Product Overview

In 1942, Lieutenant-Commander Ian Fleming was personal assistant to the
Director of Naval Intelligence - the dynamic figure behind James Bond's
fictional chief, 'M'. Here, Fleming had a brilliant idea: why not set up a
unit of authorised looters, men who would go in hard with the front-line
troops and steal enemy intelligence? Known as '30 Assault Unit', they took
part in the major campaigns of the Second World War, landing on the Normandy
beaches and helping to liberate Paris. 30AU's final amazing coup was to seize
the entire archives of the German Navy - thirty tons of documents. Ian Fleming
flew out in person to get the loot back to Britain, where it was combed for
evidence to use in the Nuremburg trials. In this gripping and highly enjoyable
book, Nicholas Rankin, author of the best-selling Churchill's Wizards, puts 30
Assault Unit's fascinating story in a strategic and intelligence context. He
also argues that Ian Fleming's Second World War service was one of the most
significant periods of his life - without this, the most popular spy fiction
of the twentieth century would not have been written. Read more