Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for SBS Special Boat Squadron by Iain Gale. My thanks to Andrew at Head of Zeus for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my review copy.
About the Book
From this moment on, you and your men, you don’t exist.
Formed in the darkest hours of the Second World War, as nation after nation fell before the unstoppable Axis advance, the task of the Special Boat Squadron was to strike back at an enemy no army could meet in the field. Trained in sabotage and surveillance, the SBS raided deep behind enemy lines, sowing chaos and capturing much-needed intelligence. Soldiers, adventurers and rogues, their methods were unorthodox, their success rate unprecedented.
Operation Anglo, 31 August 1942. Beneath the waves of the Mediterranean, HMS Traveller closes in on the coast of Rhodes. Aboard, eight SBS commandos check their weapons as they prepare to infiltrate and sabotage two Axis bomber fields. Only two of the eight commandos will make it back to alive. Ex-Black Watch Sergeant Jim Hunter will be one of the lucky ones, but what he will face next will make Operation Anglo look like a cakewalk.
Format: Hardback (352 pages) Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 13th October 2022 Genre: Historical Fiction
Find SBS: Special Boat Squadron on Goodreads
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My Review
Inspired by actual events, the book tells the exciting story of the wartime exploits of the Special Boat Squadron, an elite group of ‘intelligence commandos’ created to carry out undercover missions.
Having together survived a disastrous operation that may in fact have been doomed from the start, Hunter and Woods are comrades on the battlefield but rivals in other respects. Cherchez la femme, as they say. However, as Woods explains, ‘If you think I’m fool enough to allow some petty differences to come between me and the life of a brother officer and a man I count as a friend, then you’re very much mistaken’. As the reader will discover, that principle will be tested beyond measure.
The circumstances which have given rise to the mission Hunter, Woods and their teams are asked to undertake may seem a little unlikely but of course there were a number of surprisingly unorthodox operations carried out during WW2.
The book features appearances by real life figures such as Xan Fielding and the flamboyant Patrick Leigh Fermor. WW2 film buffs may recall the latter was played by Dirk Bogarde in Ill Met by Moonlight which dramatised an actual but equally daring SOE operation in Crete. Included in the book’s characters is a rather famous author whose manner of introducing himself is likely to make you chuckle but whose role is, again, based on historical fact.
I particularly liked the way the book illustrated the courage of the Cretan resistance fighters – the andartes – who assisted Allied undercover operations. Their very personal reasons for wanting to do so are often harrowing to read about, even more so because they reflect the well-documented real life experience of those under German occupation.
The team assembled to carry out the mission possess, as Woods remarks, ‘unusual, or should I say […] unique abilities’. Amongst their skills are safe-cracking, knowledge of explosives, communications, code-breaking – and of course silent killing. Although we mainly see things through Hunter’s eyes, the author provides the reader with occasional glimpses into the thoughts of the other team members, most memorably Phelps. It’s a reminder that, although highly trained, they can still experience fear and doubt. And that, although a mission may be planned down to the last detail, things can go wrong and, when they do, the weakest link in the chain is the most dangerous.
SBS Special Boat Squadron, with its tense action scenes, daring accounts of undercover operations and colourful cast of characters, will appeal to fans of wartime adventures such as The Guns of Navarone.
In three words: Action-packed, authentic, dramatic
Try something similar: Eight Hours From England by Anthony Quayle
About the Author
Iain Gale is the author of twelve military historical novels and two works of military history. Iain was for many years a member of the Scottish Committee of Combat Stress, the armed forces’ PTSD charity. He also sat on the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards Waterloo Committee at Edinburgh Castle and was privileged to be invited by the regiment to take a major part in its bicentenary commemorations.
He is a recognised authority on the Battle of Waterloo, and has taken numerous tours there, including leading a tactical military exercise of thirty-two serving US Army officers. Ian also guides regular small battlefield tours to the Somme, Arnhem, Dunkirk and Normandy and presents military history lectures. He is married with six children and lives in Fife and Edinburgh.
Connect with Iain
Twitter | Goodreads
What Cathy Read Next... 
Thanks for sharing your review with the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge
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