. A real-life thriller.' - Dan Snow In SAS Great Escapes, bestselling author Damien Lewis tells the story of seven of the most dramatic and daring escapes executed during WWII by what is arguably the world's most famous military fighting force - the SAS. With each story comes a nail-biting, rollercoaster ride in classic Damien Lewis style - readers join individual escapees and experience events through their own words, taken from contemporaneous diaries, mission reports, debriefings and letters - recapturing the most terrifying and exhilarating moments of their lives. These tales of almost unbelievable derring-do reveal the most desperate of times, when men were cornered by the enemy and were forced to fight their way out of certain death or capture. Around every corner, upon every decision and every movement lurked the possibility of discovery.

Summary of Damien Lewis's Churchill's Secret Warriors

Summary of Damien Lewis's Churchill's Secret Warriors PDF

Author: Everest Media,

Publisher: Everest Media LLC

Published: 2022-05-02T22:59:00Z

Total Pages: 58

ISBN-13: 1669397459

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Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The two men were disguised as goatherds, and they were sent to check out the airbase. They didn’t take into account the inate stubbornness of the animals, especially when they were hungry. The guard grew suspicious when the two men didn’t understand him. #2 Lassen and his men were dropped off at the start of the operation by a British warship, and they took out some Schnellbombers, German planes used for anti-submarine and anti-ship patrols. #3 The codewords were made up from the first few letters of the men’s name and rank. There were five raiders on the Kastelli mission: Georgios included. They planned to cut the perimeter wire, and then blow up the airbase. #4 The plan was to attack the airbase and blow it up, but if any of them were spotted, they would blow it all up and get moving. They all knew the emergency rendezvous point: meat.

Summary of Damien Lewis's Churchill's Band of Brothers

Summary of Damien Lewis's Churchill's Band of Brothers PDF

Author: Everest Media,

Publisher: Everest Media LLC

Published: 2022-04-15T22:59:00Z

Total Pages: 59

ISBN-13: 1669384330

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Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The Stirling was the first four-engine heavy bomber to serve with the RAF. It was largely obsolete by 1942, but it went on to acquire a second lease of life as the foremost aircraft delivering SAS raiding parties and agents of the SOE deep into enemy-occupied lands. #2 The Stirling, a bomber, was used to transport the SAS raiding party to France. The exit point, known as the trap, was a large bathtub-like aperture through which to jump. It was much better than the dorsal gun turret in the Whitley, which was replaced by a narrow steel tube. #3 The interior of the thundered as it crossed the night-dark waters of the Channel. Lieutenant John H. Wiehe, one of the two French-speakers on the team, was in charge of remembering the all-important rum. #4 In the summer of 1944, Captain Patrick Garstin was twenty-four years old and serving with the Royal Ulster Rifles. He had had to fight every inch of the way to be allowed a frontline role. He was heading deep into enemy-occupied France with fiery havoc and mayhem in mind.

SAS Great Escapes

SAS Great Escapes PDF

Author: Damien Lewis

Publisher:

Published: 2021

Total Pages: 383

ISBN-13: 9781004060900

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'SAS Great Escapes' tells the story of seven of the most dramatic and daring escapes executed during WWII by what is arguably the world's most famous military fighting force - the SAS. With each story comes a nail-biting, rollercoaster ride in classic Damien Lewis style - readers join individual escapees and experience events through their own words, taken from contemporaneous diaries, mission reports, debriefings and letters - recapturing the most terrifying and exhilarating moments of their lives.

Summary of Damien Lewis's Churchill's Shadow Raiders

Summary of Damien Lewis's Churchill's Shadow Raiders PDF

Author: Everest Media,

Publisher: Everest Media LLC

Published: 2022-05-02T22:59:00Z

Total Pages: 54

ISBN-13: 1669399532

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Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The six men were wedged into the aircraft’s narrow hold like the proverbial sardines in a tin. They were prepared for the long flight ahead, and their commander, Trevor Alan Gordon Pritchard, was a ten-year Army veteran and a tough-as-old-boots regular. #2 The first British airborne raid was codenamed Operation Colossus, and it was led by Tait. The Whitley aircraft flew with a pronounced nose-down attitude, making the hold pitch at a bizarre angle. With no side-door, the only means for the men to exit was via a dark, narrow hole in the floor. #3 The first Allied airborne raiders were sent to the Scottish Highlands to train. The Scottish Highlands were not too different from the kind of terrain that Pritchard’s SAS would be deployed to, and they were there to learn how to fight and survive in such an environment. #4 The raiders were taught to be self-reliant, and to track and kill a wild animal if they were separated from their comrades. They were also taught to use fair means or foul to kill, and to keep their weapons concealed until the last possible moment.

SAS Great Escapes 2

SAS Great Escapes 2 PDF

Author: Damien Lewis

Publisher:

Published: 2023-05-25

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781529429381

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'Damien Lewis is both a meticulous historian and a born storyteller' Lee Child Against insurmountable odds, SAS men crossed deserts, evaded revenge and escaped through enemy lands. Lieutenant Bill Fraser and the six SAS men he led were listed as Missing in Action (MIA) after their failure to return from a raid. Nine weeks later they emerged from a death-defying sojourn across the Sahara Desert, after evading and confounding the enemy. The eccentric and gifted commander Lord George Jellicoe and the group of five SAS men he led carried out a raid on the German aerodrome at Heraklion, destroying an incredible seventy warplanes. Only one man - Jellicoe, managed to get away. Some two-hundred SAS raiders were dispatched across the Sahara to raid the enemy port fortress of Benghazi, in what they feared would be a 'suicide mission'. It very nearly turned out that way, and the survivors faced a 1000-mile journey back across the desert to safety. SAS founder David Stirling attempted what was one of the most ambitious missions of the war - to drive across war-torn North Africa and link up with advancing American forces. The legendary Captain John Tonkin, who had soldiered with the SAS since its earliest times, led an escape where only six of the 40-strong SAS party he led managed to escape, after German forces surrounded their forest base. SAS man Herbert Castelow was one of the few to escape - perched on the local village mayor's bike when, in the aftermath of D-Day, a dozen parachutists dropped into France, charged to sabotage a German airbase. But the drop-zone was staked out by the enemy and a savage firefight ensued. 'Damien Lewis paints a uniquely vivid picture of the wartime SAS. Packed with detail, this fresh and dynamic book brings us as close to its remarkable members as we are ever likely to get.' Joshua Levine, author of Dunkirk 'In these days when we are told to be scared of everything it is a relief to read of steely nerves and cold courage. Damien Lewis has collected examples of exactly these qualities from World War II and they are all thrillers, to be read with pleasure - and a bit of nostalgia!' Frederick Forsyth 'The fund of SAS escapes turns out to be too big for one book, and in Damien Lewis there is a writer of rare narrative gifts able to bring alive these epic stories for us today' Mark Urban 'An astonishing book: a collection of truly riveting stories of bravery, all brilliantly told. In terms of sheer drama and audacity, SAS: Great Escapes Two goes where no fiction writer would dare venture' Alex Gerlis, author of Agent in the Shadows

Churchill's Hellraisers

Churchill's Hellraisers PDF

Author: Damien Lewis

Publisher: Citadel Press

Published: 2020-08-25

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 0806540761

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From award-winning war reporter Damien Lewis, the untold story of the heroic hellraisers who stormed a Nazi fortress—in one of the most daring raids of World War II . . . Winter, 1944. Allied forces have liberated most of Axis-occupied Italy—with one crucial exception: the Nazi headquarters north of the Gothic Line. Heavily guarded and surrounded by rugged terrain, the mountain fortress is nearly impenetrable. But British Prime Minister Winston Churchill is determined to drive a dagger into the “soft underbelly of Europe.” The Allied’s plan: drop two paratroopers into the mountains—and take the fortress by storm . . . The two brave men knew the risks involved, so they recruited an equally fearless team: Italian resistance fighters, escaped POWs, downed US airmen, even a bagpipe-playing Scotsman known as “The Mad Piper.” Some had little military training, but all were willing to fight to the death to defeat the Nazi enemy. Ultimately, the mission that began in broad daylight, in the enemy’s line of fire, would end one of the darkest chapters in history—through the courage and conviction of the unsung heroes who dared the impossible . . . “One of the most dangerous and effective attacks ever undertaken by this Regiment against the enemy.” —Lt Col Robert Walker‐Brown, MBE DSO, senior SAS commander “Action-packed . . . Battleground history buffs will be entertained.” —Publishers Weekly