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Raiders: Great Exploits of the Second World War

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During the Second World War a number of daring military actions were carried out by Allied and Axis land, sea and air forces against targets carefully selected for their strategic or propaganda values. These raids were as individual in character as the men who carried them out, and equally as different in their objectives. In Raiders, John Laffin relates more than twenty such operations mounted by British, German, American, Australian, Italian and Canadian forces, including a British commando strike against Rommel's HQ in the North African desert, the raid on the German capital ship Tirpitz in Tromso fjord by Royal Navy X-craft midget submarines; the German gliderborne assault on the great Belgian fortress of Eben Emael and SS officer Otto Skorzeny's dramatic mission to snatch Mussolini from his mountaintop prison.

194 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1999

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About the author

John Laffin

118 books6 followers
John Laffin was a prolific author with nearly 130 books to his name. Many of his books concerned military history.

Laffin's parents both served in WWI, his father in the 20th Battalion and his mother as a nurse. In 1940, aged 24, having worked with Smith's Weekly and The Wagga Advertiser, he enlisted in the 2nd AIF. He trained as an infantryman and later completed an officer course before serving in New Guinea. While convalescing in Sydney in 1943 he met his wife Hazelle.

After the war Laffin worked for a number of newspapers and magazines, wrote short novels and began his own feature service and editing unit. With his family he left for England in 1956 where he resided for nearly 40 years. He wrote articles for Australian newspapers and taught English, history and geography in secondary colleges.

Laffin traveled extensively in Europe, especially the Western Front areas of WWI and in the Middle East. He returned to Australia in 1995 but Hazelle developed heart problems and died in early 1997. He is survived by his two daughters, Bronwen and Pirenne, and a son, Craig.



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