Book Review - The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Churchill’s Mavericks: Plotting Hitler’s Defeat
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Churchill’s Mavericks: Plotting Hitler’s Defeat
Written by: Giles Milton
John Murray Publishing, 2016,
ISBN 9781444798951, 356pp,
Reviewed by: Lieutenant Colonel Matt Patching
The use of sabotage in war is often something westerners associate with the enemy: dirty tricks that are outside the rules of ‘gentlemanly’ warfare. That was certainly the view of the British polity in the late 1930s. Despite this view, a small and carefully selected group of men and women were given the responsibility to plan, resource and execute sabotage attacks against the Axis powers. Giles Milton has written an entertaining and informative book that takes the reader into the British organisations responsible for planning and conducting these sabotage raids behind Axis lines in the Second World War. Milton writes in a conversational and fast-paced style that allows the reader to enjoy the story and build an association with the main protagonists.
Ungentlemanly Warfare follows the establishment and covert operations of the Top Secret departments ‘Section D’, charged with developing specially- trained agents to engage in murder, sabotage and subversion behind enemy lines, and MI(R), responsible for designing and building innovative new weapons. In particular, it chronicles the wartime careers of Colin Gubbins, Millis Jefferis, Cecil Clarke and Stuart Macrae; masters of guerrilla warfare, explosives and sabotage. These men oversaw a style of warfare that relied upon violence, secrecy and not playing by the rules. Their early forays into the war saw them smuggled into Norway in 1940, where Gubbins’ men undertook their first ambush of the German invasion force. These expeditionary raids grew in danger and complexity to include the theft of Axis shipping from a Spanish colonial port in Western Africa to destruction of the St Nazaire Dock–the only dock large enough to service the GermanTirpitz, the most powerful warship in the world at the time. Expert saboteurs trained in the United Kingdom were also responsible for destruction of the Norsk Hydro heavy water plant in 1943, probably depriving Hitler of an atomic bomb.
The establishment and continued operations of these departments were not popular with the War Office, who continuously diverted or delayed resources critical to the manufacture of weapons and training. However, Winston Churchill was a strong advocate of the need for guerrilla tactics and personally intervened to ensure continued weapons development and sustained expeditionary operations. Ultimately, this support saw over 4,000 tons of sabotage equipment parachuted into France prior to the planned Allied landings. French and British saboteurs used these supplies to heavily influence the war, conducting relentless harassing raids of the 2nd SS Panzer Division and preventing it from reaching Normandy in time.
This book is a very good read, telling the story in an informative and entertaining style. Hard core historians may not appreciate its informality; however, this style extends the book’s appeal to a much broader audience.
