Raiders from the Sea: The Story of the Special Boat Service in WWII

by John Lodwick

Book Overview

The Special Boat Service (SBS) was a small force during World War II, never more than about three hundred men. But that did not stop it from inflicting great damage on the enemy. In the Mediterranean... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 155750525X
• ISBN13: 9781557505255
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: US Naval Institute Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.8" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

The SBS (Special Boat Service) in WW2

As the title implies, this is a history of the SBS in WW2. The book itself was originally published in 1947 as "Filibusters -- Raiders from the Sea: The Story of the Special Boat Service in WWII" and this is a 1990 reprint. It's very much as the title states, a history of the SBS in WW2. The WW2 SBS was actually an offshoot of the SAS (Special Air Service) rather than the primarily Royal Marines unit it is today. It's a great account of the early origins of the SBS and their operations. Published in 1947, it's a lot closer to the source material than later accounts reconstructed from records and memories of old servicemen, and therefore probably more raw in a lot of ways. Worth the read if you're interested in the history of the SBS. His autobiographical work about his time in the second world war, "Bid The Soldiers Shoot" (1958) focused in large on his service in the French Foreign Legion. It's quite an interesting read in itself and worth picking up if you can find it. The author, John Lodwick, was the son of a father in the Indian Army, who died in the sinking of the SS Persia just before his son's birth. Lodwick attended Cheltenham College and the Royal Naval Academy at Dartmouth. He spent some time working as a journalist in Dublin before moving to France. He later recalled writing several unpublished novels during this period, but in a contrasting account stated that he wrote only plays. He joined the French Foreign Legion at the outbreak of World War II, and was awarded the Croix de Guerre in 1940. His prize-winning first novel, which he began to write while stranded in Vichy France, "Running to Paradise", is a fictionalized account of combat with the the Legion and experiences as a prisoner of war. Subsequently he served as an officer in the British Special Operations Executive, parachuting behind enemy lines to work undercover as a saboteur, and in the Special Boat Service of the British Royal Navy. He was mentioned in despatches in 1945. In addition to novels, he also published two volumes of autobiography, the second left incomplete at the time of his death in a car accident in Spain. Some of his books reflect his war experiences, including his exploits as an officer in the Special Boat Service. He also wrote thrillers which analyse the psychological and spiritual motivations of their protagonists. His novels were admired by the author Somerset Maugham. A few years after Lodwick's death, Anthony Burgess wrote: "He is not afraid of rhetoric, grandiloquence; his knowledge of foreign literature is wide; his mastery of the English language matches Evelyn Waugh's." He warned, nevertheless, that because of his early death he was "in danger of being neglected", and indeed D.J. Taylor has written that in the post-war years Lodwick's "doomy romanticism sat queerly alongside the comic realism of a Waterhouse or an Amis: Lodwick's reputation did not survive the 1960's." He has been described as an "odd-man-out" among his literary contemporarie