Award-winning war reporter and internationally bestselling military
historian Damien Lewis explores one of WWII's most remarkable Special
Forces missions during the Normandy landings on D-Day--and the
extraordinary hunt that followed to take down a cadre of fugitive SS and
Gestapo war criminals.
On the night of June 13th, 1944, a twelve-man SAS unit parachuted into
occupied France. Their objective: hit German forces deep behind the
lines, cutting the rail-tracks linking Central France to the northern
coastline. In a country crawling with enemy troops, their mission was to
prevent Hitler from rushing his Panzer divisions to the D-Day beaches
and driving the Allied troops back into the sea. It was a Herculean
task, but no risk was deemed too great to stop the Nazi assault. In
daring to win it all, the SAS patrol was ultimately betrayed, captured,
and tortured by the Gestapo before facing execution in a dark French
woodland on Hitler's personal orders. Miraculously, two of the condemned
men managed to escape, triggering one of the most secretive Nazi-hunting
operations ever, as the SAS vowed to track down every one of the war
criminals who had murdered their brothers in arms...all with Churchill's
covert backing.
With Nazi Germany's lightning seizure of much of Western Europe, British
Prime Minister Winston Churchill had called for the formation of
specially trained troops of the hunter class. Their purpose was to
incite a reign of terror across enemy-occupied Europe. Churchill's
warriors were to shatter all known rules of warfare, taking the fight to
the enemy with no holds barred. In doing so, the Special Air Service
would be tested as never before during the pivotal D-Day landings, and
the quest for vengeance that followed.
Breathtaking and exhaustively researched, Churchill's Band of Brothers
is based upon a raft of new and unseen material provided by the families
of those who were there. It reveals the untold story of one of the most
daring missions of WWII, that not only had ramifications for the war
itself but led to the most extraordinary and gripping of aftermaths.
