German soldiers assigned to guard the tiny Channel Island of Sark
described it as a 'little Paradise' and, because it was never bombed by
the RAF, the best air-raid shelter in all of Europe. But paradise for
them came to a bloody end in October 1942 when a small group of British
Commandos raided the island, capturing one German soldier and killing
several others. Operation Basalt would have been a footnote in history
but for the reaction of Hitler, who believed that British soldiers
executed several Germans who had already surrendered and whose hands
were bound. Days after the raid, he issued the infamous 'Commando
Order', a death sentence for those Allied commandos who fell into German
hands.Drawing on extensive archival research and interviews with
survivors of the period, Eric Lee has written the definitive account of
the raid, putting it into the context of the German occupation of
British lands during the war.