A Dangerous
Enterprise
The remarkable story of the secret Flotilla that changed the course of World War Two.
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Highly recommended, especially to those who read bland war histories but may know little about how people were in WW2. And it is people who fight and win wars.
— The Naval Review
This book is a gripping read, reminding one yet again of the particular horror of living in occupied France (or Norway) and the bravery and cruelties that make one gasp.
— The Golden Duck
Tim Spicer has written a thrilling and definitive account of one of World War Two's most audacious clandestine operations... His book captures perfectly the mood and atmosphere of this secret world... There is enough derring-do here to fill a James Bond novel, no coincidence perhaps because Ian Fleming, in his wartime role attached to the Director of Naval Intelligence, was no stranger to these epic missions. It is a triumph of storytelling.
— Jon Swain
A Dangerous Enterprise
Secret War at Sea
The story of the 15th Motor Gunboat Flotilla and its operations from 1942-1945.
The Flotilla was ostensibly a naval unit operating from Dartmouth on naval coastal forces operations. The reality was quite different. The Flotillas mission was to conduct clandestine operations as directed by the Secret Intelligence Service. The Flotilla was an extraordinary group of men thrown together in the most secret of adventures. Their home was a converted paddle steamer and luxury yacht, but their work could not have been more serious. Their mission, which had antecedents in SIS operations in the Baltic in 1919, was to ferry agents of the SIS and Special Operations Executive (SOE) to pinpoint landing sites on the Brittany coast in occupied France. Once they had landed their agents, together with stores for the Resistance, they picked up evaders, escaped POWs who had had the good fortune to be collected by escape lines run by M19, as well as returning SIS and SOE agents.
It is also the story of SIS intelligence gathering networks, JADE FITZROY and ALLIANCE, and SOE’s VAR Line and M19s SHELBURNE Escape Line; and the men and women who ran it. How they saved escaped POWs and stranded airmen in France, gathered them in Paris, took them to Brittany, hid them in safe houses, often in plain sight of the Germans, and moved them at night on foot, through minefields, between German bunkers, to a precise pinpoint on a beach to rendezvous with a Motor Gun Boat from Dartmouth.
This is clandestine warfare at its best. The men of the Flotilla mostly Royal Naval Volunteer (RNVR) Officers, called up for the duration. Likewise, the crew were made up of ‘duration only’ sailors with a few seasoned regular Royal Navy Petty Officers. Many of those involved remained with SIS after the war. Others remained in the fictional world of espionage, such as Ian Fleming and Guy Hamilton, who went on to direct four James Bond films.
It is also the story of the agents of SIS and SOE – Pierre Hentic, Yves Le Tac, Jeannie Rousseau, Virginia Hall, Albert Hué, Suzanne Warengham, François Mitterand and the infamous Mathilde Carré, as well as many others, some of who survived, others died grisly deaths at the hands of the Nazis.
The key character in this story is David Birkin. The principle navigating officer of the Flotilla, taking part in 32 of the 50 missions. At the beginning of the war he was considered unfit for military service. Furthermore, he was seasick looking at a cup of tea. In spite of this, he got himself recruited into SIS by Captain Frank Slocum.
(Frank) Slocum explained to Birkin in the broadest terms precisely what his organisation did and warned him of the extreme secrecy under which he would work if he joined. If I joined, Birkin thought, bemused. He remembered the meeting as being ‘cloak and dagger’ in the extreme. After the interview he was told to go to Room 402 on the fourth floor, which was where Slocum’s office was situated. Slocum told him to sit down. As Birkin did so, the phone rang. Slocum picked up and listened. ‘Right Sir’. Slocum put the phone down and looked up at Birkin. ‘That was “C”,’ he smiled. ‘You are in.’
The methodology used by the 15 th MGB Flotilla was an extraordinary feat of courage, fortitude, military skill, and seamanship.
The book is published by Barbreck
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Uncover the untold story of daring wartime espionage. Step into history’s most secret mission.
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