Covert missions, classified programs, and hidden campaigns
The operations that were never meant to be known
Six Norwegian commandos parachuted onto the Hardangervidda plateau in winter to join four survivors from an earlier failed raid. They crossed the plateau in -30°C temperatures, descended a 500-foot g...
SOE operatives led by Richard Lippett boarded three Italian and German vessels in the neutral Spanish port of Fernando Po. Disguised as a drunken crew, they overpowered the guards, cut the anchor chai...
RAF veteran Major "Blondie" Hasler led 12 Royal Marine commandos in six collapsible canoes ("cockles") launched from a submarine 10 miles from the French coast. Their mission: to paddle 70 miles up th...
Six midget submarines (X-craft) were towed 1,000 miles from Scotland to Norway to attack the battleship Tirpitz. Each carried two men and four mines. Only two X-craft reached the target due to technic...
When Italy surrendered in September 1943, General Karl Wolff ordered the execution of all Allied POWs. British officer Lieutenant Colonel "Dicky" Marshall, an escape artist who had broken out of three...