Description
Book SynopsisIn 1943, small teams of elite British soldiers began parachuting into the mountains of Axis-occupied Albania. They were members of Britain's Special Operations Executive, and their task was to find and arm bands of local guerillas and harass the Axis as best they could. None had been to Albania before, or knew what awaited them.
Trying to survive in extreme conditions and formidable terrain, these young Britons lived in constant danger of capture and death, and were plagued by illness, lice and frostbite. Casualties were appalling and most guerillas keener to kill each other than fight Italians and Germans. In his extraordinary new book, Roderick Bailey draws on interviews with survivors, long-hidden diaries and recently declassified files to tell the full story of this remarkable corner of SOE history and finally settle the question of whether or not British communists in SOE, perhaps even colleagues of the Cambridge spies, had conspired to betray British interests.
Trade ReviewWhat makes Bailey's book so readable is not only his grasp of strategy but his hold on tactics and personalities....
The Wildest Province...establishes him as a modern historian of great skill... Anyone interested in human nature under stress, or problems of counter-insurgency, or sheer adventure, will read it with profit * Literary Review *
This is a gripping account of two wars...a rich and rounded account...he has mastered a mass of complex material, and analysed it with great clarity and fairness...it is hard to imagine the task being done better than this... History more breathtaking than any thriller * Sunday Telegraph *
Reminiscent of John Buchan and
The Thirty-Nine Steps... Extreme stuff * Daily Mail *
Beautifully written and impeccably researched... a compelling work and by far the most comprehensive yet undertaken on the subject...
The Wildest Province is a must-have acquisition for anyone remotely interested in the region, the war, its politics or the experiences of the men who fought there. I devoured the book quickly * The Times *
A tribute to average men with the guts to be extraordinary... The author's research is monumental * Sunday Express *
