If you enjoy reading about airborne troops, special
operations, and elite troops in World War II then author Michael F. Dilley’s
book “Behind the Lines: A Critical Survey of Special Operations in World War II”
is for you.
Divided into two parts, part one of the book is titled, “Behind
Enemy Lines”. It tells twenty stories of special operations behind enemy lines.
The excellent story telling of the author has shines in all twenty of the stories.
Each story stands on its own.
Starting with the Tragino Aqueduct Mission in
southern Italy where we see the foolishness of the first mission that requires
a fifty mile escape and evasion trek just to get to the pickup point without
radio communication to stories on the raid to kill General Rommel and eighteen
others that cover every theater of operation we see a common structure. The
author tells at times a very spellbinding story followed by the strength of the
book – a mission critique. The mission critique show Michael F. Dilley’s strong
military intelligence analysis skills.
The second part of the book, “Behind Friendly Lines” lifted
back the curtain on an often missed use of special operations soldiers. We
examine three amazing missions where they are dropped just behind or into friendly
lines.
The pictures included in the book are not a reprinting of
stock photos you have seen many times, but rather photographs of uniforms,
insignias, and special troops in their special equipment.
The book’s appendixes give us the criteria for evaluation of
the units and the operations deserving special recognition. The bibliography
included is by itself a resource worth the purchase price of the book.
Michael F. Dailey gets my highest praise for this much
needed work on a subject dear to every world war history buff.
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