The Middle East Commandos

by Charles Messenger, George A. D. Young, Stephen M. Rose

Raised in the late summer of 1940 in Egypt, Nos 50, 51 and 52 Middle East commandos played an important role in the war in the Middle East. Accounts of campaigns waged in Eritrea, Abyssinia, the Dodecanese Islands and Crete have been drawn from the memoirs of surviving members of these commando units. Colonel George Young was the commander of No 50 and later No 52 commando units. Lieutenant-Colonel Stephen Rose was second in command of the No 50 Commando unit and then of the amalgamated 50/52 unit. Charles Messenger is also the author of "The Commandos 1940-1946".

176 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Charles Rynd Milles Messenger was a British Army officer and writer. He served for many years in the Royal Tank Regiment (19 years as a Regular, 13 years as a Territorial) before becoming a military historian and defense analyst after his retirement from active service. In addition to having published more than forty books during his long career, he also carried out several historical analyses for the Ministry Of Defence and was a writer and/or adviser for several TV documentary series.

Reviews

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting document of the frustrations, misuses and trials by fire of early Allied special forces in WWII. I came to this having read a few books about the East African campaign against the Italians. This book is a good addendum for anyone reading about this campaign as well as action in Crete especially.