Churchill’s Hellraisers: The Secret Mission to Storm a Forbidden Nazi Fortress

Military historian Lewis (Smoky the Brave) delivers an action-packed account of special operations missions against Nazi forces in Northern Italy during WWII. By the winter of 1944, Lewis writes, the Allied invasion of Italy had been held up at the Gothic Line, “a string of formidable defenses” running from coast to coast across the Apennine mountains. Lewis follows a guerilla force of British soldiers and Italian partisans tasked with sabotaging German supply lines and communications. In an early mission, British SOE agent Michael “Wild Man” Lees, under the command of Maj. Neville Lawrence Darewski, smuggled two senior members of the Italian resistance and a group of escaped POWs across the Gothic Line into Allied territory. After Darewski’s death in a subsequent German raid, Lees parachuted back into Northern Italy and led SOE missions to “foment havoc” at the point where the Allies planned to break through the enemy lines. Eventually, he and Maj. Roy Farran led a group of British special forces soldiers, Italian irregulars, and Soviet POWs in a decisive attack against the regional headquarters of Germany’s 14th Army. Lewis wades deep into operational details, though he sets a brisk pace and laces the narrative with colorful character sketches. Battleground history buffs will be entertained. (Aug.)