Ian Fleming's Commandos: The Story of 30 Assault Unit in WWII - Softcover

Rankin, Nicholas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571250637 ISBN 13: 9780571250639

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2012

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.

Review:

'Fascinating book ... this is myth-shattering stuff: prepare to be shaken and stirred.' --Daily Mail

'Fascinating book.' --Guardian

'It is, first of all, chock-a-block full of wonderful stories and odd characters, and secondly awash in wonderful, arcane knowledge of the seamy and secret side of World War Two...suavely blended, like one of Bond's Martinis.' --Michael Korda, The Daily Beast

'Rankin, in his vivid way, shows that Fleming earned his Navy stripes. With a vast knowledge of covert operations, he produces an entertaining account of this hitherto shadowy unit.' -- Sunday Times

'In the real life derring-do of real men comes a tale only marginally less believable than Bond at his most fantastical.' --The Times

'Fleming's war record has been portrayed as patchy ... But Nicholas Rankin, in his vivid, unfussy way, shows that Fleming was a man of steel who earned his Navy stripes ... [He] offers thoughtful analysesof 007 novels such as Moonraker, which he sees as a warning about former Nazi scientists in Britain's weapons programme ... As Churchill's Wizards, his previous book on camouflage and deception, showed, he has a vast knowledge of covert operations, scientific innovation and the history of the second world war, which he combines to produce a convincing and entertaining account of a hitherto shadowy but influential commando unit.' -- Andrew Lycett, Sunday Times

'Blessed with an elegant and spare prose style, Rankin excels at putting the intelligence Commando's story into the wider context of the war and in showing how Fleming worked their names and exploits into his Bond adventures.' --Christopher Sylvester, Daily Express

'Nicholas Rankin's fascinating book is an account of the 30AU's progress through the war. From time to time it reads like a Boy's Own story, so flamboyant are the characters and so vivid Rankin's accounts of the deadly scrapes and firefights the commandos found themselves involved in. The research is prodigious and lucid now I finally understand how an
Enigma machine works and one gains a real sense of how these maverick units functioned, very much akin to the Long Range Desert Group and the fledgling SAS.' -- William Boyd, Guardian

'This book will appeal to those interested in the history of the Second World War as well as to fans of James Bond. For some, the combination of the two will be irresistible. If you thought that James Bond was a creature entirely in Ian Fleming s imagination, Nicholas Rankin shows that the origins of many of his characters and escapades were based on real experiences in Naval Intelligence ... Nicholas Rankin has intertwined very cleverly a new and unvarnished account of the Second World War with the light heartedness of James Bond s style but he never romanticises the war. This is a good read for war buffs and a fascinating background to the Bond stories.' --Douglas Osler, Scotsman

'An excellent book. Not only is [Rankin's] examination of the commandos themselves lucidly detailed, but he finds time to draw clear parallels between Fleming's intelligence work and the intricacies of Bond's immortal character.' --Julian Fleming, Sunday Business Post

'Nicholas Rankin's fascinating book is an account of the 30AU's progress through the war. From time to time it reads like a Boy's Own story, so flamboyant are the characters and so vivid Rankin's accounts of the deadly scrapes and firefights the commandos found themselves involved in. The research is prodigious and lucid now I finally understand how an
Enigma machine works and one gains a real sense of how these maverick units functioned, very much akin to the Long Range Desert Group and the fledgling SAS.' -- William Boyd, Guardian

'This book will appeal to those interested in the history of the Second World War as well as to fans of James Bond. For some, the combination of the two will be irresistible. If you thought that James Bond was a creature entirely in Ian Fleming s imagination, Nicholas Rankin shows that the origins of many of his characters and escapades were based on real experiences in Naval Intelligence ... Nicholas Rankin has intertwined very cleverly a new and unvarnished account of the Second World War with the light heartedness of James Bond s style but he never romanticises the war. This is a good read for war buffs and a fascinating background to the Bond stories.' --Douglas Osler, Scotsman

Book Description:

Ian Fleming's Commandos: The Story of 30 Assault Unit in WWII by Nicholas Rankin tells the true story of Ian Fleming and the 30 Assault Unit during the Second World War, the real-life inspiration for James Bond.

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0571250637
• ISBN 13: 9780571250639
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 432