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SAS Shadow Raiders: The Special Forces Mission That Changed The Course of WWII
The incredible story of the radar wars: Britain's most secret battle.
In the winter of 1941 an alien-seeming object was captured in a death-defying dash by an RAF reconnaissance pilot flying a lone unarmed Spitfire across the French coast. Balanced upon the cliffs near Le Havre was what appeared to be a giant convex dish, directed across the Channel at the war-torn British coastline.
With Britain's cities being pounded by fearsome bombing raids, teams of experts studied the photograph worriedly. Might the dish constitute a highly secret form of radar - one that had the capacity to tip the balance of the war decisively in the enemy's favour? If so, Nazi Germany would have leapfrogged British technology many-fold.
A top-secret mission was devised to steal what had become known as the 'Wurzburg Dish' after Enigma intercepted coded German messages. Appropriately christened Operation Biting, this was to be the first-ever Allied raid using airborne forces. Commanded by legendary Major John 'Johnny' Frost, he demanded blind loyalty from his band of piratical raiders. 'A wild crew ... they looked horrible,' he admitted. Each and every rehearsal had proved disastrous; it was a suicide mission in all but name.
On the French coast agents of the Special Operations Executive - Churchill's shadowy ministry for ungentlemanly warfare - risked all to map the target's defences. At the eleventh hour, two unwelcome additions joined Frosts's crew. One was a shadowy German cloaked in mystery; the other a British radar specialist who could not be allowed to fall into enemy hands.
Relying on files declassified for the purposes of writing this book, eyewitness testimony, and working with the families of key figures involved, Lewis reveals an untold epic of daring, ruthless rule-breaking and ferocity, coupled with bravery and ingenuity beyond measure. The results of Operation Biting would resonate throughout the war and beyond, changing the course of twentieth-century history.
In the winter of 1941 an alien-seeming object was captured in a death-defying dash by an RAF reconnaissance pilot flying a lone unarmed Spitfire across the French coast. Balanced upon the cliffs near Le Havre was what appeared to be a giant convex dish, directed across the Channel at the war-torn British coastline.
With Britain's cities being pounded by fearsome bombing raids, teams of experts studied the photograph worriedly. Might the dish constitute a highly secret form of radar - one that had the capacity to tip the balance of the war decisively in the enemy's favour? If so, Nazi Germany would have leapfrogged British technology many-fold.
A top-secret mission was devised to steal what had become known as the 'Wurzburg Dish' after Enigma intercepted coded German messages. Appropriately christened Operation Biting, this was to be the first-ever Allied raid using airborne forces. Commanded by legendary Major John 'Johnny' Frost, he demanded blind loyalty from his band of piratical raiders. 'A wild crew ... they looked horrible,' he admitted. Each and every rehearsal had proved disastrous; it was a suicide mission in all but name.
On the French coast agents of the Special Operations Executive - Churchill's shadowy ministry for ungentlemanly warfare - risked all to map the target's defences. At the eleventh hour, two unwelcome additions joined Frosts's crew. One was a shadowy German cloaked in mystery; the other a British radar specialist who could not be allowed to fall into enemy hands.
Relying on files declassified for the purposes of writing this book, eyewitness testimony, and working with the families of key figures involved, Lewis reveals an untold epic of daring, ruthless rule-breaking and ferocity, coupled with bravery and ingenuity beyond measure. The results of Operation Biting would resonate throughout the war and beyond, changing the course of twentieth-century history.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published October 31, 2019
227 people are currently reading
1918 people want to read
About the author
Damien Lewis
83 books449 followersDamien Lewis became an author largely by accident, when a British publisher asked him if he'd be willing to turn a TV documentary he was working on into a book. That film was shot in the Sudan war zone, and told the story of how Arab tribes seized black African slaves in horrific slave raids. Lewis had been to the Sudan war zone dozens of times over the past decade, reporting on that conflict for the BBC, Channel 4 and US and European broadcasters.
His slavery documentary told the story of a young girl from the Nuba tribe, seized in a raid and sold into slavery in Khartoum, Sudan's capital city, and of her epic escape. The publisher asked Lewis if the Nuba girl would be willing to write her life story as a book, with his help as co-author. The book that they co-wrote was called 'Slave', and it was published to great acclaim, becoming a number one bestseller and being translated into some 30 lanc guages worldwide. It won several awards and has been made into a feature film.
Over the preceding fifteen years Lewis had reported from many war, conflict and disaster zones – including Sudan, Sierra Leone, Eritrea, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Iraq, Syria, Burma, Afghanistan and the Balkans (see Author's Gallery). He (and his film crew) traveled into such areas with aid workers, the British or allied military, UN forces or local military groups, or very much under their own steam. He reported on the horror and human impact of war, as well as the drama of conflict itself. Often, he worked alone. Often, he filmed his own material over extended periods of time living in the war or conflict zone.
During a decade spent reporting from around the world Lewis lived in deserts, rainforests, jungles and chaotic third world cities. In his work and travels he met and interviewed people smugglers, diamond miners, Catholic priests 'gone native', desert nomads, un-contacted tribes, aid workers, bush pilots, arms dealers, genocidal leaders, peacekeepers, game wardens, slum kids, world presidents, heroin traffickers, rebel warlords, child prostitutes, Islamist terrorists, Hindu holy men, mercenaries, bush doctors, soldiers, commanders and spies. He was injured, and was hospitalised with bizarre tropical diseases – including flesh-eating bacteria, worms that burrow through the skin and septicemia – but survived all that and continued to report.
It was only natural that having seen so much of global conflict he would be drawn to stories of war, terrorism, espionage and the often dark causes behind such conflicts when he started writing books. Having written a number of true stories, in 2006 he was chosen as one of the 'nation's 20 favourite authors' and wrote his first fiction, Desert Claw, for the British Government's Quick Read initiative. Desert Claw tells of a group of ex-Special Forces soldiers sent into Iraq to retrieve a looted Van Gogh painting, with a savage twist to the tale. That fiction was followed up by Cobra Gold, an equally compelling tale of global drama and intrigue and shadowy betrayal.
Damien Lewis's work, books and films have won the Index on Censorship (UK), CECRA (Spain), Project Censored (US), Commonwealth Relations (UK), Discovery-NHK BANFF (Canada), Rory Peck (UK), BBC One World (UK), BBC-WWF Wildscreen (UK), International Peace Prize (US), Elle Magazine Grande Prix (US), Victor Gollanz (Germany), and BBC One World (UK) Awards. He is a Fellow of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
His slavery documentary told the story of a young girl from the Nuba tribe, seized in a raid and sold into slavery in Khartoum, Sudan's capital city, and of her epic escape. The publisher asked Lewis if the Nuba girl would be willing to write her life story as a book, with his help as co-author. The book that they co-wrote was called 'Slave', and it was published to great acclaim, becoming a number one bestseller and being translated into some 30 lanc guages worldwide. It won several awards and has been made into a feature film.
Over the preceding fifteen years Lewis had reported from many war, conflict and disaster zones – including Sudan, Sierra Leone, Eritrea, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Iraq, Syria, Burma, Afghanistan and the Balkans (see Author's Gallery). He (and his film crew) traveled into such areas with aid workers, the British or allied military, UN forces or local military groups, or very much under their own steam. He reported on the horror and human impact of war, as well as the drama of conflict itself. Often, he worked alone. Often, he filmed his own material over extended periods of time living in the war or conflict zone.
During a decade spent reporting from around the world Lewis lived in deserts, rainforests, jungles and chaotic third world cities. In his work and travels he met and interviewed people smugglers, diamond miners, Catholic priests 'gone native', desert nomads, un-contacted tribes, aid workers, bush pilots, arms dealers, genocidal leaders, peacekeepers, game wardens, slum kids, world presidents, heroin traffickers, rebel warlords, child prostitutes, Islamist terrorists, Hindu holy men, mercenaries, bush doctors, soldiers, commanders and spies. He was injured, and was hospitalised with bizarre tropical diseases – including flesh-eating bacteria, worms that burrow through the skin and septicemia – but survived all that and continued to report.
It was only natural that having seen so much of global conflict he would be drawn to stories of war, terrorism, espionage and the often dark causes behind such conflicts when he started writing books. Having written a number of true stories, in 2006 he was chosen as one of the 'nation's 20 favourite authors' and wrote his first fiction, Desert Claw, for the British Government's Quick Read initiative. Desert Claw tells of a group of ex-Special Forces soldiers sent into Iraq to retrieve a looted Van Gogh painting, with a savage twist to the tale. That fiction was followed up by Cobra Gold, an equally compelling tale of global drama and intrigue and shadowy betrayal.
Damien Lewis's work, books and films have won the Index on Censorship (UK), CECRA (Spain), Project Censored (US), Commonwealth Relations (UK), Discovery-NHK BANFF (Canada), Rory Peck (UK), BBC One World (UK), BBC-WWF Wildscreen (UK), International Peace Prize (US), Elle Magazine Grande Prix (US), Victor Gollanz (Germany), and BBC One World (UK) Awards. He is a Fellow of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
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August 12, 2020
Military historians tend to agree that radar played a singularly important role in the Allied victory in World War II, arguably greater than the decoding of the German Enigma codes (and certainly greater than the atomic bomb, which only ended the war). But British and American sources tend to disagree on where the critical advances in the technology took place. Unsurprisingly, the British highlight the role of British scientists, the Americans that of Americans. However, in fact, it was Nazi scientists whose contributions may have been the most significant. That’s the little-known fact that comes to light in author and filmmaker Damien Lewis‘s fascinating book about the theft of German radar technology, Churchill’s Shadow Raiders.
The English won the Battle of Britain with primitive radar
Although German radar technology came to play a crucial role later in the war, Britain did, indeed, win the Battle of Britain on the strength of its radar defenses as much as on the bravery of its young RAF pilots. Long before September 1939, when World War II broke out, British scientists had pioneered the development of what was then called Radio Detection Finding (RDF). Two years before Hitler attacked Poland, Britain began erecting a ring of tall Early Warning RDF towers called Chain Home all along the island’s coast. The large radar installations in these towers proved decisive in giving RAF Fighter Command an edge against incoming German bombers. However, those installations were huge and inflexible, and the Germans soon developed a system (the Battle of the Beams) to avoid them.
German radar technology was unknown to the British
Soon, however, British military commanders noticed that its own bombers were also being targeted with ruthless efficiency. The prevailing wisdom was “The bomber will always get through.” But that was most certainly not the case. RAF Bomber Command was losing pilots and crews and precious aircraft at an alarming and ultimately unsustainable rate. Nonetheless, commanders in all branches of the British military resolutely refused to believe that the Germans had radar of their own—and they continued to insist that was the case even when conclusive evidence began accumulating. In the end, it required an intervention by Winston Churchill himself to greenlight a paratroop attack on a German radar facility on the north French coast—an attack not to destroy the installation but to steal it. That attack is the centerpiece of Churchill’s Shadow Raiders.
The early exploits of Britain’s special forces
This is a curious book. Its subtitle, The Race to Develop Radar, is misleading, in that Lewis devotes little attention to the long history of scientific activity in Britain to perfect the technology. The book’s main title, Churchill’s Shadow Raiders, is closer to the mark. In fact, there is virtually no mention of radar in the first quarter of the text, and relatively little in the chapters that immediately follow. The focus is squarely on the founding and early exploits of what came to be called the Special Air Service (SAS)—the paratroop regiment (later a corps) established at the insistence of Winston Churchill to wreak havoc behind German lines. Today, the SAS is the cornerstone of Britain’s special forces. Then, it was a stepchild of the British Army only grudgingly launched by the generals because the Prime Minister would have it no other way.
The first, perilous mission of the Special Air Service (SAS)
Lewis dramatizes the first, perilous mission of the SAS in his book’s opening chapters. Churchill insisted on demonstrating to the British people that their army could strike back at the Axis powers, even though his generals were adamantly opposed. But the Prime Minister won, of course. Thirty-six paratroopers were dropped at a low altitude over southern Italy in February 1941 in Operation Colossus. Their mission was to blow up a massive aqueduct that supplied water to three coastal towns, including a major port used by the Italian military for operations in North Africa. They succeeded, even though all the paratroops were captured and imprisoned by Italian police and one (an Italian citizen) was executed for treason. However, in one of the tragic ironies of war, photographic reconnaissance failed to confirm the destruction of the aqueduct. For a long time afterward, the mission was universally regarded as a failure.
One year later, the SAS achieved a breakthrough
Only when conclusive evidence emerged that the Italian mission had, in fact, succeeded, did Churchill’s allies gain the upper hand in senior military planning circles. However, once again the Prime Minister’s personal intervention was necessary to approve the SAS mission named Operation Biting to steal the German radar technology under heavy guard at Bruneval on the French coast. The operation involved a force of just one hundred twenty paratroops, but hundreds of others were involved as well: a photo-reconnaissance team to produce photos of the site, French maquis to map it out from the ground, Royal Navy ships to rescue the men from the beach at the conclusion of the operation, scientists and technicians to advise the troops on how to dismantle the facility and later to analyze it, and scores of military planners. It was well worth all the effort. The mission proved to be a breakthrough.
A stirring account of the courageous men of the SAS
The paratroops didn’t only succeed in dismantling and spiriting away the German radar technology at Bruneval. They also captured a German radar technician who was only too happy to help British scientists and technicians with “a ‘complete reconstruction of the equipment’ so as to show what it was capable of and, crucially, how to defeat it.” But none of this happened simply because Operation Biting had been well planned (which it was). Naturally, as any military officer would be likely to predict, almost everything went wrong, and it was only through the extraordinary bravery and resourcefulness of the troops in the air (to photograph the German installation), on the ground, and in the English Channel (on the way back) that the mission succeeded. Lewis makes the most of this material. At times, his account reads like a thriller. He does an equally impressive job painting portraits of the eccentric and often brilliant scientists and unconventional military officers involved in organizing and managing the SAS.
The historical setting
Before Pearl Harbor and the American entry into World War II, Britain stood alone against Nazi Germany. The country had barely survived the Battle of Britain and was badly losing the Battle of the Atlantic to Hitler’s U-boats. The news was unrelievably bad, from Dunkirk to Singapore to Oslo, and Winston Churchill was desperate to demonstrate how Britain might regain the offensive, if only to help bolster morale on the home front. And the Prime Minister’s eagerness for a solution to the problem gave rise to the birth of two top-secret special forces: the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in 1940 and the SAS in 1941. Churchill’s Shadow Raiders involves both organizations but is squarely focused on the paratroops who gave the fighters modeled on the Boer Commandos the name Special AIR Service.
Why were the British surprised?
It should have been no surprise to the British that Germany had developed more advanced radar than their own boffins. Although scientific progress had been marked throughout the West for a century, German scientists had been responsible for a disproportionate number of the breakthroughs in medicine, optics, chemistry, pharmaceuticals, and physics before World War II. And “the truth was that there were many ‘discoveries’ of radar, in many parts of the world, and the Germans had been in the forefront.”
About the author
A former war correspondent, Damien Lewis is the author of more than twenty books, most of them military histories or biographies and memoirs. He has also produced twenty films. His books have appeared on bestseller lists in many countries. (The author is not to be confused with the popular British actor, Damian Lewis, who spells his given name in a slightly different way.)
The English won the Battle of Britain with primitive radar
Although German radar technology came to play a crucial role later in the war, Britain did, indeed, win the Battle of Britain on the strength of its radar defenses as much as on the bravery of its young RAF pilots. Long before September 1939, when World War II broke out, British scientists had pioneered the development of what was then called Radio Detection Finding (RDF). Two years before Hitler attacked Poland, Britain began erecting a ring of tall Early Warning RDF towers called Chain Home all along the island’s coast. The large radar installations in these towers proved decisive in giving RAF Fighter Command an edge against incoming German bombers. However, those installations were huge and inflexible, and the Germans soon developed a system (the Battle of the Beams) to avoid them.
German radar technology was unknown to the British
Soon, however, British military commanders noticed that its own bombers were also being targeted with ruthless efficiency. The prevailing wisdom was “The bomber will always get through.” But that was most certainly not the case. RAF Bomber Command was losing pilots and crews and precious aircraft at an alarming and ultimately unsustainable rate. Nonetheless, commanders in all branches of the British military resolutely refused to believe that the Germans had radar of their own—and they continued to insist that was the case even when conclusive evidence began accumulating. In the end, it required an intervention by Winston Churchill himself to greenlight a paratroop attack on a German radar facility on the north French coast—an attack not to destroy the installation but to steal it. That attack is the centerpiece of Churchill’s Shadow Raiders.
The early exploits of Britain’s special forces
This is a curious book. Its subtitle, The Race to Develop Radar, is misleading, in that Lewis devotes little attention to the long history of scientific activity in Britain to perfect the technology. The book’s main title, Churchill’s Shadow Raiders, is closer to the mark. In fact, there is virtually no mention of radar in the first quarter of the text, and relatively little in the chapters that immediately follow. The focus is squarely on the founding and early exploits of what came to be called the Special Air Service (SAS)—the paratroop regiment (later a corps) established at the insistence of Winston Churchill to wreak havoc behind German lines. Today, the SAS is the cornerstone of Britain’s special forces. Then, it was a stepchild of the British Army only grudgingly launched by the generals because the Prime Minister would have it no other way.
The first, perilous mission of the Special Air Service (SAS)
Lewis dramatizes the first, perilous mission of the SAS in his book’s opening chapters. Churchill insisted on demonstrating to the British people that their army could strike back at the Axis powers, even though his generals were adamantly opposed. But the Prime Minister won, of course. Thirty-six paratroopers were dropped at a low altitude over southern Italy in February 1941 in Operation Colossus. Their mission was to blow up a massive aqueduct that supplied water to three coastal towns, including a major port used by the Italian military for operations in North Africa. They succeeded, even though all the paratroops were captured and imprisoned by Italian police and one (an Italian citizen) was executed for treason. However, in one of the tragic ironies of war, photographic reconnaissance failed to confirm the destruction of the aqueduct. For a long time afterward, the mission was universally regarded as a failure.
One year later, the SAS achieved a breakthrough
Only when conclusive evidence emerged that the Italian mission had, in fact, succeeded, did Churchill’s allies gain the upper hand in senior military planning circles. However, once again the Prime Minister’s personal intervention was necessary to approve the SAS mission named Operation Biting to steal the German radar technology under heavy guard at Bruneval on the French coast. The operation involved a force of just one hundred twenty paratroops, but hundreds of others were involved as well: a photo-reconnaissance team to produce photos of the site, French maquis to map it out from the ground, Royal Navy ships to rescue the men from the beach at the conclusion of the operation, scientists and technicians to advise the troops on how to dismantle the facility and later to analyze it, and scores of military planners. It was well worth all the effort. The mission proved to be a breakthrough.
A stirring account of the courageous men of the SAS
The paratroops didn’t only succeed in dismantling and spiriting away the German radar technology at Bruneval. They also captured a German radar technician who was only too happy to help British scientists and technicians with “a ‘complete reconstruction of the equipment’ so as to show what it was capable of and, crucially, how to defeat it.” But none of this happened simply because Operation Biting had been well planned (which it was). Naturally, as any military officer would be likely to predict, almost everything went wrong, and it was only through the extraordinary bravery and resourcefulness of the troops in the air (to photograph the German installation), on the ground, and in the English Channel (on the way back) that the mission succeeded. Lewis makes the most of this material. At times, his account reads like a thriller. He does an equally impressive job painting portraits of the eccentric and often brilliant scientists and unconventional military officers involved in organizing and managing the SAS.
The historical setting
Before Pearl Harbor and the American entry into World War II, Britain stood alone against Nazi Germany. The country had barely survived the Battle of Britain and was badly losing the Battle of the Atlantic to Hitler’s U-boats. The news was unrelievably bad, from Dunkirk to Singapore to Oslo, and Winston Churchill was desperate to demonstrate how Britain might regain the offensive, if only to help bolster morale on the home front. And the Prime Minister’s eagerness for a solution to the problem gave rise to the birth of two top-secret special forces: the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in 1940 and the SAS in 1941. Churchill’s Shadow Raiders involves both organizations but is squarely focused on the paratroops who gave the fighters modeled on the Boer Commandos the name Special AIR Service.
Why were the British surprised?
It should have been no surprise to the British that Germany had developed more advanced radar than their own boffins. Although scientific progress had been marked throughout the West for a century, German scientists had been responsible for a disproportionate number of the breakthroughs in medicine, optics, chemistry, pharmaceuticals, and physics before World War II. And “the truth was that there were many ‘discoveries’ of radar, in many parts of the world, and the Germans had been in the forefront.”
About the author
A former war correspondent, Damien Lewis is the author of more than twenty books, most of them military histories or biographies and memoirs. He has also produced twenty films. His books have appeared on bestseller lists in many countries. (The author is not to be confused with the popular British actor, Damian Lewis, who spells his given name in a slightly different way.)
August 2, 2020
Churchill's Shadow Raiders is the story of the birth of British special operations, when in the darkest days of WW2, with fascism advancing everywhere, Churchill looked for courageous men to set Europe ablaze.
Lewis covers two operations in detail. The first, Operation Colossus, was an attack on an Italian aqueduct that ended in cruel farce. The plane carrying the sappers and the majority of the demolition charges dropped their parachutists one valley over, and the explosives on hand were enough to shatter the aqueduct, but not bring it down. When aerial reconnaissance revealed the aqueduct still standing, command concluded the mission had failed and ordered the submarine designated to evacuate the raiders to return home. All of the Colossus raiders were captured, and the stench of failure settled over parachute operations.
Operation Biting, the Bruneval Raid, was a chance at redemption. Photo reconnaissance had revealed a strange parabolic antenna, which the boffins figured was a radar system more advanced than anything the British had in Chain Home. Of course, officially radar was solely a British advance; the Germans didn't have it at all. Stealing everything not nailed down at Bruneval would prove that British technology needed to constantly evolve to match the Nazis.
The plan was to parachute 120 SAS commandos into the area, seize the radar, and evacuate to the sea before an armored response force could arrive. It was a desperate action that almost never worked right in training, the seaborne evacuation being a particular sticking point, with the assault boats running around. The airborne side was smoother, but still complicated by the crudity of available tech. Paratroopers dropped out of a chute in the belly of the obsolete Whitley Armstrong bomber, armed only with knives and pistols. Their weapons and supplies were dropped separately in lighted containers, and the first task was to get their guns.
The actual mission went much better, with luck helping and hindering the British raiders in equal measure. The team with the key job of seizing of the evacuation beach was dropped on the wrong side of the town of Bruneval, and had to fight their way to the objective, arriving in the nick of time. The Royal Navy flotilla commander brought his ships in closer to shore, a fortunate modification to the plan because the original offshore rally point was in the middle of a German sea lane, and if the ships had been there they would have collided with a patrol of Nazi destroyers and torpedo boats. Despite two Commandos KIA, and six left behind in the chaos of evacuation, the mission was a stunning success, a scientific coup which provided a much needed boost to morale.
Lewis writes a fast-paced, very readable history, but also one that doesn't reach beyond the cliches of the swaggering SAS commando. The best bits are on the triumph of the French Resistance in getting near complete intelligence on the sight, including the names of key Nazi officers.
Lewis covers two operations in detail. The first, Operation Colossus, was an attack on an Italian aqueduct that ended in cruel farce. The plane carrying the sappers and the majority of the demolition charges dropped their parachutists one valley over, and the explosives on hand were enough to shatter the aqueduct, but not bring it down. When aerial reconnaissance revealed the aqueduct still standing, command concluded the mission had failed and ordered the submarine designated to evacuate the raiders to return home. All of the Colossus raiders were captured, and the stench of failure settled over parachute operations.
Operation Biting, the Bruneval Raid, was a chance at redemption. Photo reconnaissance had revealed a strange parabolic antenna, which the boffins figured was a radar system more advanced than anything the British had in Chain Home. Of course, officially radar was solely a British advance; the Germans didn't have it at all. Stealing everything not nailed down at Bruneval would prove that British technology needed to constantly evolve to match the Nazis.
The plan was to parachute 120 SAS commandos into the area, seize the radar, and evacuate to the sea before an armored response force could arrive. It was a desperate action that almost never worked right in training, the seaborne evacuation being a particular sticking point, with the assault boats running around. The airborne side was smoother, but still complicated by the crudity of available tech. Paratroopers dropped out of a chute in the belly of the obsolete Whitley Armstrong bomber, armed only with knives and pistols. Their weapons and supplies were dropped separately in lighted containers, and the first task was to get their guns.
The actual mission went much better, with luck helping and hindering the British raiders in equal measure. The team with the key job of seizing of the evacuation beach was dropped on the wrong side of the town of Bruneval, and had to fight their way to the objective, arriving in the nick of time. The Royal Navy flotilla commander brought his ships in closer to shore, a fortunate modification to the plan because the original offshore rally point was in the middle of a German sea lane, and if the ships had been there they would have collided with a patrol of Nazi destroyers and torpedo boats. Despite two Commandos KIA, and six left behind in the chaos of evacuation, the mission was a stunning success, a scientific coup which provided a much needed boost to morale.
Lewis writes a fast-paced, very readable history, but also one that doesn't reach beyond the cliches of the swaggering SAS commando. The best bits are on the triumph of the French Resistance in getting near complete intelligence on the sight, including the names of key Nazi officers.
April 18, 2023
Didn't know this story, very interesting and easy to follow and understand.
February 13, 2021
The Bruneval Raid will always be seen as the first successful co-operation of the three Armed Services, Army, Navy and Air Force, with SOE and British Intelligence, after the ‘Boffins’ led by scientist RV Jones had persuaded the disbelieving War Office that the Germans already had radar, and in fact had a radio detection based on their revolving dish, or Wurzburg, far outstripping the British Chain Home system.
This book carefully explains the origins of the ‘Radar War’ that led to the daring airborne raid on the Bruneval radar post in February 1942. Thoroughly researched and exhaustive analysis ensures this book is an indispensable aid for both committed historians, keen to deepen their understanding of the beginnings of commando operations, and for those new to learning about World War Two and the origins of the SAS.
Damien Lewis has produced a fast paced and thrilling account of the exciting raid - a real ‘page turner’ - that is a fitting memorial to those who lost their lives and to the courage and bravery of the 120 service personnel involved in the successful operation.
Damien Lewis In his excellent book, ‘Churchill’s Shadow Raiders’ provides anecdotal evidence of the ad hoc nature of some military planning in the early part of WW2, and in particular the provenance of ‘Operation Colossus.’
On 27th June 1940, within a few weeks of the last troops returning from Dunkirk, Professor Colin Graham Hardie, an Oxford University classicist, wrote to SOE ( Ministry of Economic Warfare) at their Berkeley Square HQ. They hid their clandestine planning behind various shadow identities like ISRB - ‘Inter Services Research Bureau’ - and Hardie advised them from his recent personal knowledge, of the terrain, (having been on an educational tenure in Rome), of the strategic importance of the Aqueduct Pugliese.
Professor Hardie was summoned to a meeting in London, with engineers from a civil engineering firm, George Kent and Sons. The contractor had originally built this aqueduct near a place called Tragino near Naples in southern Italy, and they provided SOE with with detailed knowledge the aqueduct which ran for 213.5 kms and furnished 65 towns with water and the damage, he assured the meeting, to the aqueduct in Southern Italy could severely damage the water supply of the whole of South Eastern Italy, between 2-3 million people, and the water supply to the three naval bases at Bari, Taranto and Brindisi and so disrupt supply to the Italian Army in North Africa.
Following the study of air reconnaissance photographs taken in the autumn of 1940 by the British War Office, Damien Lewis says the planners at SOE researched every available resource including ‘Milan Journal of Civil Engineering’ and a British engineer came forward saying he had worked on the original construction of the Tragino Aqueduct and that , it seems was how Operation Colossus was born. The engineers said this aqueduct had masonry pillars (brickwork) as opposed to concrete pillars, and would be easier to dynamite.
This information was of great interest to Hugh Dalton, Director at SOE, who liked targets of industrial and military importance and could be so effectively sabotaged. Dalton recruited Professor Hardie, and other academics were soon approached to join the growing number of ‘experts’ at SOE headquarters.
Five months later, in November 1940, SOE said it was beyond their capabilities so handed back to Roger Keyes at Combined Operations. Various options were looked at and finally a request to help went to Britain’s only parachute unit. This was the 11th Special Air Service Battalion who had formed from No 2 Commando in the middle of 1940.
Damien Lewis writes with such bravura his research reads like an Ian Fleming novel and you expect James Bond to be part of the raiding party. ( Incidentally David Niven the colourful debonair British film star was a deputy at Command Operations)
This book carefully explains the origins of the ‘Radar War’ that led to the daring airborne raid on the Bruneval radar post in February 1942. Thoroughly researched and exhaustive analysis ensures this book is an indispensable aid for both committed historians, keen to deepen their understanding of the beginnings of commando operations, and for those new to learning about World War Two and the origins of the SAS.
Damien Lewis has produced a fast paced and thrilling account of the exciting raid - a real ‘page turner’ - that is a fitting memorial to those who lost their lives and to the courage and bravery of the 120 service personnel involved in the successful operation.
Damien Lewis In his excellent book, ‘Churchill’s Shadow Raiders’ provides anecdotal evidence of the ad hoc nature of some military planning in the early part of WW2, and in particular the provenance of ‘Operation Colossus.’
On 27th June 1940, within a few weeks of the last troops returning from Dunkirk, Professor Colin Graham Hardie, an Oxford University classicist, wrote to SOE ( Ministry of Economic Warfare) at their Berkeley Square HQ. They hid their clandestine planning behind various shadow identities like ISRB - ‘Inter Services Research Bureau’ - and Hardie advised them from his recent personal knowledge, of the terrain, (having been on an educational tenure in Rome), of the strategic importance of the Aqueduct Pugliese.
Professor Hardie was summoned to a meeting in London, with engineers from a civil engineering firm, George Kent and Sons. The contractor had originally built this aqueduct near a place called Tragino near Naples in southern Italy, and they provided SOE with with detailed knowledge the aqueduct which ran for 213.5 kms and furnished 65 towns with water and the damage, he assured the meeting, to the aqueduct in Southern Italy could severely damage the water supply of the whole of South Eastern Italy, between 2-3 million people, and the water supply to the three naval bases at Bari, Taranto and Brindisi and so disrupt supply to the Italian Army in North Africa.
Following the study of air reconnaissance photographs taken in the autumn of 1940 by the British War Office, Damien Lewis says the planners at SOE researched every available resource including ‘Milan Journal of Civil Engineering’ and a British engineer came forward saying he had worked on the original construction of the Tragino Aqueduct and that , it seems was how Operation Colossus was born. The engineers said this aqueduct had masonry pillars (brickwork) as opposed to concrete pillars, and would be easier to dynamite.
This information was of great interest to Hugh Dalton, Director at SOE, who liked targets of industrial and military importance and could be so effectively sabotaged. Dalton recruited Professor Hardie, and other academics were soon approached to join the growing number of ‘experts’ at SOE headquarters.
Five months later, in November 1940, SOE said it was beyond their capabilities so handed back to Roger Keyes at Combined Operations. Various options were looked at and finally a request to help went to Britain’s only parachute unit. This was the 11th Special Air Service Battalion who had formed from No 2 Commando in the middle of 1940.
Damien Lewis writes with such bravura his research reads like an Ian Fleming novel and you expect James Bond to be part of the raiding party. ( Incidentally David Niven the colourful debonair British film star was a deputy at Command Operations)
October 12, 2020
This would make a great film or even a mini series.hard to believe it's a true story.
November 10, 2019
One thing I loved about this book is that it tells a much bigger story than one might imagine. At the heart of Lewis' tale is the heroic raid by British paratroopers in early 1942 to capture a German radar installation on the French coast. That story alone could have been the entire book. But instead, the author has chosen to put it into context, by initially telling the story of an earlier airborne raid by British soldiers in Italy -- one which was mistakenly branded as a failure. He correctly sees this later raid, Operation Biting, as a vindication of the use of airborne troops. But he also doesn't close the book with the raiders returning home successfully. Instead he follows up with what happened next, explaining clearly the significance of what the raiders did, and how by improving Britain's own radar defences, and implementing a tactic to circumvent German raider, the raid allowed Bomber Command to do its work much more effectively, and with far fewer losses. The paratroopers described here really did change the course of the war.
December 16, 2020
I never knew how much radar played in the battles of early 1940 and 1941. I also did not understand how Nazi Germnay had progressed their radar technology, far in advance of British efforts. What better way to get ahead than to steal the enemy radar set. They did just that. Read this book for a better understanding of radar and the battle to master this technology.
October 27, 2024
Damien Lewis' book on a pair of Special Air Service missions in World War II is the perfect balance of historical non-fiction combined with reader-engaging drama. The book covers the first paratrooper missions carried out by Britain, first the 'failure' Operation Colossus in which Britain attempted to demolish an aqueduct in Mussolini-led Italy in 1941 (its status as failure is challenged by Lewis). This was followed by the daring smash-and-grab raid of a high-tech raider from Bruneval on the French coast in 1942, led by paratroopers but involving all three services, that greatly supported the war effort in both circumventing German air defence as well as improving Britain's own.
The actions are told in a mildly fictionalised third person narrative. Fictionalised in the sense that we hear what individuals on the ground in Italy and at Bruneval said and details of their activities far in excess of what can be known. But mildly in the sense that the author does not characterise the players unnecessarily or create narratives in the manner of a novel. This is, to my eye, the perfect delivery vehicle for this type of historical work which covers a small number of events that the author can take the time to 'play out' in detail.
Despite throughly enjoying this read - indeed it had me reading 'just one more page' more than some thrillers I've read recently - I had to dock a star because of the way the book handled Operation Colossus. We hear how these raiders dropped behind Italian lines, managed a whole series of setbacks to partially complete their mission, and then proceeded to their extraction point in a Xenophon-style voyage through a blizzard across the mountains of Italy with the enemy in hot pursuit. It is truly gripping stuff.
But then, the author switches view to the early intelligence work that led to Operation Biting and the Bruneval raid. We do eventually hear about the eventual capture of these men, but why did the author not spend one more chapter narrating the end of this voyage. How far did the paras get? Did they get to the rendezvous point only to be devastated when the expected submarine was not there? What was their experience immediately following capture? This would have perfectly finished act one of the book; instead I spent the next 50+ pages wondering if I'd missed something, or the denouement to Operation Colossus would come later. An avoidable structural flaw but a surprisingly frustrating one in an otherwise fantastic read.
The actions are told in a mildly fictionalised third person narrative. Fictionalised in the sense that we hear what individuals on the ground in Italy and at Bruneval said and details of their activities far in excess of what can be known. But mildly in the sense that the author does not characterise the players unnecessarily or create narratives in the manner of a novel. This is, to my eye, the perfect delivery vehicle for this type of historical work which covers a small number of events that the author can take the time to 'play out' in detail.
Despite throughly enjoying this read - indeed it had me reading 'just one more page' more than some thrillers I've read recently - I had to dock a star because of the way the book handled Operation Colossus. We hear how these raiders dropped behind Italian lines, managed a whole series of setbacks to partially complete their mission, and then proceeded to their extraction point in a Xenophon-style voyage through a blizzard across the mountains of Italy with the enemy in hot pursuit. It is truly gripping stuff.
But then, the author switches view to the early intelligence work that led to Operation Biting and the Bruneval raid. We do eventually hear about the eventual capture of these men, but why did the author not spend one more chapter narrating the end of this voyage. How far did the paras get? Did they get to the rendezvous point only to be devastated when the expected submarine was not there? What was their experience immediately following capture? This would have perfectly finished act one of the book; instead I spent the next 50+ pages wondering if I'd missed something, or the denouement to Operation Colossus would come later. An avoidable structural flaw but a surprisingly frustrating one in an otherwise fantastic read.
November 27, 2021
Excellent account of the formation of the SAS in its early years. The bravery, courage of these men encompasses the requirements to get into the best fighting force bar none.
I can’t imagine the courage and spirit that these soldiers had to endure to get the job done
I think a lot should have been made of the initial mission of Colossus. For me that was far more daunting given the lack of preparation and the distance involved and even though they achieved there goal they were left high and dry.
Please don’t review the pictures they give away what’s about to happen. Review them at the end
I can’t imagine the courage and spirit that these soldiers had to endure to get the job done
I think a lot should have been made of the initial mission of Colossus. For me that was far more daunting given the lack of preparation and the distance involved and even though they achieved there goal they were left high and dry.
Please don’t review the pictures they give away what’s about to happen. Review them at the end
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 21, 2021
This superbly written account of two pivotal Allied commando operations in WW2 is as compelling and thrilling as any fictional account could ever be. The subject matter is extremely suited to a dramatic adaptation for either cinema or television - such is both the importance of the story, the richness of the cast of leading characyers, and the exciting nature of the two operations at the heart of it.
As before, Damien Lewis (not the actor), has researched his subject to the finest degree, and the meticulous attention to detail is evident throughout.
Following the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940, with Nazi invasion a very imminent threat, Churchill and his closest advisors are very keen to initiate small scale special operations so as to A) lift morale at home; B) convey to the enemy that we may strike them anywhere and anyhow; and C) gain any kind of strategic advantage possible from accomplishing such ‘commando’ raids.
The first quarter of this book covers Operation Colossus: a daring airborne strike at the Italian mountain interior in early 1941. It is the first ever British combined operations parachute drop. Some 36 specially trained Sappers and Infantry are parachuted in at night to blow up a vital aqueduct, and so cut millions of southern Italians, German troops, and the vital Italian ports off from their fresh water supply. The mission succeeds, to a degree, but is perceived in London - rightly or wrongly (mostly wrongly) as a failure. Nearly all of the raiders end up captured as PoWs. In time, this perception is thankfully reversed, and the concept of parachuting mission-trained commandos in behind enemy lines for specific special operations is born.
In the meantime, the Battle of Britain is fought and won; thanks to “The Few” of course, but also in no small way to Britain’s nascent radar defences. Britain wrongly believes German radar capability to be either non-existent or vastly inferior. In fact, as a handful of dogged boffins maintain, it is significantly more advanced, and is causing widespread loss of the RAF’s bombers attempting to damage the German war effort. Something has to be done. What follows is an almost incredible tale of how an advanced ‘Wurzburg’ dish is first located on the French coast near Le Havre, and then how a new Commando unit is put together and trained to go in by parachute drop inland of the radar site, advance to and defeat the German defences, plunder the vital technology, sabotage the radar site in the process (thus disguising the burglary raid) and withdraw to the beach for Royal Navy extrication by means of small assault craft.
In February 1942, following recent setbacks in the north African desert against Rommel, and the shocking fall of Singapore to the Japanese, Britain’s war is at its lowest ebb. Operation Biting is just what is needed. With vital help from the French Resistance in gathering the necessary highly detailed field intelligence, the Commandos are under pressure to deliver before the cover of night darkness becomes too short with the approaching spring. It’s an exceptionally difficult mission and the rehearsals have been disastrous. Against the many considerable odds, will it succeed?
As before, Damien Lewis (not the actor), has researched his subject to the finest degree, and the meticulous attention to detail is evident throughout.
Following the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940, with Nazi invasion a very imminent threat, Churchill and his closest advisors are very keen to initiate small scale special operations so as to A) lift morale at home; B) convey to the enemy that we may strike them anywhere and anyhow; and C) gain any kind of strategic advantage possible from accomplishing such ‘commando’ raids.
The first quarter of this book covers Operation Colossus: a daring airborne strike at the Italian mountain interior in early 1941. It is the first ever British combined operations parachute drop. Some 36 specially trained Sappers and Infantry are parachuted in at night to blow up a vital aqueduct, and so cut millions of southern Italians, German troops, and the vital Italian ports off from their fresh water supply. The mission succeeds, to a degree, but is perceived in London - rightly or wrongly (mostly wrongly) as a failure. Nearly all of the raiders end up captured as PoWs. In time, this perception is thankfully reversed, and the concept of parachuting mission-trained commandos in behind enemy lines for specific special operations is born.
In the meantime, the Battle of Britain is fought and won; thanks to “The Few” of course, but also in no small way to Britain’s nascent radar defences. Britain wrongly believes German radar capability to be either non-existent or vastly inferior. In fact, as a handful of dogged boffins maintain, it is significantly more advanced, and is causing widespread loss of the RAF’s bombers attempting to damage the German war effort. Something has to be done. What follows is an almost incredible tale of how an advanced ‘Wurzburg’ dish is first located on the French coast near Le Havre, and then how a new Commando unit is put together and trained to go in by parachute drop inland of the radar site, advance to and defeat the German defences, plunder the vital technology, sabotage the radar site in the process (thus disguising the burglary raid) and withdraw to the beach for Royal Navy extrication by means of small assault craft.
In February 1942, following recent setbacks in the north African desert against Rommel, and the shocking fall of Singapore to the Japanese, Britain’s war is at its lowest ebb. Operation Biting is just what is needed. With vital help from the French Resistance in gathering the necessary highly detailed field intelligence, the Commandos are under pressure to deliver before the cover of night darkness becomes too short with the approaching spring. It’s an exceptionally difficult mission and the rehearsals have been disastrous. Against the many considerable odds, will it succeed?
October 23, 2020
Everyone knows that radar was a British invention that enabled them to survive the Blitz. But radar was not just a British monopoly. The Germans had their own radar sets that were used with success against British bombers. And the British were keen to get their hands on a set which is the gist of Damien Lewis' Churchill's Shadow Raiders.
Lewis focuses on two Special Airborne Services (SAS) operations. The first, Operation Colossus was launched in February 1941 to take out an aqueduct that supplied the Italian naval base of Taranto. Thirty-five SAS troopers parachuted into Italy, managed to severely damage the aqueduct, and escaped into the countryside. But, due to an unfortunate bomber crash, their escape route was compromised and they were eventually all caught. The follow-up aerial recon failed to show the damage that had happened, so the high command considered Colossus a failure.
Operation Biting was launched a year later in February 1942 for the purpose of grabbing a German radio direction finding device. Biting was much more ambitious with SAS troopers descending from the skies, seizing the device, fighting their way to the coast, and being snatched off the beach by motor gun boats.
However, Lewis offers more than the details of the operations. He provides context, background, and the exciting story of scientists, SOE operatives, and French Resistance fighters that made the operations possible. Also, Lewis provides an understanding of what was accomplished and the part these operations played in the larger conflict along with a briefing on what happened to the participants afterwards. So if you want a thrilling WWII read, do pick up Churchill's Shadow Raiders!
Lewis focuses on two Special Airborne Services (SAS) operations. The first, Operation Colossus was launched in February 1941 to take out an aqueduct that supplied the Italian naval base of Taranto. Thirty-five SAS troopers parachuted into Italy, managed to severely damage the aqueduct, and escaped into the countryside. But, due to an unfortunate bomber crash, their escape route was compromised and they were eventually all caught. The follow-up aerial recon failed to show the damage that had happened, so the high command considered Colossus a failure.
Operation Biting was launched a year later in February 1942 for the purpose of grabbing a German radio direction finding device. Biting was much more ambitious with SAS troopers descending from the skies, seizing the device, fighting their way to the coast, and being snatched off the beach by motor gun boats.
However, Lewis offers more than the details of the operations. He provides context, background, and the exciting story of scientists, SOE operatives, and French Resistance fighters that made the operations possible. Also, Lewis provides an understanding of what was accomplished and the part these operations played in the larger conflict along with a briefing on what happened to the participants afterwards. So if you want a thrilling WWII read, do pick up Churchill's Shadow Raiders!
March 28, 2020
I have to start this review with several notations: 1. I am a 66 year old woman who loves history. 2. I'm married with two sons, all have served in the military. 3. Among my favorite movies are A Bridge Too Far, The Longest Day, The Great Escape and We Were Soldiers. With that said, I was totally riveted by this book. It read like an Alistair MacLean novel. Rich in detail, I was in awe of the brave, courageous young men. Well-researched, with just the right amount of facts and details, but not too much to overwhelm one. I can't recommend this book enough. For history buffs, this is one book you should not miss, even if you are looking just for an interesting read, try this book! I received an e-book from NetGalley in return for an unbiased review. Thank you NetGalley!
January 1, 2022
Really liked the book. The operations are gone into great detail and the story unfolds almost like a fictional account. So all good apart from why SAS is so prominently in the title (it almost put me off picking it up - yawn another SAS book) when it hasn't anything really to do with them and I'm sure the ex paratroopers would be affronted by the connection. Also the detailed account of Operation Colossus just stops when the soldiers make off from the target, it goes into a summary of what happened to them but I was intrigued to know if any made it to the submarine pickup point and if it's cancellation made a difference. Minor points, the title hasn't anything really to do with the author's ability to tell a good story.
November 12, 2020
I really enjoyed this book, as well as the others of Damien Lewis that I have read.
A very well researched book at the origins of the paras and the SAS. I learned a lot, as much about the Axis capabilities in WW2, as much as the Allies with radar technology and the level of sophistication at the time.
I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in history of the time, once again another little aspect of the war, with huge consequences, involving so many people who played their part in achieving the overall goal of defeating Nazism. It's these little stories that show the many different ways that people of the time contributed to the war effort. Loved it..
A very well researched book at the origins of the paras and the SAS. I learned a lot, as much about the Axis capabilities in WW2, as much as the Allies with radar technology and the level of sophistication at the time.
I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in history of the time, once again another little aspect of the war, with huge consequences, involving so many people who played their part in achieving the overall goal of defeating Nazism. It's these little stories that show the many different ways that people of the time contributed to the war effort. Loved it..
March 27, 2021
England takes great pride in its many accomplishments in history. They believed themselves to be the inventors of Radio Detecting and Ranging or radar, however WWII would change all of those assumptions. As Germany was raining heavy fire down on England, it became apparent that the Germans were clearly in possession of their own radar technology. And not only in possession, but also advanced radar that far surpassed what England had created.
As Churchill becomes more and more aware of this fact (even amid the naysayers of his cabinet), he believes that England must strike back if they are ever going to turn the tide of the war. After the Battle of Dunkirk, Churchill asks for volunteers into the Special Services. These men would eventually form the Special Air Service, a highly trained airborne infantry. Their primary focus was to land in enemy territory and stop them from engaging any farther.
The Special Air Services had a shaky start, with the supposed failure of Operation Colossus, but was actually a remarkable success. And then finally the real baptism by fire, Operation Biting. The full blown raid into France where Hitler was housing the advanced radar system. Instead of destroying it, though, England wants to retrieve it and bring it back to help better their own technology.
The Special Air Services, Op Biting, charging into unknown territory to steal something that may not even exist was a gamble, but it ended being a fortunate one. The British Airborne proved to be necessary to the Battle of Britain, and became the model for America's own airborne infantry.
There's a story about me coming across this book. Last year, I completely immersed myself into the study of WWII after reading Band of Brothers and then watching the mini-series. The series was so excellent that it left me wondering about the real men and their lives. So for the rest of the year, I read as many books as I could find about the men of Easy Company and reviewing them on both Goodreads and my personal website.
So now, we get to early January of this year and I get this e-mail:
Hi, Ivy,
I found your blogpost on the Band of Brothers books and series, and wanted to e-mail you to see if you might be interested in another WWII nonfiction book:
CHURCHILL’S SHADOW RAIDERS: The Race to Develop Radar, WWII’s Invisible Secret Weapon (Kensington Books; May 2020). This is the true story of a daring parachute-and-sea raid – executed shortly after Dunkirk - to capture the Germans’ advanced Wurzburg radar, using what Churchill called “ungentlemanly warfare”. The Shadow Raiders undertook the first operation to seize the German radar in Operation Biting – the Allies’ first successful airborne raid, claiming a top-secret weapon that changed the course of history.
Award-winning British author and war correspondent Damien Lewis used salvaged British War archival material to create the thrilling narrative. Lewis has spent over two decades reporting from war, disaster, and conflict zones around the world, winning numerous awards. He has written more than a dozen books about WWII, including The Ministry for Ungentlemanly Warfare, The Dog Who Could Fly, SAS Ghost Patrol, and The Nazi Hunters. His work has been published in over forty languages, and many of his books have been made, or are being developed as feature films, TV series, or as plays for the stage.
More about the book and a link to a digital copy is below my signature. (If you’re not sure, you can listen to Damien talk about the book here: Episode 287-Damien Lewis Interview: Churchill’s Shadow Raiders | The History of WWII Podcast - by Ray Harris Jr (worldwariipodcast.net)
Thanks! – Best, Ann
Ann Pryor
Senior Communications Manager
Kensington Publishing Corp.
So, needless to say, I was absolutely surprised that a publisher had been on my site and read my reviews! And of course, I was genuinely very interested in the book as well. I finally managed to purchase the book, not knowing what to expect as this was from England's POV, but I was certainly not disappointed either.
There were a lot of people in this story and it was hard to keep up with everyone, but they were so wonderful to read about as well. The Special Air Services wasn't just soldiers. It was made up of scientists, mechanics and codebreakers; all of them with gifts and talents that were employed for the war effort. The French Resistance plays a vital role in this story. One of my favorite chapters was about the French Resistance leader, Gilbert Renault and the great sacrifices he and his people made.
Of course, not being a scientific person, I had a hard time understanding the science behind radar and was lost on more than one occasion. However, the people and the places more than made up for my momentary confusion. There is one excerpt from the book that so overwhelmed me, that for a moment I wondered if I was reading about a battle from WWII or from a thousand years ago:
As Churchill becomes more and more aware of this fact (even amid the naysayers of his cabinet), he believes that England must strike back if they are ever going to turn the tide of the war. After the Battle of Dunkirk, Churchill asks for volunteers into the Special Services. These men would eventually form the Special Air Service, a highly trained airborne infantry. Their primary focus was to land in enemy territory and stop them from engaging any farther.
The Special Air Services had a shaky start, with the supposed failure of Operation Colossus, but was actually a remarkable success. And then finally the real baptism by fire, Operation Biting. The full blown raid into France where Hitler was housing the advanced radar system. Instead of destroying it, though, England wants to retrieve it and bring it back to help better their own technology.
The Special Air Services, Op Biting, charging into unknown territory to steal something that may not even exist was a gamble, but it ended being a fortunate one. The British Airborne proved to be necessary to the Battle of Britain, and became the model for America's own airborne infantry.
There's a story about me coming across this book. Last year, I completely immersed myself into the study of WWII after reading Band of Brothers and then watching the mini-series. The series was so excellent that it left me wondering about the real men and their lives. So for the rest of the year, I read as many books as I could find about the men of Easy Company and reviewing them on both Goodreads and my personal website.
So now, we get to early January of this year and I get this e-mail:
Hi, Ivy,
I found your blogpost on the Band of Brothers books and series, and wanted to e-mail you to see if you might be interested in another WWII nonfiction book:
CHURCHILL’S SHADOW RAIDERS: The Race to Develop Radar, WWII’s Invisible Secret Weapon (Kensington Books; May 2020). This is the true story of a daring parachute-and-sea raid – executed shortly after Dunkirk - to capture the Germans’ advanced Wurzburg radar, using what Churchill called “ungentlemanly warfare”. The Shadow Raiders undertook the first operation to seize the German radar in Operation Biting – the Allies’ first successful airborne raid, claiming a top-secret weapon that changed the course of history.
Award-winning British author and war correspondent Damien Lewis used salvaged British War archival material to create the thrilling narrative. Lewis has spent over two decades reporting from war, disaster, and conflict zones around the world, winning numerous awards. He has written more than a dozen books about WWII, including The Ministry for Ungentlemanly Warfare, The Dog Who Could Fly, SAS Ghost Patrol, and The Nazi Hunters. His work has been published in over forty languages, and many of his books have been made, or are being developed as feature films, TV series, or as plays for the stage.
More about the book and a link to a digital copy is below my signature. (If you’re not sure, you can listen to Damien talk about the book here: Episode 287-Damien Lewis Interview: Churchill’s Shadow Raiders | The History of WWII Podcast - by Ray Harris Jr (worldwariipodcast.net)
Thanks! – Best, Ann
Ann Pryor
Senior Communications Manager
Kensington Publishing Corp.
So, needless to say, I was absolutely surprised that a publisher had been on my site and read my reviews! And of course, I was genuinely very interested in the book as well. I finally managed to purchase the book, not knowing what to expect as this was from England's POV, but I was certainly not disappointed either.
There were a lot of people in this story and it was hard to keep up with everyone, but they were so wonderful to read about as well. The Special Air Services wasn't just soldiers. It was made up of scientists, mechanics and codebreakers; all of them with gifts and talents that were employed for the war effort. The French Resistance plays a vital role in this story. One of my favorite chapters was about the French Resistance leader, Gilbert Renault and the great sacrifices he and his people made.
Of course, not being a scientific person, I had a hard time understanding the science behind radar and was lost on more than one occasion. However, the people and the places more than made up for my momentary confusion. There is one excerpt from the book that so overwhelmed me, that for a moment I wondered if I was reading about a battle from WWII or from a thousand years ago:
All of a sudden, a new sound reverberated across the headland. Incredibly stirring to Cox and his sappers, it must have struck the fear of God into the enemy. A crescendo of bloodcurdling yells rose above the battle noise: 'Caber Feigh! Caber Feigh! Caber Feigh' - Gaelic for 'The Antlers of the Deer.' Since the immemorial this had been the battle cry of the Seaforth Highlanders, whose distinctive cap badge displays a highland stag. Charteris and his men were making for the valley of death, leading a wild charge.
March 18, 2021
Let's get one thing off my chest straight away - the book's title and cover photos
"...The Secret Race to Develop Radar, World War II's Invisible Secret Weapon"
No - this book is not about the race to develop radar; it is primarily about the raid by British paratroopers to capture German radar and then ultimately, in the final chapters, how to defeat that radar. If you are thinking you are going to get a story about how radar was developed and how the technology evolved and was deployed, you should look elsewhere. It is not as if the story of the British Chain Home radar isn't told, but only briefly. This book is primarily about the raid on Bruneval in February 1942 (the motivation for it, the planning, the execution, and the aftermath).
"Churchill's Shadow Raiders..." - I think throwing Churchill's name into a book title is the publisher's version of click bait. Yes, Churchill demanded the formation of commando-type units to strike back at Occupied Europe after the disastrous defeat at Dunkirk. But, again, this book is about two raids, the first British airborne operation against an aqueduct in Italy and how the lessons from that raid influenced the raid told in this book.
And the cover photos -- the book is about an airborne raid on Bruneval yet the top cover photo is the scuttled Graf Spee (!?) and the bottom photo looks like a training mission to land seaborne raiders. There's a beautiful photo in the middle of the text of the actual Wurzburg radar at Bruneval that would have been a better and more instructive top photo and there are also photos inside of paratroops dropping from Whitleys. Yes, there is a tangential link to the Graf Spee in the story and yes, the airborne raiders were rescued by sea by the Royal Navy. But still, come on.
And two more annoying things --
First, the book has absolutely no "Notes" section that sources the details behind the narrative. I have no doubt the author conducted extensive research, but refusal to put notes in I hope can be blamed on the publisher who must deem that the book's audience would find them a waste of space.
And secondly, for some odd reason, the famed RAF reconnaissance pilot Adrian Warburton, whose biography I coincidentally just finished reading Warburtons War: The Life of Maverick Ace Adrian Warburton DSO DFC DFC has his name spelled Wharburton.
Both the aqueduct precursor raid (Operation Colossus) and Bruneval raid (Operation Biting) are told in excellent detail using primary source accounts from the troopers and officers involved. Even Admiral Pound, who makes a disastrous decision in PQ 17, is part of the story -- his caution preventing any chance of rescue for the Operation Colossus teams. Both raids are told from solely the British point of view with a smattering of details from the German side and none from the Italian side.
The author, Damien Lewis, who writes popular histories, has prose more than adequate to the task without it being quite the best of the military history genre. You'll finish the book in a handful of reads. There are three maps that are useful. Amazingly, no photos of the actual battlefield sites, despite being readily visitable which would give the reader a better sense of the terrain.
Read this book if you are interested in a detailed story of Bruneval and it makes an interesting bookend if you've seen the TV show "Castles in the Sky" about the development of British radar before the war.
"...The Secret Race to Develop Radar, World War II's Invisible Secret Weapon"
No - this book is not about the race to develop radar; it is primarily about the raid by British paratroopers to capture German radar and then ultimately, in the final chapters, how to defeat that radar. If you are thinking you are going to get a story about how radar was developed and how the technology evolved and was deployed, you should look elsewhere. It is not as if the story of the British Chain Home radar isn't told, but only briefly. This book is primarily about the raid on Bruneval in February 1942 (the motivation for it, the planning, the execution, and the aftermath).
"Churchill's Shadow Raiders..." - I think throwing Churchill's name into a book title is the publisher's version of click bait. Yes, Churchill demanded the formation of commando-type units to strike back at Occupied Europe after the disastrous defeat at Dunkirk. But, again, this book is about two raids, the first British airborne operation against an aqueduct in Italy and how the lessons from that raid influenced the raid told in this book.
And the cover photos -- the book is about an airborne raid on Bruneval yet the top cover photo is the scuttled Graf Spee (!?) and the bottom photo looks like a training mission to land seaborne raiders. There's a beautiful photo in the middle of the text of the actual Wurzburg radar at Bruneval that would have been a better and more instructive top photo and there are also photos inside of paratroops dropping from Whitleys. Yes, there is a tangential link to the Graf Spee in the story and yes, the airborne raiders were rescued by sea by the Royal Navy. But still, come on.
And two more annoying things --
First, the book has absolutely no "Notes" section that sources the details behind the narrative. I have no doubt the author conducted extensive research, but refusal to put notes in I hope can be blamed on the publisher who must deem that the book's audience would find them a waste of space.
And secondly, for some odd reason, the famed RAF reconnaissance pilot Adrian Warburton, whose biography I coincidentally just finished reading Warburtons War: The Life of Maverick Ace Adrian Warburton DSO DFC DFC has his name spelled Wharburton.
Both the aqueduct precursor raid (Operation Colossus) and Bruneval raid (Operation Biting) are told in excellent detail using primary source accounts from the troopers and officers involved. Even Admiral Pound, who makes a disastrous decision in PQ 17, is part of the story -- his caution preventing any chance of rescue for the Operation Colossus teams. Both raids are told from solely the British point of view with a smattering of details from the German side and none from the Italian side.
The author, Damien Lewis, who writes popular histories, has prose more than adequate to the task without it being quite the best of the military history genre. You'll finish the book in a handful of reads. There are three maps that are useful. Amazingly, no photos of the actual battlefield sites, despite being readily visitable which would give the reader a better sense of the terrain.
Read this book if you are interested in a detailed story of Bruneval and it makes an interesting bookend if you've seen the TV show "Castles in the Sky" about the development of British radar before the war.
April 18, 2022
A decade ago, in reading Electric Universe, I was delighted to learn about Operation BITING, one of World War 2’s more extraordinary stories. Having learned of an advanced German radar station, British command dispatched a unit of paratroopers, in addition to radar specialists with airborne training, to dismantle the thing and spirit it back to England. The details of the operation – -a scientist suddenly given military rank and raining joining hardened commandoes, a desperate fight on the beach trying to escape, the last minute rescue by Scottish highlanders screaming Gaelic battle-cries — made it unforgettable, and wholly worthy of a book-sized treatment. That is what Damien Lewis delivers in Churchill’s Shadow Raiders, appraising the raid in the context of both England’s SAS operations and the ‘Battle of the Beams’. Although it doesn’t quite live up to its title, being more about the SAS and the raid than the advancement of radar, it’s enormously fun pop history.
The radar bag-and-grab was crucial for England in two respects; despite mounting evidence that Germany’s aerial operations against the British military and her people were radar-assisted, its role in winning the Battle of Britain (allowing RAF command to make the most of its meager resources by concentrating flyers where they were needed) had created a conviction that radar was a British weapon, not something the Germans could use. Recon, though, made it difficult to ignore the array of unknown installations – and closer inspect made command realize that the Germans not only had radar, but they had gone beyond British technical capabilities. Seizing a device would make it possible to understand what the Germans were capable of, and to allow the creation of countermeasures. The raid also salvaged the reputation of the Special Air Services, however, in the wake of its first mission, COLOSSUS, which Lewis treats in the first half of this book. There, a drop into the Italian winter went badly, making it impossible for the men to fully realize their objective of destroying an aqueduct. Unable to communicate with their operatives, SAS command assumed the men were captured, and their pickup boat was called off.
The narrative at the time was that COLOSSUS was an abject failure that proved airborne operations were overreach for Britain, but Churchill and others doggedly insisted they be retained: Britain needed a way to strike back at Hitler, instead of remaining on the defensive. Lewis attacks the failure narrative, arguing that the men performed outstandingly despite equipment shortfalls, and achieved more success in their attempt than was admitted at the time. Even so, BITING, covered in the second half of the book, went far to redeem the potential of SAS, showcasing what is capable of – and Lewis’ full treatment of BITING corrects some parts of the story as featured in Electric Universe while offering far more detail in general. The dramatics of it are no less successful, however, and Shadow Raiders made for great real-adventure reading.
The radar bag-and-grab was crucial for England in two respects; despite mounting evidence that Germany’s aerial operations against the British military and her people were radar-assisted, its role in winning the Battle of Britain (allowing RAF command to make the most of its meager resources by concentrating flyers where they were needed) had created a conviction that radar was a British weapon, not something the Germans could use. Recon, though, made it difficult to ignore the array of unknown installations – and closer inspect made command realize that the Germans not only had radar, but they had gone beyond British technical capabilities. Seizing a device would make it possible to understand what the Germans were capable of, and to allow the creation of countermeasures. The raid also salvaged the reputation of the Special Air Services, however, in the wake of its first mission, COLOSSUS, which Lewis treats in the first half of this book. There, a drop into the Italian winter went badly, making it impossible for the men to fully realize their objective of destroying an aqueduct. Unable to communicate with their operatives, SAS command assumed the men were captured, and their pickup boat was called off.
The narrative at the time was that COLOSSUS was an abject failure that proved airborne operations were overreach for Britain, but Churchill and others doggedly insisted they be retained: Britain needed a way to strike back at Hitler, instead of remaining on the defensive. Lewis attacks the failure narrative, arguing that the men performed outstandingly despite equipment shortfalls, and achieved more success in their attempt than was admitted at the time. Even so, BITING, covered in the second half of the book, went far to redeem the potential of SAS, showcasing what is capable of – and Lewis’ full treatment of BITING corrects some parts of the story as featured in Electric Universe while offering far more detail in general. The dramatics of it are no less successful, however, and Shadow Raiders made for great real-adventure reading.
November 3, 2020
My review of
CHURCHILL'S SHADOW RAIDERS
by Damien Lewis
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Thankyou to @NetGalley for giving me the ARC in turn for my honest review.
To give it its full title, "Churchill's Shadow Raiders: The Race To Develop Radar, WWII's Invisible Secret Weapon", is a highly detailed account of the formation of our special forces during World War II, the origins of the SAS title, and the raid to steal German radar technology.
I enjoyed reading this book immensity, although I felt the title was misleading. Much of the book had nothing to do with radar at all, and more to do with the raids carried out by special forces against specific axis targets. That said, this is a fascinating look into the formation of the SAS, the inner workings of SOE, and Churchill's intention to win whatever methods were employed.
I felt some terminologies, regarding radar, were confusing to the layman without explanation hence four stars, but I happily recommend Churchill's Shadow Raiders to anyone with an interest in military history
CHURCHILL'S SHADOW RAIDERS
by Damien Lewis
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Thankyou to @NetGalley for giving me the ARC in turn for my honest review.
To give it its full title, "Churchill's Shadow Raiders: The Race To Develop Radar, WWII's Invisible Secret Weapon", is a highly detailed account of the formation of our special forces during World War II, the origins of the SAS title, and the raid to steal German radar technology.
I enjoyed reading this book immensity, although I felt the title was misleading. Much of the book had nothing to do with radar at all, and more to do with the raids carried out by special forces against specific axis targets. That said, this is a fascinating look into the formation of the SAS, the inner workings of SOE, and Churchill's intention to win whatever methods were employed.
I felt some terminologies, regarding radar, were confusing to the layman without explanation hence four stars, but I happily recommend Churchill's Shadow Raiders to anyone with an interest in military history
October 4, 2022
A really interesting look at an episode of history I haven't read about. I have Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS, Britain's Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War by Ben MacIntyre but haven't made it through that yet to know if this instance around RADAR is in there. The special forces raids later in the war, or ones specifically supporting Resistance networks, are more familiar to me. This episode is pretty remarkable, but most especially in light of the aqueduct sabotage carried out by the first raid. The learning - and obvious failures of planning and command - is fascinating to learn about and amazing that it led to any success in combat at all. Well narrated too.
December 24, 2023
While this is an interesting history book, its title is very misleading. British radar—radio direction finding, or RDF—was already in use by the date of the beginning of the book The book’s first 67 pages describe a parachute raid to attempt to destroy an aqueduct in Italy, leaving wondering how that raid related to developing radar. It didn’t. That raid was peripheral to the deployment of radar, with the primary emphasis on what became Britain’s Special Air Service (SAS). The second part of the book describes the planning, training, political issues, execution, and follow-on of a raid on France to steal a German radar set. Little is said about “the race to develop radar”, which is an eye-catching title. Ignoring the title, this is an OK book. I was disappointed that the book and title don’t match, as I was interested in the British efforts to develop radar.
July 24, 2025
A well written book that captures the demands made on the small band of elite forces. It highlights how a few well motivated individuals, not just the troops themselves, but people like R V Jones, can achieve outcomes out of all proportion to their numbers – usually while others in positions of power and influence use the situation to jockey for greater status for themselves.
It was interesting that the book highlights the advanced technology of the German Radar, compared with the denial by British authorities (with honourable exceptions) that no-one could possibly be as advanced as the British technology.
Also interesting was the refusal by British authorities to use Window until they had no choice – an easy decision to make if it is not your life under threat. There was much needless loss of airman’s lives due to the delay in using Window.
It was interesting that the book highlights the advanced technology of the German Radar, compared with the denial by British authorities (with honourable exceptions) that no-one could possibly be as advanced as the British technology.
Also interesting was the refusal by British authorities to use Window until they had no choice – an easy decision to make if it is not your life under threat. There was much needless loss of airman’s lives due to the delay in using Window.
October 19, 2025
The story he tells is a good one and it is well told. He could of made either raid into a standalone book but, he included the story of Radar as well. In the first raid we have nothing really from the Italian perspective which is unfortunate. In the Bruvenal raid, the critical decisions were naval. The allied naval commander moved in close and missed being detected by a passing German cruiser ( or was it a destroyer) and e-boats. Later he moved in for rescue despite not getting a signal. Also not sure why that German force didn't double back which would have been a disaster for the Allies -- interservice rivalry among the Germans?
For a book with SAS in the title too much of "well they all got caught running away in the end" when discussing failed ops. A quick read and engaging.
For a book with SAS in the title too much of "well they all got caught running away in the end" when discussing failed ops. A quick read and engaging.
February 11, 2021
Whilst well written and nicely paced, i feel cheated as the book does not live up to the promise of the blurb, where we are led to believe the whole story of operation Colossus will be revealed, instead we get the context, the build up, and then it starts to get flaky, with the attack being written about as if the author had something else to do, and then ... nothing ... suddenly, we are back in England, and the 2nd operation is being planned to swipe a German radar from its site on a Normandy clifftop ... now, interesting as this second part of the tale is, it's not what was promised when i started the book ... and whilst, throughout this second part, the author refers back to the members of the first mission, their tale of escape, evasion and eventual capture is missing in action ... and finishing the book just left me frustrated that this part of the story wasn't included ...
April 29, 2020
This review is by a certifiable history geek, so of course I loved it as the information was mostly new to me. I appreciated the narrative style as opposed to textbook style as I think all but the most scholarly do. There's no need for me to re-invent the wheel here as the publisher's blurb does give a better than average overview. Longish or not, it did grab me and keep me reading, but between tasks.
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Kensington Books/Citadel via NetGalley. Thank you!
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Kensington Books/Citadel via NetGalley. Thank you!
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November 21, 2020A Missing Piece in My Understanding of WWII
I thought I was well informed on the important events if WW II, but I was wrong. This book describes a crucial event regarding the capture of a german radar set that changed the outcome of the war. It also described the origins of British paratroop use which was used in the raid. Very well written and detailed regarding all of the personnel involved.
I thought I was well informed on the important events if WW II, but I was wrong. This book describes a crucial event regarding the capture of a german radar set that changed the outcome of the war. It also described the origins of British paratroop use which was used in the raid. Very well written and detailed regarding all of the personnel involved.
October 26, 2021
Really interesting book and as usual for Damien Lewis it’s a great read. It is quite unsettling that the mentality of many of those in charge doggedly stuck to their narrative despite the scientific evidence & overwhelming intelligence. Sadly how little things have changed. It’s incredible that courageous individuals continued their struggle to be heard & luckily for the nation there was a leader who listened. Great book.
January 15, 2022
Another cracker of a book by Damien Lewis. His unique style places the reader in the thick of it. What I really liked in this book was all the information about the discovery of the advanced German radar in France and the subsequent deliberations, leading to the raid. I found this book to be a real page turner. I liked it so much I gave it to my old man to read but he could finish it, said it was disjointed. Each to his own.
January 1, 2020
I enjoyed this book much more than expected, as the narrative style helps to bring the story to life and give the impression that you’re reading fiction rather than non fiction. Alas, it’s not my period and so didn’t enjoy it as much as some others may have done and am in no position to comment on the historicity of the book.
May 25, 2020
Another good book by Damian Lewis this book digs into the radar war and reveals the much important part it played in bring the Nazi regime to an end. It also highlights the bravery of the men that took part in the first ever airborne assault and the second assault showing successful this new branch of the forces can be
June 27, 2020
A great read, well researched giving an insight into the characters that made our special forces the best. The tenacity even following capture is quiet unbelievable. Damien has written several books on the subject, all worth reading for both serious and casual WW2 historians. Only Ghost Riders to read.
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