From Publishers Weekly
In 1980 Britain's Special Air Service, founded in North Africa in 1941, took on several Palestinian liberationists and members of Baader-Meinhof, a revolutionary organization, who hijacked a plane full of passengers. In 1941, members of Italy's Underwater Division of the 10th motor torpedo boat, aka the human torpedoes, drove underwater "chariots" amidst the British Mediterranean fleet and attached explosive warheads to the hulls of several ships. Despite the heroic stand of French Legionnaires, the nationalist-communist Viet Minh triumphed in 1954, effectively marking the end of French government in Vietnam. These and numerous other feats are recounted by participants, journalists and historians in The Mammoth Book of Elite Forces, edited by Jon E. Lewis. Nearly half of the accounts focus on WWII, and all of them feature Western armies. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Mammoth Book of Elite Forces FROM THE PUBLISHER
The SS Special Troops in Italy in 1943, the U.S. Special Forces in Vietnam in 1964, Britain's Special Air Services at Oman in 1972, the human torpedoes of the Italian Underwater Division of the Italian Navy in 1941these stand among the many astonishing military operations recounted in this graphic, pulse-pounding volume of true tales told by fighters in the world's most elite armed forces. Veteran editor Jon E. Lewis assembles firsthand reports from the battlefields, featuring John Pimlott's Presidential citation for his bravery in Vietnam with the 1st Air Calvary, Claire Chennault's exploits with the Flying Tigers against the Japanese in Burma, Eugene sledge's island-hopping assaults with the U.S. 1st Marine Division, and John Lodwick's participation in the last wartime action of the British Special Boat Squadronthe inspiration for Alistair MacLean's Guns of Navarone. The Mammoth Book of Elite Forces covers the world's crack outfits from the dashing missions of the unorthodox British "Private Army" of Vladimir "Popski" Peniakoff to spread "alarm and despondency" behind Axis lines in Libya and Tunisia to the highly trained Israeli paratroopers who rescued an airplaneful of hostages in Entebbe. Included, too, are brave adventures of the Green Berets, the Delta Force, the French Foreign Legion, and all the other special corps who get going when the going gets tough.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
In 1980 Britain's Special Air Service, founded in North Africa in 1941, took on several Palestinian liberationists and members of Baader-Meinhof, a revolutionary organization, who hijacked a plane full of passengers. In 1941, members of Italy's Underwater Division of the 10th motor torpedo boat, aka the human torpedoes, drove underwater "chariots" amidst the British Mediterranean fleet and attached explosive warheads to the hulls of several ships. Despite the heroic stand of French Legionnaires, the nationalist-communist Viet Minh triumphed in 1954, effectively marking the end of French government in Vietnam. These and numerous other feats are recounted by participants, journalists and historians in The Mammoth Book of Elite Forces, edited by Jon E. Lewis. Nearly half of the accounts focus on WWII, and all of them feature Western armies. (Jan.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Three dozen accounts, many excerpted from previously published work, of military and paramilitary exploits that will provide long hours of pleasure to buffs. The titular "mammoth" is accurate, as usual, but "elite forces" is an exaggeration. Many of these dramatic actions involved either regular units-like the U-boat that snuck into Scapa Flow in 1940 to sink a British battleship and the US Marines on Peleiu in 1944, or volunteers from ordinary units, such as Doolittle's 1941 raid on Tokyo, Merrill's Marauders fighting till they collapsed in Burma in 1944-and the Flying Tigers in early 1940s China. If paratroopers and engineers are included, most of the accounts involve units with specialized training such as Green Berets, Rangers, Navy SEALs, and British Commandos. In any case, the end results were often spectacular, including some dazzling triumphs and a surprising number of disasters. Lewis (The Mammoth Book of True War Stories, not reviewed) sticks to the years since 1939; all the stories provide fireworks, but the prose quality varies. A witty account of a failed 1942 British raid behind Rommel's lines mostly describes a long, long walk across the desert to safety. A few chapters, like the one recounting a battle during the Falklands War, are written in turgid militarese. Plenty of incidents are also old-hat: the Israeli hostage rescue at Entebbe, the Ranger assault on the cliff at Omaha Beach, the Nazi rescue of Mussolini, disasters at Arnhem and Dieppe. Yet jaws will drop at the tale of one of the greatest sabotage operation in any war, carried out by Italy, a nation not known for its warriors. Three midget subs crept into Alexandria harbor in 1941 and blew up three Britishships, including two battleships. Plenty of excitement and good writing, along with the occasional clunker.