
Mission Accomplished
By David Stafford
THE FIRST COMPLETE AND AUTHORITATIVE ACCOUNT OF BRITAIN’S SECRET WAR IN ITALY IN WW2.
1943. The Second World War is entering one of its most intense periods of fighting.
The Italian Resistance Movement is battling to liberate its country from Nazism, aided by the UK’s Special Operations Executive.
As the fighting advances up the Italian peninsula, the SOE supports clandestine cells and partisan bands to free their country from enemy occupation, parachuting in dozens of operatives to supply the underground networks with weapons, food and supplies.
SOE also secretly collaborates with its former enemy, the Italian military intelligence service, and the Italian Navy to land British agents on heavily defended beaches.
By the end of the war the Italian resistance movement will emerge as one of the strongest in Europe, shaping the politics of Italy’s future.
Mission Accomplished is based on official files, diaries, memoirs and personal interviews. It is an authoritative account of the heroic exploits, the larger-than-life participants and the extraordinary against-the-odds achievements of Britain’s secret war in Italy.
PRAISE FOR MISSION ACCOMPLISHED:
‘A gripping account of Britain’s secret war in Italy . . . Stafford vividly describes these missions with striking detail and telling quotes.’ BBC History Magazine
‘An admirably lucid and carefully balanced account . . . official histories are rarely as absorbing as this.’ Times Literary Supplement
‘A page-turning history.’ Independent
‘The mission was something of which both Britons and Italians can be rightly proud and Stafford does it full justice.’ Daily Express
‘Although this is an official history commissioned by the Cabinet Office, it is written with a light touch and Stafford is unafraid to give his own opinions.’ Literary Review