The book is divided into 10 chapters with an introduction, index, a Bibliography and Glossary of Abbreviations:

1. Lions of Judah
2. War without Hate
3. Swings of the Pendulum
4. Fit only for War
5. Operation Topsy
6. Across the sea and sands
7. The ‘Desperate Gamble’
8. Defeat
9. Retribution
10. ‘A Most Inglorious Episode’

The book goes thru the history of the creation of the SIG (Special Interrogation Group) as formed by Jewish refugees from the Nazi regime. It then builds on the operations of the LRDG and SAS. Then it brings forth the North Africa Desert war from the beginning up to the time of the Raid on Tobruk. This was necessary to give the reader the background of why such a risky operation was contemplated. It then proceeds to document the actual raid and what actually happened. The book then concludes with the inevitable aftermath at the investigation. What I found most surprising was the attitude of General Montgomery. He was quick to distance himself from the raid, but did not learn anything from it. If fact he repeated most of the errors in Operation Market-Garden and had most of the British Paratroopers killed or captured in and around Arnhem.

Conclusion: The book is a good read and is well researched and documented. From the modelers perspective this will not give you many ideas for dioramas, but does have several b&w photos of their vehicles and “uniforms” to help one if you are building a jeep or truck used by these groups. As inside look at the LRDG and SAS and SIG, and one of the least know of their exploits, it does the job. This book does give a new look at Murphy’s Law – ‘If anything can go wrong it will’ and its corollary- ‘If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong’. In this operation, it did.

Thanks to Osprey Publishing for the review copy and to IPMS/USA for the review space.