Special Operations in World War II: British and American Irregular WarfareAndrew L.Hargreaves. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2013.

Abstract

Special Operations in World War II: British and American Irregular Warfare Andrew L. Hargreaves. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2013.Anyone who picks up this book expecting a blood and guts page-turner crammed with tales of derring-do by steely-eyed commandos stalking Nazis Quentin Tarantino-style will be sorely disappointed. Andrew L. Hargreaves's Special Operations in World War II is not intended for consumers of military thrillers; it is a densely argued academic monograph. As such, it is a worthy entry in the University of Oklahoma Press Campaigns and Commanders Series. Hargreaves, a military historian who received his PhD from the Department of War Studies, King's College, London, is interested in the origins, organization, and effectiveness of the special forces raised and deployed by Great Britain and the United States during the Second World War. His is an analytic work, not a conventional narrative; while it does contain some stories describing specific wartime special operations, these are present to help illustrate the flow of an argument. As a rigorous and comprehensive study of Anglo-American special forces in World War Two, Hargreaves's book meets a real historiographical need. Various special forces units such as the British Commandos, Darby's Rangers, and Merrill's Marauders have received a lot of attention over the years from popular and professional historians. But Hargreaves looks at the whole range of wartime special operations, from the most publicized and glamorous to the most obscure. This enables him to make informed judgments on the utility of special forces for the Anglo-American war effort.British and American special forces were born of necessity. Following the fall of France and the expulsion of British forces from continental Europe in 1940, Prime Minister Winston Churchill needed a means of striking back at the victorious Germans. With a fullscale invasion of France out of the question, the only viable option open to the British was a program of harassing German occupation forces through raids. This led to the creation of the Commandos. The United States faced a similar situation in the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Special formations of Marine Raiders were organized to wage guerilla war against Japanese outposts in the Pacific. The raid on Makin Atoll by a battalion led by Evans Carlson was heavily publicized but never repeated. The British proved to be very amenable to the proliferation of special forces. …