Cover image of "The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare," a book about Britain's operations behind enemy lines in WWII

Military historians point to Britain’s Special Air Service (SAS) as the first modern Special Forces. Formed in Egypt in 1941 by David Stirling as a paratroop unit, the SAS later spawned the Special Boat Service (SBS) for maritime operations. Both organizations sometimes traded personnel with the Commandos and the Special Operations Executive, formed at Winston Churchill’s behest in 1940 to “set Europe ablaze.” All four of these organizations launched bold, small-scale operations behind enemy lines. They were responsible for many of the most spectacular and heroic clashes with the Nazis celebrated in novels, films, and on TV. Popular historian Damien Lewis brings them to life in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.

A larger-than-life hero

If any single man is the hero of Damien Lewis’ book, it’s Anders (“Andy”) Lassen (1920-45). Lassen was the sort of man about whom bards spun the Viking sagas and the heroic myths and legends that have arisen in every culture. A Dane from a wealthy aristocratic family, he was a merchant seaman on the seas when Hitler invaded Denmark. He enlisted with the British at the age of nineteen, joining the Commandos in 1940.

Lewis recounts in detail several of the spectacular raids Lassen led, variously attached to all four of Britain’s irregular warfare organizations. Again and again, Lassen defied death leading from the front. He quickly rose to the rank of captain and then major. For his non-stop heroism, he received the Military Cross three times and the Victoria Cross, the equivalent of the American Medal of Honor. Lassen was the only non-Commonwealth solider to receive the Victoria Cross. And the stories Lewis tells about him make it clear exactly why.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: How Churchill’s Secret Warriors Set Europe Ablaze and Gave Birth to Modern Black Ops (World War Two #1 of 4) by Damien Lewis (2015) 419 pages ★★★★★

Photo of the harbor at Fernando Po island in the Gulf of Guinea, one of the sites where Britain launched operations behind enemy lines in WWII
In the harbor at the Spanish island of Fernando Po in the Gulf of Guinea, Anders Lassen was among the British commandos who set out to capture a prestigious Italian liner and a German supply tanker (the white ships pictured here). Though theoretically neutral, Spain was pro-German and permitted the Nazis to use the island as a base to help German U-boats operating off the coast of West Africa. Image: The British Empire

Astonishing bravery in the face of enemy fire

Lewis opens his story in July 1943. Andy Lassen, then a captain in the SAS, led a team of desperadoes in a midnight raid on a German airbase in Crete. Their objective was to destroy the bombers they found on the field and blow up the fuel dump there.

Predictably, after a smooth start, things started going wrong. After some initial success, sentries at the heavily guarded base sounded the alarm. But Lassen and his fellows persisted in the face of withering fire, destroying several Stuka dive-bombers. Then they began making their escape. But Lassen wasn’t content. He went back through the gap they’d cut in the barbed wire fence to blow up more planes. Escaping again, he then went back a third time. Meanwhile, the multiple diversions had enabled others on his team to blow up the fuel dump on the other side of the base. And this is just one of the numerous missions Lewis recounts.

Photo of Anders Lassen, an officer who led operations behind enemy lines in WWII
Major Anders “Andy” Lassen. Image: Victoria Cross Blog

A story of many heroes

Although Andy Lassen is effectively the protagonist of this book, Lewis describes in some detail the backstories of many others who participated in raids with Lassen. His account ranges from Crete, to Fernando Po in the Gulf of Guinea, to the Dodecanese Islands, and Italy. He relates the steady growth of Britain’s Special Forces from a handful of small teams to the emergence of specialized, well-armed units that could tackle some of the biggest tactical challenges Britain faced in World War II. The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is a story of many heroes. And Lewis tells it beautifully. The book reads like a thriller from beginning to end.

But this was the real world. These men took their lives in their hands every time they ventured out on a raid. Hitler’s infamous 1942 Commando Order (Sonderbehandlung) dictated that “Any raiders captured were to be handed over to the feared SD—the Sicherheitsdienst, the Security Service of the SS and the Nazi Party, from whom nothing could be expected but an agonizing death under torture. Any German commander who failed to abide by the Sonderbehandlung would be summoned before a war tribunal. The execution of captured commandos was at all times to be kept secret, and they were to be buried in unmarked graves.” Several of Lassen’s companions in fact faced this fate.

About the author

Photo of Damien Lewis, author of this book about operations behind enemy lines in WWII
Damien Lewis. Image: Amazon

Damien Lewis is a British author and filmmaker who has written twelve nonfiction books on military subjects, seven biographies and memoirs, and two thrillers, and produced twenty documentary films. He worked as a war correspondent in conflict zones for more than twenty years before turning full-time to writing books and making films. Lewis was born in 1966 in Dorset, England. He is married and the father of three children. The author is not to be confused with the better-known actor, Damian Lewis, who spells his first name with two “a’s.”

Another British author who writes extensively about World War II wrote a similar story about the origins of Special Forces: 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 (The story of the original special forces).

I’ve also reviewed two other books by Damien Lewis:

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