Böcker av David Smiley

The final instalment of Colonel David Smiley''s fascinating autobiographical trilogy.This book fills the gaps that were left by his two previous memoirs, uncovering his service in World War Two before and after being parachuted into Albania as well his thoughts on the conflicts that he was involved in through the twentieth century.Colonel David Smiley was no ordinary soldier.Through the course of his life he saw conflict in the Balkans, Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.After being commissioned into the Household Cavalry in 1936 and seeing action in the Middle East, he subsequently trained and fought with the Commandos, was recruited into Churchill''s Special Operations Executive, co-operated with MI6 and the SAS, and provided aid to resistance movements across the globe.Even his service within the regular army was never ordinary; he was frequently the first to be called upon by superiors to lead dangerous missions in Syria and Persia and later served in lightly-armoured dummy tanks in the Western Desert facing German Stukas and powerful Axis tanks.From Syria to Thailand, Smiley''s bravery, abilities in clandestine warfare, and leadership unified the men he led and caused havoc to enemy forces.His autobiography, which covers from his entrance into the military before the Second World War to his return to Albania in 1992 after the fall of Communist rule, records a remarkable life spent fighting in regular forces as well as in cloak-and-dagger operations and demonstrates how varied conflict was during the twentieth century."Smiley''s latest book completes a trilogy of memoirs of times of war and troubled peace and provides setting for his previous books Arabian Assignment and Albanian Assignment." The RUSI Journal

Albanian Assignment is one of the finest special forces memoirs to come out of the Second World War. Readers of Damien Lewis, Ben Macintyre and Patrick Leigh Fermor will be enthralled by this book. In 1940 Winston Churchill established the Special Operations Executive to "set Europe ablaze." Three years later David Smiley and Billy McLean were parachuted into northern Greece and crossed the border into Albania to do just that. For the next eight months Smiley mediated between the competing resistance factions and organised them to conduct ambushes and acts of sabotage on fascist armies and infrastructure. His actions were rewarded with an immediate Military Cross, yet his work in Albania was not done. Soon after he had left the country tensions between the Albanian resistance movements had deteriorated into open conflict meaning that Smiley and McLean were once again forced to parachute into the country to reconcile the guerrilla forces whilst continuing the fight against the Nazi forces. Smiley's account of his time in Albania is a remarkable book that uncovers the operations and its difficulties of an SOE agent in one of the forgotten fronts of World War Two. "David Smiley, a regular officer of the Blues, was an early arrival in the country. His memoir of the time he spent there deserves to become one of the classics of special operations literature" John Keegan, The Sunday Times "wartime memoirs are often exaggerated and boastful, and sometimes the authors' roles can safely be halved. But the writer here is an extremely modest man and the opposite precaution will be a help." Patrick Leigh Fermor "This engrossing memoir recounts British intelligence agent Smiley's two missions in 1943 and 1944 to Albanian resistance fighters." Library Journal "David Smiley's tale of his war-time escapades in the SOE in Albania should have a broad appeal with its racy, comic and serious political aspects" Financial Times

This remarkable memoir provides fascinating insight into two conflicts that arose in southern Arabia in the decades following the Second World War. It should be essential reading for anyone who enjoys the work of Dan Mills, Mark Urban and Adam Jowett. Thirteen years after serving as an SOE agent in World War Two David Smiley was invited to take command of the Sultan's armed forces in Muscat and Oman. With the help of an SAS contingent, helicopters, supply aircraft and rocket-firing Venoms, in addition to the Sultan's own forces, Smiley led a brilliant campaign against the Saudi-backed insurrection in the mountainous terrain of the Jebel Akhdar. Two years after the successful conclusion of this conflict Smiley was invited once again to the Arabian Peninsula, but this time to support and advise royalist forces in the Yemen against a republican coup. Yet, this book is not only about guerrilla tactics and armed conflict but also provides vivid insight into the Arab way of life in the 1950s and 1960s. "It is a splendid tale, excellently told" British Army Review "For students of guerrilla war ... this book is required reading" Julian Amery, The Daily Telegraph "everyone will enjoy [this] straightforward account of a little-known part of the world written by an honest soldier with no axe to grind." RUSI Journal "exciting reading" Bernard Fergusson, The Sunday Times "Smiley's must be the best and most authoritative account of this action" The Financial Times "a highly readable story of personal adventure." Infantry Journal Arabian Assignment recounts the activities that Smiley undertook during the course of the Jebel Akhdar War in Oman and the North Yemen Civil War, both of which have shaped the history of the Arabian Peninsula to this day. It is brilliant account of irregular warfare from one of its most influential proponents.