Cloak of Enemies

The Special Operations Executive was conceived by Churchill in 1940 to ",set Europe ablaze",. Yet, SOE was to have many enemies at home before it was even officially sanctioned. As Britain fought for survival, SOE struggled to fend off and outwit Whitehall rivals who threatened its very existence. In a back-stabbling climate of secrecy, rivalry, confusion and duplication, Cloak of Enemies reveals the true cost of that rivalry, the steps that were taken to snuff out SOE and the true tragic effect that a campaign to discredit SOE had upon Operation Frankton, the iconic small-unit commando raid of World War Two that has passed into military legend as The Cockleshell Heroes. In this, frail canoes paddled deep into the heart of enemy territory to plant limpet mines on German shipping in Bordeaux harbour in December 1942. it was a raid that cost the lives of all but two of those who took part. Had there been better liaison and co-operation between SOE and its rival, Combined Operations, Operation Frankton need never have been mounted and young lives need never have been squandered. Layer by Layer, Cloak of Enemie reveals for the first time the true and tragic story that lies behind the raid that has passed into legend.