Britain's Band of Brothers

They were Britain's own Second World War 'Band of Brothers': a privately selected secret army of 50 cross-channel raiders who formed the elite Small Scale Raiding Force. Part SOE, part Combined Operations, their full story of courage, audacity and ultimate tragedy has never been told before. Created after the fall of Dunkirk, the raiders were much admired, especially by Churchill. In almost twenty daring missions over two years they kidnapped sentries, ambushed patrols and shot prisoners, reaping havoc along the rim of Hitler's Festung Europa. One night, they landed in a secret armed reconnaissance mission at what would become Omaha Beach and ran into a German patrol, with nowhere to hide but the sea, they were gunned down. Those left behind continued their extraordinary legacy, told here for the first time by Tom Keene.

Résumé
They were Britain's Second World War 'Band of Brothers', a secret army of fifty handpicked, cross-Channel raiders who carried the fight to the enemy shore long before D-Day. Created after the fall of Dunkirk, they commandeered a Brixham fishing boat and planned clandestine attacks on German warships in the Channel. But not all their enemies wore German uniform. Thwarted by rivals working for Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), the unit sailed to West Africa where, as part of Special Operations Executive (SOE), they carried out an audacious top-secret raid on neutral shipping. Returning to Britain in triumph and feted now by Churchill himself, they expanded into the Small Scale Raiding Force. In almost twenty daring missions for Combined Operations, whilst operating from a secret manor house in Dorset, they raided German outposts, kidnapped sentries, ambushed patrols and shot prisoners, all the while sowing fear and havoc along the rim of Hitler's Fortress Europe. Britain's Band of Brothers is their story of courage and comradeship, of patriotism, tragedy and dawn-cold courage, told here in full for the first time.