The Sea Devils: Operation Struggle and the Last Great Raid of World War Two

by Mark Felton

July 1945. Eighteen daring young British, Australian and New Zealand special forces from a top-secret underwater warfare unit prepare to undertake three simultaneous and incredibly risky missions against the Japanese.

Using four brilliantly conceived XE-craft midget submarines, the raiders will creep deep behind Japanese lines to sink two huge warships and sever two vitally important undersea communications cables. Success will hasten ultimate victory over Japan; but if any of the men are captured they can expect a gruesome execution.

Can the Sea Devils overcome Japanese defences, mechanical failures, oxygen poisoning and submarine disasters to fulfil their missions? Mark Felton tells the story of a band of young men living on raw courage, nerves and adrenalin as they attempt to pull off what could be the last great raid of the Second World War.

Genres: Nonfiction, World War II

334 pages, Paperback

First published July 30, 2015

About the author

British military historian and author. For more information visit www.markfelton.co.uk

Reviews

[Christopher Bowers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

This is well researched true war story worthy of a read by anyone interested in the second world war. I really enjoyed it.

[Gordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The underlying story of the midget sub programme is fascinating, a truly bonkers secret weapon that is stranger than many a spy story. Once past the training sequence, the book itself bogged down in detail in the middle, and I felt like it was stretching a small amount of actual mission into another half-book. The reality is that these recklessly brave men in their impressive bits of engineering were ready slightly too late to make a lot of difference in the Pacific war, and it could have been told in a much shorter book. Before I knew it I had to take it back to the library and found I just hadn't felt compelled to finish.

[Mark Phinney · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting history of the second generation of British midget submarines in World War II and the efforts to employ them somewhere. They were finally used against Japanese warships in the far western Southwest Pacific Area. The book includes very interesting biographical summaries of the submariners' post-war activities.

[Michael Larsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought it was good overall. I would have like to have found out if the Hong Kong cable was actually cut and what happened to the boy that almost cut his thumb off. It also showed even with all the training and practice they had things will go wrong. I was completely surprised they did not get caught with something of issues they had to overcome.

[Brian Walter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great story about a totally unknown mission by the British to sabatoge the Japanese during the last days of the war. As usual Felton does a great job of bringing this story and the men involved to light. The suspenseful page turning pace kept this one very interesting through out.

[William J Elphick · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent WWII historical which brings immediacy to a ripping yarn of great heroism and danger.

[Scott Gardner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Knew a little bit of the history of this one , but still some good reading in it , very brave people

[Mr C COOK · Rating 5 out of 5]

AGREAT READ

A very interesting book and a true storey.Having to fight on 2 fronts to do a job that they had trained for and against all odds succeeded.