Bøker av Malcolm Atkin

THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE account of Britain‿s complex plans to fight a secret war in the event of a Nazi invasion. When Winston Churchill made his ‿we shall never surrender‿ speech in 1940 he was speaking in the knowledge that Britain‿s Secret Intelligence Service had already created a civilian guerrilla organisation to oppose any invasion and a separate resistance network to mobilize if the country had been occupied. There then followed a fierce battle between the Secret Intelligence Service and the War Office for the control of guerrilla warfare, and conflicting ideas over the legitimacy of armed civilians. A multi-layered system of secret organizations was the result. The Auxiliary Units are now the best known of these ungentlemanly forces, but in this perceptive new study Malcolm Atkin unravels the considerable mythology that has grown up around them. He explains their origins and how they were never intended as a resistance organization. Instead, the Auxiliary Units patrols were designed as uniformed guerrilla to support an active military campaign, whilst their Special Duties Branch would spy on the British public as much as any Nazi invader. other Home Guard and army units were also preparing to 'go to ground'. Meanwhile, deep in the shadows, was the real resistance organization known only by its cover as Section VII of SIS ‿ so secret that the first detailed account was not published until 2015, by the present author.

Updated edition of the ground-breaking 2017 publication that offered the first comprehensive account of the work of Section D of the Secret Intelligence Service.When Neville Chamberlain made his famous 'Peace in Our Time' statement in 1938, he may not have been aware that a new section of the Secret Intelligence Service, Section D, was already making plans to mount a political and sabotage war against Nazi Germany. This new form of warfare encompassed bribery, black propaganda and sabotage by agents described as having no morals or scruples. It disregarded the conventions of neutrality and was prepared to hit the Nazi state wherever it could do most damage.A scientific section was established to develop new types of weapons, and membership was extended beyond the traditional public-school 'old boy network' of British intelligence to work with German and Austrian resistance groups - socialists, trade unionists, Catholics and Jews. Section D's plans ranged from leaflet campaigns in Germany, the sabotage of railways, factories and ports through to plans to block the River Danube by blowing up a mountain and an attempt to introduce foot and mouth disease into German cattle herds. Some aspects of the story are reminiscent of a Childers or Buchan novel - but they are true!The work of Section D prepared the way for the creation of resistance organizations in occupied Western Europe and was the forerunner of the Special Operations Executive (SOE). It also paved the way for the Auxiliary Units guerrilla force in Britain. As such, Section D represents a key stage in the development of irregular warfare.

Ground-breaking history of an English county during the Civil Wars.

This book does not simply record individual operations in isolation. While the skill, commitment and audacity of the men involved are not in doubt, there is a realistic assessment of their actual contribution to the Allied cause.

In-depth new study of Military Intelligence. An authoritative account of a little-known and often misunderstood organization and its contribution to the formation of the Auxiliary Units and SOE

In-depth reassessment of the recruitment, training, arming and ethos of the Home Guard.

The first comprehensive history of Section D since the release of secret documents on its operations into the public domain