Ian McHarg writes about the daring raids and indomitable fighting spirit of the Second World War Commandos and other Special Forces and clandestine units, including the Special Air Service (SAS), Special Boat Squadron (SBS), Special Operations Executive (SOE), Combined Operations Pilotage Parties (COPP), the Cockleshell Heroes, Small Scale Raiding Force (SSRF), Special Raiding Squadron (SRS), and Long Range Desert Group (LRDG).
He introduces the readers to legends of the Second World War, including: Blair “Paddy” Mayne, Lord Lovat, John Durnford-Slater, Peter Young, Charles Newman, Jack Churchill, Derek Mills-Roberts, Colin Gubbins, David Stirling, Tommy Macpherson, and other Commando and Special Forces leaders.
His writing follows the Commandos and other Special Service units across all the major theatres of operations during the Second World War, including: Norway, France, Algiers, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Sicily, Italy, Burma, Normandy, Holland, and Germany.
Ian McHarg passed the All Arms Commando Course and earned the Coveted Green Beret at the Commando Training Centre Royal Marines. He is working on his fourth book, and lives in Abu Dhabi with his wife Donna and GSD Tala.
The invasion of Sicily in July 1943 was based on two Allied armies landing on the island. The US 7th Army were tasked to land on the south-west at Gela, with the British 8th Army on the south-east at Pachino …
No.11 (Scottish) Commando was raised in Galashiels in the summer of 1940, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Dick Pedder, from volunteers from the Scottish Command. From Galashiels they completed a 100-mile march to Ayr before commencing arduous commando training …
Recipient of the Military Medal (MM), Johnny Dowling of No. 3 Commando, was a fighting man. He learned to box at the famous St. Malachy’s Boxing Club in Liverpool, and after spending three seasons in the city’s tough boxing booths, …
Lt Col Blair ‘Paddy’ Mayne DSO and 3 Bars, 1 SAS Regiment, was a courageous and brilliant special forces soldier, and one of the most outstanding leaders of the Second World War. A qualified solicitor and Irish Universities heavyweight boxing …
At 04.30 hours on 9 April 1945, Danish born, Major Anders Lassen MC** and his ten-man SBS patrol set out on a diversionary raid on the north shore of Lake Comacchio in north-east Italy. Their tasks were to cause as …
Lieutenant Denis O’Flaherty, Royal Artillery, of 6 Troop, No. 3 Commando is helped by his fellow commandos during the raid on Vaagso, Norway, in December 1941. During the previous hours the commandos had been engaged in fierce fighting on the …
